GLT Reflection 2

GLT Reflection

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

Students worked on producing rhymes by filling the blanks of a phrase read aloud to them. As a whole, the group did very well with this. Almost all of the students verbalized the correct rhyming word to make the pair. For the few students that did struggle, I repeated the rhyming pair by taking them out of the sentence context and saying them out loud so they could hear the rhyme more easily. After doing this, these students agreed that the two words did rhyme.

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

Students were able to make connections at various points in the story. I think this came easily for students because of the lesson topic (families). This made it more accessible to students because they could all relate to some aspect of the story. Most students shared about the size of their family (big or small, like in our story) and then they each had a chance to share about something they do with their family. Every student was able to share something that they enjoy doing with their family with the whole class during our discussion.

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

With both rhyming and making connections, my students were eager to participate in the learning activities I had planned. I also learned that my students need multiple times to practice a new skill and also see it being modeled for them before they can successfully do so independently. Going over the think-aloud chart several times in this unit and modeling the strategies for students seemed to have helped them to be able to better understand how it works.

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

I will continue using the think-aloud chart in future lessons. This is a material that will be used again and again even thought my unit for GLT is completed. Students will continue to receive modeling on these strategies and have time to practice using them in future lessons. Activities involving rhyming will also continue to be an important topic in future reading lessons. This is a crucial pre-reading skill that my students will need more practice with so I plan to continue to teach this material.

• 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? 

If I were to teach this again, I would have the rhyming phrases written out on chart paper and include pictures next to the words so that students could clearly see which two words are the rhyming pair. This will also serve as a helpful visual for my ELLs and struggling students. This may also get all students even more engaged in the activity.

• What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

In terms of implementing my core practice, I have learned that repetition is key. The more students got used to the think-aloud chart we created in the beginning of my unit and the more they had opportunities to see it being put in action (through my own modeling) as well as practice it on their own, the more successful they seemed to be with it. In order to continue my professional learning, I could look for more ways to incorporate the learning of these practices into reading lessons with young children.