Lesson Plan Critique

Reading the lesson plan Carolyn Wilhelm, created for grade 2, I had some good and not such good opinions of the lesson. While it is well planned out, with great resources being used, I imagined that as a child in the classroom I might have spaced out, since it feels too technical. The students must focus on the reading, and then finding words and writing lines. These are great activities which are perfect for the lesson! But before doing that, I would try to discuss the relevance with students, so they can compare the story of the book to their own past experiences (although the teacher does lead the class to discussion, she explains that it will be about the words and phrases etc.) This would infuse any second grader with more enthusiasm, and they can even use their suggestions in the poem they will write on the board later on. Or use a topic for the poem that the class discussed which the students seemed excited about.
In session three, I think it is very good that the teacher writes that she would role play and model speaking in front of a group, in order to present good oral presentation. This is very important, as second graders need that role play in order to perform.
 I would also use more role play in the beginning when students are starting to write the poem. I would say my thoughts out loud, while creating random poems, to show the students how a poet thinks. I would experiment with different lines together with students, and come up with many ideas. This would help the students later on (by the extension lesson), where they come up with their own original poems. I think they can use a little more background.

Video of Ms. Owen

What an amazing video! I was truly inspired by the teacher Ms. Owen, and the way she created a true reading/writing culture in her classroom. Ms. Owen integrated the idea of gradual release of responsibility so well. She starts with reading activities, and writing activities, and slowly leads her students to independence. What I found I learned most from hearing from Ms. Owen is that she says that although sometimes when she reads to the class, or they are being guided to read, some students are not yet able to follow along fully. Yet, she tries to have a discussion with her students, regarding the topic they are reading about. This creates a relevance between the reading the students are doing, and real life. Students feel motivated and connected to reading when they find connection! And this way, as Ms. Owen says, her goal is to get students to love to read! She infuses in her students a willingness and excitement to read and discover, and this is always so much more effective than just having students read or write because now is the time and so on...
Ms. Owen teaches her ELL students through gradual integration. She begins singing the good morning song in Spanish as well as English, which makes the students feel safe to express words in both languages, as well as gives them more vocabulary words in the English language. She also uses visual aid for the ELL students, such as putting red 'A's in on the board in a few words, so that they can clearly see the alphabet in the words. Ms. Owen also does a few reading activities every day, and guides her students to independent learning. Because the students gradually become more independent in their reading, they can learn lots of new vocabulary words along the way, and they get the right amount of scaffolding necessary to guide them to better language.

The ELA instruction integrates all areas of Language Arts, and is a complete, comprehensive guide for the expectations of students in regard to reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language. ELA provides clarity of each of these separate skills, and how they are related. It explains that good reading means good comprehension, and then writing means being able to reflect in writing the knowledge gained by the written text. Speaking and listening include oral communication and collaboration. Integrating information and expressing ideas from different resources as well as listening to others are part of the speaking and listening standards as well. Language skills as explained through ELA include understanding language, vocabulary and nuances in the written and spoken word. In general, the ELA standards include all the above skills, and how they are integrated with one another.