Lesson Reflections

Daily Lesson 1 Reflection

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

            In this lesson students learned how to write introductions to persuasive letters. Students learned that the format of an introduction in a persuasive letter begins by writing the issue of the letter. Next the students wrote the three reasons that they are using to support their issue. The students also learned to use transitional words and phrases to introduce each of their reasons.

            Some students forgot to use transitional words and phrases. I had two students who not only listed their reasons in the introduction paragraph but listed all of their supporting detail. There were also a few students who signed their names at the bottom of each paragraph which is an easy mistake to correct.

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

            The rigid structure of the introduction could be seen as a downfall of the students’ products because it doesn’t allow for the creativity free writing leads to. The introduction came right off of their graphic organizers which we set up to be easy to use. This took away from the creativity of free writing and left the content of the persuasive letter up to planning ahead of time.

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

            I learned that the students are really reliant on examples that they are given. I wrote an introduction paragraph, and explained to them what I was thinking as I was writing. I was modeling choosing transition words from our transition word sheet and many of them used the same transition words I did throughout their entire paragraph. I see the importance of modeling for the students; it is something I am still getting used to. It is challenging to understand what they can do on their own and which things need a lot of support.  

4. When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need extra help?

            I will talk to students in small groups when the students are experiencing the same problems. I will use the writing they have and ask them compare it to the writing I did and ask them what they notice. I will talk about why what I have done is a strong way of writing a persuasive letter. I will ask them to re-work what they have and show it to me before they move on. I will talk to students individually when they have issues no one else has.

5. 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 actually think this lesson went really well. I am happy with the results. I was explicit with my directions and that really seemed to help the students. If I was to change one thing though, I would require the students to use different transitional words and phrases then me. Many of the students used the same transitional words and phrases I did in the same exact order I did.  I want to see what they would be able to do picking out their own transitional words and phrases. They were provided with a list of different transitional words and phrases and as I was explaining I told them why I chose the transitional words and phrases. I explained how sequential words need to be in the correct order so I would like to see if they understood that mini-lesson. I would want to know if they could use sequential words without an example from me in the future.

6. What did you learn so far about implementing your core practice and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning.

            My core practice is creating authentic meaningful writing tasks. I asked students to make two plans for persuasive letters on graphic organizers. I required them to plan one letter for their class student council representatives. I was surprised that only two of them chose to continue their letter to their student council representatives. I know we have read in class how student get more excited when they have authentic tasks. I learned that authentic to them might be writing a letter to my mentor teacher and me, or to their parents asking for a phone, or more computer time. Just because the task is not asking students to make a change in the world doesn’t mean it is not real for them. So even topics that may seem silly as an adult are real and motivating for students.

            I need to practice my conferencing skills. I am challenged by this because students are constantly asking me questions and I find it challenging to conference and answer questions at the same time. I also find it challenging to take notes during a conference; I have realized that is something I need to do. I feel uncomfortable doing that because I don’t want to make the kids feel uncomfortable but it is in the best interest of the students. That way I can take the most authentic notes possible, and best influence the students’ learning.

Daily Lesson 2 Reflection

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

            Today students learned how to write the first body paragraph. Students used their persuasive letter organizers to help them write the first paragraph. They learned to start off their paragraph with their reason in the first sentence using a transitional word or phrase. Then they wrote their three supporting details following the reason in three separate sentences, or more. They also used a transitional word or phrase for each supporting detail. Lastly they learned to restate their reason for the last sentence of the paragraph.

            There were two students who struggled more than others with the lesson. One student wrote not only her reasons in her introduction paragraph but her supporting details as well. So I worked with her to try and break her introduction into three separate paragraphs. After that we worked on inserting transitional words and phrases where they were appropriate. Another student was really struggling with the structure of the paragraph. So I decided to increase the scaffolding for him. In his graphic organizers I number his phrases and told him to make them into complete sentences in this order. I also told him to add transitional words and phrases to his complete sentences. This seemed to help him complete the task more easily.

