GLT Reflection

So I JUST realized that when I posted this blog previously it never actually posted. Gotta love technology!

I learned a lot while doing my guided lead teaching, and it had many results, both expected and unexpected. In the end, the unit I taught was not at all the unit I originally planned, though I still got the results that I originally wanted.

Several lessons into my teaching of the writing trait Voice, I realized that they were not getting what I was trying to teach them at all. Because of this, I completely replanned my unit so that I could still accomplish the objectives that I had set forth.

Because of this, I learned a lot about flexibility. At first, I was really reluctant to change my plans. I thought that it would admit failure if I admitted that I needed to change something. It took me a while to realized that that is not what it was admitting. It was admitting that I was inexperienced, which is true. I tried to take on too much at one time, and I fully admit that now.

However, I was amazed at the results that I got in the end, even though it took a longer windier road than I had originally planned. The voice that they put into emotion in their stories was incredible, and it will be a great stepping stone to adding voice to other aspects of writing as well.

I gained a lot of confidence in myself, and I learned a lot about myself. I know that this will not be the first time that I have to redo a lesson or a unit. I'm very fortunate that the first time that it happened I had my CT there to help me and back me up.

Reading their final drafts has given me so much excitement to take on lead teaching and continue teaching literacy, probably because it has made me less afraid to make mistakes.

GLT Reflection

After completing my guided lead teaching I felt that the unit went extremely well overall. I felt that for the most part my students did learn a great deal about what it means to visualize and how it can help them as readers. When I think specifically about the three consecutive lessons that I did, I feel that even in that short period of time my students were grasping what visualizing was. The first three lessons of my unit focused on the introduction of visualization and how to use this strategy. Further into the unit is when I got into teaching how and why visualization an help us as readers, but the first two lessons focused on what it was and how I used it as an example. Students would try to do what I did when I modeled visualizing for them during think aloud, however for the most part it was trial and error. The students were just getting a feel for what it was on a basic level. Because I began this unit on a Wednesday, I had them do this trial and error for about two days- just feeling visualization out. And that Friday I had my students illustrate their visualization from our poem of the week. Students are used to doing an activity like this illustration activity. Students usually illustrate the poem of the week on Fridays, so it worked perfect to incorporate something they do regularly into the visualization unit- however usually it is just okay think about the poem and draw a picture. This time it was more of an assessment for me to see if they understood the concept of reading the words, imagining what that would look like for them, specifically and then illustrating it on paper. Having them illustrate gave me a hardcopy of an example of them visualizing based on the introduction of this unit.

Overall I felt that the majority of my students did learn visualization as a comprehension skill. I felt that I had a couple students who struggled with the difference between making text to self-connections and visualizing. I had numerous students give examples of their visualizations as related them to something they see themselves doing like the person in the book was doing. This is more of a text to self-connection than visualization. I tried to reiterate and re teach that a visualization is illustrating the book in your mind, so instead of seeing yourself doing what the character is doing—you should actually create a picture in your mind of the actual character doing what you are reading about, and visualizing what that character looks like in your mind.

Based on my students’ interpretations of the poetry from their visualization illustrations I found that many students actually really tried to illustrate based on the exact text. For example, the poem read “Come said the wind to the leaves one day,” I had students who drew actual wind and dialogue saying, “wind” including quotation marks. I felt that for the students who did that it was so easy to interpret that they understood what visualization was. I also had quite a range between students who illustrated that way and students who kind of drew leaves of all different shapes, colors and sizes—in non-traditional leaf or outdoor colors, and initially I felt these students maybe did not understand visualization. But I think I changed my interpretation because I feel that I taught visualization in a very subjective way that because we all have our own knowledge and experiences our visualization are based on OUR minds, and OUR schema. I made a point to teach visualization in this way so that students would get a chance to express their imagination, and see that because we are all different we all have a different schema, therefore we all have different visualizations. So initially I found that I was only thinking some of my students properly visualized the poem, but then I realized that between first and second graders visualization illustrations can embody a wide range of drawings. So instead of looking for specific things from the text, I just looked to see that the drawings were obviously coming from the poem. Meaning- I looked for leaves, and some sort of sky or wind in the pictures. This was only the first hardcopy type of assessment I had collected, so I was solely looking to see how students had begun to interpret visualizing and the idea behind it.

