Maria Lesson One Reflection

            I am happy to report that many of my students learned during my lesson! During my lesson students sorted pictured word cards into words that start with the /a/ word and 'other sounds.' There were two/three students who did not meet proficient which was sorting 4/5 correctly (without help). Two students had trouble figuring out whether or not two of their words started with the /a/ sound (students P & B, they both got 3/5). The other child I cannot call proficient because she did not finish my center for behavior reasons (student N). Throughout the lesson I learned that my students are learning! Many of them remember letter sound that we have been working with throughout the past few weeks. In addition, I noticed that for some students they already know that the letter ‘a’ has more than one sound.  

            For students that need additional support I will work with them during choice time. We are giving assessments so many time I can have a quick side conversation maybe in between assessments about the /a/ sound would be beneficial for them so they are continuously hearing it. In addition, I will tell the interventionist they work with to work on the initial /a/ sound. The one thing I learned is that I need more tricks for how to respond to a student when they answer the question wrong. I don’t want students to feel back for answering incorrectly, but I also want them to learn from their mistakes! I think the other students can also learn from other student’s mistakes. 

Brianna Lesson Plan 2 Reflection

         For my second lesson, students were in centers and at one center they worked on discovering answers to questions they had from another text. From the previous lesson one question that still remained was "If a toad hibernates in winter, what does a frog do?" I began by asking if they remembered any of my questions from Monday, when the previous lesson was, but most students focused on a different question which I did not want to focus on that day ("Why did the toad just walk into Frog's house?").But it was the question they most remembered from the story, rather than the question I wanted them to remember, however it did bring up a good conversation at the end of a lesson of whether or not it is alright that a question does not have an answer. Next time,however, I think that I would remind them of the previous questions and write them down, rather than have them remember on their own, so they would have a visual to look at and know their questions have been remembered and therefore are important. As for the informational text, I read from an article that I had printed out from the internet,  but next time to keep them more engaged I would try and find the answer in a picture book that I could read so their attention stayed more focused. I still think they did a good job on finding answers in another text and now they are better at remembering these other sources we can find answers to questions in rather than the book they came from and I think that with practice they will get even more successful at it, and eventually they will learn to do this process on their own.

          Most students struggled with recalling questions from the previous lesson which had been two days prior to this one. So next time I would be sure to write the questions down that we had, so students would know that their questions were important and had been saved from the previous lesson, they would also then have something to look at and recall from, even if they cannot read yet. Students also struggled with paying attention while the informational text was read aloud, so next time I would use a book with pictures to hold their interest instead, then they would be more likely to pullout the information I was asking them about and realize for themselves they can learn from another source about a totally different book rather than just have to believe me when I tell them that. And next time I use a source without pictures, I would be sure to warn them they will have to see the pictures in their mind which I did not do this time. For students who need additional help finding information from additional sources, I can help them in smaller groups during centers, and because we did this lesson in centers this time I found that the group as a whole had very similar problems when they had them and so I can differentiate for the groups in the future.

Brianna Lesson Plan 1 Reflection

     My first lesson plan in my unit on comprehension in kindergarten was about questioning and modeling how good readers ask themselves questions as they read. When I asked all of my students if they wanted to be good readers they all yelled yes, and that was a good way to get them engaged in the beginning of the lesson. The biggest problem that I had during my lesson was students not understanding the difference between a question and a comment. I would ask for questions and when students would get called on then would tell me something that ad already happened in the story or a prediction. That led me to realize we need a lesson about what a question is and what words questions typically begin with so they know what I am asking for and how to ask a question. When I told students that good readers know questions don't always have an answer and and that is okay, they had a hard time believing that, and anytime I ask them many still think that a question must get answered in the text. We also talked about what other ways we can find answers to questions that are not answered in the text. Students were very adamant that the only way we could find information was to go and observe frogs to answer the question "what do frogs do in winter?" so I know that in future lessons I have to show student how I look up information on the internet, in books, and show them how we can also learn from videos a well.