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

            An alternate read on my students’ performance could be that they did not do well overall because while they had the basic structure of a persuasive letter paragraph set up they are lacking the basics of sentences and grammar. One of the shortcomings of the writing unit was its lack of grammar.  Many students struggle with forming sentences. They either tend to be too short or too long. They student’s also have a difficult time with capitalization. So if a person values the punctuation of a sentence over the content of a paragraph then the students could be seen as struggling.

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

            I am finding out what does not seem like a lot of material to me, is a lot of material for them. During my lesson today I did not use a typed up list of exactly what I was going to say. This made me a little wordy when I was covering all of the topics. That would be fine if I was with an older group of students or adults but with fourth graders it leaves a look of confusion on their faces. This makes me understand that the students are still fine tuning their listening skills. I found this to be very informative because it applies not only to language arts subjects but to any directions that I will be giving to students this year. This is also helpful because I feel that I am lacking in knowledge of the developments of fourth graders.

4. When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need extra help?

            I will talk to students in small groups when the students are experiencing the same problems. I will use the writing they have and ask them compare it to the writing I did and ask them what they notice. I will talk about why what I have done is a strong way of writing a persuasive letter. I will ask them to re-work what they have and show it to me before they move on. I will talk to students individually when they have issues no one else has.

5. 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 teach this lesson again I would not only tell the students what I am writing as I am writing it but I would talk about why I am putting the material in the order I am putting it. I would tell them that I am putting my weakest reason in my first paragraph. I would tell them this because I want to lead up to my strongest reason so it is fresh in my readers mind when I make my plea in the conclusion. I would then tell them that they want to do the same thing with their supporting details of the reason.

            If I tell the students the reasoning behind what I am doing it will allow them to use that information in writings to come. Often times when we are writing we are trying to persuade someone of something. We are often using evidence to do so and if the students know the best way to set up an argument or even a paper they will do better. It is always easier to remember something you understand than it is to just memorize a process. That I why I would want to explain to the students what I was thinking and doing as I taught them the lesson.

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

            My ideas about writing authentically are not any different than they were yesterday. The students are enjoying writing a letter where they came up with the subject.

            To continue my professional learning I need to speak carefully with each student I encounter. I need to see what they wrote and ask them about the process behind the writing. This applies to any subject. When I am trying to help a student the best way that I can do that is to ask them what their thought process is. This is not the easiest thing to do because I have found many times that students don’t know how to explain their thought process. I need to work on different ways to question students to get the most information out of their thinking. If I know their thinking then I am going to be able to best assist the student and their individual needs.

