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.