Danielle Reflection Lesson 2

What did students learned and which students struggled with the lesson?

Students learned about different elements of informational text. They were particularly interested in graphs and diagrams. They did not seem to struggle with this content. All of us had an opportunity to share and we succeeded with being respectful listeners as well. I had one student try to tell me about his book when I needed to point out an element showing informational text. He was easily redirected back to the subject.

I was the only one in the room during this lesson. This was the first day I subbed. I could see someone seeing this lesson as very ‘student led.’ Most of the lesson I spent calling on students to explain and I did not give a lot of direct instruction other than retelling. This can be both a positive and a negative. The students were engaged and listening to each other but I’m wondering if some students need that teacher model a few times. Either way, they still seemed to understand.

What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

I learned that these students were much more interested in informational text than I thought. In part of my inquiry, I wrote that it could be harder to get them interested. Amy wrote that this might not be the case. I was wrong. Just because I didn’t get excited over informational text when I was in school, doesn’t mean they won’t if it is presented as engaging. They are not modeling my childhood attitude but it is important to keep in mind how some may be feeling.

When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

I will keep asking, “What did you notice? And Why is that there?” This will get students thinking about these elements and why they’re there. They will see them in many different places and it is important to recognize them every time.

If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

I would have done a partner share instead of everyone sharing out. I thought it would be good because we had the time, but I had to push very hard for a listening class. My class is 30 so it takes time and attention. I would do a partner share if I were to do this again. It was still fun for the students to find their element in the book. It was treated like a treasure hunt.

What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

I already know that every time I do this it is going to get a little smoother. My management will continue to improve. I need to keep thinking about these little details for time and readiness. Teaching includes remembering to give every explicit direction for a smooth class. This lesson was better but I want to keep growing.

Danielle: Reflection Lesson 1

What did students learned and which students struggled with the lesson?

Students learned about different elements of informational text. They were particularly interested in graphs and diagrams. They struggled with the vocabulary a bit. I ended up writing all of the words on the board. Students said they noticed: headings, index, or glossary. I am happy that I received this response but I cannot assume that a couple of my struggling students know this vocabulary even if they have heard it before. We reviewed as a class and I asked some of the students to just revoice what their peer said the word means.

What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

My mentor teacher felt that students understood. She noticed one of my students struggling to be attentive. He is very intelligent and he is well known for his ADHD. He doesn’t stop moving. I did not see an issue with his movement but my MT saw him moving and was not engaged. He may have needed more noticing and direction from me.

What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

These students can noticed different informational text elements and they can tell my why they’d use it. One thing they weren’t sure of is ‘where to start.’ Part of my lesson involved looking at a book about an animal and determining where you’d start if you were trying to read for enjoyment or if you were reading to find out what they eat. Most of my students started saying they’d start from the beginning either way. The concepts of how to work with a book have been drilled so much that they had trouble stepping out of that box.

When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

This was the first lesson. It introduced our topic. Everyday will build on it. We will review this at the beginning of the next lesson. Students who know the answers will share and the students who don’t will repeat. We will review, “What is informational text?, Why would you use it?, Where would you start?” Eventually part of this review will include the 4 structures of informational text but we haven’t gotten to that part yet.

If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

One management thing I would do is plan differently when students go to select their books. Our informational text selection is limited. There is more than enough for everyone to have one but they were all in one spot and I feel that time was wasted waiting for students to choose. I had one student crying because there were not any horse books left. I should have either moved the books to different places in the room or just let each student choose one of three books I point out to them. I don’t like selecting the books because I am asking them why they chose it, but at least if they pick one out of three it might save valuable instruction time. I would also send ask more from my ELL student. He seemed to volunteer but couldn’t use all of the words such as ‘heading’ or ‘glossary.’ I would most likely like to do a short vocabulary lesson with him.

What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

I learned to think a little more about management. I also learned that the more students talk, the more engaged they are. They were very engaged in my lesson. Choral responses are helpful and having them do it twice- louder can even bring back students. I feel it was a successful lesson.

Unit Reflection

After teaching each lesson, write a Book Club Blog Posting discussing the following:

·          What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson. 

·          What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

·          When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

·          If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning? 

