Hawes Lesson 3 Reflection

Lesson 3 Reflection

My objectives for this lesson were: 1. Practice and apply understanding of reading comprehension strategies such as: main idea and details, monitor and clarify, visualizing and compare and contrast by participating in class discussion and 2. Develop oral vocabulary by defining and giving examples for words such as: hatch, pecks, cuddles, snuggles, preen, flippers, frozen.

The vocabulary words seemed to be easy for the students. This time I tried something different with the vocabulary words. Instead of just asking them to tell me the definitions, I had students volunteer to act out the vocabulary words and other students would raise their hands to guess what one they were acting out. The words this week were easy to act out in comparison to other week’s vocabulary words so this was a good way to switch up the vocabulary portion of my lesson. They seemed to really like it and all of the students who acted out and who guessed were able to do so with success so that tells me that they actually understand the vocabulary words instead of just being able to spit out the exact definition they have heard me say before. I would like to try other vocabulary activities in the following weeks as well. The comprehension strategies of visualizing and comparing and contrasting are the ones I think my students understand the most. These have been taught before (spiral curriculum) this year and going over them again during this lesson confirmed my idea that they do understand these concepts. We also added to them when we were building background knowledge for the text of the week (Penguin Chick). The other two comprehension strategies were new this week and they are having some difficulty with them. This is only the second day I have taught these and so far we haven’t had much practice. Much of the practice will come in tomorrow’s lesson when we read the story with comprehension questions.

I learned that my students are awesome at having class discussions! I feel so lucky to have this class because they are awesome at responding to my questions, responding to each others questions, and asking questions of me and other students. It flows so nicely and they have so much to say that I often had to stop to let them share with a partner in order to get all of their ideas out. There was a lot of chatter during the lesson, but the talking was on-task so at least I know they were interested in the conversation and were excited to share their ideas.

I will continue teaching main idea and detail and I will try a few different explanations and activities and hopefully they will understand it by the end of the week- at least a basic understanding. I will do center work with kid-friendly news articles (Time Magazine) and have them work with a partner to find the main idea and three details. I will also have them do some practice worksheets as a whole group and individually.

If I were to teach this lesson again I would have more scheduled time for partner sharing and I would also add in a short activity at the end where they can write one thing they learned from the story, one thing they liked about the story, or one thing that relates to the story and themselves that they would like to share with me. This way they will feel like I want to hear their ideas even if I can’t let them all share aloud during the lesson.

Hawes Lesson 2 Reflection

Lesson 2 Reflection

My objectives for this lesson were: 1. Introduce comprehension skill (Main Idea and Detail and Monitor and Clarify) and 2. Introduce the vocabulary words.

The comprehension skill this week was tough for many of my students. I think that a little more than half of them didn’t understand it completely. My MT said that this is probably the toughest comprehension skill that they will learn this year. They could pick out the topic and were kind of close with the main idea, but the details weren’t exactly right. I think they weren’t sure what a detail was. They could pick out parts from the story, but they weren’t really related to their main idea. Monitor and clarify wasn’t as stressed, but it seems that they did understand this skill. It is just about making sure you understand what you read and we have done lessons on this before. The vocabulary words are usually pretty easy for the students. They aren’t sure of the definitions at first, but after go over them the first time, they can recall them and remember them throughout the week and in the weeks after.

I learned that the students like the vocabulary part because we usually have fun conversations around the words and they get to talk with each other. I think that they are learning a lot during this time even though they are having fun with it. I think that one way I could change up this portion of the lesson each day would be to act out the words or to have them come up with definitions in groups. This would be another way to have fun and to be learning at the same time.

I will be re-teaching main idea and details in my centers the week following this one and in future units with Reading Street. It always comes back to skills that have been previously taught so I think after next time I will see if they can understand it better.

I learned that my students would benefit from writing. We have only been doing writing for a week and I think this would help them in other areas of literacy such as main idea and detail. If they could practice writing stories and finding their own main idea and details, this could transfer to finding them in other stories.

If I were to teach this lesson again I would spice up vocabulary a little bit with a new type of activity. I think this would enhance their learning because they would be able to come up with the definitions on their own or in a different way.

Hawes Lesson 1 Reflection

Lesson 1 Reflection

My objectives for this lesson were: 1. Introduction to the weekly concept and question 2. Discuss four new amazing words and 3. Introduce the weekly phonics focus (V/CV and VC/V) and practice breaking the words apart.

