· What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson.
My students were informed of what Informational Writing is and examples of it. I had them share out ideas of what they thought informational writing could be; and some struggled with specifically coming up with examples. Instead they were giving me definitions such as, "informational writing informs the reader....it can be a how to...it can be step by step." I then had to prompt them by asking questions such as, "Is a newspaper an informational text? Are magazines? What about the Magic School Bus books? And WHY?" This, then helped my students dive a little more in depth about informational writing and that it first, must inform the reader and second, must be nonfiction.
I noticed that when my students had individual work time, some of my students who are lower in writing were struggling generating a list of topics they could write about. I had to prompt them and ask questions about things they like to do, sports they do, animals, pets, cooking, ect.. it was hard for these struggling students to think of topics they could inform a reader about.
· What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?
After my launch, students were expected to write independently in their writing journals on possible topics that they could inform other readers on. I do not think that their writing journals on this prompt are a good indicator of their understanding of informational writing because we are just getting into this unit. It is when I had some of the class share out their self made list to the class that they could demonstrate their thinking out loud and I could revoice that I believe students then caught on more and had a better understanding.
· What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
Some students were able to create a list of expert topics than I anticipated. These students seemed to know exactly what they wanted to write about and get to work on just that! I had to slow them down however and remind them that we are new writers and that it is good to practice with various of topics.
I was also impressed with some of the topics that my students had background knowledge on and the facts/information that they could remember when sharing with the class. They were ahead of what I wanted them to do; but, I was impressed with their motivation and engagement during this mini-lesson.
· When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?
Well tomorrow I plan on revisiting the list that students generated. I want students to share with one another how they came up with topics that they could inform the reader about; hopefully to motivate those slower writers. Then, together, we will choose one topic and write words/phrases that give more detail (for example: gym). Students will help share out ideas to help complete this. Individual work time will be left and my goal is that those students who needed additional help will have new and improved ideas and details about them that they can now write about.
· 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 could reteach this same lesson I would spend more time on strategies of coming up with topics to write about and really emphasize that they should be expert topics. Having background knowledge in the topics they choose is imperative to being successful in this informational writing unit.
What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?
So far I have been successful in implementing my 'core practice.' I usually start with a mini-lesson and then move to individual work and then end with whole class or partner share out. I need to continue this because it sets the expectation for the class and gets us writers going in the right direction. I am constantly looking at other resources to implement in to my unit plan to make it better along the way. I want my students to have a clear vision of what they need to do and WHY.
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