Our fourth lesson was centered around vocabulary. We started by reintroducing ourselves and reviewing the visual agenda for the lesson. For our icebreaker, the students each wrote a 6-word memoir in their journals. Before they started writing, we explained what a memoir is and showed the group of students visual examples of 6-word memoirs. Once the students were finished, we went around the group and everyone had the opportunity to share what they had written. If the student drew a picture with their memoir, they shared that as well. Next, we activated the students’ prior knowledge by asking if they had ever read a Pura Belpre book before. They hadn’t, and we explained why a book would receive a Pura Bepre award. For vocabulary, we chose words related to the themes in our read-aloud book. The students were shown the words one at a time and were given definitions and examples for each. Then, we introduced the Frayer Model with an anchor chart. To familiarize the students with this vocabulary strategy, we selected the word tradition from our list to fill in the chart together. After filling in our anchor chart, the students had a brain break before we started the read-aloud.
The Pura Belpre book we chose was Grandma’s Gift by Eric Velasquez. The students were asked frequent comprehension check questions during the reading. Once we finished the read-aloud, the students were each given a Frayer Model graphic organizer. Together, we discussed and filled in the organizer using the vocabulary word culture. Both teachers in our group wrote on whiteboards to help the students with spelling and to give one-on-one support. After every student finished their graphic organizers, we had our second brain break of the lesson. Then we passed out dry-erase sentence strips to each student. For each vocabulary word for this lesson, everyone in the group wrote down a sentence using the word. The students were able to use the sentences they wrote down to guide their journal writing activity. In their journals, the students wrote about their chosen vocabulary word from our list. They were allowed to either create a story using the word or retell what they learned about it during our lesson. Once all the students finished writing, we collected the journals and cleaned up to conclude our lesson.
Something that went well during this lesson was the comprehension checks during reading. There were many themes and events in the book that resonated with the students. At multiple points, the students were able to connect something that happened in the book to a personal experience they had. For the comprehension questions, the students were all able to follow along and answer accurately. The relevance of this book helped the students connect with and fully understand it. An area of weakness was how we presented the vocabulary for our lesson. The words that we chose related to the themes of the book and all built on each other. Some of our vocabulary words included culture, heritage, and tradition. This was the order we presented them in. However, I think that if we presented the vocab in a different order, that may have helped the students differentiate them better. Also, having visual pictures for each word could give the students another element to understand each word. By seeing and hearing examples for vocabulary, the students may have a more holistic understanding of each word.
Each student met the learning objectives for this lesson. The SLOs were “By the end of the lesson, students will be able to define a given tier 2 vocabulary word from the read-aloud story with differentiated core support by completing a Frayer Model chart” with varying percentages of support. To meet the objective, each student accurately completed their Frayer Model graphic organizer. This was done by actively contributing to our group discussion, then writing down the information we decided on.
One thing I learned during this experience is to actively listen to the students' needs. At the beginning of our lesson, one of the students in our group kept asking if they would have time to eat a morning snack. In previous lessons, the students had been finishing their snack time when we arrived. However, that was not the case today, so as a compromise, the students were allowed to have their snacks during our read-aloud. This showed me how compromise can be important in the classroom to keep the lesson going. Making time during the lesson for our students to have a snack helped them continue to focus for the rest of our time with them.
This experience will influence my professional identity to always try my best to accommodate any of the needs the students I am teaching may have. This can go beyond just the students' learning needs. During this lesson, multiple students in the group needed to address different personal challenges that affected their participation in the lesson. This experience showed me that while some of the students' issues may be easier to solve than others, I can still work with them to provide the support they need.
In future lessons, I will be sure to consider many different ways to present content. Verbal explanations can get the students engaged with active listening and discussing a topic. Visual pictures can give more context to the elements of our lesson. Written materials can give the students the opportunity to independently read and write about our lesson's topic. By implementing many different modes of content, I can better cater to the students I am teaching. This way, I can ensure that their comprehension is always a main focus of my lesson planning.
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