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.

Sarah-Lesson Reflection #2

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

During my lesson, most students continued learning about what background knowledge is and how it can help in understanding text. Today, the students learned and practiced making connections to the text. Almost everyone can make text to self connections, but making text to text connections is much more difficult. Of course, there were still a few students who struggled with the lesson. Making connections is a higher level thinking skill that is difficult for a couple of my students. 

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

My mentor teacher noticed that most students were engaged in the lesson and that the majority of students were giving great responses to my prompts. They were able to make good connections to the text when asked. 

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

In addition to what I noticed yesterday, I saw that some students were able to answer questions about the story. They were able to make some inferences about the text when prompted. They were also able to summarize well the first part of the story that was read the day before. 

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

Some students will need additional support. I will work with those students one-on-one during available times (silent reading, morning warm-up, ect.) to reteach the topics. I will emphasis simple ways to engage background knowledge and provide more examples and scaffolding about how to apply background information. 

 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 make my modeled connections more clear to the students. This way, students could better use my connections to help them make theirs. I would also space out my connections more so that we could read more of the story in between each. I want to  continue to circulate the room more to do better managing by proximity. I also want to continue to use more "talk moves" to engage the students in listening to each other and expanding on others' thinking. 

What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?
Everything that I mentioned yesterday is still true. I did notice that doing connections was a lot easier than doing a KWL chart with interactive read read a loud. So many of my students wanted to share, so that was really exciting. I want to transition to having some discussions about books. Our students have been working on some good discussion behaviors so far this year. 

Sarah-Lesson Reflection Blogpost

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

During my lesson, most students continued learning about what background knowledge is and how it can help in understanding text. Today, the students learned about how to use a KWL chart to organized thoughts about background information. They also learned about how this can help them in their reading. I can tell that most of the students are picking up on the concepts based on their answers during discussions and their KWL charts. I did notice a few students who are struggling to understand how background knowledge can help them read. This is especially true of students who missed parts of the lesson. Because today was an early release day, we had a lot of students leaving early.

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

My mentor teacher noticed that most students were engaged in the lesson and that the majority of students were giving great responses to my prompts and questions and using the KWL effectively. 

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

I have noticed that many students naturally love to read. They also are noticing "said is dead" words (words to use in place of said). Currently, students do like to comment while reading, but do not yet discuss well with peers. Listening to others is still difficult for them. 

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

At the end of the day today, I worked with a student who I know needed additional support. We reviewed what background knowledge is and how it can be useful in reading. I have also had a student tell me she does not understand. I shared some more concrete examples related to her life with her. Tomorrow, we will recap what we talked about today and introduce another way to think about background knowledge. 

 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 try to write more neatly on the smart board. This would help students to follow what I am writing and to read it. I would also try to include more student input into my interactive read aloud. This would make the lesson even more engaging, by making the students a bigger part of the lesson. I want to circulate the room more to do better managing by proximity. I also want to use more "talk moves" to engage the students in listening to each other and expanding on others' thinking. 

What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?
I have seen that interactive read alouds are a lot harder than I would imagine. I want to continue to practice integrating my thinking and my students thinking in a way that adds to reading the text out loud. All of these factors feel a bit hard to balance. However, I can see the benefits of using interactive read alouds. It promotes much more student thinking and provides them with good modeling of how to think while reading than just reading the text alone. 

1st Lesson Book Club Blog Reflection - Louis Armbrecht

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?

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

·          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? 

The students today learned what reader's theater is.  They struggled with maintaining order, and were talking nearly throughout the whole time, so we did not finish a read through of the piece.  
The students that I am working with are in the lowest two reading groups.  When I told them that reader's theater was like a play where we read out loud, one girl said, "But I stink at reading, do I have to do this?"  This shows she does not have much confidence in her abilities, something that I am hoping to change by showing that she can do it.  
Tomorrow I am altering the original plan to focus more on comprehension rather than vocabulary.  The students did not finish the script, and read with so many breaks between parts I do not know if they understood the plot.  Tomorrow we will go over what happened already, finish the script, and then talk about characters, setting, genre, and what happened in the story.  
If I were to teach this lesson again I would be harsher with the discipline.  There were 3 students out of the 10 that I was working with that would not stop distracting the other students.  I have my MT's approval that if this happens tomorrow, they will be sent back to the classroom and will not be able to participate.  
So far I think it was a rough start, but I know that there is room for improvement, especially once the students get into doing reader's theater and enjoy the activity instead of trying to goof off to show off to their friends.  

'Strategies That Work' Jigsaw- Danielle

Chapter 12: Content Literacy- Reading for Understanding in Social Studies or Science

Take Away Message

Schools are getting less and less time for social studies and science because all of the time is being devoted to reading and math. It is necessary to find some integration strategies.

The new content must connect to the current, focus on comprehension, and promote independent thinking.

Social Studies:
Applicable read alouds
Concept maps
Folktales to understand culture
Book clubs
Use of primary sources
Historical reinactments
Maps
Time lines
Journals and personal narratives
Current events- news in print

Science:
Science Journals
Teaching books
Anchor Charts
Variety of features from informational text
Vocabulary with word walls
Noticing new information
Note taking strategies
Creating manuals and posters
Mind Maps

Week 6 Initial Post

Authentic Questions

In Strategies that Work, the authors talk about 'authentic questions'. They list several criteria on what these types of questions should do, such as prompt thinking, challenging the reader to ponder and/or wonder, or to challenge us to rethink our opinions. (pg 124). So I came up with a few I would ask myself after reading the selections we have due this week- and for the rest of the semester. "Why will reading help me with my unit lessons?" and "How will I implement what I've learned in this in my daily teaching life?" are questions that will help readers sift through the information they just read to pinpoint exactly the information that will be helpful and applicable to their life.

As well, I thought of a question I could ask my students after reading texts with characters with them. "How do you think the character feels/felt?" followed up by "What makes you think that?" would be interesting, because it would allow the students to try to reach a deeper level of understanding and empathy with the characters.

Also, on page 125 of Strategies that Work, I read the next section was "Teaching with the End in Mind"- which got me thinking. I can be guilty of approaching a text assigned in class with a 'read it and get it over with' mentality, especially  I hurry through the text without really absorbing the information or gaining anything from what I read. But I saw that section heading and thought to myself- it's all good and dandy to have questions at the end of something to challenge thinking, but what about at the beginning? And I thought it would be cool to start trying a different approach to my readings- a "Reading with the end in mind' kind of menality. With this, I would approach my readings with a question or two already thought of, such as "What am I hoping to learn from this reading?" or "What am I stuck on in my lessons that I should keep in mind to try and find a solution to?" By approaching future readings like this, I'm hoping I can really retain valuable information to me for use in the real world.