Literacy Unit Reflection- The Overall Experience

Literacy Unit Reflection- The Overall Experience

This week I completed my literacy unit plan. I am happy to report that it was an overall success. Despite timing and pacing complications, I was able to complete my activities and I really believe my students learned. Prior to teaching my unit plan, I was nervous about how my students would respond to me as a teacher. Thankfully, there were no major issues and they were eager to hear what I had to say. Participation was also not an issue. My students are extremely eager to contribute their thoughts. They are more likely to raise their hand without hesitation, than to sit in silence. When I was planning my unit, I really thought about each lesson and how they would best reach my students. I am excited that my predictions about what they would find fun were correct. They absolutely loved the picture visualizing. They did not only draw fantastic pictures, but they wrote a well supported summary to describe their illustrations. 

My unit plan allowed for students to go beyond just listening. They practiced talking to one another, sharing their visualizing processes, and reading to their peers. I wanted my students to not only hear the texts, but to practice depicting the stories in a nontraditional manner. Instead of solely reading the basal story and answering questions, I had my students pick apart certain sections and share their thoughts. Throughout this unit plan, my students continuously studied vocabulary, responded to high-level comprehension questions, visualized text, reiterated their visualizations, talked with a partner, shared in whole group, responded to prompts constructively and took assessments of their work. My students picked up on the wide variety of activity and they would ask me what each day's activity would be.

I learned that my students are capable of many great things! I knew that they had the skills, but was so happy to see them in action. They utilized practices maturely and talked to one another about the text in an informative manner. I absolutely loved watching them make connections and drawing inferences. This week when students responded to the comprehension questions, they quickly got their books and starting skimming the text. It was not until this unit plan that I realized students need to be taught HOW to look for answers. Rather than telling them to go back and look in the book, they need their teachers to model how this is done. I took time practicing on the ELMO flipping through the story using the illustrations and key terms to find answers. I am hoping to have them further this skill next week. This is a skill that went beyond my objectives and I know this skill will only help them accomplish future daily tasks. 

I had a few students absent consistently this week. Due to this, I will be reviewing the story with them during their specials time this upcoming week. I have all the leftover work ready for them and I am hoping to catch them up in a timely, but effective manner. Since they missed an immense amount of discussion, I will need to review the story's vocabulary and key events with them prior to instructing them to complete the missed activities. Thankfully, the majority of my students performed very well on the story assessment. I am hoping their skills will only continue to prosper. I did have a few students rush through and not take the time to match the vocabulary correctly. For these students, I will make it my priority to take the time to help them practice looking at the vocabulary for next week's story. 

I truly enjoyed working with my core practice visualizing. I never thought about the developmental process of learning to visualize. It seems that making mental pictures would be automatic. However, this is a skill that comes with time. I now know how to guide my students through this process. My students now use this term regularly and are able to explain what it means. I constantly told them to shut their eyes and visualize the text. They would then explain their mental images aloud and through illustrations. I incorporated the core practice with the Making Meaning materials. I did not follow the lessons, but the strategies they provide. I really loved working with these materials and will be incorporating Making Meaning in the future. The strategies are important and I believe that focusing on a particular practice in my lessons is very helpful for my students' learning. 

If I were to reteach any of my unit, I would focus on how to do more partner work. My students really enjoyed working in pairs. However, there will be many more opportunities for partner work. I will be implementing partner work further. It is pertinent that students are able to communicate ideas with one another. I am looking forward to discussing with my mentor teacher other strategies for them to work together. 

This truly was a learning experience. I feel much more confident with my literacy teaching. This unit plan was a great launch for my literacy units to come.I feel confident with how to develop a unit and how to pull from resources. I look forward to working with my students' reading and writing in the next coming weeks. I believe that reading and writing is of utmost importance. I want my students to love reading and responding with writing. I do not want these tasks to seem daunting, but enjoyable. 

Language Arts Lesson Plan Reflection 2

Language Arts Lesson Plan Reflection 2

The past two weeks, during my guided lead teaching, my students were introduced to a very different style of teaching. When planning for my unit, I purposely wanted to include engaging lessons that would require my students to hold accountability for their own learning. During the second week of my unit plan, I incorporated cross ability reading groups. 

