reflection

Bradley Cyr

Lesson 1

 

What did students learn and which students struggled with this lesson?

Students learned about the different text features of a non-fiction book. They learned about a glossary, an index, captions, graphs, diagrams, charts, and pictures in book, the meaning of the bold words in non-fiction books, and the headings and chapter titles. They also learned about the fact boxes in non-fiction books. They learned that non-fiction books do not need to be read from the front to back in order for them to valuable. They learned how to find a good non-fiction book for them in terms of content, as well as ability level. Students also learned behavior rules for guided lead teaching and what’s expected of them.

 Some of the students who struggled with the lesson were the students who lacked background knowledge on what we were learning. For example, many of the students knew about rattlesnakes because I have a few students who lived in Mexico at one point so they were more engaged when reading about rattle snakes, but the others were less interested. Also, most of my ELL students had difficulty coming up with questions about the text because they struggled to comprehend the text. I did pick books according to ability level, but my spectrum is so varied that I could not move all the way down to my lowest learner. Other students that struggled were the students who did not have a good attitude about learning.

What are alternate reads (or interpretations) of your student’s performance or products?

I interpreted that my students understood what we were talking about during the text because they were active learners. They answered many of the questions that I asked and they followed along with the text with their eyes and their fingers. They asked many questions and added lots of content to our K.W. L anchor chart. This showed me that they were engaged with the text and the learning.

What did you learn about your student’s literacy practices that extend beyond your objective?

I learned how beneficial it is to have such a diverse classroom for literacy. This has many advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage of having such a diversity of learners is that there is such a difference in ability level when it comes to reading and writing. Many of the ELL students have a hard time writing and comprehending text. At the same time, the advantage of having these students allows for a lot of previous funds of knowledge and real world experience with content that the text includes. For example, we were reading about different animals such as lions and hyenas and I had 6 students that came here from different parts of Africa, and they were able to talk about their experience with lions and hyenas as well as King Cobra snakes.

                I had other students from Mexico who were able to talk about their experiences with locusts and rattle snakes. I learned that the more that students question during the text, the more that they are engaged in the text. I learned that many of my students have not used a K.W.L chart. I learned that many students did not know how to use an index or a glossary. I also know that students need very clear objectives of how to behave in a group.

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

I was able to connect with most of the students since I am using guided lead teaching but for the students who need even more support, I can provide some sentence starters that will engage them with the work more and give them more of a base to learn. This may include (What I know is……What I want to know is….)

If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how would you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

If I were to teach this lesson again, I would make sure that I gave them an introduction to the lesson right away and let them know what the purpose of the lesson was for the day. I would also summarize what we learned at the end of the lesson so that students could mentally go through what we learned for the day.

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

I learned that there are many different ways to teach reading comprehension and strategy instruction and I learned that guided reading groups are a great way to do this. This allows for students to have literacy to work with that is differentiated for them and allows them to connect with the text better. I also learned that working in small groups is very beneficial, as it allows more one on one feedback and more discussion. I learned that certain students are more likely to participate in small group discussion compared to whole class discussion.

Lesson 2

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

Students who struggled with the lesson were the students who were ELL students and the students who are shyer when talking in small groups. Other students who struggled were the students who have ADD and can’t sit still for long. They seemed to want to talk more than learn, but I established clear rules and for the most part, they followed along. Students learned about the difference between finding out what the author wants the student to know in each chapter, and what the student finds important.

Students also learned to question what pictures were being used to correlate with the text. They learned how different pictures could be used and learned how to question what different pictures could be used. Students also learned where the bold words in the non-fiction book could be found, the glossary or the index. They learned more about how to use both of these. Students learned about how the tables correlate to the text, and why they are important, and what they have to offer. They also learned how to question what other tables could be used and how to infer what type of table will be used.

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

                I found that many students didn’t know how to use a glossary or an index, let alone what these two meant in my lower level groups. I learned that many students bring background knowledge to the subjects we are reading about, due to the high amount of diversity in my classroom. I learned that once clear rules are established for group discussion, there is much better and more beneficial discussion. I know that my students were engaged because they were answering questions and following along with their eyes and their fingers. I also know that they were engaged because they were making questions that were relevant to the text making inferences that were connected to the text. They were also connecting prior knowledge to the text and synthesizing their ideas.

 

What did you learn about your student’s literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

I learned that students have had experience with questioning and inferring and synthesizing in text. I learned that some students know how to use an index and a glossary. I learned that some students knew that the bold words in non-fiction books means that they are important words. I learned that we have 5 different languages that are spoken in my classroom and we also have students from 5 different countries. I learned that most of the kids would rather read other books than non-fiction, because during silent reading time they are reading other books instead of the non-fiction texts.

 

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

When I re-teach this material I will provide students with sentence starters. For example (The bold words mean…….The author thinks that________ is important in this chapter.) I will provide more support and pay more attention to these students. I will model how I decode words and how I use my previous funds of knowledge of the text that surrounds that word to figure out the meaning of the word. I will talk to them about how to keep an inner conversation with the text and monitor when they lose track of what they are reading. I will tell them to write down on a sticky note when they lost track and why they lost track. I will tell them that sometimes when we read we think about something completely different than the text for no reason, but the important part about that, is that we need to refocus on the text.

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 re-teach this lesson, I would provide a worksheet for students to fill out while we were reading so that they were participating in active literacy. They would engage more if they had a worksheet to fill out and they would also comprehend things more and understand the purpose of the lesson deeper.

 

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

I learned that previous funds of knowledge and diversity in the classroom add a lot to discussion and can be very beneficial. I learned that students who are higher level learners can learn more about the different reading strategies easier because they are not caught up on decoding words. I learned that many of the kids know the strategies but many of them don’t, and they need to have these strategies modeled and learn through gradual release of responsibility.