I had the opportunity to conduct a whole-class shared reading lesson. I was excited and nervous since it was the first time I taught the entire class together. I already feel comfortable working with small groups of 4-7 students, so I felt it necessary to conduct my CT observation in a whole-class environment. I chose a literacy lesson, because I felt more comfortable teaching language arts content, since it is my strongest subject. I would have enjoyed integrating social studies into my lesson, but my CT had her week planned and was working on poetry throughout the week. My CT provided me with the lesson plan schedule for the week, and based on what the students would have learned throughout the week, we came up with a poem that encompassed prior student learning that would effectively integrate into my lesson (FEAP5c). My goal was to teach the students in a whole-class setting, while utilizing as many of the eight elements of literacy instruction as possible (FEAP 5a).
Formative Data
After reviewing and discussing the lesson with my CT, I chose to focus my whole-class instruction on having the students describe how words and phrases supply rhythm and meaning in poetry. I read the poem “Leafy Marbles in my Mouth”, by Laura Purdie Salas.
- Provide balanced and comprehensive instruction by considering previous lessons students have learned throughout the week and collaborating with my CT.
- Do a lot of reading and writing through multiple readings and a formative writing assessment, while focusing on fluency, expression, and comprehension.
- Ensure meaning is central and teachers emphasize higher order thinking through questioning that leads to inferential thinking. Poetry is a great reading strategy that gives students the opportunity to interpret meaning in text (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007).
- Skills and strategies are taught and children are coached to use them while reading and writing. I was able to model fluency when I read the poem to the students using rhythm and rhyme. I placed emphasis on key phrases that described the narrator’s feelings and the main idea of the poem to ensure comprehension (FEAP 3b).
- Use a variety of formats to provide instruction such as lecture and cooperative learning by allowing the students to participate in a whole-class discussion.
- I used a wide variety of materials by providing visual learners a copy of the poem, as well as displaying the poem on the document viewer. I wrote thought-provoking questions on the whiteboard to guide the students with their writing. Sticky notes were handed out as well, so the students could write down their questions and ideas as I read. Finally, students utilized their writing journals to answers the questions on the whiteboard.
- The lesson was well-managed through classroom management procedures already established and provided a high level of engagement to the students through whole-class discussion using accountable talk. As I asked questions that prompted inferences, students could discuss whether they agreed, disagreed, made a connection, or had something to add the other student’s response (FEAP 3f).
As always, I have much to learn about providing students with effective classroom instruction. Although they seemed to be engaged, upon reading their writing journals, it was clear to me that some did not adequately grasp the narrator’s meaning. They were more focused on using evidence from the text, which they know how to do very well, instead of focusing their writing on comprehension, as evidenced from the samples of student writings captured below. In retrospect, I feel I should have model my expectations better by telling the students which parts of the poem I had trouble deriving meaning from also (FEAP 3h).
Finally, I realized far too late that the recording I was going to use to reflect on my lesson, did not have sound. The microphone on my recording device was not set up properly, which left me with a 30-minute video that had no sound. The video is an important teaching tool for me because I can see myself implementing strategy and get a feel for how engaged the students were. I will continue to use video to reflect, but I have to ensure the technology is working properly, beforehand.
Implications
It is my opinion that whole-class instruction was an effective teaching strategy for this lesson. Poems can be brief enough to teach in short amount of time, yet are full of rhythm, rhyme, meaning, and inferences that will assist students in thinking about what they are reading. Shared reading provided the students the opportunity to learn specific strategies from me, such as using expressive reading, as well the ability to learn from their peers through class discussions. Deriving meaning from text is essential to building an effective literacy foundation.
Cunningham, P. M., & Allington, R. L. (2016). Classrooms that work: They can all read and write, 6th Edition. New York: Pearson.
Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement, 2nd Edition. New York: Stenhouse.