Lesson #2 Reflection

1. What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson
1. The target of my second lesson was for students to paraphrase information by putting it into their own words. We began the lesson with a reflection on the target of our first lesson, which was to preview, predict, and use prior knowledge to deepen understanding of informational text. We reviewed the fact that we will be building to our list of strategies that we as informational readers can 'read with power' to deepen our understanding of informational texts. Then, we reviewed three important keys to paraphrasing: identify important words or phrases in the text that you are going to be paraphrasing, put the remaining information in your own words, and finally say or write your complete paraphrase. We analyzed an example sentence and paraphrase together as a class, having a discussion about which words could not be changed in the original sentence in order to keep the same meaning. Then, we read an example paragraph about Giant Pandas. Pinpointing the last two sentences, we worked together as a class to go through the three keys to help us paraphrase the text. After the mini-lesson, students were broken back up into their partner groups and provided with a paraphrase worksheet that pertained to the habitat that they read about yesterday. Their target was to work with a partner or partners to paraphrase each one of the six sentence on the page. While I did not notice students struggling during the mini lesson, because everyone was actively participating, I did notice during my conferencing with students that some struggled to paraphrase their sentences. Each of the worksheets featured sentences pulled from the National Geographic texts that students read yesterday, making the worksheets differentiated by content. So, because the higher level groups had sentences that featured more important words and complex sentence structure, I noticed some students had problems with determining importance of words when the original sentence had many words that could not be changed. Also, two partner groups did not finish their reading from the day before or their KWL/Prediction worksheet, so they struggled to finish that and then complete the task for today.
2. What are alternate reads of your students performance or products?
1. I plan on collecting my students' paraphrasing worksheets tomorrow after my lesson so I can get a sense of how everyone is doing so far with using these strategies to help their comprehension of an informational text. A little less than half of my class needed more time with their paraphrasing worksheets, so I am providing a brief work time tomorrow before the third lesson begins. We will also be meeting in our larger book club groups to discuss our paraphrases and share any helpful strategies/problems that we we each had. I also took the time to conference with my groups of students, listening to their conversations and asking questions to facilitate their discussion.
3. what did you learn about your students' literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
1. Once our discussion of paraphrasing began during the mini-lesson, I learned that the majority of my students had some background knowledge about the strategy. Many students were unable to correctly paraphrase on the pre assessment and many asked me what the word meant, but once we began to discuss what paraphrasing is and what you do when you paraphrase, I felt as if much of the information came back to my students and was refreshed in their memories. Also, some students made connections to our social studies unit that we had just recently finished that required a lot of research- many mentioned how they were 'putting research into their own words' during social studies. 
4. When and how will you re-teach the material to students who needed additional support?
1. My unit is focused on comprehension strategies to help students better understand informational text, so we will continue to build upon our knowledge of strategies as the unit goes on. While we will be practicing a new strategy each lesson, I can easily go back and review the strategies taught in this lesson or future lessons to come. The majority of my lessons are structured similarly-mini lesson then group/independent work time, so I can always pull up a group or individual students to go back and reteach something that they are still struggling with. For my ELL students, I also have opportunities during group/independent work time to either sit with them in their groups or pull them to the side to check their status of comprehension or work with them more in depth. Also, as I mentioned, I plan on revisiting paraphrasing tomorrow before we move on. I felt like everyone for the most part was understanding the lesson, but I would like to give students the chance to discuss and fully comprehend paraphrasing.
5. 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?
1. I think that this time, while my students were active participants and demonstrating their understanding of paraphrasing during the mini lesson, I could have included another practice or two for us to paraphrase together as a class to ensure that students understand the strategy. 
6. What did you learn so far about implementing your core practice and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?
1. I have learned so far that it is very helpful for students to see and think about different ways we can use comprehension strategies to help us understand different types of text. As I mentioned before, students are already familiar with the idea of paraphrasing information or putting something in their own words. So, they are taking this familiar strategy and using it as a way to not only comprehend an informational text but to also help them be active readers before, during, and after their reading. To continue my professional learning, I think that I need to continue to discuss how this and future strategies are important in comprehending informational text and get students more comfortable with using the vocabulary.

Lesson #2 Reflection

What students learned and what students struggled with the lesson?

It appears only about 8 of my students (which happened to be spread in the higher level reading groups) truly grasped what a paraphrase and how to do it. A majority of my students when asked told me what a paraphrase was, but then had trouble actually paraphrasing. It was not just my students that struggle with comprehension, it was students that excel with comprehension, who had trouble understanding they had to change more than just one or two words. My ELL students struggled, which is completely understandable because they are still learning English, let alone trying to put something in English into their own words.

What are alternate reads of your students' performance or products?

I listened to students as they discussed their paraphrases, and how the decided to change each word. I read that some students had heard of paraphrasing before from an older sibling. I saw students use resources, such as dictionaries or glossaries to find synonyms or others words to use. I saw them underlining important key words that cannot be changed in a paraphrase. I collected there paraphrases worksheets to have an alternate read of a final product. I also tried to have conferences with students as they individually paraphrased, to see if they were paraphrasing verbally.

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

I learned that some of my students are monitoring their comprehension without explicitly saying they are. I learned that my students understood the difference between a summary and a main idea, as they told me as they paraphrased. I learned that many of my students understood how to find the important key words. They would tell me in conversation, “I can’t change Atlantic Ocean”. They understood the 

importance of these words to the paraphrase.

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

Since many of my students struggled with the paraphrasing worksheet, we are going to revisit it as a class at the beginning of the lesson tomorrow. I have asked a couple students that demonstrated a clear understanding of it, as well as a clear ability to do it, to share their examples and explain what they did. I am also going to go over examples as a class again, and revisit the notes they took. I am going to ask them to look back at their paraphrase worksheet and try to revise two of the five paraphrases. My hope is that with more examples, and some student-led examples, paraphrasing will have become more clear. 

