Lesson Plan Reflections

Lesson 1: Delicious Words

What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson?

Students learned how to pick out interesting, or “delicious” words from a poetic text. These words may have been nouns, adjectives, or verbs that helped to create a “picture in the reader’s mind.” Thus, students learned how to choose these words from a text and wrote them on a list to incorporate within their own future writing pieces. Overall, the students excelled throughout this lesson. They were choosing words (i.e. “hissing, swooping, magnificent, etc.) that not only stood out to them, but would stand out to any reader. Since this lesson relied more on personal opinion, I was looking to see if they were actually choosing words that were interesting and/or appealing to a reader’s mind. However, T.L., A.S., and M.B. did struggle with finding these words on their own and required teacher scaffolding and support throughout the independent portion of the activity.

What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or products?

After looking through the students’ lists of delicious words, one may infer that the students do not truly comprehend what constitutes a delicious word and were merely choosing “big words” or words that looked like they may fit the description. Thus, it could be interpreted that the students could not explain why they choose their delicious words and therefore do not fully understand the concept.

What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

From this lesson, I learned that my students’ oral listening skills (when given a task) are impressive. I was shocked to see how well they remembered delicious words from the Pumpkin Eye text after I was finished reading. I barely had to go back and reread the words in order to jot their memories as we were creating our list.

When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

Although I believe that my class generally understood the concept, I feel that giving them another opportunity to find delicious words would benefit each student. This skill can improve with practice, is something that can be used in each genre of writing, and can be incorporated into reading, as well. This is why I will continue to encourage the students in writing down delicious words as they are reading and remind them to transfer these words as they are writing new pieces. For my students that required additional support, I will pull them during independent writing during a future Writers’ Workshop. This time will allow me to focus on the content and give me time to once again model the skill. After I model how to find these words, I will have the students find them in delicious word-rich texts (that I have previously chosen) as I scaffold their experience.

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?

If I were to teach this lesson again, I would change the set-up of the lesson. Initially, I would introduce the delicious word concept, provide examples, and then read Pumpkin Eye without giving the students the task of picking out delicious words. Then, I would have the words to the text written on a chart paper, so we could find the delicious words as a class while reading the text over. This would give the students more of a visual and provide a better model for how to discover delicious words within a piece. Additionally, when students offer suggestions of delicious words, I would have them explain to me why that word is delicious to them. This would show me whether or not they understand the concept. It would also improve the students’ learning by allowing them to analyze their own thinking and ask themselves the question, “how does that word create a picture in the reader’s mind?”

Lesson 2: Adjective/Noun Combinations

What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson?

Students learned the terms adjective and noun and how to create adjective/noun combinations that help to create a “picture in a reader’s mind.” To focus the lesson, students wrote adjective/noun combinations that were geared toward descriptions of the winter season and events that take place within this time. Since the students were paired for this activity (“higher” students paired with “lower” students), there were not many students who struggled. I walked around to make sure that both members of the group were contributing and was very happy with the progress that I viewed. That being said, I did notice that one student, L.M., was struggling with the concept of adjectives and nouns. Some of his sentences did follow the adjective/noun pattern, however, he did have a couple that included verbs and pronouns.

What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or products?

After looking through the student’s list of winter adjective/noun combinations and understanding the set-up of the partnerships, it may be interpreted that the “lower” level students (especially my focus group) did not understand the concept. It could be seen as the “higher” level students produced many of the combinations while the “lower” level students did not contribute and therefore do not comprehend the lesson’s content.

What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

Through this lesson, I learned that my students’ vocabulary is high (in terms of the second grade level.) I was amazed with the terms that they incorporated within their pieces and how well they applied to their writing topic. For example, students used terms such as “hibernating bear” and “dormant trees.” I also learned that a possible focus area for my students might be spelling. There are some students whose spelling of words does not make phonetic sense, whereas many students are misspelling harder words. To help bridge this gap, focusing on spelling would benefit all students. As of now, though, I’d rather have them attempt harder to spell words than leave them out for words with which they are familiar.

When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

To re-teach L.M. this lesson, I will make sure to conference with him as the students are writing their “Hello, Good-bye poems.” Since these poems also incorporate the adjective/noun combinations, it will be a perfect time for me to reiterate the definitions of adjective and noun, provide explicit details, and scaffold him in the process in producing his own combinations. I will scaffold him but first giving him an example (red leaves), and then giving him a noun(s) and having him provide an adjective(s). Lastly, I will have him create his own combinations.

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?

If I were to re-teach this lesson, I would provide fewer examples that relate to the writing theme that the students are going to use. During my mini-lesson, I used mostly fall terms as examples; however, when I told them their directions for the activity I included four examples about winter. Then, as I was walking around, I noticed that numerous students were using my ideas. Thus, if I used less examples of the winter, it would improve students’ learning by allowing them to think and create their own adjective/noun combinations that are original and unique. This would also support my assessment of this activity, as I would be able to see whether or not they understand the concept through their own words.

Lesson 3: Introduction to Hello Winter, Good-bye Fall Poem

What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson?

In this lesson, students learned how to apply the adjective and noun combinations that were introduced on the day before. They did this by describing winter and fall attributes in the “Hello, Good-bye” format (Hello (adjective/noun combination describing winter), Good-bye (adjective/noun combination describing fall.)) Thus, they also learned this type of poem format. The students who struggled with this lesson were L.M., T.L., and A.S. Much of the support they needed was because they “couldn’t think of anything to write.” To support their learning, I asked them questions that prompted to think of words and phrases that they could include in their poems. For example, “What kind of things do you do in the winter? What is the weather like? What kind of clothes do you wear?”

What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or products?

Since (some of my students) used the same adjectives and/or noun on numerous occasions throughout their poems, it could be inferred that these students do not understand the format and focus of the Hello, Good-bye poem. These students are relying on examples that they have seen and heard before my mini-lessons and during our share time.

What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

Like the previous lesson, I was amazed by my students’ creativity in word choice and vocabulary. As a whole, they understood the concept and expanded it beyond my expectations and initial objectives for the lesson. I saw many students use highly descriptive words such as vibrant and humungous and include nouns and attributes that I did not anticipate.

When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

This lesson was only the introduction to a three-day writing process; therefore I will be able to conference with my students, who struggled with this material, during the independent writing portion of the upcoming Writers’ Workshops. To further support their learning of this material, I will continue to ask prompting questions that will scaffold them in creating their own adjective/noun combinations referring to both winter and fall. I will have students think about what they do in both of these seasons, what they eat, what they wear, where they play, what holidays they celebrate, etc. Then, I will prompt the students to think about adjectives (or describing words) that go with the nouns they have chosen. I will ask, “What’s a word that describes _____?” If needed, I will add, “Is it cold, frozen, shiny…?” Once this tactic has been successful, I will offer less support until the students produce their own combinations.

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?

If I were to re-teach this lesson again, I would make sure to incorporate the other aspects of poetic writing (that we have discussed) within my mini-lesson. This is because it would connect the lesson (even more so) to prior lessons and show the students that these elements can be utilized in any piece of writing, improving their learning of not only this lesson but also the entire unit as a whole. I thought of this as I was walking around and noticing that some of my students were doing this within their poems. I announced it to the class; however, I believe including it in a more formal lesson would have been more productive. It is a perfect way to show students how to better “create a picture within the reader’s mind.” When we revisit our Hello, Good-bye poems on Friday, I will definitely make this a part of my plans!