Helpful Kangaroo (reading strategy for 1st grade)

For my literacy unit I taught accuracy strategies in readers workshop (one strategy per day). I taught:

• Wise Owl
• Eagle Eye
• Slippery snake
• Cross-checking cheetah
• Lips the Fish
• Chunky Monkey
• Running Rhino
• Tryin' Lion
• Helpful Kangaroo
• First Grade Forgetfuls

These are all strategies that readers can use to decode tricky words. Chunky Monkey is an accuracy strategy that reminds readers to look for chunks in a word that they may know, first in the beginning of the word, then in the middle or at the end of a word. Readers workshop in my classroom is identical to that of Katie Krinsky's considering our mentor teachers, Katie and I plan readers workshop together. We begin with a 5-7 minute lesson, which is structured into four different parts (these remain the same through the entire year for both readers and writers workshop). These are the parts:

• Connection: Make a connection to a recent readers workshop lesson and state what the students will now learn.
• Teach: explain teaching point and model an example.
• Active engagement: students will model objective
• Link to ongoing work:Remind them what they need to do "today and everyday"
• Share: Have students share if they have used this particular or any other strategies that we have taught.

During my readers workshop mini-lesson, I knew that my most of my students would recognize some chunks and endings such as -ed, -ing, and -s however, I wanted to emphasize this for any struggling students. I pretended to get stuck on the word "shouted" and then on the word playing, we talking about -ing and then I brought the chunk "ay" to their attention and had them think about what other words they know with "ay" in it. With magnetic letters I showed them "Kaylee" (a students name), this really interested them and ever since then, all of the students recognize "ay" in words.

As a part of of readers workshop we have a "share time" after our mini lesson, independent reading, and partner reading. During share time students were jumping at the opportunity to share tricky words that they figured out by using Chunky Monkey. There were also a lot of students who raised their hands to tell of other accuracy strategies that we have talked about which was really nice to see that they were remembering these!

I was already planning on teaching a second day of Chunky Monkey to reinforce this concept to students so by the second day, there was not one student who did not understand or use this strategy in their reading. Along with all of the other strategies, I assign them as weekly goals to students who would benefit from using them while I do daily individual reading conferences. I have the students repeat the specific strategy that I assigned to them before the end of conferences so that they remember what they are to do, this works very well for the students in my class!

Kindergarten- Retelling Strategies

What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson?

The focus of my Reader's Workshop unit was retelling strategies. During the second week of the unit, the day 2 lesson focused on the importance of incorporating characters' names while retelling. The children first came down to our large group area for a mini-lesson. At this time, I incorporated a story that we had been reading for a few days now (Rosie's Walk), in which the children were familiar and comfortable with. Before demonstrating how to use character's names during retelling, I stressed the importance of using characters' names both when retelling and when writing their own stories, making sure to point out how confusing a story can be if you were to only say he, she, or they. Then I demonstrated incorporating characters' names during retelling, using Rosie's Walk. This was a good story to begin with because there are only two characters in the story (Rosie and the fox) and it was easy for the kindergartners to remember. Before the children went off to practice the strategy on their own, I had them practice retelling a portion of Rosie's Walk with a partner that was sitting next to them. Once this was complete, the children went out on their own for independent reading. At this time, I conferenced with children to see that they were using the strategy we practiced earlier correctly. Once independent reading was complete, the children can down to the large group area for a partner/group share, where they chose one book from their independent reading that they would retell to a partner, making sure to use characters names. One thing that I found all students struggled with that I didn't think about before the lesson was that a lot of their books in their browsing boxes are easy readers, such as letter books or other stories that don't contain any characters. During independent reading, I stressed to the students to choose one of the two books they have from the classroom library that do contain characters, but we also discussed at the end of our group share that not all books contain characters or characters that have names. Even though this might have been a struggle for students in the beginning, by the end of the lesson I think I created another teaching point based on the students' struggles. Another struggle I saw from some of my students that struggle with reading is that they couldn't read the characters names in the first place, so they weren't able to use them during retelling. When this occurred, I explained to the children that it is better to use at least some sort of description, such as if they knew the character was a girl they could at least say "she" or "the girl". I knew this would be a problem, which is why I had the students retell Rosie's Walk after the mini-lesson because this was a story that was read to them multiple times. The children already knew the characters names and could get the experience of retelling a story using character's names.

