Blog 3
I met with Jason and Wynne before class started. They both had taken a look at the draft I
submitted regarding Lesson Plan 1 and 2.
I had decided to approach 2 lesson plans at the same time because the
subject of how to find verbs and subjects and subject verb agreement worked
very well with each other. One had too
little for one lesson, the other had too much for one lesson. They both seemed to think that I needed to
tie the lesson plans more closely to the class by contextualizing into the
lesson plan some of the reading that had been done in class. Jason suggested that I use the Bricklayer’s
Boy text and that is what I am going to try to work with.
The class started at 6PM.
Posted on the Board was Homework:
Math workbook p 9-16 and Read and markup Bricklayer’s Boy. Warm up:
Division and Math workbook. Summary:
Review, finish and present. Division Project: Note and begin.
Jason started the class with math division. He posted on the board:
·
Checking your answer – see if your answer is reasonable
and it is what the question is asking for.
·
Estimating
·
Chart/table/organizing info – Benchmark percents
·
Understand the Question – scale problem
·
He passed out division warm up
Jason passed out the attendance sheet. I noticed that a lot of people were trickling
in the first half hour.
Jason opens the class asking if there were any problems with
page 8 out of the math workbook. He
wanted people to share the problems that they had with the class. Students started posting their homework
problems on the board and the class started discussing problem solving
approaches. At about 6:32 Jason started
the lesson on division and long division.
One of the strategies he showed the class, was to take an abstract
situation and represent it with pictures.
He showed how to do long division.
He came up with a strategy to divide, multiply, subtract and bring
down. He showed how to deal with
remainders and remainders that had no end.
He showed how to do long division with decimal points.
At 7:10 math ended and he had the class re-form into groups
to continue the lesson on summarization.
The article the class has been reading, “Worth the Investment,” was the
text that would be used for the summarization exercise. At 7:22 Jason recaps the lessons the students
have already learned and creates a graphic organizer on the board titled
Summarizing. The topic sentence was the
first box followed by a series of boxes that were focusing on the major
points. After he drew the graphic organizer,
Jason pointed out to the class that the topic sentence might be done last as it
represented the main idea. He also talked
about the use of transitional devices that acted like mortar between the
bricks, which were the main ideas. He
asked the class to use mark-ups to help students establish the major points. Jason initially asked to have this within 10
minutes and then he wanted the groups to start to post their group findings on
chart paper. However, the process of
marking up took a lot longer for the groups to accomplish and the process of
posting on chart paper and then going over all the posts took the rest of class
time. He wanted the students to
highlight in other peoples work, by using post its, transitional devices used,
topic sentences and similarities or differences between the various summaries. The students did a great job in establishing
the main points and main topic of the reading.
Jason pushed the students hard to take the initiative in speaking up and
critiquing their classmates work. He used
prompts to give them ideas as possible points of discussion. The class was having a hard time weaning
themselves from Jason’s prompts. Jason
pushed through by starting to say things like, I know you guys must be tired of
listening to me, or I’m not going to say anything, you guys take over. Then there would be silence and Jason would
kick start the process again. As people
were gathering their things to leave Jason talked about the homework due for
the next class.
Regan, I notice that you are paying close attention to how Jason facilitates discussions in the class. There is a definite tension between allowing students to make discoveries in activities vs. giving them the tools they need to "get the answer." In the class work around summarizing, I notice that Jason is asking students to use active reading strategies to decide what's important for their summarizing work. This seems to me like a good example of how reading and writing instruction can occur together.
ReplyDeleteAs we move through the semester, you'll see that Jason is laying some groundwork for the persuasive essay writing students will have to complete on the TASC exam. Summarizing skills will lend themselves to identifying and explaining the issues students will be asked to consider. In addition, the art of summarization will be a useful tool for longer, more technical readings students will complete later in the semester and in college.
Thank you for the additional class strategy insight. I did notice that there was student confusion about summarizing a text versus writing a persuasive piece. Some students wanted to go straight to agreeing or disagreeing with the text they read. It was difficult for them to switch over to being the reporter of the text they read. I felt their anxiety about the summarizing task.
DeleteI also learned about summarizing in the class. I never felt comfortable writing in book margins for many reasons. I come from parents with 19th century values about books. I also am shy to have anybody read my comments at a later date. Now that I rethink this, I will be more liberal with my page mark ups.
Regan, You have done a wonderful job of describing the lesson in terms of what Jason says and does and also in terms of what the students did in groups. I feel like I am right there watching Jason and the students alongside you. What I don't have a sense of, from the description, is the students as individuals. How many students were present? Can you describe a few of them? Do you know their names? Do some seem to talk more than others?
ReplyDeleteEngagement: Were they all engaged throughout the lesson? Did you observe the students to be engaged with the group activity?
I am not sure I understand what the students were struggling with. What was posing the difficulty for them? And why were they struggling? What do you think?
All in all, you have done a great job of describing your observations.
The act of summarizing a challenging piece of text was causing confusion. It required a great level of concentration and also team interpersonal skills. The end result showed different skill levels in the groups. The class, by Jason forcing the groups to go over the other groups work, learned from each other.
DeleteThe students are likeable and I want them to succeed. I know some names because of their eagerness to engage in class responses. When I taught last night, I incorrectly relied on those people to carry me through the lesson. I also relied on the eager responders to know whether they were understanding my lesson. At times I tried to get others to engage, but I also knew I had a lot of material to go through, which ultimately I did not get through fully.