My first daily plan was to introduce the new book we were starting for the unit, Tuck Everlasting. We started off talking about fantasy novels in general to introduce the unit and we learned what different elements are unique to fantasy books. Then, students learned ways to explore the book without actually reading the text within the book yet. We took time to look at the cover, title, and other experts in the book to help us discover what the book may be about. Students learned that from just looking at the exterior of the book can engage them as readers and help them to set up what the novel could be about.
After exploring the book I read the prologue aloud. Before reading I instructed students to listen for main events that seem to have connections with other events. I reminded students that important events are events that give us more insight to coming events that are going on in the story and that they should not be just minor details. After I read the prologue aloud I asked students to list off events that they thought were important to remember for the rest of the book. The first couple answers were right on target of main events that the author explicitly noted in the prologue. However, some students listed off details that were not as focused, such as the time of day or year it was. We also discussed the author's style of writing and how she wrote in a way the was suspenseful. Students made very valid points of how the author created suspense, but after a few students said there answer many students would repeat previous answers. Another concept students learned was to use the descriptions in the book to create a visualization of setting.
I had a few students that struggled with transitioning from me reading and then writing written responses. Those students kept asking, "what are we suppose to be doing?", even after I gave examples and explicit directions. These students also did not want to read the book at all and seem to have little interest in the fantasy genre.
For many of my students I learned that they are very insightful on picking out main events from the book. Most were also very engaged and excited to read what was going to happen next. I also learned that students are able to make predictions by connecting what they know and using it to form interpretive guesses on what will happen next in the story.
Some students in my class are slower readers than others. Even though I have different fluency levels in my class I wanted to read the first portion of the book aloud so that all students could follow along and focus more on the events that happened and less on their own fluency. For students that were still struggling I will talk with them one on one while the rest of the class is writing their responses and be more explicit of what we are doing and what they should be thinking about.
If I were to teach the same lesson again I would be sure to only pick one focus for the lesson. I think I tried to pack too much into one day with connecting events, investigating the book, looking at the author's style of writing, and the reading skill of visualization. If I were to do it again I would narrow my focus and look at just initially investigating the book and connecting events of the prologue. I think if I was more focus on just a few objectives it would be a good pace for students to really engage in those skills and that they could devote more time and thought to those areas instead of rushing and spreading out the time too thin. I would also like to emphasize that the skills we are using are the skills that my students can continually use as they read other books outside of class. I want students to know that these skills can help them become better readers in general.
Daily lesson 2
ReplyDeleteDay 2 of my unit I wanted to start off by reflecting and re-teaching my previous lesson. I reviewed what we talked about the previous day and highlighted important events I wanted my students to continually be thinking about. I also took the time and was more explicit about the writing journal I gave my students yesterday and told them that there were many resources in it that will continually help them as they are reading the novel. These resources included the rubric that they would be graded on, an area to write down vocabulary words, and short captions of different skills we would be discussing (point of view, visualization, text connection, etc.).
For the first lesson we ended with trying to visualize the setting of the book my noting descriptive phrases the author used in chapter one. We took some time to review that portion of the text. I asked students to close their eyes so they may envision the setting the author was describing as I read the chapter aloud. Then, I asked students to list off phrases that were very descriptive and helped us paint a picture of the scene. After the discussion, students drew out the pictures they visualized using the phrases that we previously listed. After students worked on their pictures I asked a few students to present and describe their drawings to the class.From their drawings and descriptions I could see that students used the descriptions from the book to help create a fitting portrait of the setting the book was in. before some students presented I walked around the room to see what students were drawing and thinking. Some students asked if they could just copy what was on the front of the book (a lake with a house). I then asked if that picture fit the description we just talked about and instructed them to reread the part in the chapter that we just went over as a class.
I learned that my students have a likeness of using imagery and visualization. I have many creative students in my class like love to doodle and draw and giving students the opportunity to draw the scene was very engaging to them. It was a good way of linking a comprehensive skill with what students enjoy doing-great!