My students participated in reading groups and learned a variety of skills, both social and academic, during the second week of my unit. The second week of my unit was used to reinforce the skills taught in the first week of lessons. My students worked in reading groups and practiced making connections, asking questions, making inferences, word work, and other comprehension skills that they have been introduced to so far this school year. My students not only worked on academics, but they also had to practice teamwork, working with a small group and cooperation. My reading groups were mixed ability groups, which allowed my struggling students to receive help from the more advanced readers. I truly believe that all of my students were successful learners throughout this week of my unit. 

By incorporating reading groups into my unit plan, I learned quite a lot about my students' literacy practices. My students thoroughly enjoyed working in groups and continue to ask when we will be doing them again. It was very helpful for my students to work together and learn from one another. 

If I was continuing to teach this class, I could easily revisit the material taught in this half of the unit. The reading packet that the students worked together to complete allowed my students to practice skills that they have been introduced to prior to these lessons. The reading groups were intended to strengthen the students' understanding of reading comprehension strategies. The reading group activity could easily be revisited by using the same reinforcement packet with another text. 

If I was to reteach the lessons in the second half of my unit, I would not include pages in the reading packet that my students are not familiar with. I had planned for my students to look up various words from their books in a dictionary, but they have never used dictionaries before. This was asking a bit too much from my students.  

Literacy Unit Plan Week 2

Literacy Unit Reflection Part 2

I am happy to report that week 2 of my Literacy Unit Plan was very successful. This week was challenging because of election day and conferences, we only had two full days of school. However, I was able to complete the story The Keeping Quilt, and begin the next story The Talking Cloth. This upcoming week we will complete The Talking Cloth and get ready for the next text, A Chair for My Mother. 

On Monday, I reread The Keeping Quilt a final time for my students. During this reading, they practiced their visualizing skills and the Making Meaning strategies once again. Students were granted the opportunity to revisit the text and ask/answer any further questions.  I gave my students back a graded vocabulary and comprehension activity sheet from the week prior. I explained to my students that if they take this sheet home and study alongside their book they will be successful on their reading test. I took the time to go through the vocabulary and answer questions that I found troubling. My students struggled with the difference between the vocabulary words sewn and threaded. Due to this, I took the time to demonstrate with my hands the difference between the two. I explained they are very similar definitions but that threaded is getting the needle ready to sew. Many of my students interpret the word sewn as sew and we had a conversation about these differences. From Monday's activity, I learned that my students are becoming very comfortable with my core practice visualizing. They are beginning to talk in very visual terms. I will continue visualizing throughout the next story to give them even more practice. Next time we work with visualizing, students will be told to participate in more partner work. I want them to practice sharing what their partner visualizes. I have learned that visualizing takes time to achieve, but once students are able to visualize a story it is i much easier for them to explain the story's events.

Tuesday- No School.

Wednesday was The Keeping Quilt story test. Before giving the test, I reviewed the vocabulary terms and asked for any final questions. I gave my students about 40 minutes to complete the test, however many were done much sooner. The test included both multiple choice comprehension and vocabulary questions. After grading these tests, I learned that a majority of my students truly comprehended the text. However, one thing I did note is their confusion with the all of the above multiple choice option. For a handful of students, once they saw an answer that was right they did not take time to go through the rest of the options. This is a skill I will have them practice before the next story test. I was thrilled to see that students really excelled on the vocabulary definitions and utilizing these words in sentences. I really learned that my students are comprehending and understanding the text, even if they are not eager to raise their hands and share. Next time I give a reading test, I will explain to my students to share as much as possible. I could tell that many students narrowed their responses to fit in the lines, but I want to encourage them to write as much as they are thinking and visualizing. From this day's activity, I truly learned that visualizing aids comprehension. Once students were done with their test, they had the opportunity to create their own quilt square and we created a class Keeping Quilt. They loved this activity and I believe it helped them understand the makeup of a quilt.

