o What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson.
During the spelling pretest, students were confused about why it was being conducted in the new way (I read the word, break the word into syllables, have the class break the word into syllables, read the word in a sentence, then repeat the word). When I explained the reason for the change, I think students understood that it was a new strategy for them to do well on the final test. Student also struggled with when a verb is linking or action. Some started to get it, but others continued to struggle and I can understand why. Verbs are difficult to understand when they are not explicit action verbs.
o What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students' performance or products?
Today's lesson was completely teacher-lead and there is plenty of room for students to not understand the content. First, per my MT's demands, the worksheets regarding spelling and verbs must had to be completed whole-class. Whether I choose students at random or not won't help me know exactly which students understand the content or not, not to mention there is no summative assessment for the verb material, just the spelling. However, considering many students still turned in incorrect work after we did the assignment in its entirety as a class is pretty telling of the student.
o What did you learn about your students' literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
During the spelling pretest, my students did something I was not expecting. As I was breaking words into syllables, I was being careful not to alter the pronunciation. Instead of pronouncing the syllables how I modeled, the students recited their own version back. While "subtle" is not one of their words, I'll use it as an example. I would break the word up and say "suh-tle" then they would repeat back "sub-tle" which is an interesting difference. I won't discourage this strategy because I can see some merit in it, but I was surprised. I always thought altering pronunciations as a bad practice for spelling purposes.
o When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?
It worked out well that my core practice is conferencing because while I am conferencing with students about their writing, I can also give them addition support in other areas, or my MT can pull them aside to reteach.
o 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 needed to teach this lesson the way my MT expected me to, which was very teacher-lead. If I could do it again, though, I would rely more on student input and do a more fun activities relating to verbs. They did an interesting activity for nouns called "noun town" and I think my MT mentioned a verb version called "verb valley." I think if she had allowed me to I would have included it because the students were very motivated to participate for the previous game.
o What did you learn so far about implementing your 'core practice' and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?
There was not an opportunity to conference during my first day lesson because of how much I am required to do for the Reading Street curriculum and the fact that we didn't even get to writing that day. However, this was a learning experience in itself because I am learning how much time I will be expected to commit to the "must dos" of a structured curriculum, and even though the focus of my unit was meant to be conferencing, I had to really plan for time to do it in advance to ensure that I could get to it. I also learned that if I want students to practice their writing skills, I will really need to integrate subjects because as is, students get a cumulative hour a week for writing workshop time, and when asked to write responses in other subjects, students to think of it as a writing assignment and they don't write complete well thought out responses. They seem to think that if it isn't writing time in language arts, then the same writing expectations don't apply. Frustrating!
o What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson.
Today I was able to introduce the poetry writing portion of my unit. Students learned that they would be creating a poetry book and be able to write their own poem to add in it. There was no time to introduce specific elements though, but they were given the handout which contained the project expectations so they at least had a preview. Some students were eager to write poetry and jumped right in to the assignment. One student even finished their poem that day! Others had a very difficult time getting started. I thought choosing a topic was the easy part but many students struggled with that.
o What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students' performance or products?
It was difficult to tell based on what I could see whether students really got an initial start on their project. Like if they were choosing appropriate topics to write on that fit the criteria and also would provide a significant base for inspiration.
o What did you learn about your students' literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
Students who I did not anticipate getting excited about poetry were really getting into it! They were asking questions about if they would be able to read their poetry.
o When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?
At the beginning of subsequent classes, a repeat of expectations would be given emphasizing the poetic elements that need to be included. On an on-student basis while I am conferencing I will help them to understand the poetic elements and brainstorm ideas for what words they can use.
o 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?
When I do not have an MT who requires so much busy work that she then doesn't even assess student on, I will use that wasted time to give a more exciting and proper introduction to poetry. I won't require students to write poetry that fits Reading Streets narrow expectations and in doing such, they will enjoy the whole experience more.
o What did you learn so far about
implementing your 'core practice' and what do you need to do to continue
your professional learning?
I will answer this question with my experiences after the first week. Conferencing was a nightmare because within one day every student was at a different point in their writing process. It became necessary to not conference with every student equally, but to instead just check in with students who were moving along and then focus on the students who were struggling. At a certain point, I had to shift my conception of conferencing and ask my highest achieving students who were already done and ask them to meet with their peers to help them write. Because so many students were fighting for my attention, I never could give the true attention each student needed. Clearer expectations for conferences will need to be established for next time.
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