Lesson Reflections

Lesson #1
From general observations I feel confident that my students gained an idea of the characteristics of an adventure and understood what we read so far in the story. Individual students were able to respond to my questions about the fantasy and realistic elements in the story and were able to give their opinion about whether or not they would like to participate in this adventure. Many were also able to find good descriptive verbs in the text for the Good Verbs Keeper to write down. However, after a while students started suggesting every verb they could find and I had a hard time explaining why some verbs were worth noting more than others. (Ex: “plunged” was a good descriptive verb but “said” was not.)

An alternate read of this lesson came in this incident of the students suggesting every verb they could find. I believe that many students were eager to participate in whatever small way they could. The idea that some verbs are stronger or more descriptive than others may have gone over the heads of some students, but all students recognized that we were trying to identify some action words and were eager to contribute. Also, during the opening discussion about what an adventure was most students seemed to fixate on the idea that an adventure meant traveling or taking a journey, particularly traveling around the world. I had to probe farther to get responses such as “exciting” or “trying new things.” I’m guessing that they were thinking more of what people do on an adventure, not what an adventure is. Knowing this showed me what they knew already about adventures and gave me a place to start for showing them a broader picture of what an adventure is.

Many of my students are better readers and thinkers than I gave them credit for which I saw in their ability to find verbs and the chosen “Important Information Keeper’s” summary for the day. The girl I chose to do this did a very good job of picking out the most important details from each set of pages in the story. However, I don’t know yet if that skill extends to the rest of the class.

This is only the first day of reading this story and the unit as a whole. I would like to wait another day or two before taking action to re-teach any students who may need it. I need to gain a better idea of what they do and do not understand about this story first. I do plan to spend time tomorrow summarizing and reviewing ideas from today’s reading. That should help some students pick up on some of the information they might have missed.
Trying to fit a large amount of material for this unit into two weeks is requiring me to cram a lot of activities into each day. If I taught this lesson again I probably would have done the discussion about what an adventure is on one day, given students a short writing activity related to it, or done a read aloud from a different adventure story. Their attention began to wane toward the end of the lesson and I think this would not have happened if the two parts of the lesson – the adventure discussion and the reading – had been broken up into two separate days.

Lesson #2
I think that my students are getting a better idea of how summarizing works in terms of using this strategy to help them keep track of what was previously read in the story. However, many of them seem to struggle with differentiating between summarizing (or focusing on main ideas) and retelling the whole story. The student I chose as the Important Information Keeper on this day tried to retell everything and I struggled to maintain the flow of the lesson while also making sure he knew how to do his job correctly. It’s likely that other students would be likely to make the same mistake. I tried to emphasize to the whole class that summarizing meant focusing on just the most important ideas, but I’m not sure if I was clear enough.

Alternate reads: Issues with summarizing aside, I found that students were very engaged and intrigued by this story, especially the prospect of finding a whole new world at the bottom of the school lost-and-found. Throughout the reading students were raising their hands to point out things they noticed in the illustrations and asking their own questions about the story. I could tell that even the most struggling readers were engaged because at the end when we worked on filling out the “Story Steps,” students who usually seem unmotivated and unwilling to contribute were raising their hands to share what they knew about the story.

At one point in the story I asked students to look for clues in the illustrations. Students were very excited by this and wanted to keep contributing things they noticed even after I told them it was time to move on. Although I am working with third graders who are beginning to work with more challenging texts, they still respond heavily to clues in illustrations. I should use this as a tool to build on in future lessons.

I think that the idea of summarizing needs a little re-teaching so I plan to review it again during tomorrow’ s lesson. I plan to be very specific with the Important Information Keeper and make sure him/her knows exactly what to look for. My CT also suggested that I have other students in the class give oral summaries of each page in addition to the Information Keeper writing it down. That way more students can participate and this one student will have a little support if needed.
Teaching the idea of summarizing might have been more effective if I found a better way to have students interact with the Important Information Keeper. Perhaps I could have had this student provide summaries after every couple of pages instead of just at the end. This would have reinforced the process of summarizing throughout the lesson.

