Abby's Lesson 2 Reflection

Daily Journal Response

Today I taught my second LA lesson.  It went a lot better than I thought it would because the students were reading together and working together to respond to the prompts.  I only had one group have behavior issues and that was because they had originally been working in the hall.  As soon as I brought them back into the classroom, they were fine.  The students did a good job keeping the volume low and being respectful.  I was really proud of them.  I did notice that my students were not using the book to support their answers to the prompts and while working on the Venn Diagrams.  At the beginning of my next lesson I will be address this issue by modeling how to use evidence from the book to support our ideas.  To do this I am going to give each student a copy of the prologue and a highlighter. As I model highlighting evidence, the students will be following along with me.  I was relatively surprised that the students worked so well together.  I do need to think about how to differentiate for one of my groups because they blew through the reading and prompts.  I am not sure what I should do yet but it is something to think about. Maybe I should talk to the gifted/talented teacher to see if she has any ideas of giving this group more of a challenge.

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

Students really struggled with using the book to support their thinking.  I noticed many students reading the prologue aloud then closing the book and trying to answer the questions, instead of looking back into the book to find their answers.  Also students seemed to struggle with how to fill out the venn diagram, even though I had told them that there were 3 main events and that these events are connected by one place.  The students still had a hard time finding these events and place , even though the author very clearly states the events and connection.  I think the students learned how to use the book because I had to explicitly teach it to each group. I guess I will find out in my next lesson when I review using the book as evidence/example again.

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

I noticed that students were having good discussions about the prompt question on suspense.  I think my students are very good at verbalizing their ideas but are struggling when they have to put these ideas on paper.  I have noticed this to be a trend throughout the other classes I teach during the day too.  I think that because my students are good conversationalists, I need to utilize this to my advantage. 

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

My students can use discussion very well to discuss literacy comprehension.  It was also nice to get a chance to hear different students read, who do not typically read out loud in a whole group setting.  I learned that my students have the capability to comprehend the story but they really struggle when they have to take the next step and write down their thoughts.  I learned that the students will need more support in how to get their thoughts and ideas, along with evidence/examples written on paper.

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

I will be re-teaching a mini lesson on using the book as a tool to help them support their thinking.  To do this, the students will be reading the prologue again and helping me highlight places of information that we could use as examples of suspense (which is related to their writing prompt).  Also as I was going around to the groups I was “re-teaching” this idea with individual students.  I will continue to do this as need throughout the unit.

·         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 modeled and talked about using the book as evidence before they got started.  I also think I could have done the Venn diagram as a whole group and that might have cut down on the confusion.  I think I was excited to get them into their groups that I thought they could handle the Venn diagram in their groups, but they struggled.  Also I would make it more clear for what I was looking for in the Venn diagram and how the students should be looking for the information.  Another thing that I could do is be more clear about what the prompt question is asking-many students had trouble with the word suspense and what it meant.

·         How did you limit the extent to which ethnic, linguistic, and/or gender biases occurred during your   lesson?

I personally checked with my students who have IEPs and my ELL students.  Also I created a Venn Diagram for one of my students who has an IEP related to writing.  I will be giving him this tomorrow (if I check his Journal and see he did not complete the work).  Also I will allow him to type any of the prompts if necessary and stable them into his journal.

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

My students are comprehending what they are reading and able to answer questions but as soon as they have to produce a written piece of work they struggle.  I need to find a way to help my students produce what they thinking/talking about on paper.

Abby's Lesson 1 Reflection

Lesson 1 Reflection

Daily Journal Reflection
Today I taught my Language Arts lesson 1.  Sheryl thought it went well and I agreed until the end when the students started to get antsy.  I think if I could redo the lesson I would have the students work together in their book club groups to fill out the Novel Preview.  I was really surprised with the length of the discussion on what a book club should look and sound like, and how the students should act in the book club.  My students had a lot of wonderful ideas and it was hard not calling on the same kids over and over again.  They really enjoyed watching the annenburg video we had watched in 802 about book clubs.  I even told them I would love to take all them to class with me so they could share their insights on book clubs.  Teaching a unit is very different from teaching just one lesson.  I don’t feel as prepared because I am trying to make 10 lessons instead of 1 really good lesson.  The students were very excited about their groups and there were many positive reactions when I revealed the groups.  I  would have liked to have gotten the students in their book clubs today but because there was only 10-15 minutes left in the hour when we got to the novel preview,  I felt it would be better to have the students complete the preview individually and then discuss it as a whole class. 

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

In this lesson students learned what book clubs look like, what they sound like and how to act when involved in a book club.  For many of my students this lesson was a review of how they should act during book clubs.  I know B.T. struggled with this lesson because of his ADHD.  However Sheryl, my MT  stood close to him and redirected him when he needed it.   This has been a common issue since day 1 and no matter what subject or activity we are doing.  Many of my students excelled in this lesson because the lesson was a discussion based lesson and they all love to talk.  The novel preview was a bit more difficult for them and I think if I could alter the lesson, I would have the students fill out the novel preview as a book club group instead of an individual assignment. 

