· What students learned and which students
struggled with the lesson.
Most
of the students did very well at blending the sounds that I segmented for my
literacy center. It was hard to determine who exactly met proficiency and who
didn’t because some students would shout the answers out before others had a
chance to think for themselves (even though I told them many times not to do
this). I am happy to report that there were no students who could not complete
the activity at all. However, student N and P are the two that may need more
practice. Many times I found them waiting until someone said it out loud. On
the other hand, they were able to get many on their own.
· What are alternate reads of your students’
performance or products?
Another way I could interpret this activity is by
looking at the students’ growth over time. In other words, I was pleasantly surprised
that student P was able to do this activity at all because he struggles with
letters and their sounds. This shows me that he is making great progress and
that he is able to better work with sounds when he hears them instead of
producing them himself. I can also read this lesson as a way to decide whether
the students are ready for take home reading. Since many students were able to
blend the sounds, that is one step closer to being able to decode words on
their own and ultimately ready for take home reading!
· What did you learn about your students’
literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
I learned that they are
learning from my previous lessons! For example, when I started this lesson, I
stated a few words with /a/ in the middle. Many students were able to see the
pattern and know that the /a/ stayed in the middle. This is something we
practiced hearing in a previous lesson. In addition, I learned that different
students use different strategies to blend sounds together. For some they
needed to whisper it to themselves, others mouthed the sounds, and others
thought about the sounds in their head. It is just interesting to know who uses
which strategies and be able to link those to other reading strategies that
they use (i.e reading out loud, reading silently, ect.)
· When and how will you re-teach the material
to students who need additional support?
I will be able to incorporate segmenting/blending
in another one of my planned literacy centers, Mr. Munch. For students N and P,
I will make sure they are answering questions that include blending. In
addition, I can also segment and have the students blend when I am asking them
to do normal everyday things. For example, I could say, “I need you to /s/ /i/
/t/” or “Please /g/ /o/ back to your seats.”
· 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?
The
first change I would make to this lesson would be to include a few more challenge
words. I included the word ‘clap’ in my list, but I think the students could
have possibly blended words such as ‘snap’ as well. To be honest I was
surprised at how well they could blend so I only included a few challenge
words. This change would improve the students learning by giving those who need
a challenge, a challenge. The next change I would make would be to make sure I
choose words that I know the students will know. For example, many students did
not know what a ram is and the mat picture looked a little funny. Having clear pictures
will eliminate any unnecessary confusion.
What
did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you
need to do to continue your professional learning?
I am continuing
to grow in my ‘core practice.’ From this lesson this is especially true for
explicit teaching. The children would not be able to complete the activity
unless I explicitly taught them how to do it. I think I was successful because they
were successful! However, I need to be more explicit about not shouting out the
answers. This would have helped me observe who really knows and who is just
copying others answers.
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