Mini Lesson Reflection

For this lesson, I chose to work with three of my students who tend to struggle in comprehending what they read and making meaning of it.  For this reason, I chose to work on a predicting lesson.  I felt this would be beneficial to the students, as they would need to focus on a few pages at a time, comprehending what they read to make educated guesses as to what may happen next in the book.  I have worked with these students numerous times throughout the year on group work, but felt these three in particular could use some extra reading attention in the classroom.  All three of these students love to talk and are very imaginative, but struggle in comprehending what they read or what they hear when being read to.  I thought incorporating an activity where they would be able to have some creativity was important, as these three students are especially active and work best with hands-on activities. 

As they have worked a lot with Eric Carle books this semester (and LOVE them), I chose to bring in the book, “The Very Busy Spider.”  I chose to do this activity as a read aloud instead of having the students try to read pages with me, as they are not yet strong enough in the reading category, and trying to read would distract them from my overall goal of the lesson.  When I took the students into the hall to work on the activity, they were all instantly excited that they were receiving “special time” with me, but this made their focus levels drop slightly from when they were in the classroom.  I was able to get them back on track when I told them this activity would help me with my class at MSU (they love when I tell them they are helping me with homework), so the lesson progressed well after that.

I began by asking the students if they knew what a prediction was, and all three were able to give me a varying definition from what they had discussed in a previous lesson with my MT.  I was pleased to see this was something they still remembered, as they do not have a lot of work in this subject matter.  I then went on to show the students the front and back cover of the book, and read the title aloud to them.  When I asked the students what they thought would happen, I had responses such as, “I think the spider will go on vacation,” and “The spider is going to have a busy day because it is going to make a big, big web.”  I was happy to see the students understood the initial intent of predictions, and that they were grasping pieces of the overall concept.  I then explained the assignment, and begin reading the story to them.  When I paused to have the students draw pictures of what they thought would happen next, all three of the students drew pictures that could potentially occur next in the story.  They each included the spider, and gave acceptable responses for why they drew what they did.  The students all seemed to enjoy this activity, and got excited when they were able to draw the pictures for the predictions.

Overall, I felt this lesson went really well.  Since the book choice was at a level they were comfortable with, it helped the students to be able to think past simply the text they heard.  This helped the students to be able to focus on what may happen next, as they actually understood what they had heard.  If I were to give a follow up lesson, I would possibly choose a book that was slightly increased from the level of “The Very Busy Spider,” so that I could see if the students were still understanding predictions with a slightly more advanced book with a different type of plot.

Lesson used:

Grade: Kindergarten Mini-Lesson Rationale (Why are you teaching this lesson?): I have several students in my class who are still struggling to make predictions when reading, and don’t know how to use prior knowledge or given information to make accurate predictions in a reading. Objective for this lesson: Students will be able to…  make predictions when reading a story based on what they have read so far. Materials & supplies needed:  -        “The Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle -        Plain paper for each student -        Crayons

Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event  • Introduction to the lesson (2 minutes)    “Since we have been working on reading new stories, I thought it would be fun to do something a little different today.  Who can remember what it means to make a prediction.” Explain prediction definition if necessary as reminder from previously lesson with MT.  Tell students they need to use their best thinking and best imaginations when doing this activity, to make the best predictions they can. • OUTLINE of key events during the lesson (15-20 minutes) -        Explain to students that we need to use our “level one voices” (whisper/quiet talk) in this discussion, as we are working in the hallway and other rooms have doors open.  Tell the group the lesson should be fun, but that they still need to be responsible students. -        Read students the title of the book, and show students the front cover and back cover.  Ask students to share predictions on what they think the book will be about, or what they think may happen.  To build student ideas, ask students who they think the main character is, if they think there will be a problem, and what they think this problem may be. I will ask each student to share an idea. -        Read the first few pages to the students aloud to the students.  I will read it aloud so they can purely focus on the occurrences in the story instead of on the fluency aspects that would occur if they were reading.  I will then ask each student to draw a picture of what they think will happen next on the piece of paper with the crayons provided.  Ask students to share their pictures, explaining why they drew what they did.  Read a few more pages of the story, and ask students to draw another picture showing what they think will happen next.  Have students share and discuss pictures/reasoning.  Finish reading story to students. • Closing summary for the lesson (2-3 minutes) - After finishing the story, I will ask the students if they liked making predictions, and why it is a good thing to know how to do.  I will ask the students what helped them make the predictions, and will tell them to try this activity with a family member at home for a fun activity. Assessment: For the assessment, I will examine the students’ pictures to see if they understood the concept of making predictions and educated guesses.  I will also audio record the activity to listen back to the discussions and student responses throughout the activity.  If the students were able to make educated, on-task predictions with the pictures, I will know they are grasping the concept.

