Lesson blog

Lesson Planning: Standard 1 Oral Communication: Most Effective

Throughout the students’presentation, they will deliver a brief oral presentation about a talking animal and comply with the rubric’s expectation with an 85% mastery.

Standard 1 Oral Communication: Least Effective

As an example for my oral communication standard, I decided to use the same model. On November 14, my students were to present an oral presentation related to the topic we were discussing which was Fables. I gave them a worksheet that seemed like a piece taken out form a comic strip. It had a blank square in the middle where the students had to draw the animal they chose, and next to it had a speaking bubble were they had to write the answer to the question: If you had a talking animal, what would it say?

Now I believe that was an example of the most effective model, because they had fun doing it, the task was neither too easy nor too hard, and it was related to the topic discussed in class. Those that presented in class did a pretty good job. They were really shy because they had to speak English, but since they did not have to speak a whole lot in front of the class, it was easier for them to overcome that fear. The majority of the students made their animal say animal stuff such as give me food or I love my owner which I thought was pretty cute.

Now, the reason this is also an example of a not effective model, is because almost half of the class did not do their homework, even when I gave them time. It has always been that way, the students in my class do not turn in homework, regardless of how many days or weeks I give them extra. I thought that since this didn’t even seem like homework, they would be more motivated to complete it and have a grade, but the truth was far away from that. I think I could’ve bettered this situation maybe if I gave them a list of options for their animals to say, but then again I believe that would limit their creativity a bit. A lot of students failed in this objective because they did not do their homework and I wish I had found a way to help them. I don’t know if the problem is in their household, if parents do not check their sons and daughter’s notebook, but this problem affected my students greatly. I believe that another way I could’ve improved this, is if I gave this work for the class and not as homework.

Standard 2. Written Communication: Least Effective

By the end of the class, the students will be able to classify pull and push factors with an 80% mastery.

Standard 2. Written Communication: Most Effective

After discussing the terms of character, setting of the Story The Little Red Hen, the students will be able to identify the character and setting with an 80% mastery.

Figure 2

The two lesson plans I chose to present the effectiveness and the least effectiveness of a writing standard, does not include a writing standard written in it because I was thinking in my thematic Unit and my main focus was on reading. But writing was basically in all the lesson plans I did for my students, I just didn’t include it because we were supposed to just write one standard. Thinking of all the lesson plans I have done, the least effective one in the standard of writing has been working with the push and pull factors. The reason of this is because I

remember that day clearly and how bad it went. My students could not even grasp the concept of push and pull factors, therefore disabling them to be able to classify immigration factors in push or pull factors. I tried explaining it in many ways but nothing happened. I ended that day being frustrated because I didn’t succeed as an effective teacher. I also couldn’t leave my students in that state. I went home that week and prepared drawings to help them associate push and pull factors and then the class was a success. The most Effective class in writing has been writing the character names and plot of the story The Little Red Hen. That story was very adequate for their grade level and the characters were very easy for them to remember and to write down. The only place where they needed help was to write down the plot. I gave them choices and they did it all pretty good!

Standard 3 Reading Comprehension: Most Effective

The students will be able to complete a worksheet and identify the order of events and choose the right answers to the questions with an 85% mastery.

Standard 3 Reading Comprehension: Least Effective

After discussing the story The Keeping Quilt, the students will be able to answer open ended questions and comprehension questions at the end of the story with an 80%mastery.

My least effective model of Reading has been working with the open ended questions and comprehension questions form the story The Keeping Quilt. This story took days and days to read because of its length. There was no way I could ask comprehension questions at the end of the story. It was an unrealistic goal. By the time I got to the end of the story, most students would have forgotten what happened throughout the story, mostly because of the difficulty of the story.

I did try to make these comprehension questions and open ended questions, but I was getting answers that had no sense at all, not even in Spanish. The results were better after I made a change and made the questions between the paragraphs and sentences instead at the end of the story.

My most effective reading model has been with the Story Juan Bobo’s Pig and The Little Red Hen, but I’ll only use The Little Red Hen as an example. The Little Red Hen was a story they read while seeing a video. It was easy for them to comprehend and when the time came for them to fill a worksheet and write the order of events by reading and choosing the correct ones from the board, they all met the objective and did well.

Integration of Technology: Least Effective

After discussing the vocabulary from the Story The Keeping Quilt, the students will be able to fill a vocabulary worksheet with an 80% mastery.

Integration of Technology: Most Effective

After observing and reading a digital story, The Little Red Hen, the students will be able to complete a Story Map with an 80% mastery.

The most effective model of technology has been the Story The little Red Hen. At first, I had some technical problems and the students all had to sit on the floor to be able to see the story from an iPad screen which wasn’t very comfortable. The day after, the problems were fixed and the students were able to see the story on the big screen. They absolutely loved the story. I loved it as well because it was narrated, it was subtitled and it had very attractive animations and colors. After the story finished, the students wanted to watch it again. I didn’t allow it because we were short on time and I wanted them to do other things in class.

I thought that if I used technology, especially the projector, students would always pay attention. It wasn’t that way. I tried to introduce the vocabulary of The Keeping quilt with a power point presentation but it didn’t quite work as I was expecting. The students had wondering eyes, were interrupting by talking to one another and only three to four students were actually trying to pay attention. This annoyed me because I had brought my students something different to introduce vocabulary, and they weren’t even paying attention. Looking back at the situation, maybe the Power Point needed to more interactive. At the end of that power point, there were images of the vocabulary words and the students had to mention what they were. In this part, students wanted to participate, and that’s when they started to pay attention, but the class was almost ended. If I had to redo that day, I would make the entire vocabulary word introduction interactive.