Student Name: Ashley Owens Lesson: Literature Circle Management: Questioning Reflection Form for Performance Based Literacy Lesson I. Reflection on Student Learning A. Observations: What observable behaviors showed the students were achieving the objectives of my lesson? Be specific and avoid generalities. Write a narrative telling what actually happened: 1. before, 2. during, and 3. after the lesson To begin this lesson we watched a You Tube video called Reading Comprehension Strategies: Questioning. This was a fun video, that not only engaged the students but, also gave them confidence. The video was done by real students. My students were able to see other people using this strategy that were at their same age level. Therefore, this assured them that they could also use this strategy successfully. To activate the student s prior knowledge, I simply asked them if they use questioning when they are reading. The yes vs. no ratio was about 1:1. The yes votes began shouting out example without raising their hands unfortunately. However, the more that they shared how they used questioning, the no votes were started to realize that they do use questioning. All of the students started sharing questions that they had over the text we were currently reading or their own independent reading books. I was happy that they were able to realize that they do use questioning all the time when reading but, I knew that getting my students to write down their thoughts and ideas on paper was always a struggle.
When telling the students the purpose of using the questioning comprehension strategies, I let them lead the way. I simply asked the divergent question why do we ask questions when we read? Hands shot up, and I got all kinds of answers. The students said that it helps them understand things better. It makes them want to keep reading to find out the answers to their questions and many more comments were shared. I then told students that asking questions while we read keeps us interested in what we are reading, helps us become better readers, and helps us understand better. I told them that all of their reasons were correct as well. I also mentioned that sometimes when we ask questions we think it is a bad thing, because it means that we don t know something but, in this case questions are a good thing so not to be scared to ask any and all the questions they wanted! During the lesson I began by modeling the questioning strategy to the students. I read page 11 aloud to the group. I stopped during the reading whenever I had a question, shared the question aloud, wrote it on a sticky note and, stuck the sticky note by the part of the text that made me have that question. I explained what I was doing while doing it to make sure they would clearly understand what I was doing and why I was doing each step. After doing this I showed the students that I was going to take my sticky notes and record my questions on my role sheet so it was nice and neat. The only thing that did not go as planned during this time was the fact that some of my students kept trying to share their questions as well. I was glad that they were
understanding and eager to share and participate, but I wanted to make sure the other students were fully understanding as well. After my modeling, it was the student s turn to give it a try! We read pages 12-13 together. Students were supposed to raise their hands whenever they had a question of their own. I figured that I would have to begin this guided practice by modeling another question of my own but, I was wrong. Students started asking questions right away. I gave the students sticky notes before this to use just like I did. This definitely got their attention and they were excited to use them! Each time the student asked a question, I had them write it down on their sticky note like I had done during the modeling. After our reading, we got all our sticky notes and I wrote them down on a role sheet. We worked together while doing this, but I did the writing. This took less time. For independent practice the students finished reading to page 16 and were to come up with 2-3 more questions on their own. They had sticky notes for this process as well, and were to write down their questions on their role sheets after they were finished with the reading. They were engaged, quietly working hard for the remainder of the time. During this time I walked around to make sure students were using their sticky notes and able to come up with questions on their own. A few students did not use the sticky notes; they told me that they didn t have any questions about the reading. This showed me that these students did not fully understand the purpose of questioning, and would be considered for the RTI.
B. Diversity: Elaborate on how you addressed the learning needs of your students. How did the students respond to your interventions (RTI) during the independent practice portion of the lesson? Students were able to use sticky notes, write their summaries, and shared these orally during our next class period. This was able to satisfy student s with interpersonal, intrapersonal, and visual/spatial learning styles! II. Reflection on Your Teaching A. Was my instructional strategy effective? What could I improve upon? I felt like my anticipatory set was effective in engaging my students. We hardly ever have time to do anything extravagant for this part of our lesson, due to such a short amount of time we have together. So, this small change in pace was able to attract their attention. During the modeling students kept trying to share their questions. I was scared that this may have been the reason that a couple of the students were not coming up with many questions. Maybe they did not get a chance to understand or did not feel as confident because the other students were already advanced with questioning. However, I feel like my instructional strategy and the overall lesson was effective. A couple students may need a little more help but, I feel like they probably understand, just lack confidence.
B. What did I learn about myself as a teacher from the lesson? This lesson just made me reflect on the gradual release of responsibility instructional approach. If I have students that are eager to participate and share during my modeling, how do I tell them no, I don t want your input right now? I am always encouraging participation, so it was very difficult to effectively model during this lesson. Is modeling always necessary? This lesson made me realize that I still have many things to learn about literacy instruction, and teaching overall before I am ready to take on my own class! C. What did I learn about literacy teaching (pedagogy)? Have any of my ideas about the science of teaching (literacy pedagogy) changed? Explain After this lesson, I feel that literacy centers could be effective even in the intermediate grades. My students have a range of abilities. Yes, my students are advanced, but some students catch on quicker, some read faster, some have behavior issues, some like to take charge, others like to listen. I feel that literacy centers could be very effective for literacy instruction. However, my group is preparing to participate in literacy circles. That is why we are learning these comprehension strategies; so they can use them during their roles of their literacy circle. I am anxious (and nervous) to start this because of the wide range of abilities my students have.
Questioning Caleb has some major confidence issues. He will shout out his ideas and participate in discussion but, when it comes to writing them down he does not do well. First off, he does not want to. Second off, he doesn t think he has any good ideas. I might need to boost his confidence somehow during the RTI. He is bright, and does each concept perfectly. He just needs to write it down! Paris participation was exceptional today! All students were very engaged when reading independently. Some questions were too vague. They need to think deeper.