The eighth was supposed to mark the
end of week 2 for our guided lead teaching. After talking with my mentor, other
third grade inters, and their mentors it was decided that we needed to extend
our unit to last another three days. When we started this unit we noticed many
students were struggling. The text that we were reading was above most of their
reading levels and they did just not comprehend. On top of that we had one day
of no school and three half days. We couldn’t teach all that we wanted in a way
that they could understand in that shortened amount of time. After much
adjustment to our lesson plans we finally worked out a plan and a time frame.
On the
1st of November I decided that the students would write a
constructive response. After I modeled how to write one most kids did very
well. They were able to take the ideas that we came up with in class and put
them in their own words to answer the question. Some also did a great job
taking details from the text to support their answer. There were a few students
who struggled. They would find anything they wanted in the book and add it to
their writing even though it had nothing to do with the question that I asked. After
this lesson I was a little nervous to teach them how to write a summary.
On Monday we did a review for the
test that we would have on Monday. I decided to switch my plans around and have
them write a summary of the beginning, middle, and end. I figured this would be
a good way for them to remember important details from the text and it was a
great way to model how to write a summary. Some students did very well with
this. They knew they had to put the main points of the story in their summary
and leave out the juicy details. Other students really struggled. They kept
putting detail after detail and their writing was getting too long. It was not
until after they started writing that I realized that I should have told them
they had to pretend they were telling their friend about this book. They do not
need to tell them every bit of the story they just need to give the basics.
On Tuesday the students did not
have school so on Wednesday they took the reading test. A few did very well.
Most of the class scored a 70% or above. This was a real tough story for them
and I am proud of how well they did with a story that is way above their
reading level. The main thing they had trouble with was the vocabulary.
Reflecting back on it now that should have been something that was included in
the review but we just did not have time for it. I would rather have them comprehend
the story than memorize a few vocabulary words.
We started our new lesson on Thursday
which was a half day so I had to cut parts out of the original lesson. We
started a new story and the kids were very excited to finally be done with the
previous story. I started reading part of the story with them and drawing upon
their background knowledge. We also went over the new vocabulary words. Afterwards,
when we were playing the vocab game, I could really see that the kids were
struggling with these words. Again this story was way above most of their
reading levels. The kids loved the game but I think it would be better if I used
it a couple days after learning the words. After one read and review of the
words they were not ready for this game.
On Friday we had a half day so I
had to cut my lessons down to fit the new time frame. We read through the story
and I had the kids answer some comprehension questions. I felt a little more
confident with this story. They seem to understand this story way more than the
previous. I actually had kids raising their hands to answer questions which was
a rarity before.
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