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

Having gone through the novel preview as a whole group, it was clear that many of the students struggled with using both written word and illustrations on the front and back cover to preview a novel and come up with a prediction of what the story is going to be about.  I think an alternative interpretation of my students’ discussion of book club rules is that my students are going to have no problem talking but I think they will need help staying on topic. 

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

I learned that they love to discuss and are capable of watching a college-level clip and discuss it appropriately.  I also learned that almost all of them have experience with book clubs.  I reconfirmed that they love to talk and they actively listen to their peers.  For example, one student responded directly to another peer’s response.  It was cool to see that my students are comfortable have conversations with one another without me explicitly telling them how to do this.

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

Tomorrow I am reviewing with the students the rules for our book clubs, that they had come up with.  I had taken their ideas and summarized  them and made them coherent for the students.  I want these rules to be posted in the classroom and will try to always remind students of these rules as they work in their book clubs.  Also I think it is really important to give the students a preview of what they will be doing and why therefore tomorrow I will be giving them an agenda for the hour and giving them a purpose for their writing (tomorrow’s purpose is personal reflection and questioning).

·         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 change the style in which I had the students complete the novel preview.  Instead of an individual assignment, I would have the students work with their book clubs.  I would still keep the whole-group discussion because I think it is important for students to hear their peers’ ideas.

·         How did you limit the extent to which ethnic, linguistic, and/or gender biases occurred during your   lesson?

I tried to evenly pick both male and females to answer the questions along with having students  of all ability levels.  One thing I noticed was my “ELL” student did not speak.  It is very hard to get her to engage in discussions.  I think I am going to have to make sure her group gives her an opportunity to speak or write her thoughts on paper before she speaks.

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

I know my students may have a hard time responding to some of the writing prompts because the purpose of the writing prompts may not always be perfectly clear.  I think my students will have an easier time responding through discussions so I think I need to emphasize the importance of discussion.  Maybe I will take a day and record each group’s discussion on the writing prompt instead of having them write everyday (I will do this if I can get my MT to agree to it).

Abby's Inital Post- Week 7

In Chapter 11, the big idea is that students need time to use the information that is being given to them to create new patterns which adds to/enhances their knowledge.  How students synthesize knowledge is based on their background knowledge, the genre in which they are reading.  I feel that synthesizing and summarizing need to be modeled and taught explicitly.  The chapter gave many different ways of teaching students to synthesize and summarize that are all very similar-just arranged differently.  I think summarizing is something my class could benefit from having a lesson on.  They recently had to do a summary task in social studies and many of them had a very hard time with figuring out how to summarize the article.  Many wanted to focus on the little details rather than the main ideas.  I think that having students practice summarizing and synthesizing would give them a skill that they can use in all their classes-not just literature.  I also think that these lessons really lend themselves to students of all abilities because it allows those who struggle to think about the big topics, the main points, the main ideas.  They don’t have to worry about the little details.

In Chapter 12 the big idea is how to incorporate content areas into literacy to deepen understanding of both the subject area and literacy.  I noticed that the bulleted list at the bottom of 207 can also be applied to “literacy” instruction as well.  Why not combine the two in an era of pushing math and language arts.  I think that teaching literacy strategies using other subject area contents is more interesting for students, challenges them and helps them connect the strategies they are learning in literacy to the content they are learning in other subject areas.  I feel that as teachers we get so focused on teaching “literacy strategies” as its own subject instead of incorporating it into other subjects.  When we incorporate into other subjects, I think the students make more connections both strategy wise and content wise.  I think about trying to incorporate these ideas into my classroom but it could be very difficult because the students have a different  teachers for math/science than they do for language arts/social studies and I think it would require a lot of working together and making sure they are on the same page.  I don’t often see what they are learning in language arts working into their other content areas.  I think if I were in an inclusive classroom it would be much easier to make these types of things flow seamlessly flow together.  Do you think that team teachers should spend more time coming up with ways to bring together literacy and the other subject areas or are the teaching styles of teachers to much of a hindrance?

Madi's Initial Post- Week 5

Pg. 109 in Strategies that Work introduces the chapter by stating the importance of students needing to see us, as teachers, both answering AND asking questions. Being teachers means that we have the opportunity to set an example for our students as learners, and its important to show them that we don’t have the answers to everything. Asking questions is an important part of the comprehension process, and using authentic questions to further investigate a piece of writing allows learners to consider their own thoughts in new and different ways. Chapter 9 brings up the idea of using one book to teach a variety of different strategies. Page 131 (Figure 9.1) displays an example of using post-its as a comprehension tool, practicing visualizing and inferring. Do you think integrating visualization and inferring techniques simultaneously within the comprehension process is a good idea? What does practicing them both at the same time allow learners to successfully accomplish? How does one impact the other in terms of making implicit material (implied information) explicit (clearly expressed)?