Lesson 1: KWL

Lesson 1: KWL

· What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson?

o In this lesson students learned how to make text to self connections. They learned how to use a KWL chart and they learned that it can be used across topics. They learned how life was long ago by comparing it to their own lives now. After we went on the field trip it was hard for students to differentiate what they learned on the field trip in general versus what they learned on the field trip about long ago. Many of the responses that children came up with were things that they learned about nature, or they learned about animals.

 What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or products?

o The thing that the students struggled with the most was the L part of the KWL. I had the students draw a picture of something that they learned and many of them drew picture of animals or of the cabin but couldn’t tell me anything they learned about the cabin, just that there was one. For someone seeing just the results of the chart the L part does not show the students struggling with this idea. It took many times repeating myself to help them understand just what they were supposed to do.

 What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

o I learned that the students in my class responded to informational text just as well as they respond to stories. My students were fascinated by the photos that were in the books that we read about long ago. After we read the books I thought it was awesome at all the ideas that students had for the KW part of the KWL. The students came up with wonderful ideas that they had noticed in the book. They talked about the school house being different, about having no playground, and about having to walk or ride a horse to school. The students also came up with great questions that they wanted to know more about. I thought using the KWL chart was a very good and easy way for the students to see their learning progress.

 When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

o For the students that need additional support I will pull the few aside and have them look at the books with me in a small group. I will show them the KWL chart that was made and I will ask them if there was anything that they would add. I will use the small group setting to be able to give more specialized attention to the students that need it.

 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?

o If I were to teach this lesson again I would do the KW part before reading any of the books. I read them before this part because I wasn’t sure of the knowledge the students had before hand. The next time I will not under estimate the students. It would improve the students’ learning because I think they would have even more questions about what they wanted to know more about. I also think then they could have had wider variety of things that they learned from the books and from the field trip.