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.