Lesson #3
The idea of summarizing and focusing on main ideas is starting to sink in, although many students still want to retell more details than they need. At the end of every two pages (when I remembered) I had a student give a quick summary of what was read on those pages. Some students kept their ideas focused, while others still gave more information than needed. The oral responses I gained during the “Think About the Selection” questions showed me that several of my students are capable of thinking beyond the story about possible outcomes, character motivations, and their own personal feelings about the story. Many students’ responses were a little superficial, but I can tell that they are trying to think about higher-level ideas, even if they can’t articulate their thoughts completely.

Alternate reads: I found during all of these lessons that I tend to probe students a little too much to reach a specific response that I want them to find. In some cases, students come up with their own ideas that are just as good or better than mine. Sometimes I need to run with their ideas and not worry so much about my own. This happened when I asked a question about why the characters couldn’t figure out which door they needed to take to get out of the lost-and-found. One student came up with a new idea and I praised him for it, but then I continued to explain my own as well. This point was not completely necessary for understanding the story so I probably could have let the rest of the class follow this boys’ interpretation instead of interjecting mine too.

During the MEAP we worked a lot on the strategy of looking back in the text to find the necessary information for answering comprehension questions. When I gave students the comprehension worksheet for this story I also gave them the page numbers on which they could find each answer, as a tool to help the struggling readers. I saw nearly all students actively looking back in the text for their answers and commenting on how helpful this was. Although it was not an objective for this lesson, I’m glad that my students were able to practice the skill of re-reading and searching for specific information in text.

Summarizing still needs to be practiced so I plan to build more informal summarizing into the next lessons in my unit so students will have more chances to work on it. If possible I also want to make sure I meet with students who struggle with reading to help them understand and remember what made this story an adventure. This reinforcement will help them before the final two lessons where they will be comparing and contrasting all three stories in the unit.
I realized that these lessons did not offer much opportunity for feedback from all students as individuals, with the exception of the comprehension worksheet at the end. To gain thoughts and ideas from all students and again to keep their attention, I might have assigned some of the “Think About the Selection” questions as written journal entries or discussed them in individual conferences instead of posing them to the class as a whole.

Reflection # 1

My unit for writer’s workshop covers learning to write in cursive using different strategies and tools. They are not long mini-lessons and are important for students to become aware and familiar of. Recently, from sitting in on meetings and grade level “block” time, I have learned how overlooked cursive is. Teachers are feelings extremely pressured with the amount of curriculum that needs to be covered and the deadlines for Benchmark Assessments. Their argument is simply that technology is increasingly becoming more prevalent in the classroom and students need to learn to type before writing in cursive. I disagree; I believe that if students can not read cursive writing, we are promoting a sense of illiteracy.
After many discussions with my CT and especially after hearing parent concerns at Curriculum Night back in September, we thought it would be a great idea for me to plan and squeeze in a unit on handwriting. My CT would still plan other mini-lessons for writer’s workshop, but a solid 25 minutes of our 2 hour and 15 minute literacy block would be set aside for handwriting. Parents absolutely loved this idea! Each week, cursive packets would be sent home for students to practice tracing and copying down letters working on the different forms of letters in the alphabet.
I was surprised to see how excited students were to learn cursive. I was also shocked that some students at Walled Lake Elementary had never had any experience with cursive writing thus far. Only the students that were new to the school had any formal instruction from the teacher.
For the pre-assessment, students were to copy a poem written by Shel Silverstein. The poem is written in cursive already, students just have to look and copy onto handwriting paper. At the bottom of the sheet is a form that students will fill out assessing their own work. I really like this idea because for the most part students in the 4th grade are pretty honest, and will give their honest self-evaluation of their work.
Something that surprised me that I realized about certain students is how much they do not like writing, and it is not even because they are not good at it, they just try and do anything and everything to avoid sitting down and writing. I have one student that asks to use the restroom everyday during this time and I finally started saying let me see your work and realized he was not completing any work before in his writers notebook. We do not check their writing on a daily basis only when we are drafting and publishing pieces but students have the opportunity to write daily and he would barely write more than a few sentences for weeks. Now, in writer’s workshop, students have to show me their work before they use the restroom.
The lessons are so short I would probably not change any of it if I had the opportunity to teach it again. I would just give certain students more practice sheets to do at home. I would also use this really neat bumpy handwriting paper that I used for my last lesson. It looks the exact same but the students’ notice they went to far on the lines because they cross the bumps and recognize they need to end sooner.
Students that go to Mrs. Pfeffer in the resource room for Language I noticed struggled and needed additional support. Even though they are not in the room for writer’s workshop they still participated in the handwriting part. One student struggles with holding the pencil and with writing in general and needs to be given thorough instruction and protocol. For example, I walk by and whisper “Garrett, I am really looking at your spacing and writing in a straight line, reaching from the bottom line to the top line.” That pulls his attention to the activity he needs to focus on and for about 5 minutes he will concentrate on the task at hand. Without written or thorough instruction he is off task right from the beginning and will not know where to begin.