I think this lesson went really well. The students learned about the structures of some plants and animals and how they help them survive. They learned some new oral vocabulary words (what the words are and their definitions). They learned about two-syllable words and where they are split when you say the two syllables (V/CV, VC/V). I think that students reached all of my objectives from the lesson. The GLCEs are a little broader and so we didn’t complete the goal of the GLCEs within this lesson. By the end of the week, the students should be skilled in the objectives and should still be working towards the GLCEs. Most of the students struggled with the phonics portion of the lesson because this was a difficult concept and was new to most of them. In my lesson I put that I would explain what structures were in the weekly concept discussion and I think that was a wise decision because it took a few explanations before they understood what the word meant and then we were able to move forward with the conversation. They were contributing to the conversation in a way that was thoughtful and questioning. The Amazing Words portion went really well, as always. They are usually really engaged and are interested in talking about the new words. We have a routine that we do each time and it works really well because they know what to expect and they are ready and willing to participate.

The assessments that I did for the phonics portion went better than expected. We did a lot of practice words and went over the rule many times. I also tried to think of a little rhyme to remember which way to split the word. So when it came time for the assessment, they were ready. This also continued over to the end of the week reading assessment because they did well on the phonics portion. The weekly concept discussion requires me to take short notes on what they are saying and to listen to their responses to questions in order for it to be a form of assessment. I like doing this because later I can remember who responded, who didn’t, and some of the interesting things some of them said. I think if I want to assess a discussion again, I will tape it so I can get a better idea of what they said.

I learned that my students enjoy doing the Amazing Words. They get really into the conversations we have about the words and I give them a lot of opportunities to share their ideas with the whole class and with small groups/partners so they can get all of their ideas out. I know some of the classes don’t do the Amazing Words section, but I think my students learn a lot doing this part, and I also think they really enjoy it so it is a break from the monotony of some of the regular Reading Street activities.
I will not re-teach these concepts because I think the assessments say that they learned what I wanted them to learn. The weekly concept ties to the unit concept (6-weeks long) so it is somewhat brought back up throughout the rest of the unit. This is good so that the concept/ideas are reinforced. This is also true with the Amazing Words. They are used often throughout Reading Street texts and whenever a student sees one in something we are reading they are excited to point it out.

If I were to teach this lesson again I would think of a very straightforward way to teach the phonics portion. When I first started teaching it I started with one way to explain, then switched because it seemed like they weren’t getting it. But I think if I would have stuck to the same way the whole time, it would have been easier for them. I know you have to sometimes change the way you are explaining things if they aren’t understanding, but I think in this case it would have been better to stick to one way and to think of a rhyme or something for them to remember the rule with right from the beginning.

PRIOR - Lesson 3 Reflection

Within this lesson, my objectives were: 1) Expand on the weekly concept and discuss with the whole class 2) Introduce more Amazing Words 3) Develop understanding of V/CV and VC/V phonics pattern and 4) Introduce the idea of “Author’s Craft” to students.

I am seeing a pattern when I reflect on my lessons that when my students have to sit for long periods of time where I “talk at them,” they tend to lose focus. The material is either too difficult, too easy or too boring for them, so I am trying to make it as engaging and interesting as possible while still keeping within our time frame and curriculum expectations. After today, I could see that most of my students were starting to understand that “structures” are “parts” of plants and that we, as humans, have parts that help us solve problems just like animals and plants do, too. I found that the more that I related this topic back to the students, the more that they were able to connect with the questions and get involved. My students usually vary on understanding level for Amazing Words depending on how well they are paying attention and if the words are meaningful to them or not. Today’s words were “predatory and brace,” and my students were not very interested in these words. However, once I got them talking about lions, tigers and bears, they wanted to share all types of stories. I would like to say that after today, almost ALL of my students are grasping the phonics pattern that we are working on this week. They understand the steps that I am walking them through, and they all like to shout them out as we break apart the words: “First find the pattern! Then see if the word has a long vowel or a short vowel! Etc…” I could tell that my students already understood what Author’s Craft meant, too because they were giving me many examples that we have already discussed this year. (Like I said, Reading Street is a spiral curriculum, so they have already been given examples without really understanding that this is called “Author’s Craft.”)

I could tell that my students were “fading” a little during our concept talk and Amazing Words discussion, because (again) I generally feel like I’m talking at them. I can see how I might take their lack of understanding as lack of interest and vice versa. I think that in order to address this problem, I really need to pay attention to my students’ individual summative assessments and figure out which students are truly struggling and which ones are just bored. I think that it is important for my kids to have verbal confirmation on their vocabulary or a certain skill while also having written practice on the topics, too. Once the week continues, we will get into more whole-group and individual application of the words, skills, etc.

I think that I will continue to revisit the phonics skill with my students to make sure they really “get it” and also help my students develop their understanding of “Author’s Craft.” To do this, I want to give examples and also have my students find examples in the stories that we read. I think that by applying this skill to our reading, my students will be able to tell me more about how an author is using the text, pictures, and punctuation to make it his/her own style.

