Emma Newton Week 2 Reflection

After teaching each lesson, write a Book Club Blog Posting discussing the following:

·         What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson. 
After completing my first week of GLT I was aware of the fact that my students could use some work with sequencing.  Going into my second week of teaching I hoped to work on this as well as continue to give my students more practice with retelling (as a whole).  The majority of the students in my class had no problem retelling (during a first grade 5 finger retell) what the setting of the story that they heard/saw was as well as who the characters in the story were.  I encouraged them to constantly being thinking (as they were listening/watching) who is in this story and where is it taking place?  However, when it came to sequencing events in the story, I did realize the students (approximately 8 students)  that are in the lower leveled reading groups in my class, seemed to struggled a lot with sequencing (more so than the other students).  After talking with my MT about this, It became apparent to me that this maybe do to that fact that during the time we meet with guided reading groups, we often focus a lot more on retelling/comprehension with the higher achieving students than with the lower achieving students because we do not have to spend as much time working on decoding with the high achieving students as we do with the low achieving students. 
      After watching the short film "Presto" for the second time I handed out pictures of different events that took place throughout the film to various students.  Although I was not originally planning on it, I ended up handing the pictures out to students prior to the video so they could make sure to watch for their picture to take place as well as what happened before their picture and after their picture.  Additionally, I told the students to look share with students around them and talk about when they felt was going on in their pictures with one another (turn and talk.)  After watching the film for the second time, as a class, the students worked together to place the pictures of the story in the proper order.            

·         What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?Given that this was such a straight forward assignment I feel that there were not very (if any) alternate reads of my students' performance/product.  In the end of the day I felt that the majority of the students did well and were able to sequence the events and pick up on clues (such as the picture of the rabbit with the carrot could not come before the picture of the rabbit reaching for the carrot because the carrot was what the rabbit was working for throughout the entire short film.)  Although it was apparent that some students were still struggling, it was refreshing to see others correct them (in the kind manner) and explain exactly why they felt their classmate was incorrect.

·         What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
Each day my students continue to surprise me with the information they know and understand (and sadly, sometimes, the information they continue to struggle with understanding.)  I loved witnessing my students' ability to pick up on clues with in the stories/pictures that would aid them in sequencing the story.  Additionally, in our class (up until my GLT) we had given the students very few opportunities to "Turn and Talk" with a partner.  It was wonderful to see and hear the students working through questions I asked as well as helping each other and they explained their thinking, and backed up their answers using examples/ information for the text/film/pictures. 

·         When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?
For my students who seemed to struggle with retelling more than others I plan to really push comprehension/retelling on them during small group guided reading time.  As I said previously, I feel that we often spend so much time focusing on the decoding aspects of reading with these particular students that we often fail to work on comprehension strategies/retelling.  I feel that if I take more time to focus on retelling during this more individualized instruction time the students will have a lot better change of picking up on how to retell a story/sequence it.  Additionally, I plan on encouraging the students to use questioning as a comprehension strategy (given how well it worked with characters/setting) by constantly thinking what happened first, next, then. finally?  

·         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 create/have some sort of a time line for the students to place the pictures from the story on.  Although I had individual students come up and hold the pictures in the proper order, I felt that given how antsy some of the students were, it did not allow students to concentrate/see the sequence of events through the pictures as well as the possibly could have.  Additionally, as my MT has pointed out to me, it is important that I try to minimize the amount of rephrasing I do.  Given how fast my mind works, when students seemed confused I often rephrased questions thinking it would help them when in fact the students probably would have just benefited from hearing the same questions again in order to allow them to process it completely (and then allow adequate wait time.)  

What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?
It is now (more than ever) clear to me that being a teacher means being a life long learner.  After completing me GLT it is clear to me that there is a lot that I can work on as well as there is a lot I should be proud of (given my students' success.)  The thing I feel that I do need to work on the most is reaching both my high achieving and low achieving students' needs all in one mini lesson.  I want to be able to reach/teach/help/guide my low achieving students in a lesson as I am pushing my high achieving students.  Although I understand this is difficult to do, especially in a mini lesson, I feel that it is important.  My students have a lot of trouble paying attention for longer than 15 minutes, and given that we do Daily 5, the majority of literacy instruction takes place in mini 15 minute lessons.      

Me Young Hong #2 reflection

After teaching each lesson, write a Book Club Blog Posting discussing 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?

