(Lesson Notes)
You can watch a full video recording of this lesson through Edthena at
https://app.edthena.com/conversations/y4WuB9JiNsRjK2r4H
https://app.edthena.com/conversations/y4WuB9JiNsRjK2r4H
(My Notes) |
(Rachel's Notes) |
0:39 I know that I was trying to set a good example by whispering in the library (to show that they should also try to keep their voices down) but it is hard to hear myself!
0:44 Going over expectations. Practicing what I want to see. (i.e. criss cross apple sauce, peanut butter hands) 1:16 Billy added "And no fighting" 1:22 Outlines consequences for not following the expectations 1:52 What would I have done if someone didn't agree to the expectations? 2:03 The set up wasn't great because the shelves for the book fair made it a pretty cramped space. (which was why I asked the kids to sit AROUND the carpet initially rather than on the carpet) 2:31 I know that I was sitting in that spot so that I wasn't too close to the students, but I was kind of far from Scott and Billy in the corner. Again, this was an issue of working within the space. 3:44 I could have asked them to guess what they were saving their money for. 4:30 Asking students to make predictions about what the girl and her mom will see when they get to their house. 4:49 Remind Nelson to raise his hand to speak, but tell him that we appreciate his prediction. 7:50 Involve students by asking them "Who else has read Goldilocks and the Three Bears"? 8:09 I'm surprised that they are all sitting so still and quietly and they're looking at the book. 8:52 Billy is so cute. He clapped after I finished reading. 8:56 Begin Story #2 9:04 I said "The End" and Nelson goes, "Really?" 9:10 Re-Read "Story #2" 9:19 One student said, "It's the same story as Story #1." 9:25 Ask the students "If you were a reader, which story would be more interesting to read?" 9:40 "What about Story #1 made it more interesting?" 9:52 Mara says Story #2 didn't have any pictures, which is why Story #1 was more interesting. 9:53 I tried to call on Mara when she raised her hand because I knew that she is quiet and doesn't always participate. 10:20 Scott says story #1 had pictures and story #2 only had one page. 10:26 Scott: "Story #1 had more pages. So that's like a real story." 10:42 Dana: "Story #1 was more interesting because that one had a lot of details and the other one didn't." 10:46 Use what Dana said about key details to remind students about what they did that morning with Teacher Amy. 10:51 Dhruv: "I think that one had a lot of stories than that one." 11:32 Nelson: "I would say, if I were you, story #2 is part of story #1." 11:40 Nelson: "And then it could be a good ending for story #1." 11:52 Scott pointed to the poster that says "Key Details" when I said "Dana had a good point when she talked about..." 11:58 Acknowledged what Sam was doing (pointing to poster that says key details) quickly, without detracting or distracting the other students from the lesson. 12:13 Moving on to identifying the key details from the story 12:25 Reminder to Nelson to sit criss cross apple sauce 12:33 Dhruv: The mom worked. 12:37 Ask follow-up question. "Who is 'she'? Do you remember?" 12:44 I should have had a marker ready instead of trying to write with the pen first. 12:51 Haha. Thanks Rachel =D 13:08 The students look like they're engaged and interested in the lesson. 13:35 Dana: "They're trying to get money to buy a chair. 13:41 Follow-up question: "What are they doing with the money? Where are they putting it?" 14:00 I didn't think about having the students read what I was writing on the poster, but do you think that would have been a good idea? 14:05 Asking students to identify details about the type of jar that they mentioned in the story. 14:09 Billy: "Big jar" 14:25 Talks about how Dana already started to tell us about what happens in the middle of the story. 14:29 Reminder to raise our hand before speaking. 14:42 Mara tells us they want the money to buy a chair. 14:57 Dhruv (I think?) is reminding students how to sit by whispering "Criss cross apple sauce". Cute! 15:09 Me: "What happened to their old chair?" 15:13 I repeat the question. 15:30 Billy gave us a whole lot of detail. "Who thinks they can sum up what Billy just said?" 15:49 Warning #1 to Sam for playing with the books next to him. 15:56 Nelson: "Their old chair got burnt." 16:17 Did Nelson say burnt or burned? 16:24 Tried to get Scott involved by asking him to tell us what happened next. Scott: "They went to the bank and they got a chair." 16:34 Before that happens, what happened to the jar? 16:47 Who can help Scott? (He said they're trying to buy a bigger jar.) 17:01 One of them said they think the jar got burned. I could have asked them where they read that in the story/to show me the evidence for that. 17:31 Should I have moved Sam and/or separated Nelson at this point? 17:35 Summarized what Dhruv saying "They emptied the jar at the bank." Maybe ask Dhruv is that's what he was saying. 