PRIOR - Lesson 2 Reflection

Within this lesson, my objectives were: 1) Introduce our new comprehension skills for the week -Main Idea and Detail and Monitor and Clarify 2) Model fluency for my students and 3) Introduce the vocabulary words that my students will eventually be tested on.

I think that only about half of the class truly understood what it means to find the main idea and details within a story. My students were clearly able to tell me what a main idea is and where you can find supporting details; however, it was very difficult for them to find these examples in an actual story. When we read a short story together and tried to find the main idea and details, many were having a hard time differentiating between the main idea and the theme or topic of a selection. However, my students were able to practice their fluency with me in a very successful way. When we practice fluency, I read a sentence or a passage of the story that I want them to work on. My students were all able to mimic my tone and “flow” of the words that I read, and I could tell that they enjoyed practicing this. Finally, I think that most of my students – about 80% - were very engaged in our vocabulary lesson. The students love to practice the words out loud together and figure out definitions. Also, I do a lot of thumbs up/down formative assessments with the kids and stand up/down if you agree or disagree. This activity gets my students involved in the vocabulary lesson, and they seem to really enjoy it and understand it better. However, I think that there are a few students who are still struggling with basic vocabulary, so they will need more practice with this vocabulary words.

I think that some people might read my students “understanding” of the vocabulary lesson as basic enjoyment; however, I think it is a combination of both. Also, it is possible that when I thought some students didn’t understand main idea and details, they were really just tired or didn’t feel like paying attention or maybe for some students this activity was too basic. I need to keep in mind that all of my students are learning and achieving at different levels, and that their interest and performance levels do not always go hand-in-hand.

While reflecting on this lesson, I learned that my students might benefit more from a writing activity when we practice our vocabulary. When we do the vocabulary practice, the students are always sitting down and looking up at me with nothing in their hands (which often drives them nuts – they like to be playing with things on their desks!) I have considered using a chart to demonstrate vocabulary while showing the word, definition, picture, and sentence example. I think that it is difficult for my students because our Reading Street curriculum is so teacher-centered and lecture-based that they get tired or uninterested quite easily.

I will be able to re-teach the reading comprehension skills (Main Idea and Details and Monitor and Clarify) throughout the week. Because Reading Street is a “spiral focus,” we will revisit the concepts again and again this week, and I will be able to practice these ideas and apply them to stories with the students. We will do some whole-class instruction and some individual work, too. If I were to do this lesson over again, I would want to try the “chart” for my vocabulary lesson and also spend more time practicing the Main Idea and Detail comprehension skill. I think it would really help my students to 1) actually see their own writing and examples for the vocabulary words and 2) better understand how to use the comprehension skill.

PRIOR - Lesson 1 Reflection

Within this lesson, I wanted to cover achieve a few different objectives with my students: 1) Introduction to the weekly concept and question 2) Discuss four new amazing words and 3) Introduce the weekly phonics focus (V/CV and VC/V) and practice breaking apart words with students.

I would like to think that a different number of my students were able to “learn” each of my goal objectives in this lesson. I think that almost all of my students were able to fully understand our question of the week, which was, “How do the structures of plants and animals help them solve problems?” At first, some of my students were struggling with the word “structures,” so we went over this together and decided that a good synonym for structures might be “parts.” After we had this discussion, it seemed that all students were engaged in and understanding the concept talk that took place at the beginning of the lesson based on the formative assessments that I was giving during our discussion. I think that some of my students struggled with the “Amazing Words” section because a fair amount of my students are still developing their reading and vocabulary skills and have the vocabulary of a 1^st grader. This aspect of the lesson is more difficult to gauge when it comes to full-class understanding. Finally, I think that it is easy to say about 80% of my students were able to grasp the concept of the V/CV and VC/V pattern. This was a difficult pattern for them to see within the words, and we needed to do a great deal of practice with different example words.

I could tell that some students were not really getting the pattern because some were just shouting out, “This is hard!” or “I don’t really get this.” However, I can see how my students’ lack of interest in the material might have been mis-read as lack of understanding, which is easy to do in any lesson. Often times throughout the phonics lesson, I saw some students clapping out the syllables with me, but that could have just been a way to follow along without really knowing how to break the words into the pattern that we were practicing. These are all things that I need to think about when I decide how effective my formative and summative assessments are/were in whole-group lessons such as these.

My students seemed to really enjoy the phonics practice, and I can tell they prefer it to the concept talk and amazing words because it is probably more “hands-on” for them. When we do phonics, we are able to have more whole-class participation and we usually try to make a game out of it where the students have to use white boards or put the words into categories.

