Madi's 2nd LA Reflection

This lesson was my first day of teaching language arts, and its purpose was to get my students thinking about all of the six traits of writing, not specifically the two that I am covering in my unit. This ‘Warm-Up’ activity required students to read three writing samples and ‘rank’ them from strongest to weakest, and provide reasoning why. My students were asked to read each sample on their own and rank based on individual response. For my ELL students who struggle with comprehension and fluency, I pulled them aside and read the samples to them out loud, explaining any aspects of the samples that were unclear. Instead of them writing their reasons why, I allowed them to talk to me about how they assigned each of the rankings. Once I finished reading, they thoughtfully ranked each sample just like the rest of the class.

This lesson practiced individual work time, group discussion, and whole class discussion, so there was a lot going on in terms of talking within this activity. They ended up having to rank each sample three times; once individually, once after a table group discussion, and lastly after a whole class discussion. Each rank was displayed using a different color so that it was clear to me how discussions impacted their opinion. This resulted in some students not ranking on their own, and then putting the same ranks as their groups made. I had hoped to see each students’ individual initial thinking, so this resulted in different responses from different students.

My students were asked to provide three rankings, and reasons why for each of their decisions, each in a separate color based on when the ranking occurred within the lesson. The intention of this lesson was not organization, however, my students really liked this approach. They were able to organize their thoughts and opinions in a way that was made clearly visible by the different colors, and since this lesson, my students have practiced similar organization techniques in other activities and even other classes.

Similar to my other reflection, the ELL students in my class are able to complete assignments and receive further instruction during their ELL classes every day. Although they completed this particular assignment in class, I had to differentiate their instruction and read the samples to them instead of them reading them on their own. Also, their reasoning was given to me verbally because they felt better able to communicate that way, rather than writing.

If I were to re-teach this lesson I would definitely do a better job of monitoring the class during their initial individual ranking. Some students just waited to see what their peers did and copied them and that caused it to me nearly impossible to review and consider their individual thoughts. Having all three colors on their papers was a requirement, but those did not necessarily represent all three of the processes that I had hoped to review.

Students worked in groups and as a whole class and during these conversations I walked around and checked in on each of the tables to see what each student had to say in terms of their reasoning. The ranking was the least important part of the assignment to me, as my focus was more on the ‘why’ aspect. There were several responses shared during the lesson and I was sure not to make any individuals feel singled out during discussions.

This lesson was meant to get my students thinking about what qualities create a “strong” piece of writing, which is a piece of my core practice, although this lesson simply skimmed the surface. Through further investigation of reading writing samples and writing their own, my students should gain a better sense of what aspects my core practice covers within other lessons.