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 include more examples in my mini-lesson, as well as have more discussion as a whole-class of what we are doing. Due to time, students were just wrapping up the paraphrase worksheet, when it was time to come whole-group again. I would have liked their to be more small student conferences, because I think they could have learned more from each other. Tomorrow when we revisit the lesson, I am going to share a video where Big Bird repeats every single thing the radio says word for word. We will have a discussion how this is the exact opposite of paraphrasing. We will take this example further by explaining, even changing one word is not paraphrasing. I feel it was critical that I have more examples.

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 how crucial paraphrasing is to monitoring comprehension. I have always known this because through my school years I have always taken a moment to reflect on what I read to make sure I could tell someone about it, in my own words. I have never thought of how explicitly teaching that to students could be beneficial. I mentioned this to my students, that paraphrasing after reading is a way to check their comprehension. As I mentioned, many of my students didn’t quite get comprehension. For example, if they did change the words, they lost the meaning of the main ideas. I learned that my core practice of monitoring comprehension, often involves strategies that come naturally to me, but are more difficult to explicitly teach and show. 

Lesson #1 reflection

1. What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson
1. The target of the lesson was for students to be able to preview, predict, and use their prior knowledge to deepen their comprehension of an informational text. We practiced previewing an example mentor text together as a class, where I pointed out important text features that are useful when previewing a text. Then, I explained to my students the importance of making a prediction based on your preview of a text- when we read for information, we want to be active readers and try to make connections with the information that is being presented to us. We also discussed making precise predictions using what we learned from our preview of the text and to avoid making a 'general' prediction, because again we are active readers and are always seeking to learn and make connections with the text. Lastly, we discussed using our prior knowledge to aid our comprehension of an informational text. To facilitate discussion and thinking about students' prior knowledge, I gave each student a KWL chart to complete. They had a discussion with their partner in their reading group before reading the text about their prior knowledge, what they wanted to learn from the text, and what they learned after reading the text. For the most part, each of these strategies was a review for my students- this lesson introduced using these strategies as a way for us to deepen our comprehension of an informational text. The only thing that I noticed some students struggling with was digging deep into their thinking. Some students struggled with making complex analyzations of what they learned from previewing the text to make a precise prediction, some struggled with tapping into their prior knowledge. 
2. What are alternate reads of your students performance or products?
1. I plan on collecting my students' KWL charts/prediction sheets tomorrow after my second lesson so I can get a sense of how everyone is doing so far with using these strategies to help their comprehension of an informational text. My students will be reflecting tomorrow on what they learned in their reader's notebooks, so they needed to keep their worksheets until tomorrow. I also took the time to conference with my groups of students, listening to their conversations and asking questions to facilitate their discussion.
3. what did you learn about your students' literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
1. From listening to my students' sharing their comments at the end of the lesson, I learned that many of my students consciously practice previewing, predicting, and tapping into their prior knowledge before reading a text! Many students brought up an important point, that we as readers can practice these strategies before we read ANY text, not just informational. Also, before we even started the lesson, multiple students expressed their excitement for reading about animals and habitats! As we previewed our example text together, many students shared their prior knowledge of animals and I was very impressed.
4. When and how will you re-teach the material to students who needed additional support?
1. My unit is focused on comprehension strategies to help students better understand informational text, so we will continue to build upon our knowledge of strategies as the unit goes on. While we will be practicing a new strategy each lesson, I can easily go back and review the strategies taught in this lesson or future lessons to come. The majority of my lessons are structured similarly-mini lesson then group/independent work time, so I can always pull up a group or individual students to go back and reteach something that they are still struggling with. For my ELL students, I also have opportunities during group/independent work time to either sit with them in their groups or pull them to the side to check their status of comprehension or work with them more in depth.
5. 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?
1. I think one thing that I would definitely change would be how in depth I went with my lesson. Out of all the preparing I did for my lesson, I forgot to take into account that my students have practiced previewing, predicting, and using their prior knowledge before in previous grades. So, I believe after reflecting on my own and with my mentor teacher that I definitely could have cut back my instruction a bit, and gave my students more reading time.
6. What did you learn so far about implementing your core practice and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?
1. I have learned so far that it is very helpful for students to see and think about different ways we can use comprehension strategies to help us understand different types of text. As I mentioned before, students are already familiar with previewing a text, making predictions, and using their prior knowledge during reading. So, they are taking these familiar strategies and using them as a way to not only comprehend an informational text but to also help them be active readers before, during, and after their reading. To continue my professional learning, I think that I need to continue to discuss how these and future strategies are important in comprehending informational text and get students more comfortable with using the vocabulary.

