Inquiry 2 Part E lesson 2

     This lesson was very similar to the previous weeks lesson, however, this week we studied the long o vowel patterns.
What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson?
    
   I had one student raise their hand and ask me what exactly they were supposed to be learning, before I had even had a chance to introduce the new patterns. This question struck me because I had thought I made this clear to my students in the previous week and reminded them of it this week. What I discovered, and it literally just hit me all of a sudden, I wasn't clear on what I was teaching them. I mean I understood the concepts, etc, but the purpose was so much more than what I had laid out. When asked this question I realized what they wanted to know and how to answer in a way that would make sense to them...word study is a way to look at word patterns and discover which sound our vowels are making. since each vowel can make 2 different sounds, by studying the patterns associated with long versus short sounds we can better decipher how to sound out words or spell them when we are sounding them out. This was like a major click in my own thinking and process of teaching as much as it was a light bulb for my students. Had I been able to tell myself this in these simple terms sooner perhaps I could have had them rolling better on week 1.



• What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

    I learned that most all of my students who struggle with spelling are also the ones who struggle with reading. Some are just missing the support at home to study spelling words and read and accumulate those high frequency words. Some of my high readers are lacking the foundational phonics skills and rely purely on high frequency words for their knowledge. They are therefore unable to decipher unknown words in their pre assessments. I actually felt like my students were on level playing ground for a change.

• When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?
    
The benefit of setting up my word study with center work throughout the week is that it gives my students the time to work with the new knowledge and me the opportunity to observe how they work with the material and reteach those who need reteaching or more repetition.

• If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the
changes would improve students’ learning?

   After teaching this lesson week 1 with long i word patterns, I decided to redo how I was going to approach it. I began by telling my students the sound for long o and practicing it multiple times with them. I then told them the patterns and wrote them on the board as CVCe and what this would look like (o_e). Then I wrote an example word for each. I then asked my students to come up with a word that fit each pattern and had them discuss with a partner and share out. I corrected any misgivings at this point. Finally my students were given words to sort and then categorize. While they were sorting I was able to walk around and help any students who still did not understand. For my higher learners I asked them to start with the categories and sort their words under the categories. For my lower learners, I had them sort their words in a way that made sense to them and then we labeled them with the CVC patterns. This kept them from being distracted by the more abstract and focus on the concrete.

• What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to
continue your professional learning?

   This has definitely been a learning process! I am still tweaking and adding pieces here and there to our word study centers and lessons. For the word sort, I would then have the students read the words to a partner so that they could actually read them and clarify any unknown words or meanings at that time. As for the center work, I would like to get the routine down so well that they can do this quickly and efficiently with little instruction on what to do. I have decided to keep the same games/work for awhile so that they know how they work and can focus on the words and patterns. Once this routine is down and solid then we will change out the games, so that the students do not get board with the monotony.