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

Although some of my students struggled in certain areas, what I was really impressed with was how detailed their retellings were. Overall my unit was to give students different strategies to use to help them retell a story and I saw my students using other strategies they had learned over the first week to help them retell they story they chose. When it came to using characters names, I think that it helped that I had read Rosie's Walk multiple times throughout the past week, so the children were comfortable retelling the story to a partner. Using a story I had read to them was a great first practice for the children and I think it helped them feel better about using the strategy on their own during independent reading.

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

What I learned about my students' literacy practices is that they do a better job of using the strategy if we practice it was a partner before they go off on their own during independent reading. I had the children partner share once before this lesson and I noticed the children participated more during our group share that time, but I was surprised with how well the children responded during the retelling using characters' names lesson. Almost everyone wanted to share their story with the class and during other lessons I did not see this happening. I also noticed that students conferenced with other students without being prompted. During independent reading, I saw students talking to other students sitting next to them. At first, I thought their conversations were off topic, but when I went to listen in I noticed that the children were talking about the characters in their story.

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

For students who I know need extra support, I make sure to conference with them individually during independent reading. During this time I can go over the strategy again with them and have them practice it with my support. This way the children are more confident going into the partner share. For students who I notice struggling during partner share, we try to pull these students aside the next day to re-teach the strategy. I also make sure to review the past days strategy during the following mini-lesson and incorporate it into my demonstration. If I notice that the whole class is struggling with the topic, then my C.T. and I rearrange the schedule to add an extra day of practice to re-teach the strategy. For the using characters' names lesson, most of the students were able to correctly use the strategy, so I only reinforced it during the following days mini-lesson.

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 same lesson again, there are a few things I would do differently. For one thing, I think it would have been beneficial to demonstrate retelling a story without using the characters' names. This way the children could see how confusing a story can be if a person only uses he, she, or they. Once this was complete, the class could have a discussion about what was missing and how it affected the retelling. This is a strategy I heard from one of my 802 classmates and I think it is a great idea! It would improve my students' learning because they would see exactly what it is like if you don't use characters names and how confusing a story can be to others without them. Another thing I would change is I might do the lesson again later in the year once the children have a few more books with characters in their browsing boxes. This way they have more options to choose from and most of their texts won't be without characters. With more books containing characters, the children have more opportunities to identify different characters and retell using their names.

3rd Grade-Paragraph Writing

What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson?

The basis of my unit plan was for students to be able to write 2 4-paragraph essays using detail. The second day of my unit plan was a lesson on writing a paragraph specifically on dogs. During this lesson, the students and I first brainstormed ideas about what we knew about dogs. We then looked at a dog fact sheet. I first read the sheet with the class and then I re-read the facts with the help of my class. As we read the facts sheet a second time, the students were to highlight facts that they thought were interesting. As extra help I modeled how to find the interesting facts by highlighting my own facts. After looking at the dog fact sheets, as a class we created a topic and closing sentence for our paragraph. The class was provided with a hamburger graphic organizer to fill in their ideas. After completing the graphic organizer (including a topic, 3 details from the fact sheet and a closing sentence). Through the lesson my students learned how to pull information from an informative text and write about those facts. Students also learned how to correctly fill out a graphic organizer and write a short paragraph. Many of the students had no problems with filling out the graphic organizer, however, when it came to transferring the information to a piece of lined paper there were a lot more questions. Even some of the best writers in my class had a hard time indenting their paragraphs. There was confusion on how we only needed to indent one time, not 5 times for each part of our graphic organizer. I have many students in my class who struggle with writing, even just printing letters. The lesson was at too fast of a pace for them to keep up with the writing with the rest of the class. In order to help these students I modeled all of the steps and even gave some students to even copy some of the details that I used in order to make it easier for them. I was surprised with how many students were struggling with the simple concept of indenting the paragraphs; it was an unexpected turn in my unit plan.

