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.