After our visualization activity, students partner read chapters 2 and 3 and then were asked to answer a prompt about how they connected with a character, Winnie Foster, in the book. Before students broke out into pairs I explicitly went over the prompt and reminded them of elements I wanted to see in their prompts (details from the book, ways they connected with the text, it should be at least 5 sentences, etc.) I allowed students to pick their own partners for their reading as privilege that could be quickly taken away if they were not able to handle it. A majority of the students did a great job of picking pairs that were focused and fitting to ability levels. I had two students who wanted to read on their own and another group that was having difficultly working in a pair. One student wanted to just read my himself and I read with the other student. The pair that broke up both read at a slower pace and were not able to read both chapters. For these students who may need some extra support I will have them listen to the book on tape when we do another paired reading.
If I were to teach the same lesson again I would try to allow more time for students to read in their pairs. I think a lot of the pairs felt rushed to finish reading the book and did not get a lot of time to discuses ways that they related to the main character. I think discussing their thoughts with their partners are important to help them focus and have another opinion about their thoughts before writing their responses. Also, I would have the book on tape for students that have lower fluency so they are able to listen to the book. This will help them focus more on comprehending what is going on in the book instead of focusing on decoding and fluency.
Daily lesson 3
ReplyDeleteThe start of the third lesson was a review of what students read about in chapters 2-3. As a class we reviewed about how to pick out key events and connected those concepts with our first lesson where we listed off important events in the prologue. I reflected back to the first day and reminded students that the events they listed should be events that helped the story progress or connected with the events we talked about in the prologue. From our discussion, I learned that students were able to pick out events that were important and provided good connections to further the plot. As a class we wrote down those events and added them to our Venn diagram we created on the first day of the unit. I noticed students had a hard time picking which areas to put the event in the diagram. So, we took some time to review about the purpose of our Venn diagram and go over each area of the diagram.
After reviewing the key events in chapters 2 and 3, students shared their written responses of how they connected with the main character's feelings of running away from home. Many students were able to relate in feeling sad by not being able to do what they wanted and feeling controlled by their parents. Other students connected by feeling that they weren't receiving any attention from their parents because of an older or younger sibling. I had a few students that I noticed were not participating and asked them to share what they thought. They responded and said they could not identify with Winnie's feelings because she was a girl and they never wanted to run away. I let students know that even though they have never thought of running away there are still ways that they can identify with what Winnie felt even though she is a girl. After a little discussion I gave students time to add on to their thoughts or use the thoughts we described in class to help initiate other ideas.
After our discussion I gave the class time to add or revise their responses. This was mainly for students who needed extra support some time to revise or add to their responses. After students were finished with their responses we did popcorn reading of chapter five. I started off the reading and passed the microphone around from students to read at most, a paragraph. Through the read aloud I was able to see which students had a ease and struggle with reading fluently. It was a good way to assess the fluency of some students and which vocabulary they may struggle with.
During the reading I continually paused to ask questions about the text, make predictions of what would happen next, and clarify vocabulary. I was modeling of what students should be continually thinking of as they are reading any text. Students were able to comprehend the text and make fitting predictions. The text is very heavy in vocabulary and many students struggled were understanding some words. As a class, we would discuss the words until we got a definition of what the word meant. I plan on doing this questioning every time we read as a class to model to students skills that they should be continually doing as they read on their own.
If I were to teach this lesson again I would ask students to initially write down their thoughts and then share them with the class. I think there may have been too many points where I would stop the reading and it may have broken up the flow of the text. I think having students write down their thought initially may aid in the flow. I also let the students pick who they wanted to read next. Instead, I would pick the next person to ease in the transition of reading from person to person.
Day 1--You have gained an important insight about keeping the focus of a lesson simple without trying to cover too much, and that students need to know why they are learning the focus of the lesson. I wonder what ideas you have about engaging the students who did not initially have an interest in fantasy? Is there a way they could at least connect with the characters even if they are not so interested in the fantasy elements?
ReplyDeleteDay 2--You have said that you think the partners felt rushed and you thought they needed more time. What were you noticing about their conversations that caused you to feel that they would make good use of the time?
Day 3--Your decision to focus on the character's feelings was a good strategy for helping students look for more fundamental connections to the book and not just dwell on the character's gender or other surface features. Writing, too, is a good tool to have students reflect more deeply instead of just quickly saying they don't connect.