Mini Lesson Reflection

For my mini lesson, I chose to work with three of my lower-level second grade students. The three students that I chose are three girls who I have noticed throughout the year have struggled in reading in particular, but also could use some extra assisted writing time. Each of these students I have worked one on one with throughout the year and have realized that comprehension is an area of difficulty. Since comprehension is such a large component of the literacy framework I think that is crucial that these students improve on their skills. I have also found that these students have a low fluency when reading and I think that is a big contributer to their comprehension. I wanted to design a lesson that would not only work on their fluency but also give them strategies to improve their comprehension of any given text. I chose a story that I thought my students would enjoy reading, Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor. This is a fun, girly book that uses some larger vocabulary words. Since it does it use words that are not sight words for my students it provided me an opportunity to see what the students thought these words meant by looking at the context. This is a great way for the students to work on decoding (even though that was not my main focus).

For my lesson the three students and myself sat in the hallway. I explained to the students that they would be taking turns "playing teacher." From free time in the class I have noticed that these students like to pretend to be teacher and write on the chalkboard and ask each other math questions etc. So I thought this would make the lesson more interesting and fun for the students. Each student would had an opportunity to read aloud a few pages of the text. When reading aloud I asked the students to show the pictures, use their finger to follow along, and using voice inflections. After that particular student was done reading I had her summarize what she just read. This allowed me to see how much she comprehended from her own reading. I then asked the group to share predictions on what they thought would happen next. Each of the girls did an excellent job completing this task. They were very enthusiastic to read and summarize. I found that when the students used their finger to follow along there were far few errors in reading, which made the reading more fluent. I also found that by breaking the book into smaller chunks each of the students had a better idea of what was being read and did a better job comprehending the story. One of the students, Sarah*, is the only one that I felt had difficulty explaining what she had just read. She was able to give a few of the main points but did get distracted to give a full summary. She went off on tangents about other stories she has read. This was important for me to recognize because it demonstrates that she is making connections. Sarah is also the weakest reader of the group. She has difficulty decoding and has a very low fluency. I think these two areas make it difficult for her to truly comprehend what she is reading because she loses meaning in the sentences.

After the reading I asked the students to write a short paragraph describing their favorite part of the story. I asked them to be as descriptive as possible so that someone who has never read this story could make a mental picture. This task was to see how much the students remembered and will also force them to be detailed. The students did an excellent job in their writing. I found that they were able to describe a scene clearly and used settings, characters, and details.

Overall, I was pleased with how my lesson went. I felt that the students enjoyed working with me and took away some tools to help them comprehend. I think that my students benefitted having some extra one on one time and working on reading and writing. If I were to do a follow up lesson I would work with them further on decoding and fluency. I think that they took away some tools to improve on comprehension but I think they would also benefit from tools to help decoding. In terms of fluency, I think having them use their finger helped but they could use some more work on sight words.