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

I was originally concerned after teaching this lesson because the students have been working on paragraph writing for weeks, so I was not prepared to have to scaffold so much of the paragraph. The class had already learned how to indent, but they still struggled greatly with indenting one paragraph. The students excelled at creating topic sentences, detailed sentences and closing sentences. The class had been working on constructed responses to prepare for the MEAP where they practiced writing the different types of sentences. This extra practice with constructed responses made it easier for the students to come up with good topics and supporting details.

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

I learned that it is much easier for my students to write about a topic that they are familiar with. The students had so many great ideas of how to write their paragraphs and what they would like to write about. All of the students wanted to contribute ideas and this let me know as a teacher that the students were engaged and ready to work. I also learned that the students enjoy research. Having the students look up their own facts from the fact sheet gave them the freedom to write about anything they wanted staying within the requirements of the teacher. I also learned that my students need help with the basics of writing, such as grammar, punctuation and spelling. The majority of my students had the hardest time with these topics. I was not prepared to have to do a mini-lesson on the basics of these concepts as well as a paragraph.

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

For the students who need additional help, I have placed them in a table group with students that are willing to provide help if I am not available. I also taught an additional mini-lesson on how to write a paragraph and what I am looking for in a good paragraph. This hopefully helped the students who were struggling the most. I also worked with a small group of students in the back of the classroom while the rest of the students were writing their paragraphs. I helped these students by telling me what they wanted to write before actually writing it. This way the students could get everything they were thinking out of their heads so they were more focused on writing. I also plan on modeling each day on the ELMO my own paragraphs for the students to use a guide with their own paragraphs.

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 first begin the lesson by showing the students a paragraph. I would ask them to create a list of what a paragraph had. This way the students would have had an example to look at before writing their own. The paragraph would be on the same topic that the students were going to be writing about, giving them a good example. I would also have a discussion about why we indent the paragraphs. I believe the reminder of what paragraphs consist of would create less confusion when it came to teaching the lesson. I would also add to the list on the board of what I was looking for in each paragraph. This way the students would be provided with their expectations for the day. The list would include more details, such as a point for indenting and a point for having their name on their papers. This is the process that I continued after I taught this lesson and it worked very well.

Reflections on Kindergarten Lesson 3: Main Ideas

What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson?

I am reflecting on my third lesson in the unit. This lesson topic was main idea. I wanted my students to pick out the main idea/s in the story and be able to support their reasoning using illustrations as well as what they already knew from the book. We had read and discussed the book, Animal Mothers, in my two previous lessons. Therefore my students were familiar with the book. In order to get my students thinking about the story and what the main ideas were, I asked them comprehension questions throughout my lesson. I asked them to compare and contrast animals, use illustrations to predict which animals lived in trees, and I asked them to tell me about the animals (in order) they had already heard about in the story (retelling using sequence of events). Not only was I checking for comprehension, I was assessing them to see what they had learned from my previous two lessons. I noticed that students were able to answer my comprehension questions. They were raising their hands to participate, sharing their reasonings using text and illustrations, and making predictions. During the lesson I was able to see that my students learned how to retell stories and make predictions. When it came to discussing the main idea of the story many of my students seemed to struggle. Some of them really grasped the main idea, which was animal mothers taking care of their young. However, some of my students were discussing specific animals and their functions in reference to the main idea. I tried to lead students to think about what they learned about each animal- how the mother takes care of her young. About half of the class was able to point out a main idea in the story, the other half of the class was not. Since we read the book three times and had two previous discussions about the lesson, I thought students would be able to see the main idea in the story. However, it was the first time this year that we brought up the topic of main ideas in stories. I will be focusing many upcoming lessons on main ideas in stories in order to ensure student comprehension.

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

My students did a great job answering my comprehension questions. I assessed them informally throughout the lesson by observing them and asking them questions. All of my students were engaged in this lesson and I think it definitely helped that we had read the book a number of times. Students were able to make connections and retell the story using sequence of events. I really wanted to see my students' comprehension of the story through this lesson, especially since this was the third day reading and discussing the book. Even though some of them struggled with the main idea topic, I know there was successful comprehension of the lesson. They had an activity that they did at their centers. They listened to the story, Animal Mothers, on tape and then drew a picture of their favorite animal mentioned in the story. They also included a picture of how that animal cares for their young. I wanted students to be able to go back and remember some of the animals we discussed in the story and something special about that animal mother and her young. After reviewing their worksheets I was able to see that they each remembered an animal from the story and how that animal cared for their young. Some students' pictures were very detailed and specific. Other students could not choose between two animals so they drew pictures of both their favorite ones in the story. I was very pleased with my students' performance both during the lesson and at centers.

