Dear Hardworking Interns-
This time you'll consider a lesson you have taught the first week of November, with an eye toward reteaching or extending your lesson for particular groups of students.
(1) Learning target: list the short term learning target/objective of the lesson, along with a short description of the learning experiences section of your lesson plan.
(2) Evidence: describe what students did or said to let you know whether you were successful in meeting this goal (what evidence led you to this conclusion?)
(3) Reteach: describe how you could/will reteach the lesson for students who may need extra support beyond what you offered in the lesson, and
(4) Extend: describe how you could/will extend the lesson for students who successfully met your expectations (i.e., how will you help students build on what they've already mastered?).
After teaching part of my first lesson from the unit I designed to address "Why do people use maps?", I would reteach the vocabulary portion.
1.) Learning Target:
Students will know that pictures and labels on maps match real landmarks.
Students will be able to identify landmarks in their immediate environment and create a symbol to represent it.
The first learning experience was set up for students to explore vocabulary about maps and come up with kid friendly definitions, but it was too much for the whole group. A few students could read all of the words, many could not explain them however. Each word took 5 minutes to question students and work out a definition and there were five words at least. The only context for the words happened during our discussion and I would have liked to help out more students by using the words in a real situation.
2.) Evidence:
-Student's attention to words on a chart was short lived after working on the first two words. -Student's who knew the word were not always willing to share how they knew what the word meant.
-Student's who did not know the words did not get to practice the word in an authentic context.
3.) Reteaching:
First I would only look at two words "symbol" and "landmark" because they occur in relation to each other when using maps. Second, I would use real maps with familiar symbols and landmarks to teach the vocabulary. Third, I would give students authentic contexts to practice with using "symbol" and "landmark", possibly having symbols and their landmarks done up as flash cards. Students could practice identifying symbols and landmarks by matching the cards and ordering them into symbol categories and landmark categories.
4.)Extend:
For students who already showed mastery I could have them look at real maps and begin to identify symbols and their corresponding landmarks. I might also have a book with pictures of historic landmarks and have them come up with symbols they could use to represent them on a map. Perhaps, some students could even begin to use graphic organizers like Venn Diagrams to compare their symbols to the landmarks they represent.
15 years ago
4 comments:
Your lesson sounds like it was challenging. It is honestly a great idea to provide relevant materials to 1st graders, something they can relate to, otherwise it is outside the reality of their own world. I liked how you had the students themselves explore the words and create kid-friendly definitions. Unfortunately, kids have short attention spans, which could be a result of why your lesson was difficult. However, it is important to allow these opportunities where they are guiding their own learning and we just take a seat back and facilitate. The best part of your blog post was that your reflection was thorough and honest. You held nothing back and that is commendable.
I always love the idea of having students come up with their own definitions. I can absolutely relate to how long that can take in the first grade. the students may understand the word but not be able to put their ideas into words; or they may not understand the word yet!
This sounds like it would be difficult to put the vocabulary into authentic context. It would be interesting and worth it to try though!
Hey Cody!
sounds like an awesome lesson! It's been awhile since i've been in a first grade classroom, but I feel as though it's always a personal miracle when kids that age sit still at all!
I think your ideas for reteaching all do a good job of tying big concepts into little tiny relatable ones. I like the idea of showing historical landmarks and have the students create their own symbols. This way they learn about the landmarks while also cementing what symbols are in their heads.
Great lesson cody! A connection I have with your lesson is that I also had the students come up with a deffinition. It seems like a good way to involve the students in active learning instead of telling them a deffinition and having them write it down with out much depth in their thinking. Keep on challenging yourself and students Cody. I think you are going to be a very successfull teacher.
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