Lesson Reflection #2

My focus students were really excited to work with me again. My goal was for them to be able to identify R and L blends, know the sound they make, and be able to recognize them at the beginning of a word. At the beginning of the lesson, the students had trouble recognizing the blends. We had to go over a few times what sound each blend made. I noticed that they started to understand the lesson more when they were able to see pictures of things that start with the blends. Once we did the first 3 or 4 together, they started to pick up on which sound each blend made. By the end of the lesson, the students understood the blends and could say them almost every time. I still think the students need more practice with blends.

One strength of this lesson would be the visual representation. I noticed that the students were able to understand the blends when they saw pictures where the word started with one of the blends we were using. The pictures I used were ones that students could recognize, such as drill, crayons, brain, etc. The students really responded to the pictures and they were really into the lesson once they finally understood what to do.

One limitation of my lesson would be that the students were really confused at times. I tried to call on each student to answer my questions and identify the blends, but if they did not know they got pretty frustrated. If I could do the lesson over again, I would have spent more time at the beginning with sounding out the blends so they were not so confused. I kind of assumed that they could sound out the blend, but they had trouble with it. After the lesson was over, I think the students understood the concept a lot more than at the start of the lesson; therefore, I would say it was a success.

I noticed that I was having trouble explaining to the students what a blend was. I tried to help them sound it out, but it seemed to me that they did not understand. I wish that I had prepared a second strategy to be able to explain to students how to read blends. The students did love working together to figure out the blends on the worksheet, and they were proud to show their teacher afterwards. I would probably pick a different activity next time.

Lesson Reflection #1

In my first mini-lesson, my students were very excited to work with me one on one. They each participated exceptionally in my lesson. My goal was for the students to be able to recognize and say the high frequency words that we were working with. The students were really engaged when it was time to match up the words. I explained it so that it would be more of a race or a game rather than a task. By this time in the lesson, the students were able to say the words rather quickly. When we played the game, the students were really excited and eager to play. We played the game three times and the students loved it. They wanted to read the words, and they knew the words by the end. I was really impressed by their progress.

One strength of my lesson is that the students were really excited and engaged. Usually, these students are hesitant to do reading activities because they know that they are not good readers. I know this because each of them have told me before that they “don’t know how to read,” which is untrue because I have seen each of them read at least a little bit. The students were excited that I made everything into a game or competition. They really liked playing Follow the Path because it was fun and interactive. By the end of the activity, the students knew all of the high frequency words that we worked with.

One weakness of this activity was that there was not equal participation from each student. Ali, my quiet student, did not say very much at the beginning when I asked what each student noticed about the words. The other two students were saying way more than him. Unless I called on him, he did not say anything. He was engaged in matching the words together and in the Follow the Path game. Although he did not say much, he was able to read the words on the game board. He also matched up some of the words in the matching portion. If I could do this lesson over again, I would have them be in a group together, but I would try to call on the students instead of let them shout out whatever they were thinking. This would give Ali a chance to speak without interruption.

I noticed about myself that I have the ability to get students excited about a task. I posed this lesson as a game or competition, which I noticed my students really liked. Also, when they were playing the game, I kind of took a step back and let the students teach themselves. I explained the rules of the game, but after that I let the students play the game and read the words. At one point, I heard Camila help Jordan with one of the words when he forgot. It was nice to see the students working together without my help. I think I need more practice with setting the students up to help themselves. My only question would be how could I make this activity even better? I would like to see how other students do on this activity.

Reading Lesson #2

Reading Lesson Plan # 2

Rationale (What evidence do you have that your focus students need to learn this skill/strategy?): My mentor teacher told me that these students are getting much better at sounding out words, but they need more practice with blends. The students have almost mastered isolating sounds in the word as well as sounding out words they don’t recognize, but they get hung up when it comes to “R blends” and “L blends.”
Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria): Students will be required to identify the different blends, say the sound they make, as well as recognize words that contain the blend at the beginning of the word. Students will have to participate individually and in unison depending on the instructions.
Materials & supplies needed: index cards with blends written on them, the two different blends worksheets from havefunteaching.com, pencils

Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event 
• Introduction to the lesson: I will start by telling the students that we are going to practice recognizing the beginning sounds of a word. I will explain that sometimes more than one letter can be used to create a beginning sound. I will also explain that being able to recognize these sounds will help them when they read or write. I will say: “We are going to do a few activities to help you with reading and writing. We are going to practice reading the beginning of words, but the words we will be using will have blends at the beginning, meaning you will have to blend more than one letter together to make the beginning sound.” (2 minutes) 

• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson: First, I will start the lesson by showing the students 3 index cards with the blends I want them to learn. For the first part, they will be shown the blends CR, DR, and BR. I will lay the cards down one at a time and ask the students individually if they know what sound those letters make when they are put together. After we have identified the sounds, I will show the cards one at a time and have the students say in unison what the sounds are. After I see that the students know the sound that each blend makes, I will move on to the second part. At the start, I will say, “Who can tell me what the two letters are on the card?” “What sound do these letters make when you put them together?” Once we have established the sounds, I will say, “Now I am going to hold up the cards one at a time and we are going to say the sounds together. By the end, we should be able to do it pretty fast.” I will also make my behavior expectations very clear by saying, “If I call on one of you, that means that the other two should not speak or give away the answer.”

For the second part, I will pass out a worksheet that has 8 different pictures on it. Below each picture, there is a spot for the student to write which blend the word starts with. Students will get their own worksheet, but we will work together. Calling on the students one by one, I will ask them what the picture is. They will be required to say what the picture is and identify the sound at the beginning of the word. Then, I will have them write CR, DR, or BR under each picture, depending on what the word is. I will make sure each student writes the correct blend under the word. I will say, “These worksheets have pictures on it that have these blends at the beginning of the word. Our job is to say what the picture is and identify which blend is at the beginning of the word. After we figure that out, we are going to write it underneath the word so we don’t forget.”
Then, I will repeat both activities again, but with three different blends: PL, BL, and CL.
 (15 minutes)

• Closing summary for the lesson: I will have to students recall the 6 different blends that we learned and what sounds they make. Once we are finished with the activity, I will tell the students to put these worksheets in their box and refer back to them for reading and writing if they have trouble again. (2 minutes)

Ongoing-Assessment: I will ask my mentor teacher if the students have been doing better with their reading/writing in regards to using blends, especially the blends that I taught them. Next time I do a reading group with these students, I will informally assess their progress by looking for blends in the books they read and seeing how well they have mastered the blends.

Adaptations: In this lesson, I want to put a lot of emphasis on calling on the students to answer me. If I open up my questions to all three students, I know my quiet student, Ali, will not participate as much. If I call on the students individually, they must participate in order for me to move on to the next student. Hopefully by working with the same couple of students throughout the whole year, Ali will open up more and be willing to participate. I will also make my behavior expectations very clear so that Jordan will not misbehave.

Reading Lesson #1

Reading Lesson Plan # 1

Rationale (What evidence do you have that your focus students need to learn this skill/strategy?): From experience working with them and from my mentor teacher, I found out that these three students have trouble recognizing a lot of high frequency words when they read. This affects their fluency and comprehension because they cannot recognize these words.

Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria): Students will be expected to participate in the activity by matching and saying the high frequency words and by participating in the Follow the Path game. They will be required to say the word aloud when they see the word on the card, paper, or game board. Students will be able to recognize the 15 high frequency words within seconds after participating in the lesson.

Materials & supplies needed: Big post-it paper with list of 15 high frequency words, index cards with high frequency words written on them, dice, Follow the Path game board

Introduction to the lesson  (What will you say to help children understand the purpose of the lesson?  How will you help them make connections to prior lessons or experiences?  How will you motivate them to become engaged in the lesson?) Tell the students they are going to learn some important words. Engage them by saying “There are some words that we see many times when we read. Knowing these words will help you read and write.”

 ( 2 minutes )

OUTLINE of key events during the lesson (Include specific details about how you will begin and end activities; how you will teach students what the strategy is, how to use the strategy, and when to use it; what questions you will use; how you will help children understand behavior expectations during the lesson; when/how you will distribute supplies and materials)

Show the students the word cards one at a time, saying the word and asking the students what they notice about each word (what it sounds like, how it is spelled, what it means). Explain that students should raise their hand and wait for me to call on them so we are able to hear each student’s ideas. Ask the students questions like: "What do you notice about this word?" "Does it look like any other words?" "Does anyone know what this word means or have seen it before?" "Where would you see these words?"

Then, show the students the big post-it paper with the 15 words written big and clear so each student can see it. The words I chose for this activity are: anything, game, party, give, shoes, goes, some, home, something, know, teach, live, under, many, over.