After the story test, we introduced The Talking Cloth on Thursday. Prior to reading the story, I had students practice questioning the text. I wanted them to work with post-it notes and practice how to best question the text in front of them. Before sending them off, I modeled this activity. I was pleased to see they were successful with the task. During the text preview, they really asked questions about the story's illustrations. I believe since we have been working with visualization they were comfortable with depicting how a story's visuals set the stage for the story. Once they were done, I allowed students to share their questions. This lesson is an extension lesson because there was such little time this week. I did not want to start my full-out vocabulary lesson with constrained time. After we previewed the text, I read the story allowed. Instead of having them share their own visuals, I practiced having them turn and talk to share their partner's visuals. This went much better than expected. The room did not become out of control and students talked quietly as they were instructed. My students were eager to share what their partner was thinking. I continued to reinforce the ideas of mental pictures throughout my reading. Next time I do partner work, I will make sure to include even more questions they must complete. This time I had them just focus on their partner's mental pictures, however, next time I want them to go even deeper with the partner's comprehension skills. I am really becoming comfortable with my core practice visualizing and know that my students are now beginning to visualize automatically. I am excited to continue this story with visualizing skills and then introduce another Making Meaning strategy to them.

Friday was another half day and it was honor roll awards. Due to this, our time was weakened once again. However, I did begin my first day lesson of The Talking Cloth. To my satisfaction, we were able to get through a majority of the activity. Since we had read the text the day prior, I went right to the activity with the vocabulary cards. Each student was given seven vocabulary note cards and had to write the definition and tense of each word. Overall, most students completed the definitions, but some have many to go. A majority of the class still has to draw their examples. We will be completing this task Monday. For the word flourished, I was surprised that many of my students continued to refer to this term as flavored. I will be discussing this word in more depth on Monday. I am not sure if they sound and look similar, or if there is a misconception that needs to be adjusted. However, these words are not too far apart. I am very curious to investigate this student thinking. I will be reteaching each of the words throughout the week. I know that my students do not hear these words regularly. These term will be revisited during continuous read alouds and when they are given the comprehension activity sheet. Next time I introduce vocabulary, I will think about what terms may be too similar for students. This way, I can anticipate misconceptions. For example, threaded and sewn in the last text was severely familiar and I now know how to catch these frustrations. Vocabulary and visualizing truly do work together. I have learned that if students can visualize words they are hearing, understanding vocabulary is immensely easier.

I will be extending The Talking Cloth through this week and I am excited to see them work with this piece. The last text students read was confusing due to all the characters, however, I think this one will be much easier for them. I am looking forward to seeing their visualization skills extend even further and to reflect in our upcoming Thursday class about my students' growth.

Literacy Unit Plan Week 1

Literacy Unit Reflection

My literacy unit plans incorporate both the basal text and Making Meaning materials. For the first week of my unit plan, I introduced my students to the basal text The Keeping Quilt. This text is a more difficult read than my third graders are used to. Throughout this story, they were required to make connections, draw upon inferences, and keep track of several characters. Since I knew this text was challenging, I granted my students the opportunity to hear the text aloud on three separate occasions. I read the first half Day 1, the second half Day 2, and re-read the entire text on Day 3. My unit plan introduced the ideas of visualization to my students. This was my students'  first experiences with visualizing this year. I made sure to walk them through the strategies and continuously utilize the term visualize. My students were very eager to participate in the visualizing activities. By the end of the week, I saw students closing their eyes and practicing visualization skills on their own. 

On Day 1 of my literacy unit, I introduced my students to the story The Keeping Quilt. Before reading, I  had them write the story's vocabulary on their vocabulary cards. The vocabulary activity went well and students were able to record the definitions, tenses, and drawings in a timely manner. To guide my students that have not been exposed to a quilt before, I brought in a quilt and quilt square for them to look at and feel. It was really nice to see my students' excitement during this showing. A question I got from a student was "How is a quilt different than a blanket?" I had not anticipated this question. However, I simply answered that a quilt was threaded, was made of different fabrics, and had various stitching and patterns. I was able to answer quickly because I had a quilt on hand to support my ideas. When reflecting on that day's lesson, I definitely should have anticipated confusion between a blanket and quilt. Thankfully, by bringing a quilt in, I was able to support my students' learning. After sharing the quilt, I began reading the story and had my students practice my core practice of visualizing. I asked them to close their eyes as I read the story aloud. I quickly learned that I had to keep reminding students to visualize and close their eyes. Throughout the story reading, I reminded students several times. After reading specific passages, I would ask students to share the mental images they saw. I would tell them to include colors, shapes, sizes. etc.