I do not think I am going to re teach a lot of this information, because by the end of the unit I felt that the students really had a good grasp of the material. I know that visualization comes up again each year in the making meaning curriculum—but I felt that we spent enough time on it where my students were benefiting from it. If I were to teach these lessons again- instead of having the poem illustration on the first Friday I would have done something a little more specific. I would have had the words from the poem, or another poem separated onto a blank piece of paper. I would have sentence by sentence and then a space to illustrate their visualization for that specific sentence, I did this later in my unit for a book we read that I only showed some of the pictures and we illustrated our visualizations of the pages I did not show- this was a really great lesson that helped me to really assess how they were understanding visualization. If I were to do these lessons again, after the initial introduction lessons on days 1 and 2, I would do the poem on day 3 but just having it separated so that I could really have students focus on reading a certain line and then visualizing that certain line. I think this change would help the students to better understand why visualizing helps us to understand our reading. This would allow students to practice reading a sentence and then visualizing that sentence, this practice would show them how they are really paying attention to one specific part of the text to better understand.

Unit Lesson reflection

My three lessons were based on the program making meaning. For this unit we focused primarily on making self to text connections and depicting the parts of a story such as setting, characters, problem, solution, and conclusion. During these stories vocabulary terms students may struggle with, especially ELL, were highlighted. This was modeling comprehension for the students and stopping to reflect what we read and how we understand what we are reading.

After completing three lessons I think students definitely began to grasp the concept of text to self connections. They are also doing very well with parts of a story and depicting these parts. Students are, however, now confusing comprehension questions with self to text connections. When I ask students to discuss a certain part of the story a couple will respond with a connection as opposed to reflecting on the question provided. I am thrilled that they are eager to participate and discuss connections they have made with the book but they are confused about what is actually being asked. This also goes for students making self to text connections. Some students will write down what the book is about, providing evidence from the text, but not connecting to their own lives. This is still a work in progress.

Other interpretations I gained from these three lessons are that many of my students are struggling with comprehension in their own reading as opposed to read aloud. Students were able to read silently on their own and then write on a sticky note a connection they made to the text. Many more students struggled doing this as opposed to talking about it with their making meaning partner and then sharing with the whole class. I had thought that this was the case but I now can pinpoint more accurately who is struggling with this and how to address this.

As for my students’ literacy practices that extend beyond my objectives, I learned that many of my students do well when they are given an assignment that is quick and structured. For example, I just had them jot down their ideas on a sticky note, which was a quick assessment that allowed every student to feel successful. Often times some of our strong writers will write a great deal while others only write a sentence. The sticky note challenged students to keep their idea short and allowed every student feel as if they can complete an assignment like this.

Because the main focus of these lessons were based on making connections and elements to a story we will be revisiting these topics a great deal. These lessons were completed at the beginning of the unit and we focus on these skills throughout the unit to reinforce what is being taught. Students who are struggling will have an opportunity to answer the same questions but based on a different story.

After reflecting on my lessons I think I would have made a couple changes. I needed to set the ground rules for making meaning before each lesson which is to sit with your partner, no talking unless I tell you to turn and talk and all eyes must be on the book. Some students who did not understand the lesson fully were playing with their shoe or their neighbor’s hair etc. Overall I would be stricter in management but I am currently working on this as the rest of the unit progresses.

Lessons Reflection

Each of my lessons were different from each other, as well as similar.
Over all three of my lessons students learned how to make predictions, why we make predictions, comparing and contrasting stories and characters through a venn diagram, making text to self connections, text to text and understanding theme. There were lots of different concepts here that students had to work through and learn about. Many of them did well and were able to succeed, I knew this because they could retell what happened in the stories- make inferences on what would happen, give me comparisons, stories, etc. Those that struggled were students that could not understand what was being taught- whether that is because they are choosing not to, they are very low and cannot understand, they are ELL and have no idea what is being said to them or they just were not listening because they 'didn't feel like it' these students struggled during the three lessons. They could not give me all the details and stories, comparisons- even when asked it was hard for them to understand.