Next, mix up the pile of high frequency words cards. Hold up one word card at a time and have the children quickly match the word to one written on the big post-it paper. Make sure to emphasize that they should be doing it with speed. Engage them by saying: "We are going to match these words on the cards with the words on the paper. We are going to see how fast we can do it."

After all the words have been matched, mix them up again and go through the word cards quickly. Ask them children to say the words in unison as soon as they see the word on the card. If the students do not know the word right away, tell it to them quickly and then have them repeat it.

Next, the children are going to play Follow the Path with the high frequency words they just learned. Explain to the students that they will roll the dice, move that number of spaces on the path, and then they must read the word on the space. Say: "We are going to play a game! In this game, you roll the dice and move that many spaces. In order to stay on that space, you have to say the word on the space as soon as you land on it."

Since the game is only 15 words long, play the game a few times so each words has a higher chance of being read. After a few times of playing the game, ask the children how well they think they know the words. Then, call on one student at a time and have them read a word on the card that is held up, similar to the second activity.

(15 minutes)

Closing summary for the lesson  Have the students take the big post-it paper with the words inside the classroom. They will be able to hang it on the wall in their classroom. Then, I will have the students explain to their teacher what they learned from the lesson. I will have them read the words to him and recap what we did in the lesson.

 (3 minutes)

Ongoing-Assessment: (How will you know the students are progressing toward your identified objective?  What will you observe for and/or take notes on to help you plan follow-up instruction?) I will continue to monitor their reading and vocabulary. I will ask my mentor teacher if they have been able to remember the sight words we worked with. I will also ask if they can keep the word list up in their classroom and refer back to it if they need help in the future.

Adaptations: Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson? I will require each student to participate in the lesson. This will require the shy student, Ali, to participate in the lesson. By only working with three students who he frequently works with, he might feel less intimidated to speak or make errors in front of them. I will also make it clear that the students should be working together to complete the reading aloud task, matching task, and board game. This will hopefully help the “trouble maker,” Jordan, because the rules will be specifically explained to him. He is also separated from his friends, so that might help his ability to focus and stay on task. By asking the students what they notice about the word at the start, it might be able to help Camila, the bilingual student, because she might be able to identify parts of the word that look or sound like words from Spanish.

Students for Literacy Mini Lessons

I decided to work with a few first graders that are a little behind in reading compared to the other first graders in the class. I frequently work with them in a small group and do activities my mentor teacher provides me with. These activities usually revolve around letter-sound knowledge since they have some trouble sounding out words. They are also below their classmates in their ability to recognize high-frequency words and sight words.

I chose three students for this activity who usually work in a reading group together based on their reading level. Their names are Camila, Ali, and Jordan. Camila is a student who speaks Spanish in her household, but as far as I know, she grew up learning both English and Spanish at the same time. I suspect that she is having problems reading and sounding out words because she speaks two different languages, but my mentor teacher has never really explained that situation to me. Ali is a quiet, shy student who barely ever talks. When he is asked a question, he speaks very softly, and when the teacher asks him to do something, he just does it without saying anything. I have noticed that he is hesitent to read aloud, and he also does not like to write. When he writes during writing time, it is one to two sentences max, and he has trouble spelling and sounding out words. Jordan is a student who could be classified as a "trouble maker." He is constantly doing the opposite of what the teacher tells him, and during reading and writing time, he is usually goofing off or trying to do other work. I have worked individually with him on several occasions and he seems to have his letter-sound knowledge down, but yet he is still at a very low reading level.

The Writing Process

This week's readings could not have come at a more perfect time. In my placement, my students are working on the writing process as they develop reports on an animal of their choice. Last week, I shared with the class that I was teaching students how to use PowerPoint. This was a result of one of the steps they are doing to complete their animal reports. First, the students were able to do research on the computer to choose an animal they were interested in. Then, my mentor teacher had them make a concept map with different facts about their animal. To scaffold the students into making concept maps for the first time, he made a blank concept map with "animal name" in the middle, and 5 categories branching out: habitat, eats, moves, babies, and body. When I come into the class, I help the students put their information into a PowerPoint presentation, which will be printed out and showed to parents and other students at the school as well as at parent teacher conferences.

We have done multiple drafts with the PowerPoints. Two weeks ago, the other "helpers" that come in and I did a rough draft with them without checking for spelling or punctuation. This week, we have started to work one on one with each student to help them create a final draft by editing, punctuating, and polishing. My mentor teacher has stressed to us that we need to keep using that language around them so that they will understand the writing process.