Day 2 of my literacy unit concluded the reading of the story. I first had students summarize what happened in the first part of the story. Then, I re-read the story from the day prior and reminded students how to visualize. Once again, I had my students practice sharing visuals and concentrating on mental pictures. I was quickly able to tell that a majority of students were picking up on the visualizing in my lessons. However, students were struggling with the content of the story. The Keeping Quilt has an immense amount of characters. It is  a true story that shares a generation to generation family tradition. The activity I had planned for students to take part in Day 2 was comprehension questions. I decided to also include an activity sheet that shared each character and asked to explain how they used the quilt. I believe this really aided my students' understanding of the family characters. Overall, students were able to answer the comprehension questions. The students in my room have made a habit of restating the question in their answer and looking for page numbers. I was pleased to see students looking back to the text when answering questions. I did have a handful of students that were frustrated with the task. Due to this, I guided them with specific page numbers. Next time I include comprehension questions in a lesson, I will have these page numbers handy for students that struggle with finding text to support their answers. For students that need more support beyond page numbers, I would like to start implementing writing small groups. I believe that some students become instantly anxious when they are told to write. I do not want writing to be scary for them. I am hoping that by having a small group discussion, the process will be less intimidating.

The third day of my literacy unit included a visualization activity. Students were instructed to summarize a scene of a story and illustrate the event with their own mental pictures. When giving these instructions, I described what a scene was. My students were really excited to take part in this activity. They were motivated to write because they wanted to draw. I told students they had to write first. However, next time I do a visualization drawing with students, I would not make them write first if they did not want to. I will set a timer for 10 minutes and let them draw their picture first. I saw a few students struggling to write because they were not sure of the images they would be drawing. Once I told them they could draw first, they were able to work much more efficiently. Many students were fine with writing beforehand. However, I would definitely want to give the option. The products I got from students really varied. Several students drew a picture similar to the book, while others created pictures that were entirely their own. It was interesting that my students took the instructions differently. Some of them created their own visuals, while others re-created visuals from the given text. A few students drew pictures and wrote summaries that elaborated past The Keeping Quilt. They used their imaginations to include extensions about the family and the quilt. I was really proud by my students' work. I collected them and commented on their works. This lesson really exposed me to teaching my core practice of visualizing. I loved assessing how my students were working with visualizations and what they thought mental pictures were. If I were not to have had them draw, I do not think I would have gained that much knowledge about their understandings. To continue my professional growth, I will definitely be incorporating visualizing for upcoming lessons. It is an extremely  necessary skill. I am passionate about my students loving to read and write. However, if they are unable to visualize text, it is likely they will not enjoy these activities.

This week, due to Halloween and a half day Friday, I was only able to get to Day 4 of my unit plan. The in class constructive response went really well. This lesson granted me the opportunity to review the story. I also was able to ask students to summarize details and practice visualizing even more. I learned that my students are capable of creating topic sentences, details, and concluding sentences very quickly. They are also able to answer prompts in their own words. I have not really had the chance to teach writing with all the MEAP preparation. The MEAP preparation exposed my students to constructive response. My mentor teacher did a nice job getting my students acquainted with this type of writing. I was not quite sure how the writing response to the text would go. I now see that my students are confident with writing in the group setting. Even though they may underestimate themselves in their writing, they have very significant writing planning skills. These skills may be missed because when I receive a piece of writing I am not given the thought process behind the piece, but only the finished product. I planned for this lesson to be a mini-lesson because of the shortened weekly schedule. However, next time I teach a lesson with a constructive response activity, I would definitely like to utilize the full literacy block and have students work individually. I was impressed by the work they created as a group and I would love to see what they can come up with on their own. 

I am happy to report that the timing and pacing of my lessons is going well thus far. Overall, my students really seem to be understanding the stories and developing my core practice of visualizing. As I reflect on the lessons, I definitely know where I want to spend more and less time. Next week, I will be giving the story test for The Keeping Quilt. I am looking forward to seeing how well my students preform on this assessment. Following this basal story, I will be starting the next one. I am happy that I will be carrying out the same activities. I feel very prepared to go through visualizing even more and practice sharing the mental images aloud. 