I always took alternate reads of my students during the three lessons (I do this throughout the entire day actually) looking at students body language. Their eyes- are they focused? Their bodies- are they moving around because they are bored to death? Their comments they are making- do they relate or are they off topic? Are they interrupting because they don't know how else to participate? These were questions that I took into account during each lesson. If I noticed that this was happening I would try to think of something that I knew they liked or were interested in and if I could relate it to the story. I would try to ask them personally or give them praise in order to get them involved. These reads were able to help me determine how I can improve other lessons that I teach them to make sure these students are staying on track and are part of the classroom learning.

Throughout each of my three lessons I learned that my students (when they were paying attention) were able to meet my objectives and certain students were able to go beyond them. Unique in each lesson my students were able to look back on their predictions and determine if they were correct or how they were different. This was a surprise because I did not include this in my objectives. They also were able to show me an understanding for venn diagrams. I was skeptical on this because for second grade I was not sure if they would be able to grasp what this was and why we use it. For some of my students they had a great understanding and were doing it on their own- going beyond my objectives.

I will be re-teaching all of the material listed above throughout the rest of my time in this classroom. Everyday we are making predictions, comparing and contrasting, looking at theme and the big idea of a topic in all of the subjects. I will be focusing on these ideas during literacy when we have other read aloud, when we work on literacy ideas and in writing. Throughout the entire day, throughout the rest of the year. I will provide these students with additional support because I want them to succeed in what is being taught and I will work one on one with them in the areas (when I can) that I notice they are lacking. Re-teaching the material throughout the year will hopefully give them a chance to find an understanding in an area.

If I were to teach these lessons again what I would do different would be unique to each individual lesson. I have reflected on this idea in each of my individual lessons that we are turing in but I can do a quick re-cap here. I would try to include the students that were showing boredom by asking them personally questions and giving more praise. I would give more examples and provide more models for the students that need the additional support because it gives them a chance to 'piggy back' on an idea and this will help them then think of their own down the road. I would make sure that students were listening and make sure that everyone was trying to enjoy the story. It is impossible to always please everyone but sometimes I noticed that students were bored because the stories were a bit long ( I might pick shorter books next time as well.) My class cannot sit as long as I made my lessons so I had to adjust them as I went along. There are always things that I think I can change for all of the lessons that I teach- that is how I learn and I know that is how my students learn.

Lesson Plan Reflection

My lesson involve my students taking a deeper look at character traits. Students were placed into groups and then given an Arthur character to study. I wanted my students to become experts at distinguishing between internal, external, and the thoughts/ideas of their character. Being able to collaborate and work with others was another big portion of my lessons because almost the entire project involved small group work. 

I believe that all of my students learned how to better work with others. This was my biggest fear going into my lesson because my students are so young and this lesson involved lots of small group work. This is a skills that will transfer to so many other areas of their lives and I am excited to have given them the opportunity to expand on this skill now. All of my students definitely struggled with determining a character’s thought process or ideas. This was a brand new concept coming into my lessons and I do not think that the Arthur lessons were a good for introducing this concept. I had seven different character groups which made it very difficult to include every character in every book. This is what made it extremely difficult to understand a character’s thought. For example, the character Binky is not in ever book and is definitely not the main character, making it difficult to grasp his thought process. Next time I teach these lessons, I will teach thought/ideas using another book or prior to these lessons. 

I was very surprised with how my students performed. It was so exciting to see students at all levels getting into this assignment and working so well with others. Looking back at the students work, I can see just how much prior knowledge and information they gathered from the Arthur website they used in their assignments. I never taught nor did I emphasize students to draw on the information from books, websites, prior knowledge, etc. I wanted this to be a natural act. My students did a great job and definitely drew on their resources.

My students need much more support than I ever expected when choosing different character traits. During discussions, students did a great job and they were able to pick tier two words. However while they were in their groups, students began choosing certain hobbies or items that their character liked. It was very difficult to change a 2nd graders thinking so that they could use what their character liked to do and change it into a trait. My objectives never touched upon students thinking so literally. Next time, I want my students to involve themselves in deeper leveled thinking.