Teaching Reflection

  Lesson 4 - Day 4

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

During this lesson students were about to discuss the different characters that were in the story. They had to identify a character that they were going to write about. We discussed how it would not make sense to pick a small character to sketch because we would not know enough about that character. Every student chose between two characters. I modeled an example of how to fill out the character sketch for each of the two characters. Then the students worked independently using their books to help them finish his/her own worksheet.

What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or product?

I quickly realized that due to time, many of my students were not going to be able to finish. I told students not to worry and to take their time, they would be given more to finish later. I was very surprised on how well certain students worked individually. Every student seemed focused and got to work. When checking my students work after they had more time to complete it, I made sure that they all had one character and that they weren't going back and forth between main characters. I also made sure that they had 3 character traits and examples of each. Everything above that was extra. Because my group of students was already differeniated based on their reading level, my expectations for the completion of the character sketch were the same. The expectations for the other two reading groups were different than for mine.

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

I was surprised by the level of student participation during the discussion over character traits. I was impressed by how well students monitored their own behavior. Students were able to use their books to go back and look for examples to support their answers. Students were able to identify the main characters and discuss their significance. They could explain why other characters were less significant to the story. Identifying single words for character traits was slightly more difficult. I noticed they were picking emotions as opposed to words that described the actual character. I think I was able to fix this misconception during my modeling for the most part however. 

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

Every student seemed to understand what I was looking for after the discussion and modeling. I do not feel re-teaching would be necessary for this lesson. Especially because they will eventually get to discuss how their character has changed later in the unit. This will allow them to get another look back at character traits and allow them to see and discuss how their character has changed over the course of the book. If students need additional support, I can pull a small group at the end of the character change lesson to give further 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? 

If I were to teach this lesson differently, I would read for less time allowing for more time for the students to work on the character sketch worksheet. I think that by the time we were done discussing and modeling an example for each character, the students understood much what was expected much more clearly. Then unfortunately due to the time slot, they only had a few minutes to get started. Then they had to wait until later in the day when there was some free time to pull it back out and pick up where they left off. Next time, I would make sure to allow for a 10-15 minute mini-lesson and then 10-15 minutes to work on it. 

Lesson 5  - Day 5

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

Students learned that in a story there is a problem and a solution. In between the conflict and resolution there are events that lead up to the resolution. This was the perfect lesson for that day because the chapter we read was a great model for a problem, events, and a solution. There were a few third graders who were having a hard time identifying a problem. They were picking small issues in the book that would not be considered a problem or have enough events that led to the solution. After we read the chapter together, I was able to use the chapter as an example. I modeled how I would use that example to fill out the worksheet. Students raised their hands and gave their ideas for the problem. As students were working individually at their desks, I was able to walk around and check to see if students were on the right track. Only one of my students needed me to sit help guide him through this.

What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or product?
As with the day before, all students in my group were expected to come up with a problem in the book, 3 events that lead up the the solution, and the resolution. If students chose the main conflict in the story, they knew they were responsible for going back and adding the events and resolution as we continued reading daily. Every student was expected to write in complete sentences. They were all expected to have the 5 things I mentioned above in order to have a satisfactory demonstration of their knowledge on the assignment. 
 What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
I learned that some students had a difficult time understanding that not every issue in the book constitutes a problem. Some students needed more explanation and examples of the main conflict in the story versus a smaller conflict versus no conflict. I had to give more examples than I had originally planned for. While the majority of my group was able to give other examples from different read alouds that we have done. This was impressive to me because we had not done the connections lesson yet. Students did a great job working together and monitoring their own behavior while others were reading. Students were participating in the discussion as well as volunteering to read.