What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

 

Based on a How To book, students learned how to write things in order and list steps such as fist, next and last. Most of students who are in higher level in literacy knew what they are doing and actually learned. On the other hand, for those who struggle in literacy seemed to have hard time in my lesson; they were not able to follow all the directions and steps as well. Writing was involved a lot in this lesson that some of the students had difficulties in copying/ writing words down.

Students are following steps and writing the steps down on their papers to help them understand better. I showed my own writings as an example; therefore, students could write things using my sample writing. Also, we used same list using same steps, first, next and last, for everyone in order to minimize the confusion. 

I learned that students can create their own writing based on their reading. Some of them even used their own words to write sentences. However, there were some other students who really had hard time writing and reading. I already knew that there was a huge gap among students’ reading level, however, I actually was able to observe how they evaluate their reading and create their own writing as well.

We do not plan to re-teach the material since everyone seemed to understand which word to put first, next and last even if they did not finish all their writings. Also, we will be practicing writing the steps several times in future lessons that we do not need to re-teach the same material for students who need additional support.

I would let students to use their own words when writing the steps. The main objective was to teach how to write things in order with first, next and last steps; however, students seemed to focus on the words and spellings from sentences too much that they did not exactly get to learn why steps are important to learn. Therefore, instead of copying sentences word by word, I would ask them to use their own words after they copy first, next and last.

I would like for them to be involved in more writing; I would like to challenge them more to come up with new How To books. Since we will be making How To books using their own words, I would like to observe more writing skills to implement my ‘core practice.’

Chelsea Gose- Lesson Reflection #2

What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson. 

I feel that most of my students learned from  my lesson. They seemed to be engaged in the lesson and were able to make real-life connections to the book that we read. The students that struggled with this lesson were the same students that struggle with sitting still and following directions when we are sitting at the rug. It is harder to keep these students engaged on the lesson because they are easily distracted by their peers. I wanted to write a list with all of my students' ideas on a chart, so it was hard for all of my students to stay engaged while I wrote 26 book titles on the chart. 

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

I wrote down the titles for their books, so I was able to see if they understand the "how to" genre and if they were able to pick a topic for their book that they would be able to write about. They all picked appropriate titles. I had to help some of them reword their titles so it would make more sense, but they all got it for the most part. 

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

I learned more about my students and the things that interest them. They were able to think of new topics to write about that I didn't think about before. Some of them were able to plan out the steps of their books in addition to thinking of an appropriate topic. 

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

I will use the same book to help re-teach my students if they are unclear about the how to genre. I have additional how to books that I can read to the students that struggle so they can gain a deeper understanding of the book. I also wrote a how to book called, "How to Eat Dirt" and I will reference this book in future lessons and incorporate different aspects of the "how to" genre. During independent writing time, I will pull small groups that seem to struggle with their writing. 

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 I would give my students one more example of a "how to" book so they can see more examples of the genre. This would help them to understand the purpose of these books so they can think of an idea that they would be able to teach the class. Some of the students needed more guidance when choosing the topic. The lesson dragged on a little bit because I wanted each student to share their title/topic with the class. I also could have given them the chance to talk with a friend about their topics before sharing their idea with the class. They enjoyed learning about their peers' book titles, but it would have been better if the lesson went by a little quicker. 

What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

I have learned a lot about implementing my core practice. I am learning that I need to focus more on my learners' needs in my mini-lessons. They all seem to be getting something out of my lessons, but there is a large gap between my students. I need to think of more ideas to make my lessons a little harder for my students that already understand that genre really well. I also need to plan small group instruction for my students that are struggling with writing in the genre. I really want to focus on reaching all of the learning needs of my students. 

Week 2 Reflections- Abbie Sliger

After teaching each lesson, write a Book Club Blog Posting discussing 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?

What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

It is hard to believe that my Guided Lead Teaching has come to an end. I learned a lot about myself during this time and am looking forward to using what I learned to help me to improve my practices as a teacher. I think this lesson went well for my students. I began with reviewing the book The Napping House that I had read aloud to the students the previous day. I asked the students to think-pair-share and then asked a few individuals to share what they had come up with with their partner. The students were participating in retelling the story as a whole class. I then asked them to think-pair-share about what sequencing is. Many students were able to tell me what it meant to sequence a story. I then explained the assignment of putting the characters in order of appearance and let them get to work. There was only one student who needed help in getting the assignment done and this particular student has trouble getting almost every assignment completed. Overall, the students were very engaged in the activity. My class enjoys hands- on, crafty assignments so this was perfect for them. A majority of the students chose to color the pictures even though this was not required of them. Every student completed the task correctly and in a timely manner. I do not think any students "struggled" with the task. I think they all benefitted from the assignment, as it gave them a concrete example of sequencing. 