I will not re-teach the concept talk or amazing words because we move through these aspects of the lesson fairly quickly. However, we will revisit the phonics concept every day throughout the next week, so I will be able to re-teach my students how to find the V/CV or VC/V pattern in a word, and how to break the word into syllables. Finally, if I were to re-teach this lesson, I think that I would like to have more whole-class responses from my students when we are covering the concept talk and amazing words; however, it is difficult to do with such a limited amount of time. I am trying to introduce white boards into our lessons so that my students can all be participating in class-times such as these.

Reflection #3, Jessica Watson

Lesson 3-Day 2 Read to Comprehend

The objectives for this day were to get the students thinking about synonyms and what it means. They have talked about this earlier in the year so this lesson was a review and looked deeper into the concept. They also started the Penguin Chick story that requires a lot of reading strategies while reading (monitor & clarify, pick out the main idea & details). We would read a page or two and discuss what we had read so far. I gave them instances where they might come across a word that they do not know and we talked through what they should do to find the meaning. There were some struggles with remembering that synonym meant same or similar definition. Since I noticed this early on I made sure that this was practiced all week and I had the students come up with examples instead of my just regurgitating examples on the board. The students also struggled when it came time to read the story. They were becoming restless and this made talking about the strategies tiresome because I could tell that the tedious repetition was getting to them. Since the curriculum is so strict I tried to wake them up and re-focus them by having them stand and stretch and do ten jumping jacks.

I can see why the students may have difficulties remembering what a synonym is when half of them cannot pronounce the word correctly. I also realized that beyond a students school years they will not be forced to read something and tell a teacher how they read it and why and what they learned for a grade. Unless they are at work and hopefully they are enjoying what they are reading.

I realized that not only will these strategies be used in my students lives outside of school but they will be used when they become adults in the working world. In the mean time this will help them become better readers, writers, and speakers. This could take them far in life if these building blocks are solidified and expanded upon.

The students who need additional support received it during reading groups/Daily 5 time. I was available for part of the time to help them clarify and answer questions.

If I could teach this lesson again I would try to come up with a different way to read the story, and discuss the main idea and details. I am not sure how creative I could get with that because the curriculum is pretty black and white. I would want to talk to my mentor and see what was allowed.

Reflection #2, Jessica Watson

Lesson 2-Day 1 Read to Comprehend

The objectives of this lesson were to teach the students the importance of main idea, supporting details, and monitoring and clarifying while reading. I also taught them how to do it. These were strategies that have been talked about in the Reading Street curriculum earlier in the year so the students did have some background knowledge on them. I also went over the definitions of their weekly vocabulary words as a whole class discussion. The students learned, more in depth how to find the main idea of a text based on the supporting details, as well as monitor and clarify while reading. This is done to check for understanding, and to inform them of steps to take if they do not understand what they are reading. Since Reading Street is quite repetitious they are familiar with how I progressed through the lesson. They know that it is a lot of practice, and working as a whole class to understand why these strategies are important. One area where students struggled was with the supporting details. My students would get too caught up on the wording and just reiterate what the text said word for word instead of stating the main supporting details in their own words. This required a lot of practice all week long, which ended up working out because they got the main idea and details, and monitor and clarify right away. They were able to prove their knowledge through class discussion, worksheets, and a lot of them wanted me to see how well they knew it during reading groups.

Another way that I looked at this lesson in terms of being helpful to the students was how they will use it in their lives outside of school. Knowing how to determine the main idea, based on the important supporting details. This can be found by monitoring and clarifying while you are reading. I use these strategies in my everyday life. When I read the newspaper, check the mail; check the TV guide, even when I am planning my lessons with the Reading Street book. This is important to solidify because it will be a determining factor in the student’s comprehension abilities.

I now see, after teaching the lesson that these strategies truly will be carried with them for the rest of their lives. When out in the world working, reading emails, reports, directions, instructions, etc. they will use these strategies. The objectives were for the students to understand the meaning and how to use them at school, but I felt that it was important to take it a few steps further and clue them into how they will be using it for the rest of their lives. We talked about sending an email verses sending a text message. We discussed how emails might need to be read for the main idea and details, but a text message will most likely only have the main idea and possibly some details.

Since the material was talked about for four days of the week in all literacy blocks there were not students who needed much extra support. The students who did get pulled out during literacy do not get pulled out during that block anymore so they are there for the whole lesson and are on the same page as the rest of the class. If there was extra support needed I was available during part of the reading groups/Daily 5 block to clarify any misconceptions or clear up questions. I was also able to work through more examples with these students.

If I could teach this lesson again and change it to make it better I would have had the students listen to the story before we read it as a whole class. I feel that this would have given them a chance to hear the story more in order to ensure understanding, and comprehension. That was originally part of my lesson plan but it got cut out due to timing issues.