Whitney's Reflection Lesson 2

·       What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson.

Students learned that paraphrasing is putting things in your own words.  They also learned how to paraphrase; read a text to get an understanding of it, and then restate what was already said in your own words.  Students learned why they needed to learn about paraphrasing; its an important strategy to learn because it helps you (the reader) monitor your comprehension because if you cannot paraphrase what you read then that means you need to go back and reread.  Students also learned the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing.  Some students struggled with paraphrasing.  They literally took a sentence and deleted words from the text and then read it as if it was suppose to make sense.  We talked about why that was not a good method of paraphrasing and how that was not making it your own at all.  The students that struggled with this seemed to understand based on their assignment after this discussion.

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

During the mini lesson as a class we went through examples together.  The main example we went through was about a Zebra. We read the article together and then I had them paraphrase the last phrase.  Students the shared their thoughts and that’s when I noticed that some students struggled with paraphrasing and I was able to have a discussion with students about why deleting words from sentences was not a good method.  Like mentioned above the discussion seemed beneficial because they did well on the paraphrasing they had to do on their own.  After the mini lesson they got a worksheet that had 5-6 sentences on it from their book club. They had to paraphrase the sentences and write their paraphrase below the sentence.  I collected these to gage what students understood and which ones needed more guidance.  Students also wrote a paraphrase in their reader’s notebook about what they read with their group and what they filled out on their KWL chart.  As I walked around I listened to what groups were talking about.  This was helpful because they all seemed to be engaged and really focused on what they learned.

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

I learned that students had a general idea about paraphrasing and summarizing.  Students knew that these two literacy practices were not the same and could give examples of what summarizing was.  Students also knew that if they read something and could not paraphrase what they just read then they needed to go back and reread because they did not comprehend the text.

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

Before the next lesson is taught we will revisit what paraphrasing is and I will have some students share their paraphrasing sentences from their book clubs.  This is also a practice that can keep being revisited because it’s always going to be important as they read.  I can always ask students or book club groups to paraphrase what they just read and so forth.

·       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 more interactive examples for them to complete during the mini lesson.  I think this would have avoided the student’s confusion about just deleting words in a sentence and would have clarified paraphrasing for other students a little better.

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

Implementing the core practice was easy for this lesson.  We discussed that if one cannot paraphrase what they just read then they did not comprehend the text and need to go back and reread.  We talked about how paraphrasing is a good way to check to see if you really know/understand what you are reading.  I will continue to have such discussion with my students in hopes to make the connections to comprehension like we did in this lesson.   

Haley's Reflection #1

1. I felt that a majority of my students after this lesson continued to add to their understanding of how to preview, predict, and use prior knowledge to deepen their understanding of informational text and work in a group to discuss these comprehensions strategies. The students were very engaged in conversation about predicting and previewing the National Geographic books. I held conferences with all of the different groups, and heard phrases such as “I think…” or “I bet we are going to learn about how ocean animals survive underwater.” My group that struggles with reading comprehension was the group that struggled the most with this lesson. Three of the five group members are English Language Learners. The remaining students that are not ELL students appear to lack confidence to guide conversation and state their predictions. This group was the less talkative, and one of the first groups to actually start reading. When I had conferences with them, I was giving them lots of prompts to help generate predictions and what they previewed. Because I observed that they were one of the first groups to start reading, I assume that perhaps they were struggling to have the deep conversations revolving around predicting, previewing, and using their prior knowledge. Their K-W-L chart was also the least filled in; however, for some of the students this might be a language barrier. In my group with more text, I heard students reflecting on their predictions and noting how their predictions were off.

2. I collected the K-W-L chart, as well as listened to groups’ conversations to gather alternate reads of how students were doing. I listened to their discussions pre-reading, that involved previewing, predicting, and using prior knowledge, as well as listened as they read and paused to have conversations. I listened to their words, as well as looked at the written work of the K-W-L.