Small Group Literacy Lesson Reflection

For my small group lesson, I chose to focus on four of my lower-level first graders (3 girls, 1 boy). I've noticed throughout the year that they struggle with not only reading, but also writing. From working one-on-one with them, I've attempted to help them spell words by telling them which letter comes next. All four of them have shown confusion as to which letter they were supposed to write. I chose to create a "game" that focused on letter-sound knowledge and phonemic awareness. Using a paper plate, I wrote all of the letters on the alphabet and create a spinner with a paper clip and pencil. One student spun and whichever letter the spinner landed on, each student had to think of word that started with that letter. We also practiced saying the sound the letter made. Whoever's turn it was then placed a sticker on this piece of the letter wheel so that we didn't repeat letters. One student, Emily*, was very unenthusiastic at first and disappointed to have to leave the nature walk early to come inside and do a letter game. However, afterwards, she was telling all the other students how fun it was. Another girl gave me a big hug after we finished working in the hallway and were heading back to the room. I knew that this girl, Angelina*, would likely struggle coming up with words since her letter-sound knowledge is so weak; therefore, I created a PowerPoint with a slide for each letter of the alphabet and then pictures/clip art images that started with that letter so that students could have an extra form of support. This came in very useful several times when students were stuck and alleviated some of their anxiety/reduced embarrassment.

We didn't make it through the whole alphabet during the time alloted; thus, one modification would be to either do it with a smaller group so that more letters can be covered in the same amount of time, or increase the alloted time. Another change I would make would be to refresh students' memory and practice saying the alphabet. Even though they are in first grade and were exposed to it last year, undoubtedly, after doing this activity, it is apparent that some of them are a little rusty with this skill. Although in my lesson plan, I had students writing out these words on white boards, I recognized that this would take too much time to complete. A potential follow-up lesson could be to incorporate the spelling aspect of words. Even if students didn't write all the words, the teacher could choose one to have all students write on the whiteboard, or the teacher could type the words the students volunteered onto the PowerPoint or write them on a whiteboard and have everyone practice reading the words together.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with how smoothly this activity went and that my students were enjoying and benefiiting from this extra practice at the same time.

Response to Emilys Reflection

I used a prezi and am in a kindergarten classroom too, and I totally agree that they would not be able to handle the technology. But I also found while working on this project that as teachers we need to be on top of all the newest technology so we can use it to our advantage, even if its not usable with our students. I definitely think you could show your kindergarteners a prezi that you made and they could get some good knowledge from it especially if it had a lot of pictures (a feature I didn't really figure out yet).

I also really like your new literacy definition, I feel as though we talk about literacy as only reading and writing sometimes, and I was completely unaware of all of the other types of literacy as well! Overall I think you wrote a really honest reflection that I can totally relate to!

New Literacy

Before TE 402 I had a very shallow understanding of the word "literacy." As the semester has progressed I have learned that literacy is a much broader term. When we started this project I was slightly confused as to what these new literacy's were and how they were going to connect to our class. I chose to do my project on emotional literacy and can truthfully say that I have learned a lot about this topic. But I also feel that I have learned more about the other types of literacy from the other projects I have viewed. I started off thinking that literacy simply referred to reading and writing and my understanding as grown to include these new literacy's. After this project I have realized that literacy can encompass many different areas and is important to teach students about them and help them become literate in all these areas. Many are stuck in the mindset that I had coming into this class and are more concerned with the traditional types of literacy. However, it is just as important to integrate these new literacy's in the class to make your students more well rounded individuals.

Technology has never been my best friend. I tend to struggle using technology but the finish project always is enjoyable. For my project I chose to create a website that explained emotional literacy and all the components to it. Using this piece of technology was much easier then I had anticipated and was extremely user-friendly. Just like emotional literacy or any of the other new literacy, being technologically literate is very important. I think that by using a technology to learn and explore the new literacy also helped make me more comfortable with technology. Our world has become so technologically advanced that is important for teachers to keep up to date with technology and help integrate it in the classroom as much as possible. Students tend to learn about technology before adults, so it would be beneficial to the students for teachers to incorporate it as much as possible. I found that using weebly.com to create my website would also be a great resource to have in the classroom. I think that a classroom website would be a great way for students to keep up to date and informed about homework or upcoming events.

