Writing Day 1 Reflection

·         What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson. 

·         During the lesson students learned how to summarize their scenes that they are going to write. I used examples from our Read Aloud book and a teacher written piece to demonstrate a scene and then changed it into a summary that was right to the point and concise. They pointed out that the summary just told the important part (they are working on determining importance in reading and applied this knowledge here). There were three students who struggled when it came to writing their summary sentences. They began writing their scenes without taking the time to write the sentences as directed. To correct this I am going to ask them to work on the sentences during our Read Aloud time tomorrow.

·         What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

·         Alternately, the students who did not follow directions may have felt that the summary sentences would not benefit them as much as getting their ideas on their paper would. This could be more helpful to them in their story writing process while the summary sentences would only slow them down.

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

·         I learned that many of them are very creative and have stories that I was not expecting. For example, one of our tier three intervention students completely followed the directions and met my objectives for the lesson while using a great story arc. She is breaking her story into manageable pieces and I look forward to reading the rest of her work. Many of the students in tier three interventions are excelling during writing block because the lessons are very direct and ask for only one aspect of writing to be focused on during each. This has helped all of the students keep their writing on task. I was also impressed by their stamina because I did not see a lot of wandering eyes during today’s lesson.

Also, during our sharing time I changed my lesson plan on-the-fly and asked the students to exchange their notebooks with the person sitting next to them for their partners to grade. The partners were instructed to look for punctuation, capitalization, and to predict what the scene was going to be about based on their summary sentence. I demonstrated some non-examples of how to critique a classmate’s work and then asked them to give me positive examples. They then shared and I asked for volunteers to tell me about what they think their partners stories were going to be about and then checked with their partners to see if they were on the right track. This was a smooth transition as well and I was very happy with the change in my plans.

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

·         Based on my observations the students understood the meaning of the lesson and how to summarize, but the ones who failed to do so were those who did not follow directions. Those students will be asked to work on these sentences during Read Aloud tomorrow.

·         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 write my own story with a vivid scene that was turned into a summary instead of the one my MT had previously written. I selected to read hers because she wanted me to stick with the story that they were familiar with, but in my own room I would really like to implement my own stories to demonstrate my understanding of the concepts and lessons to my students. This would show them my interests and motivation to learn as well; I could lead by example. Using my own writing would improve the students’ understanding because they would be able to have more examples of what I am looking for and would motivate them to strive for the best as I am.

·         What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

I learned that in order to stick to a mini-lesson format I must be concise and well-organized in order to keep the lesson actually mini. Today went well because I had my examples pre-selected and the anchor chart previously made, but I know that if I were fumbling for these things or my words that the lesson would have been too long. In order to continue my professional learning I plan to keep the routine that I have started of writing myself small notes on sticky  notes about what the main points I need to hit during my lesson are and being very organized to ensure a good flow the lesson for the students and myself.