Jamie+Goggin

Jamie Goggin ENED 6416-L Reflection #1 October 1, 2011

__Jamie Goggin’s Adjusted Lesson Plan: Five Basic Brush Strokes (from Noden text)__

1. What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? My collaborating teacher (CT) and I wanted to begin showing students how to add detail and style to their writing. At the time, all of the students were writing very basic sentences and also having trouble with paragraphs. Thus, we wanted to introduce five basic brush strokes: participles/participle phrases, appositives, absolutes, adjectives shifted out of order, and action verbs. By doing this, we hoped to help students add more descriptive words/phrases to their writing. We also noticed that they were struggling to write complete sentences, so we also thought that if they had to think about these elements, naturally they would also have to think about their sentence structure.

2. Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? We were somewhat successful in reaching the goal. After teaching the basic brush strokes, we gave students a writing prompt and had them write a paragraph to turn in for a grade. As we graded them, we saw that students experimented with the brush strokes. In many cases, they used them correctly and I also saw a decrease in the use of fragments and run-on sentences, especially by some of the students who typically have had lower performance results so far this year (we have a few kids who are below a 6th grade reading and writing level, even though the class is an 8th grade class).

3. What specifically went well with your lesson? I think the students were intrigued that they were learning something less “dry” in their minds. While they needed the instruction, after a few weeks of being asked to identify nouns, verbs, and other parts of speech, I think they were becoming disenchanted quickly. We also used a lot of examples from books they read or are reading __(The Hunger Games__, __Diary of a Wimpy Kid__, etc). We also used a lot of visual examples. The kids particularly responded to a picture of an old, beat-up, rusty car as well as a picture of a shark fin near a surfer. They came up with plenty of action verbs for the latter!

4. What did not go well with your lesson? Why? The students had a hard time understanding a couple of the concepts. With participles and participle phrases, they started to think that any word ending in –ing was a participle. With appositives, they often tried to use adjectives to describe the noun instead of re-naming the noun. However, I noticed that the confusion with appositives came after we taught adjectives shifted out of order. Long story short, I did not anticipate potential confusion since some of the concepts are similar.

5. What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? Now that I’ve given this lesson a test-run, I now know what seems to be common misconceptions among the students’ understanding of the material. Thus, in the future, I will also make time to explain not only what the brush strokes are, but what they are not. I think if I emphasize how to determine if the word or phrase is a brush stroke or not, that will help eliminate some confusion. That way students receive both parts of the instruction, in which they learn the concept but also know how to recognize it. I also think I need to find a way to incorporate a bit more differentiation into the lesson. While most of our students are performing on a middle-grade level, I know some students are performing significantly below grade level (some are only at the 3rd grade level) and some are significantly above 8th grade level (10th and 11th). As of this particular writing, I am not sure how I will accomplish this, but I think this is a very important adjustment in order to make sure the tasks are appropriately challenging based on the individual student’s needs.

6. How does this lesson find its way into your unit and how well does this lesson scaffold and/or integrate into the next lesson? Currently, the students are being taught narrative structures and techniques; they have also read a variety of literature pieces in the past few weeks. So we have been discussing what makes a piece of writing good as well as how they can make their writing more descriptive and interesting. We wanted to give students these tools so that they can begin transforming their sentences. Also, since our students have writing every single day in class, utilizing this lesson would also give them hands-on practice with the concepts. Students will also be able to carry these techniques with them as we begin moving into expository texts. Even though they are segueing into more informative pieces, we will continue to emphasize that regardless of the type of writing, these tools help sentences and concepts in writing come to life.

7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? I think a couple of principles apply here. First, with the lesson, we gave students a lot of modeling. I walked them through the lesson and showed them examples, both with pictures and without. I also scaffolded the lesson. First, I gave them sentences with the concepts already in and asked them to identify them. Next, as a class, we filled in a couple of sentences in which I had blanks. A second principle I tried was tying into the theory of multiple intelligences. While I did not accommodate all with this particular lesson, I tried several different methods to help kids learn. First, we discussed it in class, which helps auditory learners. Next, we practiced with pictures and sentences to help those who learn better in a visual context. Finally, we addressed the kinesthetic side by asking students to write and practice with the brush strokes. We (my CT and I) also walked around the room as students were writing to give individual instruction to those who needed it.

8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? While I recognize the need for adjustments, I definitely would use this lesson again. I think it allowed students to understand that writing is work; just because someone may be good at it doesn’t mean they don’t think about the sentences and don’t work hard. So for those students who don’t feel writing comes naturally to them, I think it helps them realize that even those who excel at language arts still work hard. I also saw a lot of progress in the students’ writing with this lesson; a lot of them tried multiple brush strokes, and I was especially thrilled that one of my kids who is on a 3rd grade reading/writing level did exceptionally well with the assignment, given his circumstances. So I think this lesson helps accomplish two things. First, it makes the kids think more about their sentence structure, which will help them avoid those fragments and run-ons. Secondly, it made them think about how to make their writing more descriptive. I was pleased with the results on the first run.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Evelyn Response:

Jaimie! I can relate to your frustrations for teaching brushstrokes. I tried teaching the brushstrokes to my sixth grade students as well and they had trouble grasping the different techniques too. I like your idea of the pictures. I think it was a great idea to get students writing and have practive with the different brushstrokes. As we have found out in the artwork workshop in Herrell and Crovitz's class, visual images spark ideas and thoughts. It also helps students work on their own level instead of working on a higher or lower learning level of the rest of the class. Its a great tool for differentiation!

In our class, we workshopped sentences for brushstrokes. Instead of them coming up with the sentences, we gave them a base sentence and they had to rewrite the sentence to match the brushstroke type. We also rewrote a sentence in each brushstroke and they had to identify the type. I think it's important for them to know the brushstrokes before really working it into their writing. I noticed the student's eyes glaze over when they have too many new things thrown at them. My teacher, like yours, wanted to throw all brushstrokes at once. I wonder, through your evidence and my evidence, if it would have been easier for students to get chunks of information. Instead of practiing all strokes at once, maybe you could practice three one day and then three at another time. this is what I was planning on for my students in the future. As you stated earlier, students are all over the place in their learning levels and by succeeding 3 out of 3 strokes is better than 3 out of 6.

I really like your idea of using brushstrokes in context. It is so neat for students to find them in their own silent reading books, thier classwork, and of course their own work. I think this is a great lesson you have here! With a little bit of tweaking, it will be perfect! Good job!