I am placed in a second and third grade split classroom. If my students were to complete this project they would need to be taught a little background information on the new literacy as well as the technology. I believe that giving the students enough background information that they would be able to use and learn about this type of literacy. My students are very good at using the class computers and are capable of getting to a website. I think that my students may struggle with paying close attention to instructions and that would be challenging. Creating a website is not very difficult especially if it was kept basic. Once on the website it is very simple to write on each page as it is similar to a word document. However, creating new pages and adding pictures may be more difficult. In terms of learning about the new literacy I think my students would be able to find out information. When I was learning about emotional literacy a simple google search came up with many simple definitions. I think that my students would be able to find this information and would be able to understand what it means. They would need to take their time reading the information and try to fully comprehend and digest the information before sharing with others. I think the students would also benefit from knowing what literacy means to then be able to understand any new literacy.

Integrating this technology in the classroom would be easy and interesting for the students. One way that you could use a website for a language arts lesson could simply be based around a class book. Students could participate in a book club and then create a website to share what the story is about, quotes, questions, etc. The other students could then look at the website of the other books to get information or a summary about each book. This would be a great way for the students to publish their work and make it more meaningful to their learning. The teacher would need to give the students a tutorial on how to use this technology but after that students can have creative freedom to design and set up their page as they please. Teachers can assess what the students have written on the webpage, or how the webpage was set up. Integrating technology is important for students learning and can make any lesson more fun for the students.

New Literacies Reflection

             Prior to this assignment about new literacies, I was unaware of many of the forms that literacy can take, such as visual or mathematical literacy. As someone who has studied abroad and worked with ELLs at MSU, I place a high value on cultural literacy. Prior to this project, I understood this as being respectful and knowledgeable about other cultures, as well as appreciating diversity. However, after exploring and researching this topic, I now have a broader understanding of what this literacy also encompasses. This project taught me that there is a great deal of information we encounter in our daily lives, especially in education, that is assumed knowledge. However, those not from the dominant group in society (with an emphasis on ESL students) are often left out of the loop. This information gap affects their access to opportunities in life, in addition to them missing important connections or meaning when reading a text. My level of conscientiousness about cultural literacy has increased after completing this project and I will make every effort to bridge this gap in my classroom. As I stated in my prezi, “if it’s worth mentioning, it’s worth explaining.”

                This was my first experience working with the Prezi technology. In past classes, I’ve found this to be a more engaging format for a presentation than the average PowerPoint. It took some trial and error to end up with a project that I was satisfied with, but feel that I have a good sense of its features and how to use it now. I can easily incorporate this into my teaching and can also educate my students about how to use this technology. By using a technology to teach others, media literacy is also included and emphasized!

                In order for my students to produce a similar project, there are several skills that they would need to possess prior to beginning. First, they would need to have an understanding of what literacy is and that it can take many forms. We would also need to discuss the different components of the forms. It would be helpful for them to have access to resources, like we did, to explore the different types. Some of my students can read and for them, this research stage would be doable; however, many of my students struggle with reading, so they would need assistance with learning more about the topic. Also, for these students, creating a Prezi (which involves conveying information in text form) would not be very accessible unless they were given assistance from a higher-level peer or a teacher. Students would need to have keyboarding skills, as well as expertise in using the mouse. They would need to develop a knowledge about the different features of Prezi, but I think if the teacher did a tutorial on the projector from her computer, they would catch on quickly. A skill they would need for deciding on the content for their presentation is selecting the main ideas, as well as providing specific examples. Students would also need to know about various multimedia extras they can include, such as images, YouTube videos, sound, etc. I think if my students worked in pairs and had a long timeline for this project, they could be very successful in using the Prezi software. Having them teach each other about the different literacies would definitely be a topic that would need to be scaffolded and incorporated into the classroom from the beginning of the year in order for students to have a solid grasp on it.