3. The K-W-L chart was not explicitly connected to the objectives of predicting, previewing, and using prior knowledge. Although when they state what they “know”, they are hopefully engaging in using their prior connections. I learned that some of my students are familiar with K-W-L chart, and filled it up confidently wanting to have a very detailed K-W-L chart. They were connecting to previous comprehension strategies and knowledge they had on the topic of habitats. I continue to learn which students are verbally confident in sharing ideas, as well as connecting other comprehension skills. I heard a couple students mention strategies that we will cover later in the unit, such as how to figure out vocabulary meaning. I saw students utilizing the glossary in the back of the book, or using pictures to decode a word’s meaning. As I mentioned above, I saw students reflecting on their predictions. Showing their ability to reflect, and alter their previous schema.

4. Comprehension strategies should be incorporated constantly, and continuously; therefore, I can continue to work with students that struggled with previewing, predicting, and using prior knowledge as we do other lessons introducing comprehension strategies. As I conference with groups, I can check to see if they are continuing to preview, and predict, and make connections as they read. If they are not, I can continue to give them prompts. I also can print the anchor chart we discussed in class, and students can keep it in their reading journals. This could be a quick reference for students that were struggling. I can also use independent reading time to work with my English Language Learners that may be struggling because of a language barrier.

·5. When I dismissed students into their groups, I gave them a lot of verbal directions. I think they would have benefited had I left a Smart Board slide up to help them remember the different procedures and the order they should be doing it in. Some of the students might have felt rushed, or forgotten steps. For my group that was struggling with having the conversation about predictions, and what they already knew, this might have helped guide them. As we discussed and shared ideas as a whole-class of what it looks like to preview, predict, and use prior knowledge, I was writing students?’ ideas on the Smart Board. I could have had students taking notes in their reading journals, or have given them an anchor chart to glue in their reading journals. This could have been a reference and helped prompt conversations, especially for my ELL students.

6. I learned that you can constantly be monitoring students’ comprehension through conferences and listening to conversation; however, it is important to not rely solely on conversation. Some students struggle to articulate thoughts, so it is important to offer multiple ways that students can share how they monitored comprehension. I am continuing to figure out how to give all students a chance to demonstrate their monitoring of comprehension. I am also learning the importance of explicitly modeling comprehension, and talking about strategies that at this point come naturally to me. It is important to think about myself as a reader monitoring comprehension, so I can share and teach students about these strategies.  

Reflection Reading Lesson 1

·       What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson.

Students reviewed previewing, predicting, and using prior knowledge from a previous reading unit.  They gave specific examples of how to execute each skill.  Students also filled out a KWL chart with confidence.  They needed very little guidance when filling it out, again because this was review.  While students were filling out their KWL chart they learned about animals and their habitats.  Students struggled with filling out the “K” section of the KWL chart because they felt like since they were in a group they needed to write down what their partner knew. 

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

I collected their KWL charts and listened to groups as they met to fill out the KWL chart. This gave me more insight on what I need to review and what I need to teach in further lessons.  Again some students struggled with filling out the “K” part of the chart.  I can review with them in the next lesson about the “K” and how that part really only applies to themselves.

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

My objective was, students will preview, predict, and use their prior knowledge while reading an informational text by discussing with a partner and sharing aloud to the class what they learned and how well it matched their predictions.  I learned that students can expand their knowledge of previewing, predicting, and using their prior knowledge by filling out a KWL chart.  I also learned that students use these skills to better understand text.  I learned this while teaching the mini lesson.  I asked students “why do we preview, predict, and use our prior knowledge?”  Students replied, “So we know what’s happening in the story.”  I was impressed with students responses because  it directly related to my core practice of monitoring comprehension.

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

Like mentioned above I will review the KWL chart during lesson 2 of the unit to all students.  I will focus on the “K” section of the chart because from conferencing with groups I realized they were confused about this section because they thought they needed to put the same information in that section as their partner.  I will review how this section is about what YOU know and not what your neighbor knows.

