Reflection for #2

I wanted the students to understand how to choose good books that fit their interest so I decided to teach them a lesson on how to do this. When I first asked the students their favorite genre most of the students said "fiction, because it's fake and interesting". They named off books like Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Goosebumps. I have never seen the students reading any of those books besides from Goosebumps, which they absolutely adore. We talked about why they like these kinds of books and what makes them interesting. It was difficult for the students to explain why they liked Goosebumps, and I thought someone would mention the suspense, but they didn't. The hard part of my lesson was getting the students to talk about what they're interested in. The girls were embarassed to say what they liked in front of the boys (of course, fourth graders). I don't know why it was hard for them to open up and talk about what they like because I feel as if they do this every day in class. I had this problem with the first literacy lesson I taught to this class; they don't know/enjoy having discussions. After numerous attempts to get the students to open up and talk about what they like I finally had a discussion going with the boys. They were talking about dragons and caves at one point, and they were also talking about some things that have happened in the Goosebumps series. I took this and built off of it by asking the boys about some authors who interest them, and then I sent them off to the classroom library to find books about what we just talked about. While they were doing this the girls finally started talking because the boys were gone. They enjoy fiction but they also enjoy books about girl drama which seems "real" to them. During our discussion they told me about other things that interest them, so I sent them off to look for books too. After this we all sat back down at our table and had a short discussion of why we chose that specific book. Overall in the beginning of the lesson I encountered some difficulty because the students were too shy to have a discussion. After finally breaking this barrier down I was able to help the students think about their interests and how to use this to find books.

Reflection for #1

Because I chose an informational article about dogs for this lesson the students were very interested. I started out the lesson by informing the students of what a high-quality summary contains. As I was going through the points I had to explain more in depth some of the points and relate them to our article we were about to read. I had each student take turns reading because I didnt want to be the only one talking during the entire lesson. When it came time to pick out big ideas from the text, the students had difficulty. They couldnt decipher a big idea from a small, minor idea. One student wanted to use "All dogs have four legs" whereas another student wanted to use my idea of "When dogs are born, they're called puppies". This part, of deciphering a big idea from a small idea, took longer than I thought. We spent a lot of time talking about this after we finished the text. However, although that part was difficult, the students enjoyed writing their summaries after they thought of some big ideas. Numerous times the students would glance at the list of the characteristics of a good summary while they were writing. The students had to keep in mind that they're summary had to stay organized, so they tried their hardest to relate their big ideas. After the lesson when I read their summaries this proved to be the hardest for them to do. Although they had good, main ideas to talk about it was hard for them to keep their paper organized. In one summary a student was talking about puppies and then the next sentence was about food and what dogs like to eat. After I read this I pulled the student aside later in the day to remind him that summaries are organized so his work has to flow. Overall, I thought the lesson went great and I hope the students continue to think about the characteristics of a good summary. I only used four students for this lesson but I think it'd be great for my CT to talk about this with the whole class.

Yee- Mini Lesson #2

TE 402 READING LESSON PLAN

Reading Lesson Plan #2

Your Name: Courtney Yee                            Grade Level: Fourth   

Date lesson was taught:  April 20, 2011        Number of Students: Four

1) Rationale: I always see the students picking out random books in the library so they can quickly go back with their group of friends to talk. Even when the students are picking out a book in the classroom library they don’t put any thought towards choosing a book. I want to help the students learn how to choose good books that fit their interest.

2) List which reading skill/strategy is the main focus of your lesson: Teaching the students a strategy on how to choose certain books and why we choose some books over others.

3) Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria): The students will respond to various literary genres using interpretive and evaluative processes by discussing and choosing books that fit their criteria.

4) Materials & supplies needed: Classroom library, marker, paper, sheet of paper with concrete details of the different genres

5) OUTLINE OF LESSON PLAN (Provide a bulleted list of ideas):

• Introduction to the lesson:

“Today we’re going to be discussing the ways we choose good books. I noticed that some of you don’t put any thought towards choosing a book, so we’re going to talk about that today.”

Using a blank sheet of computer paper I will write the genres fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, and science fiction at the top. To help them become engaged in the lesson I will ask if there are any other genres that should be added to our list to make sure we’re not missing someone’s favorite genre.

“Using this sheet of paper I want everyone to tell me (one at a time) what your favorite genre is so I can write your name down, a book/novel of this genre, and a sentence explaining what you think that genre means (one at a time).” This will help them make connections to their previous knowledge of genres.

I will go over their choices and what they wrote about each genre.  If there is a genre no one chose as their favorite, I’ll discuss that with the class what that genre is and why it might not appeal to the students or who it would appeal to. Then I will give the students more concrete definitions for each genre (using the sheet I brought, if needed). (10 minutes) 

• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson:

 I can start by asking the students what and why might people choose certain books. When the students name out ideas I will write it on the same sheet of paper with the genres. Everyone should participate and give their ideas. I will also suggest my own ideas and why I am influenced to read certain books.

