Lit Lesson Three Reflection

Visualizing with Setting Emphasis

I don't think many students struggled with this lesson. There was no note taking so it made it different for the students who were struggling previously. After reading a few paragraphs from Charlotte's Web and having students visualize their barn, sharing with their partner of what their barn "looked like" was difficult. I changed this then to have students draw what their barn "looked like." This made sharing and comparing easier than simply describing. During the quick write to music (it worked!) all students were engaged. Even the few who struggle with note taking got some ideas down on paper.

When first thinking about the quick write idea (describing a setting while listening to instrumental music as inspiration) I thought the idea would flop with students. I was sure to model this, and was very serious about it. In the second group, they started having conversation as I was writing to music, so I stopped the music and made sure I had everyone with me before continuing. Their reactions to it were great- during my writing, I asked if everyone visualized what I had visualized, and of course, they had not. Some had really great ideas. When we moved on to their own quick write, I played it once, then again. In the second group, after I played it the first time, their ideas EXPLODED in the classroom. After getting them to quiet down, I explained they could continue writing, maybe hear something different this time, or draw their setting. When students shared what they came up with, I was floored. They had such a good time with it, and everyone had multiple ideas, different ideas from their peers. Some students thought of a Christmas setting, while others thought African, some thought rain forests, some though dancing- the list goes on. I was so excited by this that I want to continue this maybe longer than I had anticipated in my unit. Perhaps I will even have music playing on certain days of our writing workshops.

My student's ability to brainstorm creatively a setting while listening to music today floored me. Their ideas were great, though some were a bit out of topic with setting. once again I think this leads to the question, What is setting? Which I will continue to address throughout our unit to assure students get the understanding down. When I do this next, I will stress what setting is. My students also surprise me with a lack of descriptive vocabulary. This is something that I will address and perhaps make a reference sheet of descriptive words for their use throughout the unit and into other writing as well.

I will always recap our comprehension strategies as the unit unfolds. I can ask a student to explain what visualizing means in terms of comprehension. I can introduce what we did, or have a student introduce what we did during our quick write, to help students that were not here when I modeled it. Without modeling again, I believe these students can pick up on the concept when talking to their peers. Like in the last two posts, to ensure the book chapters are read, I can allow students to take home a book in trade for their I.D., allow time during L.A.F. to catch up on reading, or listen to the chapter either here at school, or have a cd for students to take home (perhaps allow a trade of cd for I.D.).

If I were to change this lesson, I would give better instruction when visualizing the barn from Charlotte's Web. By giving better instruction, I was ask students to draw a quick sketch of their barn. I had several students who "didn't finish" and I would stress the point of the activity, to visualize a barn, but to quickly sketch it to compare to their neighbor's. I like how everything went with the quick write- modeling to a 1:00 piece, then having the students quick write to a 4:00 piece, twice. Now, perhaps I would change the piece to be a longer one, and not play it through twice. This would not save time, but may save attention. I would also have already had a discussion on descriptive words to ensure that students are writing quality descriptions during their quick writes. This is something I will include in further lessons.