Lesson 1

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

• The lesson was a whole group discussion about our question of the week, “Which wild animals live in our neighborhood?” During our class discussion we had to distinguish differences between pets and actual wild animals. Also, to understand the differences between different types of animals we talked about other kinds of animals such as farm animals and zoo animals. There were two students who struggled during the think, pair, share, they were distracted during the discussion and being disruptive to other students and their partners were not able to share with them because they were not listening. Another focus of the discussion was to get students to comment on what another student shared, for example I asked a student what their partner shared with them instead of asking that student what they told their partner. The students who generally participate a lot and like to share still wanted to share their own thoughts and did not tell what their partner told them.

· What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students' performance or products?

• At first I was not sure how the think, pair, share would go and it did get really loud during the partner sharing time and it was hard for me to tell if they really were on task and I had to sit with the two groups where one of the partners was not really on task, so I think that those couple minutes could seem chaotic but I had at least one student from each partner group share and there were really good responses and relevant personal stories. Since it is a class discussion there is not a lot to “show” for it besides our concept map but it was a good opening class discussion about our topic for the week and the students got to practice different discussion skills.

· What did you learn about your students' literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

• For the most part the students are good listeners when it comes to sharing with a partner, which was something I was worried about, there were just a few issues with deciding who gets to go first and I know that wasted time for a majority of the partner groups. They also have a good grasp of creating a concept map as a class and they figured out how I grouped the animals as I was writing them.

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

• the material we are discussing is wild animals in our neighborhoods and since it is our theme for the week the material will be addressed for the rest of the week and it was just coming up with ideas, so for students who need additional support displaying the concept map on the whiteboard could be beneficial and then looking at it everyday as we add to it will be helpful. Also when it comes to vocabulary the “Amazing Words” for the week are also displayed and will be discussed throughout the week.

· 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?

• An aspect of the lesson I would change deals more with classroom management, I would have rather had the students on the carpet area for a group discussion, the students are closer together and I feel it is easier to keep their attention. The reason why I had them at their table spots was to use the smartboard and document camera to show pictures and make a concept map and so they could use their student books. There have been discussions in the past where they didn’t need their student books so we did have them on the carpet and I prefer that but I know that the technology part is also interesting to them and using the smartboard. I could also see how I could make this a longer partner activity and perhaps put the students in pairs and they could create a list of wild animals in the neighborhood and write responses on a white board with a partner and then come back to share. I think sometimes when given a task like that it helps to keep them on track.