Sheree: Lesson Three

Lesson Plan Three:

The Objective for today’s lesson: Students will individually make connections to enhance understanding during a read-aloud within Best Practices in Reading, “Tornadoes.” Students will make text-to-text connections by finding common themes in author studies. According to Strategies that Work, students make text-to-text to more obvious elements of stories, such as characters or problems. Students will practice making text-to-text connections by using Venn-diagrams. Venn-diagrams will help students determine how characters, their personalities, themes or events are the same or different.

What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson?

Students learned how to compare and contrast stories using Venn-diagrams. They were able to make text-to-text connections between Tornadoes and Dangerous Storms (previous lesson). Some students struggled with going back to the text within Tornadoes and pulling out the important information. Tornadoes was an informational text; which was new genre for the class. I noticed that some students had difficulty recognizing the concepts within informational texts; topics in bold, maps, diagrams, sub-topics, etc.

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

Students automatically started to compare Tornadoes to Dangerous Storms before we even started the Venn-diagrams. As a teacher, that lets me know they are making text-to-text connections on an independent level.

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

The students that need additional support will have to practice more with Venn-Diagrams. They have to learn how to go back to the text and pull out important information. I will give them lower-level informational text to work with first before moving them along.

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 will conduct a mini-lesson on how to address informational text before teaching this lesson again. This was a new genre for them and some students need a lot more practice.

Sheree: Lesson Two

Lesson Plan Two:

The Objective for today’s lesson: Students will individually use visualizing as comprehension strategy when reading text by Best Practices in Reading, “Dangerous Storms.”

Students will individually use visualizing as a comprehension strategy while reading text authored by Best Practices in Reading, “Dangerous Storm.” Sometimes students have to make a picture of the story in their heads to understand the story better. According to Strategies that Work, when we visualize, we create pictures in our minds that belong to us and no one else.

What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson?

Students learned how to create images about a story in their head, in order to understand what the author is depicting. Some students had difficulty stating the important details on the worksheet. These students wanted to write all of the details instead of the important information. How do you get students to recognize what is important vs. a minor detail (not as important)?

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

Some of my students didn't find recognizing the important events difficult. They were able to pull out the important information and move on to the next task without my help.

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

I will re-teach this material to students who need additional support by conducting a mini-lesson first. Some of my students need additional support on how to summarize or obtaining important events/details. However, using the SmartBoard and conducting a group discussion on visualizing was a great way to teach this lesson.

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 conducted a small game on visualizing before teaching the lesson (Guess Who I Am?). Students enjoyed the game, however, it could've been shorter. Pacing is still a hard strategy to learn but I know I'm getting better at it.

Sheree: Lesson One

Lesson Plan One:

The Objective for today’s lesson: Students will individually make connections by using personal experience to enhance understanding. Individually students will make self connections to Something Beautiful and identify situations in their own lives that relate to situations within Something Beautiful; writings must be a full page.

Background: Something Beautiful-- “Everyday a young girl is disheartened by the things in her neighborhood; the trash on the streets, the graffiti on the walls, and the homeless woman that sleeps in a box. When she learns the word “beautiful”at school, she sets out to find “something beautiful” in her surroundings. She learns to see beyond the barren ugliness of her environment to find beauty in her friendships, her family, and herself.”

In this unit the primary focus will be making connections. In my opinion, the best way to teach children comprehension is to relate the text to their own lives. According to Strategies that work, when children understand how to connect the texts they read to their lives, they begin to make connections between what they read and the larger world.

What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson?

Students learned how to make self-to-text connections with the text “Something Beautiful.” The story opened their eyes and informed them that they can find “something beautiful” anywhere, no matter what kind of background/community they come from. There were just a few students that struggled with this lesson; students that are mainly not succeeding within their writing. We have two students that are in our Tier 3 program (reading at a low-level; comprehension level low). These two students have had trouble with writing since the beginning of the year. How do you help students with writing, when they are performing exceptionally low within literacy instruction?

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

Some of my students were making text-to-world connections which really surprised me. They brought up how the story relates to current events that are occurring around the world (mainly events related to homelessness). Other students were making text-to-text connections; relating “Something Beautiful” to stories they've read over the summer or in second grade. As a prospective teacher, you know students are succeeding when they are going beyond your set expectations or objectives.

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

Perhaps, I could read “Something Beautiful” within a small group for students who need additional support. Other students may need their own personal copy of the text; so they can refer back to important details/events.

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 could teach this lesson again, I would hold the group discussion a little longer. Pacing can be a very difficult strategy to obtain. It's important that you never go too slow or fast during a lesson. However, I believe my class enjoyed cleaning up the trashed room and the reading of Something Beautiful. They all are aware that it is important to keep your community clean and everyone can find “something beautiful” no matter where they are.