I do not think that I would change anything for students who need additional support. In my classroom, I have ELL learners and also some students that are well below grade level in literacy. I had numerous conferences with groups to make sure they were on the right thinking track which helped me to clarify any misconceptions that the students had. Conferencing so often was a great way to re-teach certain material that was misunderstood.

If I was to re-teach this lesson again, I would make sure that my students had a strong understanding as to how to determine a character’s thought process and/or feelings. My students struggled with this aspect of character traits and I do not believe that these lessons are good for introducing this concept. Making this slight change would improve students’ learning drastically. 

Fluency and comprehension

Unlike the other contributors to this blog, I interning in a third grade. When dealing with fluency and comprehension, I feel that there is a major difference in skill level between the two grades. That being said, we do have five students who are not reading in my class.

I have really been thinking about one of these students lately. She is a "newcomer" as my school calls her. She recently moved from another non-English speaking country. She is completely literate in her native language, but that language uses a different alphabet. Since moving to the United States in September, she has completely learned the new alphabet and the sounds that go along with all of the consonants, as well as some of the basic vowel sound rules.

At this point her fluency is better than some of the other children in our class. The principal of Vandenberg often invites English language learners to read for her as a way of encouragement. The child from my class was already invited to read for her. She got to read two books, and got all but one word right. One of the children in our class heard her practicing before she got to go. She was really excited for her classmate. In fact, she said to me, "I had no idea she knew how to read. That is awesome!" The principal's reaction was similar to this child's classmate. When I spoke with the principal, she was exclaimed about how far she had come in a month and a half.

However, she also spoke of one other thing. The principal asked the child questions while she was reading. She said to her, "What does jump mean?" The child got out of her seat and jumped. The principal then asked, "What does tap mean?" The child looked at her blankly.

Is this child reading? The answer to me is simple. She does not speak English. She knows some basic words that have been specifically taught to her. Her vocabulary is expanding every single day, but the fact remains that she is not even socially fluent yet, let alone academically fluent. She is great at pronouncing different words, but that does not mean that she knows what she is reading.

There are two components of reading, and both really need to be present to be able to say that a child is really reading. While this child is in a great position to be an efficient reader because she is learning the words she needs for comprehension, and her fluency is making great strides every day, right now she is simply pronouncing words.

Fluency and Comprehension

This is an interesting topic when working with emergent readers. People often think that students are fluent so they can read. Parents can't understand why their child is in a lower guided reading group because they can read all of the words correctly. But what is reading really? As the readings have pointed out fluency is the act of decoding and "reading" words correctly but comprehension is actually understanding what all of these words mean. Without comprehension, students are not effective readers and cannot learn or process what they read.

This struggle between fluency and comprehension is especially prevalent within my classroom. Out of 27 students i have 14 that are bilingual and are English language learners. We had an incredibly interesting professional development seminar during one of our staff meetings based on our ELL learners because many of the teachers in the buildings are new and have no experience working with ELL students who come into the classroom with little to no English background. During this seminar we learned that although our students can survive in our classroom with basic commands, can speak english with their peers, and can read this is only the beginning. Our students who are learning English for the first time will pick up phrases and will be able to decode words. They even might have a high level of fluency but comprehension is so crucial for these students. Teachers and parents struggle with separating the two and this was an emphasis at the meeting. We learned that ELL will not be able to actually read for context fluently with comprehension and retain information until they have been immersed in the language for 4-7 years. Teachers need to be aware of this and really focus on comprehension along with fluency.

After this meeting I saw this exact phenomenon in the classroom. I have an Arabic student in my class who is an ELL learner. He is completely fluent in speaking and communicating but is a struggling reader. In first grade he was originally scored at an 18 DRA level but after recent DRA testing his score has gone down to an 8. After progressively testing him at easier and easier levels we noticed that it was not his fluency that is not up to par but it is his comprehension. He could not reiterate simple stories and tell us what was occurring within the book even though he was fluently reading with intonation, heading punctuation and correctly decoding words. As a teacher this was a learning experience for me. He was an excellent reader but did not have comprehension. Now we have sent home a list of questions for his parents to ask before, during and after reading. We have already seen improvement in this student and believe he is going to fly through his reading group!