Step 3, A Moment to Reflect (Lesson 1 reflection)

My writing lesson was awesome. I was incredibly pleased with the amount of student involvement and the level of understanding demonstrated by my students. Each student had plenty of input to add to the lesson, and I think because there were only three students involved in the lesson, each student benefited from the individual 1 on 1 instruction. I could tell that students were on track with my lesson objectives as they filled out their story maps individually. I first modeled using the think aloud strategy how to fill out the story map outline when thinking about writing. The students asked good questions here, and successfully transferred my modeling to their own story outlines. It was great to see them understanding the importance of organizing your writing before you write.

I think one of the biggest strengths of my lesson was the how prepared I was to teach the students the prewriting strategy of outlining. I spent a lot of time preparing a prompts for the students, and finding a great lesson outline that they could fill in with their ideas. This level of preparation made the lesson run smoothly and helped prepare me for any questions students may bring have brought up during the lesson. The biggest weakness for this lesson I feel was the limitations of the story outline map that I brought the students to fill in. I made it clear to the students that there are more than one type of outline style that can be used, and it was really up to their own personal preferences which one they used. However, after saying this I realized that I limited their learning by not allowing them to select how they wanted to outline their story. I wish I would have thought this element through a little more in order to help meet every students need and learning strength. This limitation/weakness wasn’t the worst thing that could have come up in my lesson, but it is still something to be aware of in future lessons.

I was pleased with myself as I was teaching this lesson. I must have had a great breakfast or something, because I really brought my “A” game for this lesson. I was communicating clearly my goals and objectives for the students, and as a result they understood what I was asking and demonstrated their understanding through their outlines. I have taught a few lessons at this point, and I really feel like this one has been my best yet. I took all the other teaching moments I have had and I applied it to the construction and instruction of this lesson. I don’t think this lesson could have gone better for me. The only thing that would have been nice would have been to have had a little more time to discuss transferring the information from your outline to your draft. Now that I know this though, I could easily construct a follow up lesson to this prewriting lesson.

Looking back over this lesson, and the lessons I have taught in the past I am still a little unsure of how to transfer my lesson objectives to a great lesson. I know that I want the students to learn certain things, but I seem to struggle with conveying what students should be learning or what I want them to learn to my lessons. I think what I need to do is create a checklist for myself. This way when I create lesson plans I can think to myself “I want students to learn A,B, and C,” then I need to do design a lesson surrounding those elements to ensure that students are not only engaged, but are being educated. I think this something that will come in time, but any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to teaching my other lesson, and can only hope it goes as well as this one did.

Step 2, A Plan for Writing (Lesson 1, pre-writing lesson plan)

This is the first of the two lessons I will be teaching. The second lesson will either be a fluency lesson or a follow up to this lesson.

Students will be partaking in a creative writing workshop/lesson

Objective- Students will be able to understand the importance of the first two stages of writing (prewriting and drafting). Students will also be able to successfully do these first two stages.

•       Introduction to the lesson

•       Today we are going to be doing some creative writing.

•       What is creative writing?

•       Why do you think it is important for us to be able to write in this style?

•       Make connections to prior experiences

•       I brought a long some prompts that could help us with our pre-writing stage and a graphic organizer to help us out further (explain both if students need)

•       (guide students through filling out their own organizer to model how and why it is important to connect prior experiences for the creative writing process)

•       Activate prior knowledge

•       Student will be asked to select a topic from either a prompt or one of their own. After they have done this they will fill out a graphic organizer to help activate their prior knowledge.

•       During the lesson

•       What the strategy/skill is and why it’s important

•       The skills that are important for this lesson are the first two stages of the writing process, prewriting and drafting. Students will be learning a prewriting technique they can use in the future to help get their ideas on paper before writing. Also, students will be working on a draft of their creative story to help transfer their ideas from the organizer to a first copy of their own original work.

•       How to use the strategy/skill

•       Students will know that they can use the graphic organizing strategy before they write. They can use this as a way to outline their writing, and put ideas down in an organized way.

•       Students will also learn that writing is a multi-step process by writing a draft. Students will later be able to rework their piece through the other stages of writing, until they have a completed work which is ready to “publish.”

•       Closing summary

•       Involve children in reflecting on the experience

•       What is something we learned from this lesson?