·       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 taught this lesson again I would show students what groups they were in and then before they broke into groups I would have had them fill out the “K” section of their KWL chart to avoid the confusion of having to add what your partner filled out.  I think this would have improved their learning and understanding of a KWL chart.  I think that it would also help me as the teacher know what my students know individually rather than what they know as a group.

·       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 these skills help students comprehend what the text is about.  They seemed to be very aware of this because they have done so with narrative text in the previous unit. To continue implementing my core practice I will continue to tie each lesson to comprehension and ask students how we can use this strategy or skill to better help us comprehend the text.  I think that it is important to use comprehension vocabulary throughout my unit because it will get students in the habit of not only using the vocabulary, but also always thinking about comprehension.

Haley's Part A Target Area

Your Name: Haley Brewster

Inquiry Two, Part A:

Discuss Your Target Area and ‘Core Practice’ for Guided Lead Teaching

NOTE: YOU MAY INSERT YOUR ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS POSED BELOW IN A DIFFERENT COLOR FONT.  Please name your file with your last name and email as an attachment to your instructor (example: SmithPartATargetArea.docx)

Talk with your MT about your idea, and use the information you gained from Inquiry One to respond to the following guiding questions listed below.  Email your responses to your instructor before our Week 4 class (October 1) AND post them on your book club blog:

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

I will be focusing on informational reading. The main concepts from the unit are:

1.     Informational readers learn the skills and habits essential for informational reading.

2.     Informational readers respond to texts and share the topics they are studying with others.

3.     Informational readers pursue collaborative inquires critically and analytically.

With these concepts in mind my target area is reading comprehension and strategy instruction.

2.     Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?

Most of the morning is spent with literacy. The time between specials and lunch, which is an hour and 15 minutes will always be dedicated to this instruction. I am lucky in that my mentor teacher is launching her Project Based Learning unit in science around the same time I am. Her unit is focused on the students creating a habitat at the Detroit Zoo. According to my mentor teacher, there will be a large coloration between informational reading in science and what is being studied in literacy. Science is about 50 minutes in the afternoon.

3.     Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?

CCSS.ELA-Literacy

Reading: Informational Text

Key Ideas and Details:

R1. 4.1Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

R1. 4.2 Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.

R1. 4.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.

Craft and Structure:

R1. 4.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area.

R1. 4.5 Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text.

R1. 4.6 Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or topic; describe the differences in focus and the information provided.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

R1 4.7 Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.

R1 4.8 Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text.

R1 4.9 Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

Speaking and Listening:

Comprehension and Collaboration:

SL. 4.1a Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.

SL. 4.1b Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles.

SL 4.1c Pose and respond to specific questions to clarify or follow up on information, and make comments that contribute to the discussion and link to the remarks of others.

SL 4.1d Review the key ideas expressed and explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion.

SL 4.2 Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

SL 4.3 Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points.

SL 4.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

SL 4.6 Differentiate between contexts that call for formal English (e.g., presenting ideas) and situations where informal discourse is appropriate (e.g., small-group discussion); use formal English when appropriate to task and situation.

4.     How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives?  In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or learning through literacy?

Informational text is a huge part of the real world, and is all around students in their community. Students will be able to engage in different informational texts, and understand the importance. They are learning literacy by literally reading informational texts and working on their comprehension of these texts. They are learning about different types of text, and text structure. There will be opportunities for the students to have explicit instruction on informational text, but also a great amount of time for them to workshop and work with other students on comprehension, understanding, and discussion. We will wrap-up lessons in whole-group, so students will have opportunities to see how their classmates digested the lesson. They will be learning, learning about, and learning through literacy through hearing explicit instruction, reading information text, monitoring their own processing of the text and their comprehension, and sharing and participating in group discussions about the informational text. Hopefully through these experiences, students will connect informational text to places outside of school, and see literacy through a bigger scope.

5.     What types of classroom talk take place within this target area? To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level thinking? What norms for interaction would you like to build within your classroom as you teach in this target area (e.g., see ideas in Chapter 6 of Strategies that Work, the Berne & Clark 2008 article, or draw from some of the readings done in TE 402 on classroom talk)?

