Reflections of my First 2 Lessons

Lesson 1

·      What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson? 

Students absolutely flew through my worksheet that I printed from readworks.org and so they clearly understood the different clue works for first and third person.  The worksheet was extremely straightforward and there were no elements included to cause confusion or really any room for discussion, such as dialogue or multiple sentences.  It was appropriate however, because for most it was their first look at point of view.

·      What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or products?

I had very high participation within the lesson.  Many students were focused in on my explanation of point of view and volunteered their books as examples.  The students were excited to inform me that they had already finished their worksheet as well.  This told me that they were proud of their work and their understanding of the new concepts.  I always had at least half of my students raising their hands to either read or answer the questions.

·      What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

I learned that the students are intrigued when they learn something new.  Point of view was a new concept for most of them in an explicit manner.   

·      When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

I had a cognitively impaired student who failed to follow the instructions and to complete the worksheet appropriately so I pulled him aside on his own to go through the handout again to see if he understood the material or not.

·      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?

I think I could have students do more examples and incorporate more elements into the lesson.  It was so straightforward that everyone finished the handout in 3 minutes and no one seemed to struggle.  While this is a good thing, it means that I could have incorporated more into the lesson to extend their thinking and knowledge of the material.

·      How did you limit the extent to which ethnic, linguistic, and/or gender biases occurred during your   lesson?

The worksheet examples were very generic and did not seem to follow any biased patterns, and also I called on the same number of girls as I did boys to answer the questions.

·      What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

I found that students do follow a teacher led discussion appropriately because they are used to this type of set up in many subject areas.

Lesson 2

·      What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson?

Student learned the role that point of view plays within literacy.  Students could correctly identify that Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus was written in first person point of view.  More than that, they were able to identify which character’s point of view it was in while understanding that it switched between two characters.  Then, I went a step further and introduced the ideas of dialogue in stories and how it makes it much more difficult to identify the point of view.  The idea of quotations was difficult to them in understanding that it often switches the point of view for that text but that what is around it is what matters in determining the whole story’s point of view.  Students struggled with the new worksheet that I created that involved dialogue.

·      What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or products?

 I found that some students were very confused by this new concept and needed constant reminders about disregarding the text within the quotations while determining point of view.  Even some of my strongest readers had to ask questions about some of the questions.

·      What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

I found out which students work really well together and which struggle.  Some students that would not work very well together did the worksheet more independently, but some students tried to work with the other students because they are natural nurturing students.  It was interesting to see and listen to them talk about the texts.

·      When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

This was their first look at point of view and I made it clear that this is a very hard concept and that they will get plenty of practice with it from now on, but in the mean time, I want them to continue to think about their thinking involving point of view and I will be continuing to monitor their understanding as they look at more and more literature.

·      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?

I might let the students give their own explanations as to why a text is in first or third point of view.  I asked questions and let the students who were confused explain themselves but it would have been interesting to let some of the other students who understood why they were right explain to the incorrect student why the answer was the way it is.  (Students would go to a certain part of the room if they thought a passage was first and answer if they thought it was third).

·      How did you limit the extent to which ethnic, linguistic, and/or gender biases occurred during your   lesson?

My passages were not biased in anyway and I also allowed a mix of boys and girls to give their reasoning.

·      What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

I learned that some students have a hard time listening as another student explains their thinking.  This is something students will need to practice and be able to do within a group discussion.  I understand that it is more difficult to avoid side conversations when they have moved around the room willingly, but that is a temptation that they need to face and deal with regardless.