Have the students rank their ideas/influences from 1-5 with 1 being the most influential. Have the class look at their order and start thinking more about their decisions in picking out a book.

“Look at the similarities and differences and why each one is influential or not. I want you all to pick out a book today using your ordered list and do this the next time you go to the library. Think about the things you wrote down”.  

Take the students to the classroom library to choose a book (or a couple) and head back to the table when they’re finished. (10 minutes)

• Closing summary for the lesson:

Have them come back to the table to discuss why they chose those books. Ask them questions of who, what and why they chose that book and that genre.

Explain to the students that they need to think about this strategy before choosing books from now on at the library and how this can influence how good of a reader they are. (6 minutes)

6) Ongoing-Assessment: To know that the students are progressing towards my goal I will ask the students the following week if they enjoyed the book they chose and why they think they enjoyed it. I will watch the students in the library to see if they’re choosing random books or if they’re using the strategy we talked about.

7) Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson? I will provide this student with extra time when determining their favorite genre and why. I could provide assistance to them when they’re choosing a book from the classroom library by asking them about their interests.

Yee- Mini Lesson #1

TE 402 READING LESSON PLAN

Reading Lesson Plan #1

Your Name: Courtney Yee                            Grade Level: Fourth   

Date lesson was taught:  April 20, 2011        Number of Students: Four

1) Rationale: After spending time reading every day the students usually write a summary in their journal. After reading these summaries each week I realize that the students don’t understand exactly what a summary is. They need a lot of help in this area and they need to learn what’s included in a summary so they can write better summaries every day.

2) List which reading skill/strategy is the main focus of your lesson: Teaching the students what’s included in a good summary and how to write one.

3) Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria): The students will use an informational article to write a high-quality summary using all of the characteristics in a summary.

4) Materials & supplies needed: Informational article, paper and pencil.

5) OUTLINE OF LESSON PLAN:

• Introduction to the lesson:

“Today we are going to learn how to write better summaries about what we read. I brought in here an informational article for each student (pass these out while I’m talking), and today I want us all to read this and then we’re going to form a summary. The purpose of this mini-lesson is to inform you all of the characteristics included in a summary so we can start writing successful summaries. I have read all of your summaries you write each week and I noticed they are missing a few things”.  

To help the students become motivated I chose an article about dogs, which will also help generate interest. (3 minutes) 

• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson:

 “We will all take turns reading this short article, including myself. Before we do this though, I want to fill you in on the characteristics included in a summary”.

As I talk about these things I will write them in list form on paper. “First thing, is that a summary tells the big ideas. Big ideas are quite easy to find, especially in an informational text. For example, a big idea might be that dogs are called puppies when they’re born. A summary is organized to show connections between the big ideas, so you’ll find another big idea that connects to our first one. A summary has a generalization or a conclusion. A summary is written in a student’s own words, meaning you do not copy sentences from the text. And lastly, a summary is brief, which means its short, and you get straight to the point. That sounds pretty easy doesn’t it? Does anyone have any questions? I will stop at times so we can discuss. Okay, starting with ________ we will begin reading from the front. Please be respectful and listen while your neighbor is reading. Remember to think about the characteristics we just talked about. After we’re done reading we will each form summaries.”

As we are reading I will stop and point out some big ideas in the text so the students understand exactly what is considered a big idea. (15 minutes)

• Closing summary for the lesson

Once we finish the article I will pass out the paper and pencils so the students can begin their summaries.

“Now, remember the characteristics of a summary we talked about earlier”. I will reiterate the characteristics on the list I made earlier.

“Using the big ideas we stopped and talked about, form a brief summary”.

After the students have finished their summaries I will collect them and have a short discussion. We will talk about how these new summaries differ from the previous ones they’ve written. To prepare for future experiences, I will inform the CT of the mini-lesson and ask her to look for a difference in their summaries on the following day, especially looking for an organized summary with big ideas. (10 minutes)

6) Ongoing-Assessment: To make sure my students are progressing towards the identified goal I will read through their summaries to make sure they included all of the characteristics of a good summary. I will compare these to their other summaries in their journals. If the students are missing something I will take note of it to make sure I can help them next time.

7) Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson? I will allow extra time for a student who is a slow reader and writer. I hope my other students are patient when this specific student is reading. Because we’re on a short period of time I could allow him/her to call on someone else to read, but only after they read a couple sentences. While this student is writing, I will allow them to take extra time to write their summary and I might have to reiterate the big ideas for them again.

