·
To what extent were you
were expected to follow a scripted curriculum, or add your own ideas to a
curriculum that already exists, or create a unit that is entirely new?
For my unit I was told that it had to be related to fantasy,
and while I was given pretty much
free range for what I wanted to do, it was recommended that I choose from a few
set of options which utilized materials that the school already had on hand. Considering
my time constraints and lack of resources (and money for new resources to be
completely honest) I decided to choose from the options given to me and went
with Coraline and the reading
comprehension packet that went along with it. I choose this option mostly
because of personal interest; I had never read the book before even though I
have always meant to. The way that I taught the text was also mostly up to me
and done based on what I wanted to do with it.
·
What was unproblematic
and/or challenging about planning a unit in this context?
I did not find it very challenging to plan a unit in this
context. I was actually very grateful for the structure that was given to me
because I happened to teach my math unit in the two weeks immediately
beforehand and I did not find that I had a lot of time to plan for literacy
because of it. I also very much appreciated the materials which were already
available to me to use for my unit because this saved me both time and money.
Despite already having the resources, I very much enjoyed the freedom that was
given to me to use them or not use them as I saw fit. There are no challenges
that I can think of which posed any real problem to my lesson planning.
·
What obstacles did you
face? How did you overcome them?
Timing was by far my biggest issue. I had originally planned
much more than I actually ended up teaching in my unit. After looking over
Cheryl’s revisions to my unit plan and also speaking with my MT, I decided it
would be best to focus more on the reading comprehension component of my unit
and less on the writing part, as there would not be sufficient time to focus on
both in only two weeks for 60 (or less) minutes a day. I then created a much
shorter writing assignment which I felt could be better implemented into my
unit. When I actually began teaching my unit however, the fact that there
simply would not be enough time to do as much as I had originally planned
really hit home. With everything that was involved in the read aloud of Coraline and also the teaching,
modeling, and practice of comprehension strategies, I found that I needed all
of my 60 minutes to get through just the comprehension portion of my unit.
Luckily, my MT is giving me some time before winter break starts to teach that
portion of my unit.
Timing in general was a challenge, but with help from my MT
and my own reflection every night after teaching, I was able to make
improvements in my time management.
·
How did working on developing
your “core practice” influence the type of learning opportunities you were able
to offer your students?
I thought that my core practice did very slightly limit the
type of learning which was done with my students. I wouldn’t claim that this
was necessarily problematic, but I did feel as it may have led me to focus more
on reading comprehension and much less on writing as I completed my unit plan,
instead of making more of an effort to balance the two. In comparison and as
previously mentioned, I do believe this might have actually been beneficial to
the students because I spent a lot more time modeling reading comprehension
strategies and having students discuss their work with one another than I had
originally planned.
·
What dilemmas (if any)
did you face and how did you manage them? Consider issues that may relate to
developing your professional identity, developing strong teacher student relationships,
constructing relevant curriculum, or assessing students in meaningful and
productive ways.
When I had to create a different writing assignment, I found
it difficult to construct an assignment which applied to the fantasy genre, was
engaging, could be shared in a meaningful way, was short and therefore did not
consume a lot of time, and yet still sufficiently touched on the CCSS (or “relevant
curriculum”). Another dilemma I had related back to my formative assessments.
There was a time when my two classrooms ended up with an unequal amount of time
in a single day. One class had ample time to take a formative assessment and
discuss it, while the other did not- unless I cut out some time from their
reading comprehension packet. I was faced with the challenge of having to axe
one of the two, and in the end my formative assessment got axed from that
particular group. Looking back on it and reflecting on this instance, I really
regret not giving that formative assessment to them as I thought the group that
did do it really benefited from it and especially from the discussion that
followed it.
·
What enabled you to be
successful?
My
MT; I give her a lot of credit for my success in my unit. She was extremely
helpful when I came to providing me with useful feedback that I could use in
either the next class or the next day’s lesson. She also took lots of notes on
my teaching and what the students were doing with timestamps to go along with
it. While I will admit that it was slightly discouraging the first day she did
this, considering the amount of students who were off task and that I did not
notice, I came to observe those kids which she was noting in future lessons and
I noticed that it became less and less of a problem. I also thought that the
fact that the students really LOVED Coraline
and everything we were doing with the text also really helped my unit to be
successful, as it granted a level of motivation which helped them to be successful
in their work.
·
Did the unit proceed as
you expected? Why or why not?
Yes and no; for reasons that I have mostly already
discussed. There were the timing issues, as well as the issues with the writing
portion of my lesson. There was also the high level of interest in the unit
that I did not see coming from my students; especially some of my lower level
students. Generally speaking however, I was actually able to complete most of
what I wanted to complete with the class and successfully keep them both right
around the same points in my unit at all times.
·
What surprises or “aha
moments” did you experience?
Again, there was the moment with the lower level learners/
resource kids liking the context a lot more than I had thought. When I was
grading the student’s summative assessments (i.e. their Coraline packet) I was really astounded by the work that my
students were producing. The same student I mentioned earlier, Paulo, the
cognitively impaired student, had me thinking throughout my lesson that he was
not as focused as I would have liked him to be, and not producing work of an
acceptable quality. When I went to grade his work however, he had done a really
amazing job throughout his packet. He really blew me away with the amount of
thought that he had put into his work and also the consistency he kept
throughout the packet assignment. This really made me reflect on the
assumptions that I place on my students and how possible it is for students who
do not usually produce high quality work to do so when the learning conditions
are right. The class as a whole really produced some amazing work and I am
really proud of their efforts and their learning during my unit. Because I was
not grading the packet until the end of our time together, that which I saw of
everyone’s work was mostly done through passing glances as I walked around the
room to make sure people were on task, so I was especially surprised at the
very end of the unit when I was grading everyone’s work, knowing that the
majority of it was independently done.
I
also thought that the students responded quite well to the Popsicle stick method
for participation. I had imagined that the students would dislike this
participation method, but none of them complained about the sticks at any point
during my unit. Some students even liked this method because they felt it was a
more fair way of sharing out when we didn’t have enough time for everyone to
share out.
·
What do you still need to
learn about teaching in this target area, about your developing your ‘core
practice’ and about teaching literacy in general?
Something I am still
wondering about is if/when I should pull back on modeling when it comes to teaching
comprehension strategies. I would am also still especially interested in how
book clubs are best formed and executed in the classroom, as I would have liked
to do a bit of book clubbing in my unit but due to time and a lack of practice
in the use of book clubs, I thought it would be a bit over zealous to do so in
my two weeks of GLT. I am also still trying to learn more about discussions (as
opposed to recitations) and how to properly guide students into having them
independently
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