18:20 Dana reminds us that "all the other people gave them stuff". 18:24 I could have asked them where it goes instead of telling them that it goes in the middle at the end. 18:36 It looks like Scott is no longer paying attention. He is turned away and it looks like he's talking to Nelson. 18:47 Involve Mara by asking her what happened at the end and then making my question even more specific "What did they do with the money?" 18:50 Mara: "They paid for a chair." 19:15 Introduce what we're doing. "We're going to be writing our own stories today." 19:30 Why didn't I move Sam and Niall if I had to say their name again? 19:43 Ask students to repeat what we're doing today. (Ask them to give an example of an experience) 19:55 Introduce the author option. (It looks like Sam is more interested now.) 19:59 Why did I ask them to raise their hand if they want to be an author if I haven't introduced the other options yet? Wait to ask them what they want to be until I tell them all of the options!! 20:15 "I want to do that too." We're just going to do one today. Maybe we'll do another one another day. 20:43 Warning #2 to Nelson. Asking him to move his seat. 21:26 Nelson and Scott wanted to be authors. 21:27 I should have introduced the papers on the carpet and then given them to the students to work on them at the tables. 21:37 Dhruv, Dana, Mara, and Billy want to be illustrators. 21:41 Should have modeled what storytellers do more. 21:42 Instruct students to turn and talk on the carpet before telling them to go to the tables. Also could have had the students turn and talk before they decided what job they wanted to have. 21:53 Whyyyyy didn't I introduce the key details organizer?!?! I completely forgot... 22:09 Turning and talking 23:27 Nelson is talking to Billy about his experience 24:01 I told the group that it is okay if they change their mind and want to be an illustrator instead of a writer today. 24:21 Should have told them before they started that I was looking for two details in the beginning, middle, and end just like we practiced with A Chair for My Mother. 24:47 "She's not sharing the blue marker" 25:15 Taped the posters with "key details" and "memoir" to the shelves so students had a visual reminder. 25:41 I begin individual conferences. 26:05 Nelson is holding up 2 fingers and saying "Next" to show that he has multiple details. 27:31 Scott asked what an experience was. I could have stopped the group and had another student tell him or reminded the whole group what an experience is. 28:01 Do you think I spent too much time individually conferencing with Scott? 29:08 Individual conference with Dana 30:02 Individual conference with Dhruv 30:47 Remind Dhruv that we should have the details that he told me in his picture too. 30:52 Conference with Billy 31:10 Billy is drawing the picture of what Nelson was writing. Somehow, something about my instructions did not get across here... 31:16 Refer to the poster about what a memoir is. 32:02 I'm trying to get Billy to see that he has had many experiences. I am unfortunately convinced that his classroom culture might be slowly making him feel like he can't be himself to the point where he no longer thinks anything that he has done is important. 32:40 Dhruv cracks me up. He asks me if I can put the lid back on my marker because "you're about to make it dry". 33:05 How can you get students to see that their experiences are important and worth writing about? 33:35 Billy is writing about meeting Niall. 34:06 "How did you feel before you went to Nelson's house? Let's start there." 34:10 How can you find the line between scaffolding and telling the student what to write? 35:17 The students look like they're really into their work. 35:28 I introduce the structured graphic organizer for illustrators that I made. I let Billy choose if he wanted to use it or not. 36:00 Again, I need a watch or clock! I asked Rachel for the time. 36:09 2 more minutes and then we're going to share our work 36:46 60 seconds. One minute left. 37:25 Maybe I should set an actual timer. 38:03 Time is up. Pencils down. 38:12 Reminder to Sam to put his marker down. 38:29 Nelson is sharing his story. 38:35 Nelson: "That was part one." 39:00 Nelson: "That was part two!" 39:29 Nelson: "That was part three." 39:42 Eddie's turn to share. 39:57 Refer to things as "work in progress" and try to get them to see that it's okay if we don't finish 40:13 Dhruv's turn to share 40:34 Do you think this is a true experience? What part/how much? (RE Dhruv's shark story) 40:49 Dana: "The first thing I was thinking..." 41:20 Dana: At the end it was freezing. Niall: "What about the snowman?" 41:47 Mara didn't want to share, but then she held up her picture. 42:42 Nelson and Scott said Mia's picture was "Awesome" 41:52 Scott turn to share 44:09 Make sure everyone is lining up! Eddie was still drawing |
0:28 Soooooo quiet. I couldn't hear you, but I hoped your phone would!
