Whole Group Lesson Reflection
What evidence do you have that students mastered or did not master the lesson objective?
- I incorporated a lot of discussion into my teacher input for this lesson on themes in poetry. I feel that by doing this, I was able to see which students understood the concept and which ones did not. Also, the students recorded answers to specific questions about the themes in poetry in their reading journals, so if I needed to see exactly where my students were, I could read in their journals to check their understanding. The students had a worksheet that was provided by the clinical teacher so that she could see what the students learned and know if she needed to reteach anything after I was finished.
Based on your evaluation of their work, how many students mastered the lesson objective?
- I think about half of my students understood the concept I was teaching. They were able to pick out the theme of the poem we used in guided practice. The students recorded the correct answers in their journals. I would say that about 12 out of the 24 students in my class understood the idea of finding the theme in a poem. I think most, if not all of them, still need a lot of practice though. I was not aware how difficult of a concept poetry is. Just reading the poems can be difficult for many students, so adding in finding a theme can be tough if they don’t even understand what they are reading.
What did your students learn as a result of your teaching? Was that your intention?
- I think my students learned that there is a theme in poems, just like there is a theme in any other story. My students had previously been learning about themes in literature and they actually had a list of specific themes to choose from when picking a theme. My intention was to teach them how to find a theme in a poem, but it was very difficult because I think they needed another lesson beforehand about how to read poetry. Most of them had no problem reading the words on the page, but they didn’t understand what the poem meant because the layout and the style of writing was so different than the stories they were used to reading.
Name at least 1 aspect of the lesson that was successful. Why was it successful?
- To find the theme in the poem, the students had to figure out what the poem was about, so I had to ask comprehension questions. During teacher input, I would read a line or stanza and emphasize keywords that hinted at what the poem was about. I would then ask the students what they thought it was about. This was successful because the students already knew how to use key words to figure out what a story was about. The student had worked on comprehension for a while, so that really contributed to the success of the comprehension questions.
Name at least 1 aspect of the lesson that was less successful. Why was it less successful?
- Poetry is hard. I had no idea that it was so hard for students to understand, so I kind of rushed through reading the poem and I didn’t read it more than once. I think the students could figure out what the poem was about, but to find the theme, they had to read between the lines, and I wasn’t giving them enough time to do that. I just moved on.
What changes might make this lesson more successful? Why might these changes help improve the activity?
- The biggest thing I would have changed in this lesson is my timing. As I said previously, I wasn’t giving my students the time they needed to find the theme. I think I was nervous when I went into teaching this lesson, so I was rushing through the lesson to be sure I finished it in the time frame I was given. I know that when I have my own classroom, the time is up to me. For the most part, I won’t be tied to another teacher’s schedule, so if a lesson goes over for a few minutes, it is not a big deal. I think if I had realized that it is okay to slow down to ensure everyone was understanding, my lesson would have been more successful. By allowing myself to slow down, I would have been allowing the students to slow down as well and then they could have understood more than just comprehension of the poem.
- I incorporated a lot of discussion into my teacher input for this lesson on themes in poetry. I feel that by doing this, I was able to see which students understood the concept and which ones did not. Also, the students recorded answers to specific questions about the themes in poetry in their reading journals, so if I needed to see exactly where my students were, I could read in their journals to check their understanding. The students had a worksheet that was provided by the clinical teacher so that she could see what the students learned and know if she needed to reteach anything after I was finished.
Based on your evaluation of their work, how many students mastered the lesson objective?
- I think about half of my students understood the concept I was teaching. They were able to pick out the theme of the poem we used in guided practice. The students recorded the correct answers in their journals. I would say that about 12 out of the 24 students in my class understood the idea of finding the theme in a poem. I think most, if not all of them, still need a lot of practice though. I was not aware how difficult of a concept poetry is. Just reading the poems can be difficult for many students, so adding in finding a theme can be tough if they don’t even understand what they are reading.
What did your students learn as a result of your teaching? Was that your intention?
- I think my students learned that there is a theme in poems, just like there is a theme in any other story. My students had previously been learning about themes in literature and they actually had a list of specific themes to choose from when picking a theme. My intention was to teach them how to find a theme in a poem, but it was very difficult because I think they needed another lesson beforehand about how to read poetry. Most of them had no problem reading the words on the page, but they didn’t understand what the poem meant because the layout and the style of writing was so different than the stories they were used to reading.
Name at least 1 aspect of the lesson that was successful. Why was it successful?
- To find the theme in the poem, the students had to figure out what the poem was about, so I had to ask comprehension questions. During teacher input, I would read a line or stanza and emphasize keywords that hinted at what the poem was about. I would then ask the students what they thought it was about. This was successful because the students already knew how to use key words to figure out what a story was about. The student had worked on comprehension for a while, so that really contributed to the success of the comprehension questions.
Name at least 1 aspect of the lesson that was less successful. Why was it less successful?
- Poetry is hard. I had no idea that it was so hard for students to understand, so I kind of rushed through reading the poem and I didn’t read it more than once. I think the students could figure out what the poem was about, but to find the theme, they had to read between the lines, and I wasn’t giving them enough time to do that. I just moved on.
What changes might make this lesson more successful? Why might these changes help improve the activity?
- The biggest thing I would have changed in this lesson is my timing. As I said previously, I wasn’t giving my students the time they needed to find the theme. I think I was nervous when I went into teaching this lesson, so I was rushing through the lesson to be sure I finished it in the time frame I was given. I know that when I have my own classroom, the time is up to me. For the most part, I won’t be tied to another teacher’s schedule, so if a lesson goes over for a few minutes, it is not a big deal. I think if I had realized that it is okay to slow down to ensure everyone was understanding, my lesson would have been more successful. By allowing myself to slow down, I would have been allowing the students to slow down as well and then they could have understood more than just comprehension of the poem.