In Thompkins Chapter 2, the author describes the stages to the writing process. I also see these same stages in my placement. Stage 1 is the prewriting stage, where my students chose a topic and gathered and organized ideas. Stage 2 is the drafting stage, where my students made their first drafts of their PowerPoint presentation. We are currently in between Stage 3 and 4 of the writing process, where the students are revising their rough drafts. Stage 3 is revising and Stage 4 is editing (to me they seem to go hand in hand). After these stages, the students will be ready to publish their reports.

At the beginning of Thompkins Chapter 12, it highlights a third grade class where they are doing almost the same project as my students are. They use a K-W-L chart to prewrite and  get ideas. The teacher outlines different "chapters" that the students will write for their informational books. I really like how the chapter gives ideas to connect reading and writing, such as through informational magazines, poems, videos, maps, diagrams, etc. In my placement, the students used National Geographic for Kids on the computer to gather information about their animals. I thought this was a great way to get students engaged in the reading/writing process. I also like how this chapter gave example concept maps for different grade levels.

In the past few weeks, I have learned a lot about the writing process from both the readings and my experiences in the classroom. I couldn't be more thrilled to see and help my students go through the writing process to do reports on animals. We are shooting to be done by the time I am done coming for the semester, so stay tuned for pictures! (I HOPE)

New Literacies Reflection

In the beginning of the semester, I made a graphic organizer showing what I thought literacy was. I wrote down things relating to reading, writing, and comprehension. I never thought that technology would be a type of literacy. While working on this new literacies project, I realized that technology should definitely be considered a literacy. I used Prezi to present information on Numeracy (which I also learned is a type of literacy), and it was hard for me to figure out how to use it at first. As I navigated my way through the website, I began to learn how to create something using the technology. After the project was completed, I realized that my opinions changed about literacy. Initially, I thought literacy just referred to reading and writing, but I learned that there are many other different kinds of literacy that we should be responsible for teaching. This idea made me think of language arts in a whole new perspective. Not only does literacy involve reading and writing, but it includes numeracy, emotional literacy, cultural literacy, environmental literacy, and much more. It is very important to teach literacy in regards to reading, but it is also important to teach kids about these other types of literacies as well.

In my opinion, effective literacy instruction is done by incorporating different ways to learn literacy. In a video we watched in class about diverse learners, students expressed that there should be multiple ways to teach literacy so that every student is engaged. This could be done by using different methods and technologies to explore a new topic. After creating my Prezi on numeracy, I realized that technology has a purpose and that we should utilize these technologies to teach our students new concepts. I really liked creating a Prezi because I felt like I accomplished more than one thing: I learned how to use the new technology and I learned about numeracy. In my first and second grade classroom, I think it would be beneficial to teach about different types of literacies. While they are young, their brain absorbs more information; therefore, if you teach them about technology and literacies at a young age, they will be able to make more connections to it as they get older.

If my students were to do a similar assignment using Prezi and Numeracy, they would need a lot of scaffolding. They would need to know how to read and write to follow the directions on Prezi, and they would have to write down the information they wanted to portray to their peers. They would also need to be familiar with how a computer works (which they do because they have a computer class and they do different literacy and math tasks on the computer daily). It might be beneficial to give the student some kind of tutorial on Prezi before they use it because I know I had trouble just jumping right into the new technology. Numeracy could be considered the language of math, so it might be a good idea to have a math lesson before they explore about numeracy.

Lesson Plan:

Target area & rationale: Numeracy -- because students should learn the importance of math in everyday life and be able to relate it back to concepts learned in the classroom

Objectives: Student will figure out at least 10 different ways to make a dollar, and then they will put that information into a Prezi to make a collage to show the different ways as well as provide an explanation as to why this task would be useful for everyday life.

Materials: plastic coins to practice with, computers, projector screen

Key Events:

• In groups, students will come up with different ways to make a dollar using half dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies.
• Short, basic tutorial on Prezi
• In groups, students will make their presentations by entering how they thought to make a dollar and then a slide to explain why this task is relevant to everyday life.
• Students will present their projects to the other classmates

Closing Summary: Teacher will make sure the students know the importance of using technology as well as why numeracy is important for everyday life.

Ongoing Assessment: Teacher could use the same format to use Prezi for other subjects (reading, writing, etc), and have them practice different forms of numeracy throughout the year (fractions, ratios, etc.)