For my unit plan I planned and taught the end lessons for a visualization unit and then began the non-fiction unit. As I am still teaching my Non-fiction unit I will reflect on it so that I can now make any changes I feel are necessary.
The lesson I am going to focus on for this review will be my nonfiction third day lesson using Venn diagrams to explore similarities and differences between fiction and nonfiction. Upon looking at students work from that day all my students who were in the class for the lesson could identify their non-fiction book and their fiction book and fill in at least one similarity and one difference for each genre. The majority of my students identified at least five or more similarities and or differences. Therefore the objective of the day was met considering my students hard work on the Venn diagrams.
However, as always, lessons can be improved and upon reflecting on this lesson I built on this lesson the next day. I found that students identified important text features of non-fiction books, which they included in their Venn diagrams but that some students thought that all nonfiction books had certain text features such as photography. To address this my following lesson included adding sometimes to my example Venn diagram during my mini lesson. Further I showed some nonfiction books without photography to help students visualize what I was talking about.
Further, I am now realizing I am not hanging some of my anchor charts up after working on them with students. Therefore I will make sure to hang these up to help students remember what we have learned about.
Only a few students struggled during this lesson but the main reason for this is that they were pulled out during my lesson for a variety of reasons. When these students came back they had missed the mini lesson and as a result struggled. I did briefly describe what we were doing when they came back, but I could not explain the whole lesson as I had to conference with students.
When conferencing with students I was amazed at the progress they have made. Many of my students came in below grade level for reading. Although many are still not at grade level they are capable of reading books I thought would be too hard for them. I had gone to the library to find enough nonfiction books at my students independent reading level for my class. When at the library I was unsure if I would have enough books for my students who struggle with reading. I found that I had underestimated my students. To address this I have returned many of my books to the library and now have a new bunch of books at higher levels.
Lastly I have found that including two questions at the bottom of my students writing paper drastically increases their work effort. In a lesson I taught after this at the bottom of their papers I wrote two questions. One question was, did you work hard on this and the other was did you challenge yourself? Students then had to place a check mark in a yes or no slot. It was interesting when observing my students work on this writing. Many students got to the bottom of the paper, where they had to check off those two answers based on their own thinking and looked directly at me smiled and went back to their work and added more. After adding some additional information they checked off yes for both questions and brought their paper over to me saying, “Ms. Flanagan look at what I wrote, can I read it to you? I worked really hard on it, I challenged myself!” It is amazing how much of a difference those two questions made, and it is apparent in their writing for that particular day. Therefore, after seeing the impact these questions had I would have included them on the Venn diagram writing for my lesson.
Katie, I find this reflection post to be very interesting because my unit was on very similar material. My unit was nonfiction in Making Meaning, and we explored several different nonfiction texts throughout my unit. We read a nonfiction text about feeding time at the zoo and we brainstormed a list as a class of characteristics of this book which told us it was nonfiction (i.e. contained facts, real pictures, and was about something true). We then explored a book, which I had read them before, that is called Wild About Books. This book is about a zoo that creates a 'Zoobrary' and all the animals begin to read. This book was very different from the other zoo book, and we then made a list about how we knew this book WASN'T nonfiction (i.e. it rhymed, was made up, contained talking animals and other silly things). I think it would have been interesting to use a Venn Diagram to organize this information. I considered it when I was planning my lesson, however I thought it may be a little difficult for them. In my placement last year in Lansing, my 4th graders even struggled with Venn Diagrams, so I was hesitant. I find it very interesting that you used it and that it was so successful. Seeing this success makes me think that if I were to do it again, I may try to use a Venn Diagram and see how it goes (whole class not individually). I also had my first graders read a nonfiction text at their reading level and had them pick out a fact they learned from their text to reinforce that nonfiction texts contain important information or facts. My students did very well with that task. I love the idea of having two questions such as yours at the end of a short writing assignment. Having students take responsibility for their work, and reflect on their own efforts is a great idea. I would like to try that sometime with my students. I could, however, see some of my students saying they do not understand or that they are very confused about what those questions mean. I anticipate some of my students simply checking yes without thinking about it, however I would still like to try it! Great idea.
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