Reflection #1, Jessica Watson

Lesson 1-Day one, Get Ready to Read

The objective of this lesson was for me to teach the students how to split two syllable words that have a vowel/consonant/vowel. We were determining if the word is split before or after the consonant based on if the first vowel was long or short. I taught this by reminding the students when we learned to split VC/CV words earlier in the year, and when we learned what long and short vowels were. We had a whole class discussion of how you can tell the difference and came up with a saying for the long vowel. This was used throughout the lesson and for the rest of the week. I put a word on the white board and showed the VCV by underlining them with a different color marker. I also wrote the rules on the board; long vowel: the word is ALWAYS split before the consonant, short vowel: the word is ALWAYS split after the consonant. I explained that the long vowel can stand on its own, and the short vowel needs its buddy the consonant with it. Based on this information we figured out if the example had a long vowel or short vowel, and then split it appropriately. We went through several examples on the board as a class. I then had the students come up and split the word themselves and explain to the class how they knew where to split it. After this lesson the students had learned the proper way to split the appropriate words that went along with the strategy. There were some students who had issues getting this strategy down. These students were the ones who get extra help for their speech. They were getting tripped up on the pronunciation of the words and therefore not able to accurately determine the long or short vowel. Since that is step one of the process they were not able to split the word in the correct place after that. I made sure that these students were very aware of the rule and I had them pronounce the word with the first vowel as a long vowel and as a short vowel. This got them used to pronouncing the word both ways and hearing which one was correct when they said it. For example I had them say ‘seven’ with the first ‘e’ as a long vowel (says its name), and as a short vowel. They could then determine which one was accurate and split the word from there.

An alternative way of looking at the outcome of the lesson and the student’s performance during the lesson is to think about how broad their vocabulary is. There is a definite divide between the students, who are supported at home where education is at the forefront of their priorities, and those who may not get as much support. Both groups of students were able to work through the strategy and prosper during the lesson; the latter group just took a little more time catching on to recognizing the words and then pronouncing them correctly.

There is a concept talk at the beginning of the Get Ready to Read section of the Reading Street curriculum and I felt that it was very important this week. It was; how does the structure of plants and animals help them survive? I wanted to extend beyond the objective of just discussing the question because I wanted the students to be exposed to some science during their day. Science gets put to the back burner and I feel that it is important to incorporate it in other areas. Generally the concept talk takes about ten minutes and Reading Street gives you guiding questions to ask. I, however, wanted to expand upon those questions and really get the students thinking about themselves and the animals and plants that they see everyday. I was pleasantly surprised at how educated the students were on the structure of plants and their purposes and we had fun talking about different animals and how they survive. I had the students close their eyes and visualize their favorite animal. I then had them think about a body part of that animal that helped them survive (giraffe: long neck, lion: big teeth, snake: body shape, dog: paws. This was interesting to the students because they were able to think deeper about their favorite animal, and a lot of them were fascinated that they had never thought about the animal in that way.

There were a few students who needed additional support during the word analysis part of the lesson. I knew that since we were going to talk about this everyday for the rest of the week additional help was not necessary after Monday’s lesson. I knew that if they were still struggling after Tuesday’s lesson when we put the words into a sentence then I would need to provide additional help. I decided that during the students Daily 5 time when they work independently I would sit down with that small group of students and go through step by step with them how to pronounce the words both ways, determine which is correct and then refer back to the rule of how to split the word. This is important for them to know because they are tested on it on Friday and also we will be going over it more during the week. I wanted to make sure that they were on the same page as the other students instead of confused all week long. The lessons build on each other and get harder so it was important for them to grasp the concept early on so we could add sentences, then finding the words in a page length text.

If I were to teach the same lesson again I would have handed out small white boards to the students and had them write the word and split it along with me as we went through the examples. This would give the advanced students something to do, and it would have allowed the struggling students to see it for themselves and write it themselves.

Ch. 10 & 11

Determining Importance in Text:

Big Idea-
Student must practice reading to answer questions and reading for information. Reading is about purpose, and there is a time and place for every type of reading, reading for details as well as reading for the big picture (Ch.10)

In my classroom students do not understand why they are reading certain material nor what information they should look for. As prospective teachers, I think it is vital for us to teach our students reading for "details" is not the main focus; instead reading is about "purpose".

How can we teach students the important aspects of reading? (i.e. How to look for important information or reading to answer questions?)

Synthesizing Information:

Big Idea-
After a reader identifies what is important in the text, he or she must go through the process of organizing, recalling, and recreating the information and fitting it in with what is already known.
Students can synthesize information by:
Making margin notes
Comparing and contrasting properties
Taking notes (etc)

There is absolutely no practice of synthesizing information being used in my classroom. My students are mainly low-level readers and writers, however, I don't understand why synthesizing information isn't being used. In my opinion, my class should be able to start practicing writing notes while reading informational text.