                For my literacy lesson I chose to focus on retelling a story using the key words, “first,” “next,” “then,” and “last.” I think that using a Prezi would be an easy way for them to practice this series of words. They could create their own stories and add images with a transition between key words to a new frame. This visual shift to a new frame would reinforce the shift in their stories to a new event and signal to them that they need to include a new key word (whichever word is appropriate). Plus, this would be an engaging way to share their finished pieces with the class and demonstrate a way to publish a text in the 21^st century!

New Literacy Blog

When I began this class, my definition of literacy consisted mainly of a person being able to read and write. As the class has progressed, I have continued to add elements to my working definition, as we have been introduced to numerous new literacies and aspects that should be included. Looking back at my first post about my definition of literacy, I stated, "I'm still not sure if I have a set definition that I can apply to the term, but for now I believe that literacy is the ability to comprehend and effectively use reading, writing, listening and speaking." After continuing in 402 and researching social literacy through a prezi, my definition of literacy has expanded. I have come to realize that literacy is much more than simply reading and writing, but how one uses these skills to effectively communicate with others. Through my research on social literacy, I have found that there are many critical skills that can be learned through the use of technology. While I focused my project on social literacy, looking at the other literacies has helped me to grasp a better understanding of included elements as well. Emotional literacy is one that I had not thought to include, but it is a critical part of how a student becomes literate.

After viewing my classmates' projects and learning about the multitude of literacies that are present, I have learned that I need to have a good grasp on what they all are to ensure my students benefit to their fullest. In language arts for instance, technology can be incorporated using digital and social literacy to interest students who may not otherwise prefer the language arts topic. Working with this new literacy (social literacy) and new technology (prezi), I came across many resources and websites that I did not know existed. All of these new sources would be effective tools to provide effectice literacy instruction to students. With blogging, wikijunior, and all of the other sites available, students from multiple learning styles can be accomodated and instructed. Each student has a different way they learn best, and using social literacy with technology can help to address each student's style. Each of the seperate literacies are also crucial to consider when working with students, as each child brings a unique background and characteristics that an educator needs to be aware of to ensure the student is learning the material.

As I am in a kindergarten classroom for placement, I feel that a prezi would be an incredibly difficult resource for my students to use in the classroom. In order for the students to make an effective prezi show, they would need to understand how to use a computer and the internet, which is something they do not have practice with in the school setting. They do not have access to a computer within their classroom, so it is hard to say how much experience they have outside of school. They would need to know the concept of a slideshow (one they have not been exposed to in school yet), and the purpose for putting information into an online resource for people to view. As they are still learning the alphabet and how to spell simple words, this project would be one that would be challenging for them, as they would not be able to explain social literacy through the use of words. The concept of social literacy may be difficult for them to understand as well, and would need to be thoroughly explained. To share what they do learn with their peers, the students could use a variety of pictures to communicate their message. Even using pictures, the students would have to understand how to use computer functions such as saving and uploading files.

The two most relevant resources that I found when searching social literacy for young students are www.epals.com and http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior. These websites are both child friendly, and incorporate communication and collaboration through technology. I would use either one for a lesson plan, as they are both interesting and exciting websites for children to discover. If I were to incorporate wikijunior into a lesson, I would open the website on the smartboard (we do not have computers in the classroom for the students to use), and would show the students examples of books that other children have created. After explaining the project and the idea that children can post books online, I would work with the students to create a class book that we could then edit and upload to the website for others to see. Towards the end of the year, if my students were progressing well in writing, I would have them create their own books to add to the sites. This lesson would allow the students to see components of a book, and would allow them to practice creating chronological events in a story. One of the big common core standards for the kindergarten grade level is that students can recall important details in a story, so this lesson would push students farther, as they would be creating the important details and learning what should be included and what can be left out. Assessment would be informal for this lesson, as I would look to see who was contributing, and the types of answers that the students were contributing to the discussion.