Lesson # 2
The main difference that was apparent from the students was their attitudes. From the first day to the second, was like night and day. Students wanted to learn the letters, they wanted to learn and volunteer. I was so nervous creating this unit without a lot of teacher support, because students recognize it and let it affect their performance. If students are not motivated they will not perform well. Their best ability will not be shown from what they deliver.
I like using the Richardson approach and asking students what they notice about what is on the board. You can use this is any subject not just writing or reading workshop. I like using this as a warm-up activity for students to really focus on what is written on the board and come up ideas. They need to be able to support their reasoning with evidence on the board or in general. If these expectations are not clearly stated students will say random off the wall answers just to get a laugh out of their classmates and I do not want students to become comfortable with the idea that they can do that when I am teaching.
I like how students notice things in common among lessons, with practice they have become pretty successful in making connections and telling why. In today’s lesson, the focus was on the letters “f, k, b, and h” and these letters also have the under curve when writing them in cursive. When working with a partner and trying words and practicing letters the students were really on task. A few times I wanted to get their attention and speak, but they were listening so well I did not want to interrupt.
I am considering for future lessons creating or assigning partners. This does not just happen in writer’s workshop, it happens in math as well. It is just a few students that can not work together. They become noisy and disruptive, but today they do were not present for part of the partner work time. This was because some of the class was getting their hearing tested in the library. So when I was thoroughly impressed with the noise level in the room, it became very obvious it was because the ones that can not handle it yet were not present.
I made sure to walk around the room and check on a few students, I had them work with me only for a few seconds to check their understanding and see if they were taking their time and taking the activity seriously.
Lesson # 3
Today’s lesson was much different from the previous ones. It was crazy! I think that the fact it is the day before a holiday makes it a lot harder to teach material. The students are just so excited it was like their volume was turned up and their thinking was turned off. Completely off task would be an understatement. At one point I had kids running around during my lesson, over by the rabbit cage, etc. It didn’t really bother me until a student decided to try to sharpen a pencil while I was talking with the electric sharpener. In that moment it was clear that as an educator you really need to be patient. I wanted to just explode, but instead I took a deep breath, looked over at her and the class became silent…then I continued with my lesson.
This lesson was on uppercase letters of the alphabet, A-Z. I did a “think aloud” today, it was the first one I had ever tried. It went well, I was surprised. I thought initially I would feel uncomfortable and would be nervous or forget what I was talking about, but really it went well, I was not nervous and I did well. I think that the students really understood what is expected for them to do during partner work based on how I was thinking. I liked this method of modeling and having students try it by themselves. When I was walking around listening and watching what students were doing, I was impressed to hear them repeating word for word what I was saying.
During this partner work time is when I like to take some students for re-teaching. Now I am far along enough in my unit to know which students are falling behind. The only perk about my unit is that I will continue to teach cursive handwriting throughout the year, not with a mini-lesson beforehand, but will included sheets in their homework packet to have them practice weekly.
I assigned partners this lesson and I really happy that I decided too. Especially today with Thanksgiving tomorrow, the students that normally are loud and off task together were with students that are not afraid to tell them to shape up. There is quite a range of maturity levels across my classroom, some are extremely mature and others are very mature for their age. Taking the maturity of the students into consideration when pairing them, was extremely beneficial, especially when it reduces the tattling on partners who are not participating. I made a game up for pairs to play, and whenever students think that they are playing a game they always are more engaged.