I think that some students understood the lesson and those were the ones who are the highest in the class, the others paid attention but struggled with asking their own questions, they were more focused on retelling a part of the story to me or saying a comment while thinking that they were asking a question, so I will definitely be talking with the students during my next lesson about what a question is, what it sounds like and what words begin questions before continuing on to ask them about a story.The most important thing I learned outside of my objectives was how students might ask a lot of questions, but they don't necessarily know what they are asking are referred to as questions and what questions sound like an what their purpose is.Because there are so many students who need additional support, we will continue lessons that cover asking questions and as we practice more I think that most students will catch on to learning more about questions. However for those that continue to need additional support, because I know there will be some, it will be something that I work on in small groups during center time.Next time I would talk more about questions in general and introduce words that questions might begin with (who, what, where, when, why, how, etc.) and practice those more than distinguishing between "thick" and "thin" questions, which I would put off until later, because first students just need to be able to ask questions when they need to and know what they are.Next time I will be sure to assess as least a few students of different levels on whatever I will be teaching, even if it is very informally, even if I think that they all know the basics. Because my kindergarten students ask many, many questions does not mean they know they are doing it or can do it when asked, so next time I will be more prepared with the information they already know.

Allison's Week 7 Initial Post

For this week, I chose to read Chapters 11 and 12.  The "take home message" in Chapter 11 is students summarize and synthesize a text to better understand what they read, and to make what they read meaningful to them.  When students summarize, they retell what they read about by using their own words.  When students synthesize information, they combine what they already know with what they read to add more to what they already know, or to create new understandings about the topic.  This chapter got me thinking about authentic literacy instruction in my own classroom.  Currently, we have the students doing some summarizing, but not much synthesizing.  For example, each week we read a different Big Book as part of our Reading Street curriculum.  After we have read the story aloud a couple of times, we have the students draw and write about their favorite part of the story.  This involves summarizing because the students are pulling out what was the most important part of the story for them.  The only other bit of summarizing I have seen so far is in our Social Studies time.  We have an optional task students can work on at home entitled Very Important Person (VIP) Reports.  The students take home a book about a famous historical figure (e.g., John Chapman/"Johnny Appleseed"), and they read the book with an adult at home.  Then, they come to school with 3-4 facts to present to the class about that person.  In this case, students are summarizing what they read into 3-4 big ideas about what they learned about that person.  However, I would like to try teaching my students how to synthesize what they read (or what we read aloud) to better understand what is read.  The best way to do this in my classroom would be to teach the students through a lesson similar to "Synthesizing: How Reading Changes Thinking" in the textbook.  In this lesson, the teacher noted how reading changes/adds to our thinking, which is why we read in the first place.  One thing the teacher did in this lesson was to have her students discuss their thinking about the topic before reading, and then discuss their thinking about the topic after reading (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 183-184).  I would have students do this by turning and talking to their neighbors, both before reading and after reading.  Then, I would have the pairs share their ideas aloud, and I would record their thoughts on an anchor chart.

The "take home message" for Chapter 12 is to incorporate science and social studies learning into literacy time as much as possible becuase there is little time in the daily schedule dedicated to teaching these subjects.  This chapter got me thinking about science and social studies instruction in my classroom--we do not do much of this, except for the VIP reports in social studies.  One of the simplest ways to integrate science and social studies into literacy time is to have interactive read-alouds with picture books in these content areas.  For example, I could read my students a book about weather or a famous historical figure.  This would expose my students to science and social studies, while still staying in the realm of literacy (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 209).  Another technique I would like to try with my students in social studies is "Stop, Think, and React to Videos."  My students love watching learning videos, and they love to talk.  Therefore, watching videos about social studies concepts and talking about those videos would be right up my students' alleys (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 211).  For science, two techniques I would especially like to try are "Anchor Charts That Document Thinking and How it Evolves" and "Creating Posters, Projects, Murals, and Mobiles."  My students are very curious about everything, so giving them the ability to write their questions on a chart would give them an outlet to tap their natural curiosities about a science topic.  Also, my students love working on art projects, so they would enjoy displaying what they learn through a visual product (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 213, 216).

Brianna's Initial Post

I read the procedural writing lesson plan where students created a brochure about "Morning Procedures for a Sub" because it seems like something a kindergarten class could do and it could help reinforce in students the procedures they should be following. At the end of the lesson they all checked the brochure and "published" it, they they were available in the office where substitutes can take on when they come in. I liked all of the lessons in the plan but I am wondering if students would pay attention the entire time during things like whole-class conferences that are 30 minutes long, it might be tough for them to be doing the same thing for so long. I think that you might have to break the lessons up even smaller and take more than one week to finish the brochure and each students's procedure papers.