- Reflection
from Lesson 1
- What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson.
My
first lesson went very well today! Even though it is the week of
Halloween and the student's minds are elsewhere, I was able to
introduce them to main idea and details. We worked as a whole class
to determine the main idea and one supporting detail, and students
worked in pairs to choose two more supporting details. Based on the
conversations I heard during think-pair-share as well as the details
that were offered for the graphic organizer on the board, the
students seemed to grasp this new concept very well. There were a few
students who were offering me the topic and not the main idea of the
story, so I had to go back and give examples of topics and main ideas
that were important to the topic. My student with the IEP is very
shy, even during think-pair-share, so it was hard to know how well
she was understanding during our whole group conversation. However,
when I drew her partner's stick to give me a supporting detail on the
board, she gave me a detail that did support the main idea. I am
hoping that with more practice with this during the week, the
students who struggled finding the main idea will begin to learn the
difference between what a topic and a main idea are.
- What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?
Some
students were confused about how general/specific the main idea of a
story should be. Both during the lesson and on some of their center
work, students offered what I considered to be more of the topic of
the story rather than the main idea. During the lesson I was able to
ask the students to be more specific about what the main idea of The
Coldest Continent was if they
said “Is the main idea that it's about Antarctica?” I would then
have to say “Antarctica is the topic, or what the story is about.
When we're picking out the main idea, it has to be the most important
idea about
the topic which in this case, could be that Antarctica is the coldest
climate. Let's try and pick out small pieces of information that
support that Antarctica is the coldest climate.”
- What
did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend
beyond your objectives?
Instead
of reading the story to them, I drew sticks and gave the students the
opportunity to read one paragraph at a time. Some of the words in the
text were difficult, but each reader did a great job decoding the
words. After a paragraph was read, I paused and asked the students
the meaning of a word I thought might be unfamiliar to them. While I
am going to go over synonyms and context clues with the students
tomorrow, they were already showing examples of using the words
around the unknown word to determine its meaning.
- When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?
I
will begin tomorrow's lesson by reviewing the definition of the main
idea and details and then ask students what the main idea and key
details of the story yesterday were. This will refresh their memory
as we begin a new story where they will be asked to do a similar task
and help me create a graphic organizer on the board with this
information. For the students who seem to be struggling with choose a
main idea/key details, I will listen to their think-pair-share
conversations and help them in finding a main idea that is suitable
for the story, and then ask them what pieces of information from the
story help support that main idea. I will call on a variety of
students during the lesson and guide them through the process of
determining the correct main idea from the story or paragraph. I will
also circulate through the groups of two that are working on the
comprehension center in the afternoon and make sure that their main
idea is accurate and that their details are supportive of the main
idea they have chosen.
- 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?
- What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?
Determining
importance in text is a skill that even adults can sometimes struggle
with. I really wanted to make sure my students understood why
it is so important to be able to figure out what the main idea of a
story is, and then be able to choose the correct details from the
text that will support it. At the end of the lesson when I told them
that finding the main idea and supporting details is a skill they can
use when reading any text, such as non-fiction, science,
social studies, or even Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, many of
them got a surprised look on their face. I told them that thinking
about the main idea and details of a story will help them to not only
build their knowledge about different subjects, but also recall
information easier in the future if they need to make text-to text,
text-to-world, or text-to-self connections. By challenging them to
consider using this skill in their everyday lives I am hoping that
they will see the importance in practicing every time they read a
text.
I
want to continue to develop ways to engage students during the
lesson. Drawing sticks and having them do a think-pair-share broke up
the lesson and allowed the students to refocus their attention back
to the lesson, but I want to explore more ways to involve them.
Overall, I think they did an excellent job of working with one
another to determine supporting details in the story.
Reflection from Lesson 2
- What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson.
Today
the students continued to develop the skills necessary for choosing
main ideas and supporting details out of a given text. Today we began
by reviewing what the main idea and supporting details of the
previous day's story, The Coldest Continent.
