Small Group Reflection
What do you think your students learned as a result of this activity? What evidence do you have of your student’ learning?
- My students got a chance to practice comprehension skills, discussion skills, and picking themes for poems. I collected the questions from my students showing their answers to the questions. My students answered the questions and then we discussed the answers so the students would have a chance to defend the answers they chose.
What aspects of the activity were successful? Why were they successful?
- I think the most successful aspect of the activity was having the students pick the theme of the poem and tell me as a short answer, rather than a multiple-choice answer. The students had the freedom to decide the theme. They weren’t forced to choose between 4 answers. By allowing the short answer, the students could explain why they thought their answer was correct by using details from the poem. The students liked being able to discuss their answers and defend themselves.
What aspects of the activity were less successful? Why were they less successful?
-I don’t think the close reading part of my activity was as successful because I didn’t have the time to go into detail about the things they underlined and circled. I wanted to have the students share what they underlined and what they circled and have a discussion about their answers. I think having them discuss these would have helped them to improve at picking out details from the text that they may need to answer questions.
What changes might make this learning activity more successful? Why might these changes help improve the activity?
- I think if I had more time, we would have been able to discuss the close reading of the poem. This was the part of the activity I really wanted to do, because I like to have discussions with the students. I think you can really see where students are if you can have a discussion with them. I also think that students feel like they have a role in the class when they can openly contribute to discussion. I might have also changed the two multiple-choice questions to discussion questions instead since it was a small group activity. However, I would have needed even more time if I had done that. I think almost everything would be more successful if we just had a little more time.
- My students got a chance to practice comprehension skills, discussion skills, and picking themes for poems. I collected the questions from my students showing their answers to the questions. My students answered the questions and then we discussed the answers so the students would have a chance to defend the answers they chose.
What aspects of the activity were successful? Why were they successful?
- I think the most successful aspect of the activity was having the students pick the theme of the poem and tell me as a short answer, rather than a multiple-choice answer. The students had the freedom to decide the theme. They weren’t forced to choose between 4 answers. By allowing the short answer, the students could explain why they thought their answer was correct by using details from the poem. The students liked being able to discuss their answers and defend themselves.
What aspects of the activity were less successful? Why were they less successful?
-I don’t think the close reading part of my activity was as successful because I didn’t have the time to go into detail about the things they underlined and circled. I wanted to have the students share what they underlined and what they circled and have a discussion about their answers. I think having them discuss these would have helped them to improve at picking out details from the text that they may need to answer questions.
What changes might make this learning activity more successful? Why might these changes help improve the activity?
- I think if I had more time, we would have been able to discuss the close reading of the poem. This was the part of the activity I really wanted to do, because I like to have discussions with the students. I think you can really see where students are if you can have a discussion with them. I also think that students feel like they have a role in the class when they can openly contribute to discussion. I might have also changed the two multiple-choice questions to discussion questions instead since it was a small group activity. However, I would have needed even more time if I had done that. I think almost everything would be more successful if we just had a little more time.