My students engage in lots of discussions in terms of literacy. They are beginning to prepare for book clubs, as well as constantly have large discussion and partner discussion. Most of my literacy instruction will be workshop based, with a mini-lesson about 15 minutes, and then 30 minutes of the students working and reading (sometimes together, sometimes individually), and then coming together as a whole-group for the wrap up. There are multiple times for students to engage in conversations. My teacher has introduced “Turn and talk” recently. She partners students for this, for a whole unit. They get comfortable and establish communication with their partner about literacy. The whole group is initially teacher-led; however, today my teacher introduced how students can feed off each other to make the discussion. For example, they were practicing saying, “In addition to student A’s thoughts, I felt…” There is a lot of student-led during work shop and turn and talk. Many of the questions that student are asked are higher-level thinking because they are not focused on simple answer questions. They require students to infer, predict, and look back for evidence in the text. I will be continuing these types of questions for my own unit.

I would like to continue these norms of turn and talk, because students have been practicing how you interact in discussion and what the norms are for having discussion and creating community during literacy. Strategies that Work has a number of suggestions for discussions and monitoring discussion. I liked the “Knowing When You Know and Knowing When You Don’t Know” (p. 81), to help monitor comprehension with sticky notes. This highlights positives (things that clicked), as well as areas readers need to re-read. I also liked the “Noticing When We Stray from the Inner Conversation” (p. 79), because it helps think about our thinking, and realize when we have gotten off track.

6.     Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning?

I want to focus on responding to reading, with a specific focus in developing structures that promote purposeful talk (turn and talk, paired reading, jigsaw discussions, book club, study groups, mall-group shares). As a professional I will learn how to explicitly demonstrate these techniques to students so they are meaningful. One technique my teacher uses a lot is turn and talk. I will learn how to communicate and show students how to participate in purposeful talk, as well as learn about the best ways students to have these talks support students learning.

I also want to work on monitoring comprehension. As teachers we talk about how important and critical it is for students to comprehend text. As 4^th graders though, students need to start taking responsibility for monitoring their own comprehension; however, we need to model and explicitly show them how you can monitor comprehension. For my own learning, I will find ways to most efficiently monitor my students monitoring of comprehension.

7.     What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?

As I mentioned earlier within the classroom, my mentor teacher will be teaching a science unit that integrates comprehension and informational text into the curriculum. Also in the classroom my mentor teachers have multiple resources of books. They have the National Geographic Theme Sets which include books on Rain Forest Animals, Desert Animals, Ocean Animals, Forest Animals. Our classroom and school also has technology such as an Elmo, Smartboard, ipads, and computers. I have access to our book room, which has 1,000’s of books, as well as a very nice library. The district has their curriculum on their website under Atlas Rubicon, and I also have access to that.

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

Many of the lessons require resources such as pencils, pens, paper, different types of paper such as charts ect.

9.     How will you pre-assess your students in your target area

Students will complete a “My Self-Evaluation Checklist: Information Reading”, that is 22 statements long. They will complete the check-list before the unit, as well as after. I can also keep notes through observation of how my students currently participate in comprehension checks and discussions.

10.  What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?

It will be helpful to find out more about what my students are interested in outside of school, to continue to try and make connections between literacy at school and literacy at home. I also am curious to see how my students feel about “informational text”, because some children have negative feelings towards informational text or nonfiction genres. It is important to find out where my students stand with their feelings towards informational text. I can check their reading levels as well, so they are reading at the appropriate level.

11.  What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?

I want to learn more about purposeful talk, and ways different teachers have had it work successfully, and also ways it has not worked. My mentor teacher estimates my instruction will usually be about 10-15 minutes, and then students will begin reading and work shopping. I want to learn how I can explicitly instruct on purposeful talk and model it.

In terms of monitoring comprehension, I want to learn about some of the quick ways I can assess to see if students are monitoring their comprehension, as well as work on how I will explicitly show students how to monitor their comprehension. While I want to explicitly show all of this, I want to make sure students feel like there is a flow to the lesson, and my core practices are integrated in.

12.  What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit

As of now I do not have any specific concerns, my mentor teacher has given me lots of resources and we have engaged in frequent conversations. I feel a bit overwhelmed with seeing the given curriculum, and how I will create lessons that are unique and meaningful to my students.