Joey Inquiry 3 Notes

What Happened During My Lesson

 As my unit progressed I noticed a very clear development in the students understanding of how to use ideas/content and organization to craft a well thought out quality writing piece. They started with a basic understanding of these two traits and by the end of the lesson they were able using multiple pre writing strategies, such as word webs or outlines to brainstorm ideas/content for writing pieces. They also were utilizing several organization strategies throughout the unit when developing their papers.

After collecting my summative assessment I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I graded this final paper based on how they utilized strategies that I taught during the lesson. They were to show me their prewriting strategy, as well as use a clear organizational strategy. When I scored the papers and averaged the percent’s I was happy to see that the class average was a 92%. No student scored below an 80%, which confirms for me that every student could utilize at least one technique for brainstorming ideas/content and how to organize a paper.

To what extent you were expected to follow a scripted curriculum, or add your own ideas to a curriculum that already exists, or create a unit that is entirely new?

 

I was required to use a packet that my MT implements when teaching the 6 traits. However, I was given the freedom to tweak my lessons in a way that would facilitate more discussion. I took advantage of this, as I felt that the packets were too much about memorizing facts and rules rather than leaving space for creativity and authentic discussion.

 

What was unproblematic and/or challenging about planning a unit in this context?

 One of the toughest parts about this unit was teaching it in a new exciting way for the students to remain interested and excited to learn. Often times the students seemed to become bored with the lessons. Because of this I often reflected after school and changed my lesson for the next day in order to make it more catered to keeping the students active and hold their attention.

 

What obstacles did you face? How did you overcome them?

I think that my biggest obstacle while teaching this unit was time.  Too often I felt that I was not able to finish everything I had planned before the end of the hour.  A possible solution to this could be that I plan to cover less, but go into more depth with the smaller portion of information that I do cover.  This may actually be better for the students in the end, as they will have a deeper knowledge of what we do cover, rather than covering more information in less depth.

What dilemmas (if any) did you face and how did you manage them? Consider issues that may relate to developing your professional identity, developing strong teacher-student relationships, constructing relevant curriculum, or assessing students in meaningful and productive ways.

 

One dilemma I faced is how to help my ELL.  He struggles greatly with his writing and often times produces very incomplete and difficult to understand writing pieces.  In our Writing Essentials book, it discusses several ways to help with teaching ELL’s in Language Arts.  Guided practice and multiple demonstrations seem to be two main ideas that really stick out to me.  I would like to look more deeply into these strategies in order to become a more effective literacy instructor for ELL students.

 

Did the unit proceed as you expected? Why or why not?

 Generally I felt that my unit did progress as I expected.  Of course there were some parts that I added or cut out, but overall I feel that I was able to teach the concepts and skills that I set out to at the beginning of the unit.

 

What surprises or“aha moments” did you experience?

I utilized an integrated summative assessment for math and language arts units.  In math I was instructing the students on adding and subtracting fractions.  They were given a unit test the day before they were assigned the summative assessment in LA.  Many students struggled with the concepts on their math tests and did not receive high grades.  However, when given the assignment in LA to write about fractions using a pre-writing strategy and a specific organization pattern the students were much more successful in their descriptions and demonstration of understanding.  Students who did poorly on their math tests, when given direction and strategies to utilize in LA were able to gather their thoughts and create very thorough writing pieces, describing the process of adding and subtracting fractions.

What do you still need to learn about teaching in this target area, about your developing your core
practice’ and about teaching literacy in general?

I still need more practice in strategies and modeling effective writing strategies.  I would like to look more into the strategies offered in our books in order to become a more effective writing instructor for ELL students.  ELL students are often “left behind” during writing classes because they need much more scaffolding and instruction then students who speak English as their first language.  I would like to learn how to keep these students engaged in writing and help them become effective writers.