What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson.
I was really happy with the results of my lesson. I think a lot of the students really understood the lesson. All of the students were able to make an inference about the stories we read, whether it be about a character or problem. Almost all of my students were able to take specific examples from the text to help support their inference. I had a couple students who could make an inference that a character was ‘nice’ or ‘mean’ but they really struggled to explain their inferences based on details from the text. These students were not my low-level students but the students who tend to be middle-level however they are a bit chatty. I noticed in my formative assessment when I walked around that they wee not talking about the inferences but about anything else and often had to be redirected to the questions I asked. Then when these students had to share they often had answers that lacked details and explanation. I know that the students could complete the task of making an inference however, by not paying attention and participating, as much they were not able to give as a complete an answer. On my written assessment that I had the students do, all of the students made an inference about a characters personality traits however, there was two who did not give specific examples from the text to support their inference.
What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?
Alternate reads of my students’ performance was that they the students had already developed an understanding of making inferences before we started the unit therefore the unit was all review for them. The students were very comfortable sharing their ideas as well as their prior knowledge to support their ideas. Another alternative read is that some students were relying on their partner to share their ideas because they did not have their own. Some students said, “my partner and I had the same ideas.” This could very much be true but it also could be that one partner was doing all the idea sharing.
What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
I learned that my students actually do listen to read alouds. I have often thought that the students did not pay as much attention when a teacher is reading out loud because they always seem distracted. After this unit, I was able to see that the students actually took accurate details from the stories to support their ideas. They really did listen to the story and take information away from it. I also learned that my students do a great job sharing their ideas orally but when they transfer these ideas to paper they lose a lot of important details. My students could talk for a whole minute about a character trait with examples describing exactly how they used their prior knowledge to understand but when it comes to writing down their ideas its about 2 sentences and then they are done.
When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?
We are continuing to make inferences in our class. Not only in Making Meaning but in other subjects area as well. It would be beneficial to pull my students that are struggling to work individually or in a small group. This would allow me to see if they really do not know how to make an inference or if they were just not paying attention in the large group setting. In a smaller group setting we could work on pinpointing specific sentences, actions, and details in a story and talk about what we think this means for the character. I think it would be important to model much more with the students who are struggling so that they can see again how to make inferences.
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 think the first thing I would do differently is to have the students complete more written answers. There is a big difference between their oral and written responses. It would have beneficial to show the students a written inference as well as model how to write an inference. I think this would demonstrate to students exactly what I am looking for as well as how to skim through all the extra details in a text and focus on the important parts. For examples, it is more important to focus on that a character is yelling at her sister then the character is wearing green pants. They might be able to make an inference about green pants but it is not the point of the story. The second thing I think I would do would be to have the students do more individual work. Almost all of the work that the students did for my unit was partner work and it is hard to actually see which students fully comprehended the importance of the lesson and which students just did whatever their partner did.
Your post caught my attention because I just taught this lesson to my students the other day, after the end of my unit :)
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was difficult, at times, to have students focusing on the "big picture" events and details, rather than the little things. At times, some of my students were also thinking that, for instance, the color of the dragon was significant in some way. While it was an interesting detail, we discussed whether this helped us to make better sense of the story and, together, decided that it didn't, so we could leave that out and think of another idea. Students seem to struggle with determining importance with all the strategies though (for instance, my students asked some pretty irrelevant questions when we practiced questioning), so I think it just takes some time until they can see that "big picture."
Something that we did that helped students integrate a written response rather than an oral one was using post-it notes during the mini-lesson. While we read Paper Bag Princess, students listened for things they were able to infer from the text. After reading, I created a T-chart titled "What the author said..." and "What I was able to infer..." Students filled out two post-it notes, one for each column, and we went over them together as we placed them on the chart paper under the correct heading. (For example, one post-it might read "The dragon was fast asleep." and the other would read "Elizabeth was happy that her plan worked." so the first would go under the Author column and the second under the Infer column). We now have this anchor chart hanging on a bulletin board for students to refer to when they're unsure whether they're making a good inference or not. I think it helped them apply the strategy a little more independently before they were expected to do so entirely on their own (back and their seats with their own books). The students also filled out the same T-chart in their Reader's Response Notebooks, rather than just writing their inference freely, in order to provide additional support initially. This also held them a bit more accountable to using the strategy independently and gives me evidence as to whether or not they learned how to make appropriate inferences. I think it really helped the students and me!