I do not think there are alternate reads of my students' performance and or products. This task was very straight forward which was very helpful in telling me if the students' understood the idea of sequencing or not. I do believe that they understand what sequencing is and how they can use it to help them with their comprehension. It was very interesting to see each students' process of how to complete the assignment. Some students put the characters in order before gluing them down. Others just began gluing right away. Others had to talk themselves through the order of the characters' appearances. Seeing each students' process gave me some insight as to how each student thinks and sequences within their own heads. 

I think seeing the way in which my students' sequence events gave me some insight in to their literacy practices. It is one thing to be able to tell someone what sequencing is and show someone what a sequence of something is, but it is something else to see the process that a student uses to put their knowledge to use. I also gained insight in to the way my students retell stories. Retelling has been a part of first grade for a while now and I was pleased to see my students merging the ideas of retelling and sequencing together to help them remember a story that had been read to them. 

We revisit sequencing often during Reading Street instruction. It is an idea that the students are reminded of when we read aloud from the Reading Street texts. My mentor teacher thinks it is important to revisit the same ideas repeatedly to get students in the habits of using this knowledge as tools to help them. If I were to re-teach this lesson I am not sure that I would change much. I might make the task more complicated by having different groups of students read different books and therefore sequence different stories from their other classmates. That would be a little more challenging and would require each student to truly understand what they read as each group would have a different text. Overall, the students really understood the task and text and therefore I would not change my lesson much. 

I am continuing to learn about my self as a professional and am always working to incorporate my core practice of mini-lessons. I think I am getting better at using mini-lessons as effectively as possible in many different subject areas. I do not feel as rushed when I am teaching the material as I did before. I realize that I need to set specific, simple goals for myself when using mini-lessons and make the most of the time to achieve these goals. I do think mini-lessons are very effective for my students as they struggle with sitting for very long periods of time. I am looking forward to continuing to implement my core practice and to continue to reflect on my practices as a professional so I can become the most effective teacher possible. 

Week 1 Reflections-Abbie Sliger

After teaching each lesson, write a Book Club Blog Posting discussing 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?

What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

It is hard to believe that my first week of GLT is over. I do believe that my first "big" lesson went well. I was pleasantly surprised by how much background knowledge my students had about the idea of sequencing. I think that my students truly began to understand exactly what sequencing is and what is looks like. A few students struggled with the lesson as it was a long time for them to sit and listen to me talk on top of having sat and listened to Reading Street. The students who struggled are those same students who struggle to focus on a daily basis through every lesson. Alternate reads of my students performance would be their ability to retell a story using sequencing. We did this during the lesson, I read a story aloud and then as a class we worked to put the pieces of the story back in order. The students also did multiple think-pair-shares which told me which students understood how to retell a story and which students did not. My eyes were opened to my students' literacy practices. I did not realize that a good portion of my class is able to apply new strategies so quickly. Some students even deepened their understanding of ideas that they had already learned which extended beyond my objectives. I was surprised to see students bringing in other strategies to their think-pair-shares. I will reteach the material on Monday as the beginning of my lesson will be reminding students of what they already know about sequencing. I will begin with a think-pair-share and then will call on those students that I know are struggling. If after this quick review there are still students struggling with the idea then I will pull a small group aside and have a discussion with them about sequencing while the rest of the class gets started on the activity. I will use the book The Napping House as a reminder of what sequencing is and what it looks like. Then, I will have this group od students join the rest of the class and participate in the whole group activity. If I were to teach this same lesson again I would make the focus of the lesson the re-aloud as opposed to defining sequencing. My students did not need a lot of time to understand what sequencing is like I had expected. I would discuss the definition and then spend more time with the re-aloud and retelling the story in sequential order. I would also add a physical element to my lesson so students were not sitting for as long. I have learned that I am getting better with my core practice of mini-lessons. My literacy unit is a great time to implement mini-lessons because so much of the allotted literacy time is dedicated to Reading Street. To continue my professional learning I want to find more information about mini-lessons and different variations in how to differentiate the instruction within them. I feel that it is such a short period of time I have struggles with differentiating my instruction within the mini-lesson itself. I am hoping to work on this next work during my literacy unit.