Learning Reflection (Module 3)

1. Submit a lesson reflection on the lesson uploaded for Session 2. In this reflection, address the following questions,
• Was the instructional objective met? How do I know students learned the content literacy application that was intended? Yes, the instruction objective was met because my students were able to apply the vocabulary that they learned during this lesson in this unit. Students were able to use the new vocabulary in sentences and apply the words to the content that they were learning. 
• How would you alter your instructional plan now that you have taught the lesson? Would you do anything differently? What? Why? If I were to re-teach the lesson then I would probably start off with a non-fiction book on lemurs THEN do the vocabulary activity. That way I could build their prior background before I introduce the vocab. 
• What additional assistance, support, and/or resources would have further enhanced this lesson?
   I would have loved to have ipads for the students to work on so they could sort and move the words instead of writing them. 

2. Submit an overall learning reflection narrative from the three sessions of Content Literacy Professional Development.  

I have enjoyed being able to attend training on content literacy. When I began going to this training, I had some prior knowledge of different ways to introduce new vocabulary into a unit. Since then, I have gained so many more resources and experiences from the pathways we were given and being able to collaborate with colleagues from other schools in the county. I will definitely be taking what I have learned and continue applying it in my classroom. What I learned in this training can be applied to all grade levels, which is perfect because I will be moving from 2nd to 4th grade next year. I have already started having more class discussions on vocabulary and have integrated the 4 vocab square and the list group label strategy to other subject areas. I love that I have all of these other resources available that I can visit and continue to apply. This year I have a large group of ELL students, which is why I chose to focus on the vocabulary aspect of content literacy. Although I worked on vocab, my students were also able to work on speaking and listening, writing, as well as having a visual. I don't necessarily feel like I will need to discontinue anything, but I will need to tweak things to better fit 4th grade next year. We will focus more on repetition and understanding the vocabulary by using it in different ways instead of just memorizing it. The students will be able to manipulate and use technology with more ease than my second graders. We will also explore more resources together. I feel like my definition of content literacy definitely evolved since doing this training. At the beginning, my I believed content literacy was basically about students just being able to read. After going through this training, I understand that content literacy means so much more. It means that students are able to read AND understand/comprehend a text throughout different subjects. They can do this by working on vocabulary, writing, having visuals and working on speaking and listening. By doing these, students have a better understanding of what they are reading and start to build a love for reading. 

Based on this training, I will definitely begin integrating some more of the digital learning tools I have found out about.  I am already integrating vocabulary awareness and repetition through my teaching but I want to do even more as vocabulary is something my students struggle with a lot.  I want to discontinue doing any type of memorization of vocabulary without context, as the students may or may not be able to memorize but even when they can, they still don't truly understand how to properly use the words.  I also want to go beyond vocabulary and begin to explore/integrate other areas of content literacy, especially visual elements, as those are difficult for me since I am not a particularly visual learner.  My definition of content literacy has evolved beyond words on a page and, I suspect, will continue to grow and change as our technology and students continue to grow and change.

Continuing my goal of increasing student vocabulary, I assigned a lesson using "insertlearning".  I was really excited about embedding questions, discussion, pictures, and video into a webpage for students to interact with.  They engaged in the lesson and enjoyed the digital format.  I would definitely need to refine this type of lesson or choose a different type of webpage, as the one I chose had a great deal of reading to do.  I think I would first lower the lexile level and then insert the interactive elements.  I would also like to use this type of format for an assessment to really capture more than basic feedback of student engagement.  Again, more time to integrate this type of digital learning into more frequent lessons would be helpful.