When should students start practicing synthesizing information? Is third grade too early to start practicing synthesizing information?

Authentic Questions

After reading about authentic questions and the guidelines that go along with them it got me thinking about how I could use them in the classroom. It is important to ask open ended questions that get the students thinking about a concept on a deeper level. Authentic questions are helpful to use in the classroom when you want the students to gain different perspectives from their classmates responses as well as what they may have come up with.

Based on the Reading Street curriculum how could authentic questions be worked into the lessons? When planning for my guided lead teaching it is important to think of what the outcome has to be, what the students really need to learn. It is imperative to teach with the end in mind, therefore, there must be a pre-assessment, formative assessments, and a summative assessment. The summative assessment is where the authentic questions would be found. They have learned the material so the next step would be to connect it to something else, connecting it to something in their life, connecting it to other concepts, or just being able to think about why this concept might be taught.

There is a writing sample from a student on page 125 of Strategies That Work, the student is responding to the idea of authentic questions. The student explains that they like the use of open ended questions that require some research, time, and could trigger a debate or further discussion. This shows that students are aware of how helpful authentic questions can be, and they appreciate that they gain a deeper understanding of a concept.

Combining Basal & Book Club Plus

The open-ended questions listed on pg. 124 of Strategies that Work are really good questions to use in any class discussions. I have seen my MT use some of these questions during Reading Street discussions of the question of the week. I think these would also be good for math discussions.

I read chapter 11 in Book Club Plus which was all about using the Book Club Plus method of teaching literacy along with a basal program. I think this chapter was so helpful because I have been wondering about how to use a basal reading program along with other lesson ideas. I think this chapter will be really helpful in creating my unit plan for literacy. It gives week-by-week lesson plans that go with Book Club Plus and with a basal reading program. Another thing I liked about this chapter is that it gives lesson plan examples of how to introduce speedwriting and how to do mini-lessons on literacy centers and book club procedures. I would really like to use the book club idea in my classroom in place of our reading groups. These are kind of the same thing, but the ideas in Book Club Plus will make these reading groups more like a book club than a reading group. Some ideas I will use to make it more like a book club are: use writing as a part of it, have them get in small groups (2-3 students) to talk about the book, and have the books connect in some way so the different level reading groups can talk about the same topic and have a large group discussion or a fishbowl activity. I would like the reading groups to be more than just reading the book, talking about it briefly, and then being done with it. I want there to be activities that extend their thinking and their learning about the book and the theme.

Questions:
Do any of you do fun things as a part of your reading groups? Or at least anything more than just reading the book together and talking about it?

What are some good short activities that we could add to our reading groups to extend the student’s thinking and maybe make it more fun for the students?

Why do you think that basal reading programs are so popular? Popular enough for this book to write a section about how to incorporate other literacy activities into them?

Possible Assessment Sites By Sheree J.

The following possible assessment sites are currently being used in my classroom:

1). Reading 1: Students can retell a story in their own words.
2). Reading 2: Students can make meaning from a variety of texts.
3). Writing 1: Students can use writing to communicate ideas.

Advantages and Limitations of each possible assessment listed above:

1). Advantage- they develop fluency in composing stories, they're able to organize the story information, and develop a clear understanding of the story. When students read their stories aloud, they realize the importance of their work.
Limitation- retelling a story creates problems for students that can't comprehend the story. Some students may not feel as comfortable reading their story to the class.

2). Advantage- students are being exposed to variety of text (guiding reading books, standardized tests, and literacy center work) .
Limitation- students are constantly being pulled out of class for extra literacy instruction time. Not all students can perform well with standardized testing due to anxiety.

3). Advantage- students are able to improve their writing skills. Daily writing such as journal/diary entries are more than beneficial for every student. Teachers get to know their students by reviewing their writing.
Limitation- students that use incorrect language and grammar may continue to use it in their daily writing. Not all students enjoy nor perform well during writing instruction. Some students feel pressured during writing instruction in the morning (morning daily writing entry; 10 mins long).

Questions:

Are the above possible assessment sites appropriate to use in our third grade classes?

How do we continue to make literacy instruction interesting and beneficial, with the limited amount of time we're offered?

How can we include all of the possible assessment sites used in Book Club Plus in our literacy instruction? Did you find any that wouldn't be useful?

