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.