Language Arts Lesson Plan Reflection

Language Arts Lesson Plan Reflection

After completing my language arts lessons for the first half of my unit, I have a lot to reflect on. When planning my language arts unit, I wanted to create a unit plan that would not only teach my students new comprehension skills but also provide them with an effective way of using these skills. This first week of my unit was used to practice the reading comprehension skills we have already studied, such as making connections and visualizing, and introduce the students to an additional skill, questioning. My students responded well to the reading selection I had chosen to use, Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night, which is the same series we will be using for our reading groups/book clubs in this upcoming week. My language arts unit is working along side of my Making Meaning lessons which helped my students to learn the content of my lesson. Because my students understand the procedure and structure of the Making Meaning lessons, it was easy for them to make the connection that both lessons were centered around reading comprehension. 

This past week, the focus of my language arts lessons was questioning and how the students could effectively use this skill to better their comprehension of the text. Through my lessons, I learned that my students are constantly applying the strategies taught to them to aid them in reading all together. Many of my students have gone above and beyond my expectations. During silent reading time, many students are showing me through a hand gesture that they are making connections. Other students have come to show me compound words, which they have just been introduced to through my unit, that they have found within their silent reading books. Many students are eager to share how they have used the skills we have been learning and practicing when reading on their own. I did expect my students to understand the content I taught to them. I did expect them to use these skills when instructed to. The most rewarding feeling is seeing a student use a reading comprehension skill that I provided him/her with and noticing the student using this skill on his/her own. 

A great aspect of the Making Meaning lessons is the fact that the previous content and skills are constantly revisited to reinforce that the students are understanding the comprehension skills being taught. Because my unit plan lines up so well with the Making Meaning lessons, I am able to add my own skills into the revisiting aspect of the lessons. If some of my students are still unsure about what questioning is or how to use this skill, they will be able to see to revisit how to use questioning through modeling and reteaching throughout the school year. 

If I had the chance to do the lessons over, I would rethink the timing I had set for each activity. I am still having some difficulty judging how long a certain lesson is going to take when I am planning in advance. Some of my lesson were over planned. Throughout the week I had to take some activities out and decide what needed to be taught and what needed to be added to the next day's lesson. I did find it very helpful to have an extension assignment ready for students who finish early.  

The core practice I chose to focus on throughout this unit was mainly modeling. The first week of my unit plan used modeling quite a bit. I relied on modeling to show the students my expectations and to provide them with an example of the types of responses I was looking for, the reading skills I was expecting them to use and the thought process I wanted them to follow. It has been very helpful for both myself and my students. 

10/10/13: Open-Ended Questions

Asking authentic questions is a great way to promote discussion among students and within a classroom. I hope to promote discussion with you, Jen, by asking a few authentic, open-ended questions myself.

In the book Strategies that Work, author Stephanie Harvey explains that "schools often appear more interested in the answers than in the questions". Do you agree with this? Is this beneficial to the students and teacher? Why or why not?

When reading through this chapter, I came across this quoted statement by Harvey and thought about the posed questions for a while. I first thought about the importance of assessing students and having a hard copy proof of our results. Almost all of the assessments I have seen so far this year have been questions that require answers. Not once have I seen a students questioning be praised or even recorded through assessment. It seems that the only time students' questions are truly acknowledged and praised is during a lesson on questioning. I don't really think that having schools focus more on the answers than the questions benefits the students or the teacher. I believe that students are so curious and come up with questions to explain things all the time and we should use this questioning and curiosity to fuel our lessons to make them authentic and give them a purpose.

Inquiry 2 Part A

Inquiry 2 Part A:

1). The target area I will be working with is Comprehension Strategy Instruction and Assessment.

2). I have approximately 45 minutes per day for instruction in this area. However, this amount is flexible and can be altered at any time.