Talk About Text

Most of our talk about text occurs during “Get Ready to Read” and “Read and Comprehend” in our Reading Street curriculum. Although it is not as natural as I would like it to be as a teacher, it does suffice as discussion in the classroom. Each week, we have a new story that we discuss. We talk about the plot, characters, theme, vocabulary and much more. I think that Reading Street has its positives in that we do cover a lot when we have classroom discussions about a text; however, it often feels forced. Most of the talk is teacher-led and based off of questions that we have in our curriculum. The discussion usually starts with a teacher question and leads into student responses. This discussion time happens about every day in both sections of the Reading Street material. There are significant opportunities for “Surface Knowledge” talk where the students are able to discuss personal opinions/ideas about a topic and share stories. Here, they are often connecting their background knowledge to our story. We also do a great deal of “Inquiring into Text” because we ask the students so many questions throughout the story such as, “Why do you think the main character did that?” or “How do you think he will change his behavior in the end?” With the Reading Street curriculum, there is also a lot of “Reflecting” happening – the students have time for summarizing and a type of community share. Although Reading Street seems to cover the majority of the “talk about text” that should be happening in the classroom, I don’t think it does a very good job at allowing student-led discussion because so much of it is teacher-led and question-response based. I know that my MT agrees with me on this issue, and we are working toward incorporating more student-led conversation about each text within the classroom.

Things to think about: How can we transform these teacher-led conversations from Reading Street into student-led conversations? Is it possible? Would student-led discussion take up more time in the classroom?

If Regie Routman Visited My Classroom

In my third grade class we have not done a lot of writing thus far. I am, however, teaching a Daily 5 lesson tomorrow on "Working on Writing". This will be used to introduce writing in the classroom. With that being said I feel that if Regie Routman visited my classroom she would give me advice on how to talk to my students about writing. This would only enhance my Daily 5 lesson and any further lessons I might give on writing. I feel as though I could use some help teaching and talking to students about their writing skills, and different aspects of their writing. I feel that Regie would specifically mention things like, the purposes of having a writing conference between you and the students. She would also explain that as a teacher I can (agency) use whole-class sharing to teach (action). The students can listen for specific language, correct tense, and grammar. This is also a good way to show the students examples of what their writing should look like.

While reading chapter nine specifically I thought it was interesting when Regie talked about a quickshare. This was especially interesting to me because this year has really helped me realize how much teachers have to fit into one day and a lot of times it does not all get done. This quickshare allows the teacher to take one minute for each student and give them some positive feedback on their writing. It is important to focus on what they have written, not what they have not done. It would be beneficial to make sure the students are on the right track without having to listen to them read their whole text. It gives the teacher a snap shot of what is being written.

I also liked the peer teach conferencing. I feel that it is really important for the students at the third grade level to be able to work without needing the teachers help with everything. If students work together to improve their writing they are themselves gaining a deeper understanding of the concept and of its importance. This also means that the students may not hear teacher praise as often and for some students that is crucial in their efforts. How could you make sure to give each student positive feedback when they are peer editing?

Comprehension Instruction

Last year I was in a first grade classroom and I was there during their literacy blocks. First-graders work a lot with reading strategies, especially comprehension and literary aspects. I was able to actually implement whole group lessons relating to comprehension. One that I particularly remember was about inferring. At first I was really confused what it meant to infer, but after going through the lesson and seeing what their ideas about inferring were, I was more clear about it. The Book Club Plus book also cleared up what exactly inferring is for me. Because of these experiences I think I would feel comfortable planning and teaching about inferring and questioning text, which is a big part of comprehension. I was also able to use modeling a lot, which is talked about in this book often. I will be teaching a literacy lesson on Monday in my classroom about how to read the pictures first and then the words to gain a larger understanding of what the book is about. An area I don't feel very comfortable teaching or planning is writing. I have not been exposed to much writing instruction in my experience in classrooms. I feel like I would need to watch more writing instruction to gain a better understanding of how it works and what it looks like.

The readings talked a lot about modeling and scaffolding as two of the main ways to go about literacy instruction. My CT has already begun using both of these strategies in the small amount of literacy instruction I have seen so far. I think I will get a lot of opportunities to watch and to teach using these strategies this year. I am interested to see the students' progression in literacy with the teacher's use of these types of instruction.

In the Strategies That Work book, the authors give many ways to find out what students are thinking. In previous TE classes we have had projects where we have to find out what students are thinking. I was never aware of many of the strategies listed. For the projects we had to interview the students and give assessments, which are only two simple ways to find out student thinking. This year I think I will be able to use the other strategies they listed such as: listen in to their conversations with each other, observe behavior and instruction, chart their responses in large group settings, keep anecdotal records of conferences and conversations, script what they say (comments and questions), and confer with kids. I think given this variety of ways to find out student thinking, it will be easier to figure out what they are each thinking and where you need to take your instruction in the following lesson.

What CAN I do? I CAN use the strategies I have learned from the readings and implement them this year in my classroom to see how well they work.

Welcome :)