•       How can we use what we learned in the future?

•       Is there something else you would like to know about these first two writing process?

•       Making connections to prior experience or prepare for the future

•       Now that we have learned the importance of creating a draft, and outlining our ideas we can use this method in our future writing. Instead of just writing down the first things that come to us, we can carefully outline our thoughts and ideas to help strengthen our writing and produce the best possible end product.

•       Ongoing Assessment

•       How will you know if the students are progressing toward your objective?

•       I will be reviewing student’s drafts and graphic organizers to see if they are progressing toward my objective.

•       What will you observe and/or take notes on to help you plan follow-up instruction?

•       I will be observing how well students fill out their organizers, and how well they are able to transfer their outlined ideas onto their first copy of their draft.

Step One: Pick your crowd (Lesson Plan Step 1, Knowing your students)

With the help of my mentor teacher I have selected three students to teach my mini literacy lesson to. The three students are Billy, Bobby, and Brenda. They will be taking place in a fluency building lesson, and a pre-writing lesson that I am continuing to plan, to ensure it meets their needs.

I have selected these three students, because of their struggle with fluency and the importance of building pre-writing strategies like creating an outline. Each student seems to struggle when it comes to reading fluently. All three are good students, I have corrected their work before and have no worries that they will be able to gain a lot of information from these two lessons.  I have noticed that when these three students read aloud, they seem to read quite a bit slower than the rest of class, and seem to struggle with some site words. I will be conducting a fluency assessment to find each one's instructional level, and from this will design a lesson to fit their needs.

Each student is a strong writer. However, I have noticed that these students seem to struggle with organization in their writing. Their writing seems to lack coherency and I feel that if they are taught how to outline their writing, their skills as young writers will greatly improve. 

I look forward to working with these three students. I think that these lessons will benefit them, and hopefully help them grow in their literacy development. Also, I know my MT will be pleased with the progress they make. She has mentioned a few times that she wants to focus and work with these three individuals, but doesn't have enough time to do so. She is excited that they will be receiving some individual instruction time, and as a result, I will make sure that they benefit from the lessons.

I look forward to taking the next step of assessing and finding their instructional level. Once I do this, a fluency lesson will be no problem to plan. I hope to make it engaging and educational, and the same thing with my writing lesson. I will keep you posted, not only because it is part of the assignment, but because I know you truly care about the growth of these students. Until then, "Keep calm, and carry on."

Reading, Writing, and Comprehension, OH MY!

This week’s reading was great review. I remember last year having to put together a portfolio for my TE and CEP 301 class. This portfolio was of a number of reading assessments, many of which were mentioned in Tompkins chapter 3.

If I were going to use one form of assessment for the students in my classroom I believe I would use the good ol’ running record.  I would use this type of assessment to focus mainly on fluency. I have noticed and have been told by my MT that some of the students in my placement struggle with fluency. For this reason, I believe I will be developing my mini lessons based on a fluency running record assessment. 

I of course have not yet seen or taken part of any formal reading assessment for students in my classroom, so to judge their development in word identification and fluency is strictly opinion based, and not backed by any assessment evidence.  That being said, I believe that most students’ would be considered to be at grade-level in regards to their word identification and fluency development. However, I can think of at least four students who struggle in this area.  These three “target” students all seem to have trouble reading words smoothly and accurately when I help them during their small reading circles that occur when the students have independent reading time.  This is not to say that they are “bad” readers or below grade level, but they simply may be reading at what Tompkins refers to as their “frustration level.” My goal would be to assess their actual fluency and word identification knowledge to help get them to their “instructional level.” This will be my overall goal for my mini lesson. I know that I may not be able to get students to that level with just one lesson, but I can hopefully gather some useful information for my MT that she can then assess and handle appropriately to ensure these students are getting the most out of their reading time.

Before I write a brief mini lesson, I wanted to mention something I really liked about the Tompkins reading. I liked how Tompkins gave an example of the teacher sticky notes. This was a great idea from the teacher to help keep her on track with what was happening during her lesson time. It was a great way to remember her informal assessments as she monitored student’s progress. I know that in one of my classes, either my special ed class, or this one, we have talked about similar methods. I just think something like this is a great idea in order to keep track of your students and your individual teacher progress. It is a great way as a teacher to make sure that your lessons are benefiting students, by forcing yourself to write down what things stand out to you during a lesson.  I think reading examples of things like this are good examples of ways to continuously push ourselves to be the best teachers we can. If we continue to strive for improvement, not only will we benefit, but our students will benefit as well. Great stuff….

