What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson.
Today with my lesson was a hard day because we had to move writing from the morning to the afternoon because of being a little off schedule today.
This greatly effected most of the students as they knew it was the last 40 minutes of the day and they did not care as much about what we were learning.
I believed all the students started to gain an understanding of the idea of descriptive words because last minute i found a book titled "What Am I going to Be?
Where I read different words that was describing a costume in a play and they had to guess what it was.
Many students pointed out that it was like what they were doing describing the color, how it feels, and what it does.
What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?
Alternate reads of my students products come from the different ways that students looked at the project.
Meaning different students saw different importance of the different processes.
So when looking at the performance I have to look at where each one of them started which is why i continue to look at there writing from the second day of the lesson where they only
had to write one sentence and draw one picture. From this I look at what was lacking or were they having the hardest time with.
Was it capitalization, punctuation, spacing, sticking to the idea, including the information they were told, etc.
What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
What I learned was where what my students were able to do thus far. My students have never done much formal writing.
So I was not sure of what I was going to do was going to be too hard or not enough. I never thought that they would fall right in-between.
Students are being challenged by doing things they have never done before in writing but it is also do able to them when they want to do it.
Another thing I am surprised by is how reliant they are on the teacher.
Even after we spend 20 minutes to something together where they tell me what to put and do we move back to our seats and half the class says they have no idea what it is we are doing
and they do not know how to do it. After talking it over with my CT she said this is something that is just common at this age level.
Students will test at the beginning of the year the fact that they cant do it when in fact they can they just don't want to. So finding the motivation for my students is what I am looking for.
I thought that having them write about something that they really enjoyed (Halloween costumes) would be just that. However they still lacked interest in their writing.
When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?
My lesson is a continuum of the previous day and everyday is a workshop for students who are behind.
Then throughout my lesson I have divided students up into groups according to where they are at so not only can I help them but they can also use their classmates as support.
For those that get really behind and need additional help centers are a great time for this.
It comes right before writing and students always finish early and move to the library it is during this time that I can pull students aside to help them individually to give them the guidance
and support they need.
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?
The great part about my lesson is that it moves through the writing process which allows students to move at different pace through this process.
How I am going to change my lesson so that my students will have more time to process and understand what it is they have been learning from day one I am going to move them from the
carpet to go over every process to show where we started where we are going and what we are going to do everyday.
This is actually something i am going to change in my lesson from here on out. I have noticed that with my age group (first) they have a hard time listening, engaging, and paying
attention. Meaning they choose what they hear throughout a lesson. So by repeating something you do everyday it helps them to hear it over and over as well as to hear things they
may have missed the first, second, or third time.
I completely know what you mean when students schedules need to be changed and everything seems to go hectic. My first grade students also do the same thing, and it is very frustrating when things get shuffled around for both students and teacher (since we have to deal with their reactions and have to try to pull them back in). I like how you adjusted your expectations for each student seeing that some students could probably write an entire book to some students only being able to write a sentence. I think you did a nice job of assessing each piece individually along with the progress each student made from the first few lessons as this truly will tell what students have learned and what areas individual students need more support with.
ReplyDeleteI like how you pushed your students to try new things since they have never done formal writing before. I also believe this is a great way to start something new with them that you could continue throughout the year as you can set up the program the way you wish which I think is really cool. Then students not only know your expectations but they will also see you as the teacher since your mentor has never done this with them before.
A question and then suggestion I have for you in regards to not knowing how to keep kids engaged, is, where does your lesson occur? At students seats and then they write? If so, I would suggest teaching the main lessons, ideas, and possibly even modeling at a carpet area. Then I would transition students to their seats for their writing. This helps in my classroom as students are able to move around and get out the small jitters before being asked to sit down and write. This may help your students also as they can recollect their ideas and produce better writing products in the end.