This section of my blog contains my reflection of my experiences during the seventh week and early time of my full-time teaching experience during this internship.
This week went well! I began teaching the Reading section of our Reading/Language Arts class. It seemed to go very well and the students seemed to be more involved.
The students liked the idea that they were not going to have to take a regular-multiple choice reading test. Because of this, they also seemed to pay more attention and participated more, especially those students that haven't been the best to participate in the past. :)
On Wednesday, I began with vocabulary concept cards and activities as usual as review for their quiz on Thursday. Then, I taught the students about Narrative Elements-characters, setting, plot, and theme. We used a transparency and the students seemed to like this because it wasn't something that we use all of the time (it is difficult to get out and manuever in our crowded classroom). The students were each then given a graphic organizer to use with the elements and the story for the week, "Elena". This went well. The students were able to provide me with more information from the story and more students participated than usually do, it seemed.
After reading and Narrative Elements on Wednesday, I taught English and conjunctions. For this lesson, I decided to create a PowerPoint presentation in order to reach students that learn in different ways differently. The only downfall was/is that our whiteboard is still not connecting/calibrating and students can not participate with the pen as I/they would like to. But, the lesson went well, and since the students were so well behaved, I decided to complete the book pages orally and the Reteaching Workbook page for a grade. EVERYONE did great! I had two students between both classes to get lower than a 100% and those students each only missed one (probably out of carelessness) and got a 92%.
Now, I know this sounds like an extremely busy day for students (and me), but the students were so well behaved, involved, and on-task that we got everything that I had planned done in time! I believe we even had a few extra minutes to play SPARKLE.
On Thursday, students returned the flashcards that they had borrowed to student their vocabulary. They took the vocabulary quiz and students’ grades have continued to improve! None of the students scored below a 70% and in the past, there have always been one or two students to score around or below there continuously.
Later, we checked our Spelling Pages that had been assigned on Monday and the students turned in their practice tests from the workbook for a grade. This seemed to go very well, but I had a funny feeling that the test wasn't going to be the same as these words were quite tricky. I told Mrs. Morris that I had a sick feeling that the students weren't going to do very well on this Spelling Test.
Next, we review our Narrative Elements added more details to our transparency graphic organizer, and prepared for our non-traditional reading test on Friday. We also studies the vocabulary that went with the story using a picture transparency. As a class, we examined the picture and determined what was going on AND using our vocabulary words to figure it out before we read the story that went along with the picture. The students did great! They showed me that they knew how to apply the meanings of these words to a situation and that they were ready for the test.
Last, we reviewed for the test by completing Reading Practice Book pages; one that went with the vocabulary and one that went with Narrative Elements as extra help for story comprehension and test prep. The students did well and most even finished the pages in class and did not have to do them for homework.
On Friday, the students took the Narrative Elements test and did AWESOME! All students scored a 70% or above from both classes. Students that usually don't do as well did a whole grade letter better. However, there were a few that I expected to do perfect that didn't do so well, but I believe that is because they rushed through it and they didn't complete the bonus.
The Spelling Test, not to my surprise, did not go well. Most of the students did poorly (low B, C, and high D range). This makes me wonder how next week I can work with those tricky words to help students learn how to spell them. Hmmm. Maybe I will make them do Fill-Ins! Those helped before... we will see.
Lastly, I taught English and Run-On sentences. I used another PowerPoint and the students seemed to be more involved. They also were able to understand the concept of run-on sentences more and show that they knew how to apply different rules for correcting run-on sentences. The lesson went so well that I only had students complete part of the assignment that I had planned instead of all of it that way they didn't have too much homework... if any!
Glad to see you're persisting on the technology--don't let something being "hard" prevent you from doing the most to reach your students! Think about varying your assessments as well--you'll reach different learners with different types of assessements.
This week went well! I began teaching the Reading section of our Reading/Language Arts class. It seemed to go very well and the students seemed to be more involved.
ReplyDeleteThe students liked the idea that they were not going to have to take a regular-multiple choice reading test. Because of this, they also seemed to pay more attention and participated more, especially those students that haven't been the best to participate in the past. :)
On Wednesday, I began with vocabulary concept cards and activities as usual as review for their quiz on Thursday. Then, I taught the students about Narrative Elements-characters, setting, plot, and theme. We used a transparency and the students seemed to like this because it wasn't something that we use all of the time (it is difficult to get out and manuever in our crowded classroom). The students were each then given a graphic organizer to use with the elements and the story for the week, "Elena". This went well. The students were able to provide me with more information from the story and more students participated than usually do, it seemed.
After reading and Narrative Elements on Wednesday, I taught English and conjunctions.
For this lesson, I decided to create a PowerPoint presentation in order to reach students that learn in different ways differently. The only downfall was/is that our whiteboard is still not connecting/calibrating and students can not participate with the pen as I/they would like to. But, the lesson went well, and since the students were so well behaved, I decided to complete the book pages orally and the Reteaching Workbook page for a grade. EVERYONE did great! I had two students between both classes to get lower than a 100% and those students each only missed one (probably out of carelessness) and got a 92%.
Now, I know this sounds like an extremely busy day for students (and me), but the students were so well behaved, involved, and on-task that we got everything that I had planned done in time! I believe we even had a few extra minutes to play SPARKLE.
On Thursday, students returned the flashcards that they had borrowed to student their vocabulary. They took the vocabulary quiz and students’ grades have continued to improve! None of the students scored below a 70% and in the past, there have always been one or two students to score around or below there continuously.
ReplyDeleteLater, we checked our Spelling Pages that had been assigned on Monday and the students turned in their practice tests from the workbook for a grade. This seemed to go very well, but I had a funny feeling that the test wasn't going to be the same as these words were quite tricky. I told Mrs. Morris that I had a sick feeling that the students weren't going to do very well on this Spelling Test.
Next, we review our Narrative Elements added more details to our transparency graphic organizer, and prepared for our non-traditional reading test on Friday. We also studies the vocabulary that went with the story using a picture transparency. As a class, we examined the picture and determined what was going on AND using our vocabulary words to figure it out before we read the story that went along with the picture. The students did great! They showed me that they knew how to apply the meanings of these words to a situation and that they were ready for the test.
Last, we reviewed for the test by completing Reading Practice Book pages; one that went with the vocabulary and one that went with Narrative Elements as extra help for story comprehension and test prep. The students did well and most even finished the pages in class and did not have to do them for homework.
On Friday, the students took the Narrative Elements test and did AWESOME! All students scored a 70% or above from both classes. Students that usually don't do as well did a whole grade letter better. However, there were a few that I expected to do perfect that didn't do so well, but I believe that is because they rushed through it and they didn't complete the bonus.
The Spelling Test, not to my surprise, did not go well. Most of the students did poorly (low B, C, and high D range). This makes me wonder how next week I can work with those tricky words to help students learn how to spell them. Hmmm. Maybe I will make them do Fill-Ins! Those helped before... we will see.
Lastly, I taught English and Run-On sentences. I used another PowerPoint and the students seemed to be more involved. They also were able to understand the concept of run-on sentences more and show that they knew how to apply different rules for correcting run-on sentences. The lesson went so well that I only had students complete part of the assignment that I had planned instead of all of it that way they didn't have too much homework... if any!
Looking forward to next week!!!
-ME
Glad to see you're persisting on the technology--don't let something being "hard" prevent you from doing the most to reach your students! Think about varying your assessments as well--you'll reach different learners with different types of assessements.
ReplyDelete