Over the course of my unit, I taught both whole group and small group.  The small group work was the focus of most of my work.  During this time I worked on a reader's theater performance with the lowest two reading groups.
The students saw huge strides over the two weeks.  They used more expression and read smoother and more accurately.  They learned new vocabulary and how to work as a team.  We had difficulty with behavior and talkativeness  but working through these issues I feel the students got a lot out of the 2 weeks.
I gave the students self assessments to rate their performances.  While most of the students rated themselves in a similar fashion to how I rated them, there were a couple of outliers.  One student ranked herself in the lowest categories, saying that she was terrible.  I disagreed.  While she had issues controlling herself, she read with the most expression of anyone in the group by the end of the two weeks.  One student ranked himself with the highest ratings, when I evaluated him as significantly lower due to expression, reading rate, and behavior.  This is potentially because he a) did not have a chance to see himself perform, or b) that he thought his evaluation was for a grade in the classroom.  
The re-teaching of material happened over the course of the 2 weeks.  I kept a running record of missed words, punctuation, and expression, and reiterated those points during our read throughs.  By the final performance the vast majority of these problem points were performed excellently.  
If I were to do this activity again I would have not put my 2 lowest groups together.  While they had the most to gain from this exercise, the behavior and self control would have been much better if I had mixed a lower group with a higher one.  In addition, the higher group would have been able to model proper technique.  The entire 2nd week of planned lessons I scrapped and stretched my first week over 2, because the students needed all of that time to be able to read the piece.  When I selected the piece I focused on tying it into the whole group lessons, and chose a piece at a level far above the students' reading level.  Next time I would make sure to have a properly leveled piece so lessons would move at a faster rate.  
I learned that to increase fluency and comprehension lots of re-reading, explanations  and patience are necessary.  I felt like the students should have been able to move at a faster pace, and therefore had to change my plans entirely.   Having led this, I feel more prepared to handle a similar situation, and look forward to helping the students become better readers through the course of the year.  

Reflections for Lessons 3 & 4

I decided to combine my reflections since the two lessons were covering the same story with the same KWL worksheet and would flow better with less interruptions this way, and especially because a lot of the answers were the same for both days.

1. What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson. I know that students learned background knowledge really well- I know this because several students were able to tell me on the second day what background knowledge was in their own words during the opening discussion. They were also able, during the discussion for both lessons, to pull in examples of their own experiences to relate to the text. Some students were confused about the KWL chart I introduced, and several struggled to find enough to write about, especially in the Learned and Want to Learn column. In the second lesson, students were a little bit better at filling out the chart once we finished the text selection and they had more to write about. I think part of the problem was that the text selection was a little bit small and about something some students knew a lot about.
2. What are alternate interpretations of your students' performance or products? Students were engaged during my lessons and loved raising their hand to tell me personal tidbits about themselves that they then told me were background knowledge. During the second lesson, they were great at summarizing what had occurred in the text the day before. In the first lesson, they made great predictions about what they thought would happen in the story. On the first lesson day, I learned that some of my students don't like to write- and will find any excuse to NOT do so, and so I had to field comments such as "I don't have anything I want to know" or "I already know everything." which, to be honest, I had to ask my mentor teacher about what she recommended telling students in response to questions like those. She told me that for those reasons and a few others, she is not a big fan of KWL charts and almost never uses them in the classroom.
3. What did you learn about your students' literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives? My students were mostly able to make good connections to text, but beyond that were great at making inferences of the text and predicting what would happen next in the story. They were also able to NAME what they were doing in the instances of inferencing and predicting, which I did not expect.
4. When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support? For those students who were struggling with the text connections we were working on, I plan to use the background strategy throughout the year- and throughout different subjects. I was already able to use it in math; we were going over multiplication patterns and someone told me of a pattern they had learned from their father, and I said "Great! Now, who can tell me what that is called? Hint: we learned about it in Reading Street" and almost everyone raised their hand to answer with "Background knowledge!" Hopefully, by revisiting this topic during other subjects and tying it in that way, those students who had a hard time connecting to the text will understand the strategy in other ways and will then be able to connect it to texts. For those students who need more than that, I will arrange for one-on-one time during the end of the day silent reading times or during "Meet with me" workshop stations to go over the concepts.
5. If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students' learning? I don't think I would use a KWL chart next time. Instead, I would have each student write one aspect of the story that was similar to an event that happened in their life (i.e. playing basketball with friends, etc) and go around the room to have students share their experiences and then have them explain why they think that ties in with the text. That way, I can have everyone participating and each making a meaningful connection themselves. I would also like to move around the room more during classroom reading to help manage whispered conversations between students and in order to observe them while still paying attention to the student reading to prevent distractions that might lead to confusion among students. 
6. What did you learn so far about implementing your 'core practice' and what do you need to do in order to continue your professional learning? I would REALLY like to learn how to deal with frivolous questions from students that are trying to avoid certain things like writing. I would also like to tie in different books to this discussion so that students could share other text connections they make. Lastly, I want to continue to improve upon my ability to control a classroom during a discussion where they are all super excited to share so they continually blurt out of turn.