Alright, now back on track. I am not sure how long this is supposed to be, so I am going to make it brief, and to the point.

The following is a quick lesson plan to test fluency using a passage from the book “The Watsons Go to Birmingham” by Christopher Paul Curtis.

Lesson Topic/Goal- Smooth reading,

1.       This lesson will be to assess student’s fluency by performing a running record from the book “The Watsons Go to Birmingham” (Curtis, 1995).

Rationale- Three target students’ have been selected based on the need to test their fluency and word recognition ability. It is my belief that this three students may not be at their “instructional level” for reading, and as a result their ability to read with fluency is being hindered.

Lesson Procedures

1.       Students’ will be given the following passage from The Watsons Go to Birmingham

“I could have done a lot of stuff to him. If it had been me with my lips stuck on something like this he’d have tortured me for a couple of days before he got help. Not me, though, I nearly broke my neck trying to get into the house to rescue Byron.  As soon as I ran through the front door Momma, and Dad and Joey all yelled, “Close that door!”

2.       Students’ will be given one minute to read the above passage.

3.       A running record will be kept based on the number of words they read correctly. Self corrected or omitted words will not be scored against them.

4.       The number of words read correctly will be calculated with the total number of words to discover the student’s fluency level.

Findings

                Based on the results of the assessment, students should be given the appropriate text that fits their reading level.

Cultural Literacy

1) YOUR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:

This class has changed my understanding of literacy in a few ways. First, I never knew that literacy incorporated so many areas. When I think about language arts, and literacy, two subjects come to my mind, reading and writing. I have learned however, that this is a misconception in my thinking. I have learned that literacy involves a deeper understanding of reading, writing, speaking, cultural, emotion, and more. The multiple components of literacy are wonderful to learn about, and I am glad I had the chance to do so.

Partaking in this assignment was great. It gave me an opportunity to discover how I can utilize technology in my future classroom while learning about a new literacy. It has informed my thinking by causing me to realize the endless options of teaching available. I created one slideshow about cultural literacy. This not only engaged my learning on cultural literacy, but engaged and challenged me with a new technological medium. This assignment transformed my thinking, it allowed me to be more creative with how I wanted to express my learning, and it allowed me to explore my subject in a way that best suits my learning style. For those previous listed reasons this project has truly benefited me. I know now, that when it comes to teaching I do not have to simply put up a slide on the overhead and have students copy information or hand out a worksheet, or even have students open a book. I can inform them through their own inquiry by using technology, and allowing them to make discovers in a way that best suits their learning style.

This assignment has opened my eyes. Prior to this project I was only aware of teaching literacy in a more traditional way. My experiences had leaded me to believe that teaching literacy is a dry process, where you have students read a book, and write a response. Occasionally I would see some vocabulary learning, or fluency testing, but for the most part, incredibly dull and boring. Now, I have acquired new skills. I know how to incorporate technology into my classroom to engage students and challenge their learning. As a result of this assignment I will now take a more creative approach to lesson planning. I have gained skills to teach students through technology, now I need to apply those skills so students can learn through technology. This is a challenge I look forward to.  




2) EFFECTIVE LITERACY INSTRUCTION:

I feel that providing effective literacy instruction to diverse learners means accessing learner’s strengths through literacy. This could be done in many ways, but it should always challenge learners to explore and understand your, (the teachers) goals. Effective literacy instruction comes when students are engaged in what they are doing and have an opportunity to absorb, challenge, and be challenged by the information they are learning. My research on a new literacy has informed my thinking by providing me just that sort of challenge. Prior to this assignment I knew nothing about cultural literacy, or how to create an effective slideshow. However, now I feel more than comfortable talking about both. To understand my topic I first needed to research it. I learned what cultural literacy was, and then I began to plan how I would like to promote it in the classroom using my slideshow. This approach has informed my thinking. I realized that I was attempting to learn and do multiple things during this project. In order to make sure the knowledge I learned about my literacy and my technology were strong, I needed to prioritize and commit myself to a full understanding of both. This approach has not only informed my thinking on research, but on teaching as well. If I were teaching younger students, there is no way I could give them similar instructions and have them perform tasks without the proper modeling and demonstrating, at the very least, this I have realized that I need to have patience when it comes to lesson planning. A lot of the time I just want to “jam” everything into one lesson. I see the end result and I want it to happen in a one hour lesson. I know now, that thinking that way will only hinder my students, and it needs to change, and because of this assignment, it has.