Tuchek Reflection #2

My second lesson went really well and like I suspected, all four focus students had a lot of fun playing the Sound-Letter Knowledge Game while still learning at the same time. At first I was worried that they were going to assume that the game was going to be boring because as soon as students hear the words “game” and “learning” in the same sentence, they automatically write it off but this game turned out really well. J and E were matched up which left C and M together which was worked out perfectly since J and M are best friends and would spend the lesson goofing off instead of listening/learning. Some things that I noticed throughout my lesson, is that the partners bounced ideas off of each other which was one of the things I was looking for, and it was also a really good idea to have the two teams compare their categories/columns after they were down. This comparing between peers allowed the students to catch each other’s mistakes and then have them a) share their reasoning for why they put the word where they did and then b) fix their mistakes based on their peers’ suggests/strategies they personally used. There were only a few times that I had to step in when the teams were comparing their results, and it was when all four of them were stuck on the rhyming task. The three words that they couldn’t agree on were “mom”, “bon”, and “pom” so I had all four students say out loud each letter individually starting with “mom” and then “pom”. When they got to the “m” sound in both “mom” and “pom” I had them say it a few times and asked them to take note of where their tongue positioning was and how their lips were. I then asked them to say “bon” out loud saying each letter individually and to take note of where their tongue positioning was and how their lips were. All five of us then sat there and said the sound associated with “m” and then “n” and the students instantly felt and heard how the two letters sounded differently and took the word “bon” out of the “mom” and “pom” rhyming pair. Overall, as a teacher I learned that learning can be just as effective as a game as it can be as a lecture, presentation, or hands-on activity, just a little more fun! I also learned that in order to get to the core of a students’ problem or weak topic, you sometimes have to start at the very beginning to uncover the root of the issue.

Tuchek Reading Lesson #2

TE 402 READING LESSON PLAN

Reading Lesson Plan # 2

Your Name: Haley Tuchek Grade Level: 4th

Date lesson was taught: April 11^th, 2011 Number of Students: 4

1) Rationale (What evidence do you have that your focus students need to learn this skill/strategy?):

My focus students J, C, E, and M have trouble identifying sound-letter relationships and identifying new words. I’ve noticed several times when I’m reading one-on-one with these focus students, that they have trouble sounding out and decoding new words, so instead of giving them an assessment or worksheet to fill out, I thought a fun word game would be good for these four students to work with.

2) List which reading skill/strategy is the main focus of your lesson (select ONE area):

Phonemic Awareness/Phonics (Emergent Literacy, Tompkins chapter 4 & 5)

3) Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria):

Performance: Students will correctly identify letter sounds and relationships.

Conditions: Students will categorize words correctly based on the teacher’s instructions.

Criterion: Students must place any misplaced words in the correct category after the teacher/peers look over their work and identify any mistakes.

4) Materials & supplies needed:

-2 sets of the Sound-Letter Knowledge Game (20 or so slips of paper with 3-letter words written on them in each set)

5) OUTLINE OF LESSON PLAN (Provide a bulleted list of ideas):

• Introduction to the lesson

-“Today we are going to play a fun word game, but before we get started I’m going to tell you the instructions to this game. You guys are going to partner up with the person sitting next to you and between the two of you, you will share this envelope and work together to complete the task I give you which will involve you both looking at sound-letter relationships and word relationships.”

-Students will partner up (2 and 2) and I’ll hand each pair an envelope.

-“These envelopes contain little slips of paper with words that you all should be familiar with. Remember this game isn’t a race, but instead I want you to work together with your teammate and bounce ideas off each other or if you two have a disagreement about the placement of a word then you can explain to the other person your reasoning.”

-“You can now empty the contents of your envelope out onto the table and flip all the slips of paper over so the words are facing up.”

(5 minutes)

• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson

-Once students have all their slips of paper face-up, I’ll begin the lesson.

-“Your first task is to work with your partner and separate the words into two categories…the first column is for the words with short vowel sounds and the second column is for the words with long vowel sounds.”

-The students will work with their partner and separate the words into 2 columns.

-Once the 2 teams are done, I’ll ask them to “compare your two columns with the team next to you and see if they match.”

-They’ll check their work and if they find a word in the wrong category, I’ll ask them to explain why it is there and if they are still unsure where to place the word, I’ll have them sound out each individual letter (have both students sound it out).

-By having both students sound it out, they can see how the two different vowel sounds feel in their mouth and also hear how the two vowel sounds differ coming from someone else.

-“Your next task is to work with your partner and match all the rhyming words together. Remember, you can have more than just two words that rhyme.”

-The students will work with their partner and separate the words based on which ones rhyme.

--Once the 2 teams are done, I’ll ask them to “compare your rhyming words with the team next to you and see if they match.”

-They’ll check their work and if they find a word in the wrong pair, I’ll ask them to explain why it is there and if they are still unsure where to place the word, I’ll have them sound out each individual letter in the first word and then each individual letter in the second word (have both students sound it out).