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

During my mini-lesson I quickly noticed that I was going to need to model this more than once. I gave an example from Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing. Some students still seemed confused. I then read the chapter. Then I used that chapter to model how the 5 points they were expected to do. Next, I had students volunteer their own examples which allowed students to make text to text connections that served as great examples of problem and solution. Then I allowed students to work individually while I walked around the room. One student I noticed still seemed to be confused so I was able to sit and work one on one with him as we discussed the problem he picked and how it was solved together.

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? 
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would have more examples of problem/conflict in other books that we had all read readily available. It worked out that a student was able to make a great connection to a different book. Having just the one example of a small problem and a large problem in Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing was not sufficient. My students needed more examples of problems/conflicts that were meaningful to them which would be in read alouds that they were all familiar with. The more examples that students can relate to their learning the easier and more applicable it becomes. 

Lesson 6 - Day 6 

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

Students practiced visualizing in this lesson. This was a difficult lesson for most students because they were being asked to think a lot deeper than normal. They had to visualize a scene in their head and draw it. This was not difficult for them however, after they drew their visualization they had to turn it over and fill out a graphic organizer. As they were filling out the graphic organizer, they had to add to their picture what they were missing. This became difficult for a few students. They were not giving as detailed visualizations as they were being asked for.

What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or product?
When looking at the students work, I was more interested in the ideas that they conveyed on the graphic organizer and how they represented them in their drawing than the actual drawing itself. Some students are great artists but I was not evaluating students ability to draw, I was evaluating students ability to visualize a scene and include all the elements of a visualization. Students visualized different scenes. I was able to sit in a few of the partner shares and listen to them explain their visualizations. This was very interesting to hear how they explained their visualization. 
What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
I learned that students had practiced visualizing prior to this lesson which I knew they had done a little bit in Making Meaning. My third grade students said they did a lot of visualizing the previous year. This made the lesson run smoother in the sense that they had some sort of an idea what they were being asked to do. However, they quickly found that they needed to include way more than they originally thought. Students were using the book to re-read the part they were visualizing after they realized they needed more details. This showed me that the students were able to look back in their books. 
When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?
Instead of doing a traditional "re-teach" of the material where I would normally pull a small group and give further instruction or answer questions etc. I instead have been giving students more opportunities to practice visualizing. In our daily read aloud, I have had all the students close their eyes and visualize the scene I read. I ask them probing questions and use the same terms as on the graphic organizer they used. This allows students to practice what they learned and apply it to other situations not just their author study book.
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? 
If I were to teach this same lesson again, I would not give the students the author study cover sheet to do as homework. The visualization worksheet required students to draw and use creativity. Asking them to do more drawing and creativity that night for homework seemed to be too much and poor planning on my part. Instead, I would have assigned the cover sheet to be done the night after the connections worksheet. I think this would have resulted in more thought-worthy and creative cover sheets.

Teaching Reflection

What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson (s)?

The students seemed to grasp the idea of good paragraphs and bad paragraphs. They seemed to understand my train model and what the parts of them were and their functions. I was very wrong when I thought they would be able to make a topic sentence. They struggled hard with this concept. They didn't understand that they couldn't have topic sentences with the describing words "fun", "awesome", "cool", and a lot of them wanted to write the paragraph like they were talking to an audience. This is something I definitely should have pointed out and reiterated during my lesson.

The other lesson with the supporting details was far too crammed into a short amount of time that the children didn't get to have the time I wanted for them to work in class and with me. They all understood why the parts of the paragraphs were important but they didn't know how to apply that to their own writing.

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

The students haven't finished the lesson completely yet since I made the unit out of 10 lessons and we had two days off during the two weeks. They will be editing and revising on Monday and turning in their paragraphs to me on Tuesday.

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

The children are able to do activities that, for example, they have to point something out but are given the material. Creating their own material on the other hand? That was difficult. They could easily show me what paragraphs had but when it came to them writing ones, they had a really hard time applying what they knew.

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

During the editing and revising as well as the publishing is a great time for me to help the students who need more help. Some children are more independent then others so these children can work on their paragraphs with no aid. This leaves time for me to walk around and observe if anyone needs extra help.

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

I would probably try to make it much more interesting. At this point, I was making sure I had the right objectives met but I would like to become more comfortable being creative with these lessons.