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

I learned that my students were able to make text-to-self connections without any guiding questions. Even though this lesson was not focused on text-to-self connections, I noticed my students making these connections throughout the story. Some of my students were making deep connections which surprised me. For example, in the book I used for my lesson (Animal Mothers) there is a picture of a mother hedgehog and her three babies following her in a straight line. The text read something very simple like, "Baby hedgehogs follow their mother in a straight line." There is obviously not a whole lot to think about and relate to in this part of the story. As a class we were talking about why the babies might follow their mother in a straight line. One of my students raised her hand and began relating the way the hedgehogs following their mother to how the students follow their teacher in a straight line. Other students started adding on to her comment, mentioning how it is important to follow one another in a straight line so that no one gets lost and everyone knows where they are going. It was really quite interesting and something that I had not even thought of. Students also brought up the similarities between a mother chimpanzee holding her baby and a human mother holding her baby. I also learned that my students were familiar with a lot of the animals in the story. I had assumed I would have to introduce many of the unfamiliar animals such as hedgehogs, wild boars, and sloths. However, students were quite familiar. They knew that hedgehogs looked like porcupines and wild boars looked like pigs. When I turned to the page with a sloth on it they all shouted, "Sloth!" When I asked them how they knew what a sloth was they explained "Sloth" was an animal character in a popular children's show, Diego. It was pretty comical and it really surprised me.

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

When my lesson ended I explained to my teacher that a lot of my students seemed to struggle with the topic: finding main ideas. Since it was their first time discussing main idea/s in a story, a lot of them need more experience with the topic. Since many of my students struggled, I am going to teach another lesson or two about main idea in my upcoming unit. This time I am going to model for the students by thinking aloud. In order to find the main idea in a story, I am going to read the story to them and share with them what I am thinking. For example, if I were to read Animal Mothers again I would read a few pages, stop and say, "I just noticed that the last few pages talked about different animal mothers and what they do to carry their babies around. I think the author might want to teach us about different animals and what they do to carry their babies from one place to another." This will allow students to see how I am thinking about main ideas in the story instead of reflecting on individual animals.

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 modify some of my guiding questions. I was very pleased with my comprehension questions because students were engaged, actively participating, and truly discussing/reflecting on the lesson. When it came to my guiding questions to get students to think about the main idea (my lesson topic), students seemed to get confused. I asked students to think about what the author wanted to teach them through the story. I said, "What did the author want us to learn?" Students began focusing on individual parts of the story. For example, instead of thinking about the main idea/s, students began thinking about specific animals. They would say, "The author wanted us to learn that a baby koala rides on the mother's back," or "The author wanted us to learn that elephants use their trunks to help their babies run. I was looking for answers such as, "The author wanted us to learn how animal mothers carry around their babies." Students were not seeing the whole picture, instead they were focusing on other aspects. As I mentioned previously, I would model finding main idea/s by thinking aloud. Thinking aloud would have allowed students to see what I wanted them to look for and become aware of. I am excited to reteach a lesson about main ideas. I have gained experience and thought of many new ideas to successfully deliver a lesson focusing on main idea/s.

1st Grade Writing Process Day 4

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.

Reflections on literacy lesson 4 - "Five Finger" Retell for 3rd grade

What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson?

On my 1, 2, 3, or 3+ rubric (2 or above being considered successful), seven students scored a 1, nine students scored a 2, seven students scored a 3, and no students scored a 3+. On student had no writing and two students were out of the classroom during the writing portion of this Reader’s Workshop. As there were ten 1s (when I scored their Reader’s Notebooks) on the day we discussed setting and fifteen 1s on the day we discussed retelling main events with time order words, the lower number of 1s and increased number of 3s shows me that students learned from my clarifications of these aspects and now understand how to better identify, include integrate these concepts into a retell.

However, some students did struggle with the lesson, as seven received a 1 (which, on my rubric, does not qualify as being successful in the assignment). Four of these students are in our advanced reading group and three are at grade level; none were below grade level.