3). The Common Core Standards I will be working toward are CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. The other standard I will be incorporating into this unit is CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

4). Students must comprehend reading and writing throughout their daily lives. If they are reading a sign outside, looking at a magazine, or reading the TV guide, they must use comprehension skills to understand the text. It is pertinent that my students are able to take text and create an understanding from the words they see or hear. Students will learn about literacy as they are taught the various strategies to make sense of the materials they are reading. I believe it is important for me to teach students that if they cannot read a recipe, they will be unable to successfully carry out an everyday task. Literacy includes everyday activities that they, their families, and those around them take part in. Students can also learn through literacy because comprehension is understanding the text they read. If students read about the planets, they are utilizing literacy to achieve their understanding. 

5). Within this target area, the talk will begin as teacher-led. I will model how to read effectively and demonstrate how to use comprehension strategies. I want my students to view how to productively have a conversation about a text by observing first. However, as the unit progresses, I hope for my students to be leading conversations and building ideas off one another. Following the ideas of Berne & Clark, I will have the instructor begin the instruction and talk, but as the days go on I will have more and more students supporting conversations. I wish to conclude my lesson with students solely discussing their understanding of a text in a group setting. I will closely monitor student discussions and step in when appropriate. I know that this practice will not come right away and will require an immense amount of practice.

6). The core practices I wish to work on closely are activating and connecting background knowledge, questioning, and visualizing. During this week's planning, the third grade teachers discussed how important it is to concentrate on the practice of visualizing. If students are able to visualize what is happening in a story, they will be much more likely to retell the story and answer comprehension questions more accurately. Teaching visualizing will strengthen my own professional learning because it will require me to be creative and thoughtful about what activities will truly get students visualizing the text they are reading and listening to. I have ideas of students creating their own illustrations and detailing for me what they see as they hear certain passages. By visualizing, students will draw inferences from the story and state these ideas aloud. Students will clearly state exactly what is occurring and suggest their levels of comprehension with their levels of visualization. 

7). I have several resources available to me. The resources I will be working with are the student basal reader, the teacher's edition, the making meaning books and curriculum, and the school library. My classroom also has an ELMO and Promethean board that are great technological resources that will assist my unit plan lessons. There is a public library in the community that is also a great resource to find additional books that would be beneficial. The third grader teachers are also a great resource because they always have a multitude of ideas and resources to work with. 

8). Additional resources I will be using are the websites my teachers use for meaningful activities. These websites include teachers pay teachers, super teacher, and other various sites that have valuable content. I will have to make activities including retelling prompts, summaries, graphic organizers, and comprehension questions that effectively assess student progress.

9). Students are assessed formally in the third grade with the DRA. This is currently taking place in my classroom. I plan on pre-assessing students both formally and informally. I constantly informally assess my students as I ask them about what they are reading. Before my guided lead teaching, I hope to continue to read passages with my students and ask them to respond to various questions and have them make connections within the text. To get an idea of each individual student's comprehension skills, I would like to read a passage aloud, demonstrate effective reading strategies, and then ask students to respond both aloud and in writing the answers to a series of questions. This will help me gauge the levels of understandings and where I need to help students.

10). I hope to find out more about my students' abilities to demonstrate comprehensive strategies. I want to know if they are able to take past experiences and background knoweledge and incorporate this into their learning. I also want to know how strong they are in questioning a text, close reading, and visualizing a story. I will have to do this through my informal assessments. By doing this, I will continue to learn about my students as learners. In order for my unit to be successful, I must figure out what areas truly need to be practiced. I want to know what strategies are strong and those that are inhibiting my students' understanding of the texts they read. I will start by observing the class as a whole and then focus on individual students that struggle with certain approaches. 

11). I will need to do more research on visualizing. When I hear visualizing, I simply think of students sharing what they believe a story looks like and what they see as they hear or read a text. However, I know this process does not come naturally and specific activities guide this core practice's understanding. Students need guidance to begin mentally picturing each event in a story. I am very interested in working alongside my mentor teacher and fellow interns to come up with strategies to best accomplish this practice.

12). I am very excited to begin planning and teaching my unit plan. I have an immense amount of ideas and resources I would like to incorporate. However, I am concerned about trying to cover too much in my unit plan or individual lessons. I want to make sure to keep my lessons concise and purposeful. I will have to be careful that I am not stretching for too much to be done at a time. I want each student to be engaged and comfortable with the content. This makes me nervous about what to include and what to leave out.