Reading and Writing Strategies for Non-Fiction Texts- Unit Reflection

The first lesson was creating a concept map based on the vocabulary word Immigration. Students pulled from background knowledge and filled out a concept map relating ideas to the central word. The second lesson was a lesson where I read a book about Immigration into America and students added information to their concept maps after discussion about the text. After teaching this lesson I was able to reflect on my practice. The students I think were successful during this lesson. I think what helped was being able to return to their concept map and add more. Also, I think it helped that they were able to work with partners. This always works well with the students, many of them have said that they just enjoy bouncing ideas off of one another and that it really helps in their thinking about the concept or the task. Some students however decided to work independently and you could see how it had an effect on their additions to the concept map, or lack thereof. These students just say and moped during this time and did not add much to their concept map. I saw that those who chose to work with a partner took the most away from the lesson.
In terms of literacy practices I learned that my students are able to dig deep into their previous knowledge and that helps them during reading-especially in this lesson. I had a great deal of participation when asking students for input. Even students who do not usually participate offered up information when constructing and revisiting our concept map. I think overall students are able to make cross-curricular connections (which is very important in upper elementary).
I will re-teach this material again as we loop back through reading and writing strategies for non-fiction texts. We will see these strategies again as we look at other non-fiction text. At this time I will give more independent work time to those I know can handle it and I will pull small groups for those who had a hard time constructing, adding to or defending their answers from this lesson.
If I were to do this lesson again I would split the reading up into 2 days. The book was quite long and I think lost some of my students because of it’s length. I think I would also follow up the lesson with a different text and have them construct a concept map based on a vocabulary word. They would dig in their prior knowledge to see what they knew and then add to their concept map while they read. I think I would do this with several different non-fiction texts and vary small/large group discussions and independent/partner work. I think that if students practiced more with building vocabulary or even built vocabulary based on looking up the definition and reading about the topic, they would have been more successful on the independent level.

The second lesson I did was about determining big ideas and important details.I was very pleased with the outcome of this lesson. I think that I had so much success because students were familiar with the book and had read it in previous classes. Having the prior knowledge made for a very rich discussion and in-depth thoughts about big ideas, important details and questions to ask to set a purpose for reading. Even my students who tend to shy away from class discussions participated and contributed good dialogue to the conversation. We took a picture walk through the book and came up with questions based on the pictures. We had lots of questions that they produced, several of them were very connected, in-depth and reached the goals of my lesson from the bat. They caught onto the story and ran with it, I was very pleased.
I learned key factors about my student’s literacy practices, and that mostly revolves around having a rich prior knowledge and being able to tap into that during ELA lessons. Students had to understand the context of the book in order to understand the important details, and they were able to draw upon that based on their prior knowledge about the context and the basis of the book. If I were to re-teach I would chose a different text and have them research the context of the book. I wonder how the lesson would have gone if students did not know the context or had background knowledge of the book. I think it taught me that before you dive into a text you should do some research on it to better familiarize yourself with what the book is about-especially with non-fictional texts.
The third lesson was an extension of the lesson before. They were taking what they learned in the previous lesson and applying to an independent writing piece. This involved reading a passage and applying what they knew about determining big ideas and important details.
Most students were able to successfully read a passage and determine the important details and big ideas based on that passage. Students worked hard to gain understanding of the passage and apply in a writing piece. Some students do not thrive when given independent work and thus needed either a one on one or a small group discussion of the topic. These students benefited from oral conversation and were able to successfully determine the big ideas and important details of the passage. I was please with them being able to communicate orally their comprehension of the piece and of the task. I was a little disappointed with what followed though. I thought that if I pulled students in a small group and we all discussed the meaning of the passage and draw big ideas that it would boost their confidence and I could have them try the writing piece on their own. Instead of running with it, students fell back into the anxiety ridden state that they get to when they are asked to write independently. Most of these students want you to sit next to them while they write and check to see if they are doing it correctly. They do not thrive when asked to work independently. I wish I could have thought of something that could have gotten them to work more independently without getting so much anxiety of doing so.
If I were to re-teach this I would find a way that connected those students in a way in which they did not feel anxiety. Similar to students who enjoy playing an education game. They are having fun, so they do not realize that they are actually learning. I would like to think of something that gets them writing on their own where they do not feel so isolated and have anxiety of the independence.
Planning and teaching an entire unit most definitely allowed me to grow as a teacher and as a reflective teacher. I am becoming better at understanding quickly if something is not going right and either changing it or reflecting on what I could've done differently.I am very thankful for this opportunity.