GLT

The introduction to my literacy unit went extremely well (as did the unit overall). My students were introduced to Patricia Polacco as an author and as a person. They were truly involved in the read aloud and discussion of Polacco. They also learned how we would be using an author study to help us learn and strengthen our reading strategies. This lesson was very important for my entire unit as it set up the atmosphere and expectations for the 9 days that followed. I encouraged all students to participate, thus ensuring that the majority of them would learn some key ideas about the author. Using a group share discussion also assisted with their learning, as 30 students sharing their ideas helped spark the connection for students who may have been struggling.

In reading my students entries in their Author Study Journals, I discovered that several of them were not using their resources to assist with spelling (many errors with high frequency words and words that we had listed together on the SMARTboard). Setting up the journal in an example was helpful to many of them, but I noticed several entries that were almost exactly the same as the example I shared with them. Several students struggle with capitalization, punctuation, and sentence structure. After teaching this lesson, I learned that I needed to spell out my expectations for their writing every day to remind them of these practices.

I would not re-teach this exact unit specifically, but I am definitely open to teaching another Author Study. I felt that using an A.S. was an excellent way to teach reading strategies within a specific genre. If I were to teach the same lesson again, I would have given more explicit instruction to assist the students who needed additional support. I also would have had these 5 students sit with a parapro or parent volunteer to keep them on track and help them structure their writing. Having a small group be involved with an adult would have been very beneficial in improving my students' learning.