3) LESSON PLAN:

My lesson is a called “Knowing Me.” It utilizes the ideas of cultural literacy and will give students the opportunity to explore their culture and present it to the class using their own original slideshow.

Target area and rationale:  Cultural literacy is a great way to promote an understanding of differences in the classroom. It can be achieved many ways, through reading, writing, discussion, and technology, students can learn about their culture, and the culture of their classmates. This understanding of one’s culture can help promote a healthy strong community and can help promote a thirst for research and understanding.

This lesson will be completed in two ways. Students will research their own culture. They can do this by talking to their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, researching online, and any other way they want to gain knowledge about their culture. Following the research period, students will begin to create an informative slideshow presentation about their culture. It can include, picture and moving film to help provide an understanding of who they are and where they come from.

List your objective(s)

o     Performance: Students will perform research to discover their culture. Students will then present their finding using a slideshow type presentation.

o    Conditions: Students will incorporate into their presentation what their culture is, why it is significant to them, how they celebrate it, and any other interesting facts they deem valuable.

o    Criterion: Students must draw on their own culture and understanding to help other students understand their background.

List the materials and supplies needed: Access to the internet, Pinnacle Studios 15, IMOVIE, or SlideRoll, a projector, computer

Outline of key events (use bullets)

·         First students will be introduced to the lesson

·         They will have One week to research their culture.

·         Students will gather information about themselves and prepare to create a slideshow of their culture

·         Once Students have researched and gathered information, they will be shown how to use one of the above editing software

·         Proper editing will be modeled to the students along with many examples so they can have an idea of what they project can look like.

·         Students will be give time to create their slideshow

·         After students have completed their slideshows, we will have a “culture day”

·         Here students will be able to show off their presentations and talk a little bit about their culture.

·         During “culture day” students can bring in snacks from their culture, to help promote an understanding of what their culture is.

·         Every student will have the opportunity to talk about their culture and answer any questions that may arise.

Closing summary

           

            The end goal of this lesson would be to create a classroom culture slideshow. For this, the entire class would work on one giant slideshow. It would incorporate all the members of the class and what special attributes they bring to the classroom. Here students would be using their cultural understanding of each other and themselves to help create a video of whom they are and why everyone is important.

             

New literacy is cultuarly sweet!

Well, I have decided to do my project on cultural literacy. To get started I knew that I had to really take some time to understand what cultural literacy is, and how I can create a project explaining it, to the future viewers. My idea brings me to a slide show/video composed of pictures and live shots.

I have gotten a hold of a new editing software, which I am excited to start using. I have done a little exploration with this software and know it will work perfectly for what I have in mind. I have never created an original slide show with this software before. It has a lot of great features that are new to me. I think they will pose a little bit of a challenge, but I look forward to it. My idea is to focus on culture, how it is acquired through ones environment, and how it can be included in the classroom. Cultural literacy however is more than just ones culture. It is taking your culture and exploring it through a literacy medium. This can be done through writing, reading, and open discussion.

It is my hope that my project will not only inform others what cultural literacy is, but an idea of a technological software that can promote cultural literacy in the classroom. I hope to make my project both thought provoking and educational. It is my hope to expose the viewers to cultural literacy, and how important it is to embrace it as  future teachers.

We have continually talked about knowing our students and utilizing their strengths to strengthen the classroom. My finished video will hopefully show future teachers how to do this through a technological medium. I still have a lot of work to do with my project. I have the outline completed and the idea of what I want the finished product to be like. I have practiced with my editing software, and soon  will utilize it to its full potential. I want to create a webpage to post the finished product on. It will most likely be a quick webpage that people can see the video and read a little bit about cultural literacy. I know a little bit about making websites, but putting an original video on it will be a challenge, and I think I will learn a lot from the experience. I think my project will turn out well,  and hope my colleagues are inspired and educated from it.