Reflection Lesson 5

     This week we taught affixes. Specifically prefixes, suffixes, and root words. We started our lesson with an ice breaker. This week we asked what Thanksgiving traditions if any were their favorite because not every student celebrates, we asked a second question of their favorite holiday. All the students said that their favorite holiday was Christmas. Then we went over what a prefix, suffix, and root word was. We made a chart with examples. The students then listened to two books that were all about prefixes and suffixes with examples and told the meanings of each. The student took the words in the story and wrote them down on sticky notes to cut apart the parts of the words. They used their cut up words to stick to the chart under prefix, suffix, and root word. For an exit ticket we had the students fill out a worksheet with words that had prefixes and suffixes and they separated the words into columns. I think that we could have focused more on the meaning of the prefixes and suffixes. 

All of the students showed that they have a strong understanding of prefixes and suffixes. They can easily identify and break apart the parts of the words. I think that we could have focused more on the meaning of the suffixes and prefixes and incorporated this into the lesson. We could have had the students separate the word, tell us the meaning and then change the prefix or suffix to make the word have a new meaning. 

This week I learned about classroom management. One student talks quite a bit and has the answer every time and calls out the answer. The other two students sit there quietly and whisper the answer to themself because he takes over. Reminding him to take turns with answers and maybe having them put thumbs up for understanding and different techniques that aren’t formally raising their hands to share or talk. 

In the future, like I said last week, lessons should be planned with more than one focus point. Some lessons get simplified and we focus strongly on more topics and there isn’t much expansion. So like I said this week we focused more on identifying the parts of the word. In the future more topics can be focused on at one time. 

Reflection Lesson 4

      This week we used a word map and the PAVE organizer to teach vocabulary. This week I started with a Thanksgiving trivia and then pulled words that I thought the students were unfamiliar with. We used these words to fill in the word map chart. I showed them an example with the word harvest. I put up my sticky notes to show the different parts and what I expected. Then I gave them words to do the same. They did two words each with teacher guidance and we put the sticky notes on the chart and shared our word maps. Then I read the story, Happy Thanksgiving, Curious George. I instructed the students to write down words while we read of any words they were unsure of or had never heard before. They then used one word they picked from the story to fill out the PAVE chart. The students enjoyed the Trivia and putting the sticky notes on the chart but they didn’t write down any words while we read so we had to go back into the story to find them words. After the exit ticket we went over the sentence expanding. I explained what it was and the where?when?how?why? questions to help add details. I showed them a basic sentence and how each question was added to the sentence to make it more robust. I then had a few examples for each student to try. 

This week one of our students was absent. So we only again had two students to teach. Both students did a good job with the anchor chart. After seeing my example and doing two examples themselves and seeing each other's work they were ready to try on their own. Both students filled out their PAVE maps successfully and correctly. 

This week we were expected to do two SLO’s and I think with the limited time we had it was hard to fit in explaining and doing it on their own. I think next time I will try and combine the lessons together. With the sentence expanding we could have done an explanation and tied it into using the expanded sentences in their vocabulary. 

In the future I can use the idea of connecting lessons together. Everything should be taught in depth but then connecting the lesson through activities can also be helpful.