Many students eagerly raised their hand and recounted the correct
information for both questions. We then talked about the genre of the
new story they would be reading, Penguin Chick
which is an expository text and takes place in Antarctica. I drew out
the students' prior knowledge about the climate, wild life, and other
facts they knew about Antarctica. While some students raised their
hand to discuss what they knew about our subject matter for the day,
there were students who were not as active. I began drawing sticks to
try and get the quieter students to participate in our anchor talk,
which did help me gain insight as to whether they were struggling
with the material or hand knowledge and were just not raising their
hand. I looked over the center work of 6 of the students who had
their comprehension center the day before and was pleased with the
results. My S.I. students had to read a paragraph and answer 4
multiple choice questions about the main idea and key details, and 3
of them answered at least three of the four questions correctly. The
other student who completed the multiple choice center only answered
one of the questions correctly, so I will have her read me the
selection and walk her through the questions to see if I can help her
understand how to choose the correct answer. The on-level students
who read the same paragraph but were asked to complete a graphic
organizer did very well. Each of these three students chose different
main ideas from the text, but they were all acceptable and the
supporting details they wrote did, in fact, support their main idea.
- What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?
The
students who have been participating during the lesson and in the
comprehension centers have been doing a great job of explaining their
thinking when I asked them why they chose a specific main idea or key
detail. Even though some of the main ideas that are offered are more
general and “topic” like, they are at least showing me that they
understand what the text is about, which is also important. Students
who completed their center independently did not always have a
perfect main idea, but with a few more words added to it, it would
have been accurate based on the details they provided in their
graphic organizers. I did walk around and look at the main ideas of
those who were working on their centers, and I helped them formulate
a more concise main idea based on the details they had written down.
When I asked them if they understood why I make the changes I did,
they stated that it made sense.
- What
did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend
beyond your objectives?
I
was impressed by how much background knowledge the students had on
the topic of Antarctica. Several of the students were making
text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections during our
discussions. Some students were talking about what they had learned
about Antarctica during their small reading groups, others sharing
facts about penguins based on a special they had seen on Animal
Planet or learned by watching Happy Feet. They were genuinely
excited to begin reading Penguin Chick
after our anchor talk, and I told them that were going to learn more
facts about penguins and Antarctica that they could add to their
knowledge bank.
- When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?
I
will review main idea and supporting details at the beginning of the
lesson each day this week. By reviewing what the main idea and
supporting details were from yesterday's lesson, I hope that the
students who are struggling will begin to see how we choose a main
idea out of a text. Determining the most important information in the
text is a difficult skill, and the students will need to practice as
a whole class as well as independently. If a student does not do well
on their tiered center, I will call them to my desk and work with
them one-on-one during center time the following day. At this time, I
will ask them questions that will guide them in finding a main idea
that is suitable to the text, and ask them to find information that
is supportive of that main idea.
- 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?
Unfortunately,
my instructional time was cut short and I did not have enough time to
create a graphic organizer on the board that discussed the main idea
of the new text they began reading today. This was an important part
of the lesson, but after the anchor talk and reading through the
story once, I was out of time. We will be reading the same story
again tomorrow, but I felt it was important to create a graphic
organizer on the board as a whole class again because they will be
completing one independently for the first time tomorrow. Practicing
together would have allowed me to find out who was still struggling
with choosing the main idea and details, and I could have addressed
those misconceptions with the whole class before they are graded on a
similar task tomorrow. We will be discussing the main idea and
details of a few of the pages of Penguin Chick tomorrow during
my lesson, so I will try and put this information on a graphic
organizer on the board at that time. I am hoping that having a
graphic organizer on the board will help the students who are visual
learners make better sense of how the information in a story can be
displayed.
- What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?
Helping
the students learn how to determine the main idea and choose details
that support it has gone smoother than I had anticipated. Choosing a
main idea out of a text can be difficult, but the students used their
prior knowledge of text features such as titles to help them decide
what the main idea of the text should be. I do feel that the more
practice they have with picking the main idea and details out of a
text, the better they will become at determining importance in text.
I wish that the students had more time to write in class, as this
core practice would be a great tool for assessing their writing.
Determining importance in text is the foundation for being able to
summarize and outline information which are skills that they will be
working toward during their academic careers. Summarizing was part of
the third grade writing portion of the MEAP test, and I wish that I
would have been able to address and teach these skills before they
had taken it. In the future, I need to continue to make sure that I
know who is struggling with the material so I can help them grasp the
concept before they are assessed formatively. The summative
assessments were very indicative of how well the students were
understanding, and I am grateful that I will have the time to speak
with them one-on-one so that they are not falling further behind
during the lesson the following day.
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