-“For your last task, we’re all going to work together and find the words that have letters in it that makes your tongue hit the back of your teeth when you say it out loud…makes you exhale when saying it out loud, makes you hum…makes you smack your lips…”

-Introducing linguistics into the lesson will help students become aware of the movement their lips, throat, and tongue make when saying words out loud. Share linguistic stories with them (college level)

-“Now I want you to practice saying some of the words on the slips of paper with your partner and take note of how each letter sounds and looks coming out of their mouth. Switch partners when you’ve gone through some of the words.”

(15-20 minutes)

• Closing summary for the lesson

-“How did you guys like the game? Was it fun? Did the game help you understand sound-letter relationships better? What part of the lesson helped you the most or was a light-bulb moment?”

-These questions will help me see if the game achieved any, most, or all of my objectives.

-“When you were trying to find out what category or place a word should go, what strategy did you and your partner use to figure it out?”

-If the students don’t have any good or clear explanation or strategies, I’ll suggest some that they might be able to use in the future such as sounding out the word letter-by-letter, have a partner/peer say it out loud to see how it sounds coming from someone else, and/or utilizing some of the linguistic strategies we discussed.

-At this time, I’d like to find out if the students enjoyed the game, thought it was too hard/too easy, the strategies they used, and what they found the most difficult.

-“Thank you for all your help! Now you will be able to use some of the strategies we talked about whenever you come across an unfamiliar word that you don’t recognize to help you figure out how to pronounce it.”

(5-10 minutes)

6) Ongoing-Assessment:

-I will observe J, C, E, and M during Reading Workshop time and see what books they decide to silent read; see if they’re challenging themselves or reading at, below, or above their individual reading levels.

-I will read with these focus students one-on-one and take mental notes of what strategies they decide to use when they come across an unfamiliar word(s).

-Lastly, I’ll check in with my CT over the next couple of weeks and see if she sees any improvement in either these students’ reading and if they are utilizing any of the reading strategies I discussed with them (CT may even re-play the Sound-Letter Knowledge Game with them or offer the students the option to play during Reading Workshop).

7) Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson?

-I will work with both all four focus students at the back table during Reading Workshop so they are away from their classmates and the room will be relatively quiet and busy.

-By administering directions before they empty out the envelopes and making sure I have all of their attention be for giving them the next task, I’ll ensure that the students know exactly what they’re being asked to do.

-By having them partner up, it allows the students to feel comfortable since they’re working with their peers, they can bounce ideas off each other, have some student “teaching” moments, and also strengthen their social skills.

-C sometimes has trouble focuses his attention on school and would rather than just socialize, so before I begin the lesson I’ll make sure that I have his full attention and I’ll gain in through the introduction to the lesson (he’ll be excited that he was chosen to play a game in the back).

-J and M are good friends and goof off with each other sometimes so I’ll make sure that those two aren’t partnered up so that they’ll focus more on the lesson and less on each other.

Tuchek Reflection #1

My first lesson went really well, and I was surprised at how well both C and E participated in the CORE Phonics Survey. At first I was worried that they wouldn’t want to spend their Reading Workshop time doing extra reading exercises, but both of their lessons were very helpful in showing me what areas these two students struggle in. Both C and E got a perfect score (26 out of 26) when it came to identifying uppercase and lowercase letter names in Part A and B, which wasn’t very surprising, but when I asked C and E to tell me the sound each letter makes in Part C, they both struggled. C got a score of 17 out of 21 and E got a score of 18 out of 21. This showed me right away that these two below-average readers’ problems lie in the sound-letter relationship area. Both focus students did well identifying the long and short vowel sounds (long vowel sound came easier than short for both), and my prediction was correct that they would both find the pseudowords the most challenging. C and E could easily identify the familiar, benchmark words such as: “sip”, “quit”, “chop”, “dirt”, “key”, “hawk”, “ghost”, etc. probably because they’ve seen these words numerous times in their books and whatnot, but when it came to the made-up words like: “nop”, “dilt”, “shom”, “murd”, “hine”, “voot”, “bice”, etc. they seemed very lost and weren’t confident with any of their answers. Finally when we got to Part L, E did much better than C did and correctly read 5 out of the 8 words in the first column (missed “competes”, “further”, and “locate”) so he got to move onto the second column, but since he only correctly read 3 out of the 8 words he didn’t move onto the pseudowords. On the other hand, C only got 4 out of 8 words correct in the first column of Part L so he didn’t move on. Overall, as a teacher I learned that a little bit goes a long way; just by setting aside a little extra one-on-one time with a student can reveal things that you didn’t notice before. The things you uncover with this student can change how you approach this student with new material and/or show you what specific areas the student needs some extra practice with.