During this lesson the students responded well to the expectations and concepts presented. I had students that understood prefixes, suffixes and base words. However, I had some students that had misconceptions about how these mechanics constitute and change a word. My students were able to identify the base words within the vocabulary words, but struggled to understand what that really meant. For instance, one vocabulary word was 'funny' and my students thought that 'fun' was a base word. This identified that they understood how to find base words, but in this case 'funny'+'ny' is not a base word + suffix. Throughout the lesson, I think students gained a better understanding of the concept.
I think that there could be alternate reads to my students' performance during this lesson. The most prominent one is if students really get the concept or if they were feeding off of me and their students for the correct answer. I had a lot of students that were not confident while giving the answer which tells me that this is something that needs to be revisited.
I learned that my students know more about literacy than I thought. They know more than just prefixes, suffixes, and base words. I learned that the students understand that a word is made up of parts and these parts can alter the meaning, look, etc. of the word. Furthermore, I learned that some of my students are stronger literacy learners than others. This is an ongoing literacy area that will be visited each week. However, I will be providing extra activities for students who continue to struggle with the material. This will support their needs and expose them to this literacy area.
If I teach this lesson again, I will provide different vocabulary words for my strong literacy students and my struggling literacy learners. This would allow for my strong literacy learners to have a challenge and my struggling students not to feel discouraged. I think that this would help the students that need extra support by exposing them to familiar words and building their literacy understanding, but still provide learning/practice for the stronger students.
Lesson #2
My students learned that the alphabetical principle is linked to the letters in a word. The students were able to realize that the sounds of letters in the words are made from the alphabetical. Some of my students struggled with time and that sometimes they may need to use both the first and second letters in the word. For instance, if there were two words with the same beginning letter they would need to use the second letter.
All of my students were able to put the words in alphabetical order. Due to this, I know that all of my students understand the alphabetical principle. This also illustrated that they were engaged in my modeling and realized the expectation I set.
I learned that my students know their word structures and alphabet. The students were able to use the letters that make up a word and link those to the alphabet to put them in the correct order. This illustrated to me that my students are beginning to build their sight words and vocabulary understanding!
I do not have to re-teach this lesson because my students didn't struggle. However, this literacy area will be revisited. I want students to be able to quickly order their words and prove that they are comfortable with this concept.
If I teach this lesson in the future, I would give the students more time to independently work and devote less time to the modeling part. I would model a few words and closely monitor to know if I need to work through more words. However, I think it would be more effective to give more time for student work because this will be a revisited topic. This would allow for my students to build up their work progress. I would begin to take away time as this concept is revisited.
Lesson #3
The students learned how to use the dictionary to find definitions. They learned that the dictionary is set up using the alphabetical principle we learned about the previous day. All of the students were able to understand how to use the dictionary and why it was important. Some of my students struggled when there were two words with the same beginning letter.
Students were able to complete the activity in the time limit and work independently. The students did not ask many questions because I provided them with the steps on the white board for them to use. All of my students wrote all 10 correct spelling words. Some students even wrote down if the word was a noun, verb, etc. on their paper.
This will be a literacy area that students will continue to get practice during the school year. We will be having 'definition Wednesday' each week using different words. I think this will help all of my students become more comfortable with the alphabetical principle and the dictionary. In addition, this will expose them to literacy resources and build their vocabulary. Spelling is a struggle in my classroom and the dictionary is a great way to expose them to correct spelling of words.
If I were to teach this lesson in the future, I think I would give students more words. This would continue thier practice, work on timing, and build their vocabulary. In addition, I would allow for a time to just explore with the dictionary for practice. The students are learning more about the guide words in the dictionary verses having to flip from page to page. I think this could improve if students just explored and became more exposed with the dictionary and not just on Wednesday.
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