Lesson Reflections- Emily Richardson

Lesson One:

What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson. 

Students learned that many books and movies that they are already familiar with can be considered fantasy. When I first asked them to describe the characteristics of fantasies, I got a lot of responses along the lines of “magic” and “animals talking”. Both of these fit in well with the characteristics that we are specifically focusing on for this unit, which was helpful for guiding them to come up with specific examples from the film clip. A good portion of students were familiar with the Harry Potter series and knew a lot about it. Those who were less familiar with Harry Potter were the ones who struggled more- a few of them couldn’t get past the idea of not knowing the details of the story, leading them to focus more on what was happening rather than looking for the fantasy characteristics.

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

I learned that many of them are actually big fans of fantasy books. I didn’t anticipate this to be the reaction, but they were very excited about moving on to the fantasy unit! From the sounds of it, they have had a fair amount of practice with this genre in previous grades and really enjoy what they have read so far.

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

The material in this lesson will be revisited throughout the entire fantasy unit. The specific characteristics of fantasy stories will be discussed for several different books as well as reinforced when the students use them in their writing pieces. There is a large anchor chart with definitions of the characteristics at the front of the room as well as a bulletin board with definitions in the back. As we do read-alouds with the entire class and fill out our genre charts for each book, the meanings will once again be discussed and explained as needed. Students who are still having trouble understanding will be worked with one-on-one at available moments during class time to work through the meanings of the characteristics and come up with examples.

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?

If I were to do this lesson again, I would provide more specific examples of each characteristic. I feel like the students did a great job of paying attention as we went through the definitions, but I think more concrete examples would have been beneficial. Also, I would have provided a little bit more of a back-story prior to showing the Harry Potter clip. Because some students were so focused on what they didn’t know rather than the fantasy elements in the story, they missed out on the opportunity to see examples in a very visual way.

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

One way I will be able to tell if students are really reading for comprehension is to see whether or not they are able to pick out the fantasy elements of a novel. Because these elements are not always glaringly obvious, there will be cases in which only students who are really analyzing and digging deep into their reading will be able to successfully pick them out of a text. During both read-alouds and book clubs, I will check to see that students are accurately identifying these main ideas of fantasy.

Lesson Two:

What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson. 

Students were familiar with some of Chris Van Allsburg’s books but did not know much background information about the author. They were really excited about his Michigan heritage and had a lot of questions about where he lives now, if he’s still writing books, etc. When the list of books that he had written was projected from the powerpoint, most of the class got really excited about at least one book. Several of them recognized the titles of movies (Jumanji, Polar Express, Zathura) and stated that they were not aware that these started out as books.

Students responded very well to the story of The Widow’s Broom. They liked the story and were anxious to see how it ended. They were able to provide a lot of concrete examples of fantasy elements directly from the text.

Writing about the theme of the story was the toughest part for most students- some could not remember exactly what a theme was. There were some students who had no trouble picking out a theme but could not come up with reasons to support their thinking when asked.

What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

After looking at some of the responses in the composition notebooks, it became clear that a fair amount of students could not identify a main theme for the story. Some cited the theme as “don’t take other people’s brooms” and some left their page completely blank. It is not fair to assume, however, that all of the students don’t know how to pick a theme. They may have been confused by the wording of the task or were having too much trouble coming up with specific examples. Additionally, some students hate writing and have a tendency to do so unless they absolutely HAVE to. This could also be the cause for their lack of response.

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

I was really impressed with some of their responses to the theme question. Several students provided detailed, concrete reasoning for why they chose a certain theme. They went very in-depth into what the characters may have been thinking and feeling and were able to analyze the story at a high level. This tells me a lot about their comprehension and what they take away from stories.

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

Students who were absent for this lesson will be given an opportunity to read through The Widow’s Broom at available moments during class time or during independent reading time.

The idea of theme will be revisited additional times throughout the fantasy unit, both for future read-alouds and during their book clubs. Students who have trouble identifying a theme will have the opportunity to work with the teachers to discuss possible themes and pick out supporting details.

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?

Prior to asking students to write about theme, I would discuss the meaning of a theme more deeply. I would talk about the strategies they could use to pick out a theme and what kinds of details they could use to explain their thinking. This would hopefully help to avoid answers such as “the theme is that brooms can come alive.”

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 I need to spend a little more time focusing on theme. Doing an activity along the lines of a think-aloud for determining the theme of a text might be a beneficial experience for the students.