2:32 It's hard for my to add notes because there are so many and every time I try to click it just fast forwards in the video! I wanted to say that I liked how you covered up the books and just wrote Story 1 and Story 2 - added a little mystery and took away some bias from the kids liking one cover more than the other (even though the second book was fake!) 4:49 Sometimes I think it's okay not to tell kids you're grateful for their response. If they call out, you shouldn't be grateful. Isn't that a type of positive reinforcement? I think it's okay just to ignore him or say "I'm going to wait for your hand to respond to you." 10:51 What an interesting thing to say. It's almost like he thinks that content/happenings are synonymous with stories. Since the first story had a lot more going on, he thought that it had more stories. 10:40 Maybe if Story 2 had a completely different subject, they wouldn't have come up with this answer. But it didn't really take away from the conversation, it's just a thought. 12:51 =) 13:35 She knows! 15:13 Very good - you didn't answer your own question. 18:36 Yes, their behavior was inconsistent. 19:30 I started to wonder this as well, but you were just keeping things moving. 25:41 I like that we both tried to include conferences. Yours were one-on-one, and mine were small groups. 28:01 Remember that fairness is everyone getting what they need. If he needed a longer conference, I don't see anything wrong with that. But you know that better than anyone. 32:40 I thought that was hilarious. 33:05 Maybe by asking them, "Do you think anyone wants to read a story about your life?" or something like that. Find out what they think, and then go from there. Some of them may already think their experiences are worth writing about and then they will be better equipped to help the students who don't (zone of proximal development) 36:00 Watch for the win! 44:09 You can try varying your tone. You give directions in the same tone of voice that you give praise. If you changed the pitch or tone of your voice when you give directions, it may yield some different results. But I could also just be making that up! |
(Our In Person Discussion About My Lesson)
(What We Learned In Order To Revise Our Lesson Plan)
Rachel and I honed in on three things that we learned from my lesson that she could use to revise her lesson.
First, after talking about the various reasons why none of my students chose to be storytellers, we both concluded that modeling is very important and it was unfortunately lacking in the original version of our lesson plan. I told them what a storyteller was and had a visual to remind them what storytellers do, but I did not act out storytelling myself. I also thought that the students might have been more inclined to be storytellers if storytelling was a part of their normal literacy routine in the classroom. In light of this, Rachel revised her lesson plan in the following way:
3. Summarize/Concluding remarks
First, after talking about the various reasons why none of my students chose to be storytellers, we both concluded that modeling is very important and it was unfortunately lacking in the original version of our lesson plan. I told them what a storyteller was and had a visual to remind them what storytellers do, but I did not act out storytelling myself. I also thought that the students might have been more inclined to be storytellers if storytelling was a part of their normal literacy routine in the classroom. In light of this, Rachel revised her lesson plan in the following way:
3. Summarize/Concluding remarks
Second, I realized that I did not specifically tell the students what to focus on nor was I very clear about what I was looking for in their work. Had I given out the key detail worksheets like I planned, I think the students would have better understood that I wanted them to represent two key details in their depiction of the beginning, middle, and end. Rachel incorporated being explicit about what the students should focus on in her lesson plan:
She also explicitly noted that the students were supposed to identify the beginning, middle, and end of the book and represent it by drawing it or acting it out.
Lastly, I realized that I did not have any summary or concluding remarks. The students were asked to share their memoirs with the group, but there was no connection to the main concept behind the lesson.