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

I’m not entirely sure. Though I do have three students who really struggle with writing, one received a 2, one did not write anything, and one was not present. Therefore, while generally these students are not able to perform tasks as well as their classmates due to their trouble reading and writing, I’m not really able to draw conclusions on that based on so little information (since only two were present to participate and the results were split). It is probable, however, that the one student’s lack of writing is due to her difficulty in expressing herself in the written form. If I had asked her orally, she might be able to demonstrate a better understanding of the concept.

Additionally, three of the students who received 1’s are in our advanced level reading group (and are proficient writers) and generally do not struggle with this kind of assignment. However, many of them are very focused on doing things exactly right, so they can, at times, take longer than others to complete assignments. Three of these four did not finish their retelling in the time allocated, so they were, consequently, lacking elements that they needed for a better score. I have allowed these students time to finish and I feel that those revised scores will more accurately reflect their understanding.

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

I was able to see more about my students’ writing styles than I anticipated. For instance, some students had really strong voice in their retelling, while others did not. Some students made their retelling more like a list (i.e. Characters: Names; Setting: Place; etc.) or wrote in fragments, while the majority wrote them in complete sentences.

Additionally, I was able to learn about my students’ reading comprehension; mainly, their understanding of characters, setting, and what are the main events. As students were asked to write only about their book club book for this journal entry, I was able to read the three books before grading, so I had a good understanding of the text. This helped me to see which students were, for instance, naming minor characters or not using the correct name or title, or if they were telling supporting details rather than main events.

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

I have made a note of the students who did not score well on their Reader’s Notebook entry for the day. Of these students, it is easy to see from reading their entry whether their score is a result of their not doing the activity correctly, or simply not being able to complete it due to the time constraint. For the students who just did not have enough time to complete their retelling, I have already provided more time for them to do so. This will allow me to assess their actual retelling ability.

For those students who scored poorly (or those who didn’t finish, but upon finishing, still did not earn a higher score), I anticipate working with them as a small group this upcoming week. There are about eight students that I would like to practice this skill. I would likely have them practice doing a “five finger” retell orally with a partner, while their partner raised the corresponding fingers (we have a diagram that shows the pinkie as characters, ring finger as setting, etc.). This would help students to remember what needs to be included in a retelling. I would then have them go back to their seats and do another written retell in their Reader’s Notebook of the book they read during independent reading time that day. Two of these eight students struggle with writing, so I would also (or instead, depending on time constraints) have these students do their retelling orally, if possible.

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 do not feel that I would change too much to this lesson if I were to teach it again. However, I do have a few things that I would consider more thoroughly beforehand.

During my mini-lesson, I had students turn and talk with a partner so that everyone could practice doing a “five finger” retell. Almost every student was able to turn to their neighbor and do this, but there was a group of boys a few rows back that were not making the activity as easy as I’d hoped. One boy joined a group of two, which resulted in a group of three and one boy off by himself with no one to talk to. The group of three was not on task and I was not able to see their participation in the lesson (through their sticking up fingers and turn taking). The boy who was left alone then needed to move to another place to get a partner. As students have assigned seats on the carpet, I would consider assigning them their “turn and talk” partner, so that they could jump straight into the activity, and not spend time worrying about who their partner is and having to relocate. This would allow more time for the active engagement portion of my lesson, increasing student involvement and interest and helping me see them demonstrating their understanding.

Additionally, there were students who asked me how to retell the character and setting of a nonfiction book. I had not entirely planned out an answer for this, although I was aware that a small group of students was reading a nonfiction text. Consequently, I explained to the students to see the “characters” more loosely as the “subject” of the book, and the setting as where these “characters” were (for example, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California). However, if I were to re-teach this lesson, I would ask students what they think we should do when retelling nonfiction books. I would plan out a clear and articulate way to explain this, but I would also want to know students’ understanding as well, because I feel it might provide insight into their understanding of these story elements.

Reflection on Teaching Lessons

Think about the lessons you taught - for the three lesson plans you submitted, write a blog post discussing the prompts below. Blogs are due by Friday, November 18th at the end of the day.
Discuss the following:

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

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

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

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

· 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?