Poetry With Purpose: Reflecting on Instructional Practices in Second Grade Literacy

Illustration from Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attic

Reflecting on this quarter's learning led me to one word: abundance. I have learned from the abundant knowledge of my teachers and peers, appreciated the abundant grace of my advisors, and relished the abundance of resources at my fingertips as I learn to teach in the international setting. What a full 10 weeks! I have gained so much confidence in my own understanding of instructional planning in particular, and I have come to believe my habits now more closely align with Program Standard 2: using research-based instructional practices to meet the needs of all students. I am applying the pedagogy from my studies to teaching that works for a variety of children with a variety of backgrounds. 

In the lesson series I designed for second graders studying poetry, my favorite part is the teaching of alliteration. Shel Silverstein's poem "Bear In There" is a highlight--it illuminates the concept for children through a narrative that is fanciful and hilarious. Any kid would get the giggles when imagining a polar bear with his "seat in the meat." 

A selection from the lesson plan in review

As an informal assessment after the first part of instruction, my plan employs a technique from Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion 2.0 called "cold call" (p. 36). The idea is that students are more engaged if they anticipate a teacher's question at any time (leveraging the element of surprise here). By cold calling students for their examples of alliteration from the text, the teacher can get a quick gauge on whether the concept is sinking in and who might need more scaffolding. This is just one example of how my teaching will apply strong practices to support the needs of all students. 

Although I did not teach this lesson "live," I believe it will hold up when I finally get the chance to share it with students of my own because of its purposeful design and use of proven strategies, from the turn and talk to the multi-sensory elements (those tongue twisters as a warm up never get old). In this case, I hope students build an appreciation for poetry as they begin to understand some of its most powerful elements. When I finally get the chance to teach it, I may adjust my plans slightly by playing a recorded version of some of these poems--there is something wonderful about hearing poets read their own poems, and I am sure my students would love to hear Shel recite this one himself. 

References 

Lemov, D. (2015). Teach like a champion 2.0. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Brand.

Progress Toward a Standard: How I'm Making Math Meaningful

My first professor from SPU's School of Education once told me, "Your class's behavior will only be as good as your curriculum is engaging." At the end of the day, if what and how we teach isn't cutting it, the students will tell us in the tune-out method du jour--pulling at their desktags, poking their neighbors, chatting instead of listening...Not great if we really want our students to deepen their understanding. This is why Program Standard 4.3: Designing Coherent Instruction in Learning Activities matters so much. 

When I redesigned a straightforward math task (image below) into something richer for first grade students, I looked for ways to open up the activity and make it more meaningful. Marian Small is a pioneer of math education that is relevant to children, engaging in ways that inspire creativity and problem solving over rote memorization--this task is inspired by her work. The standard requires that "learning activities are suitable to students or to the instructional outcomes, and most represent significant cognitive challenge, with some differentiation for different groups of students."

In this activity, students were invited to use colorful manipulatives (buttons) to learn in a playful way, rather than working through a classic set of addition equations on a worksheet. The tactile element makes the task multisensory, and the description requires critical thinking both to understand the task and then develop original ideas in the form of new equations. Because the activity invites students to use a number line and buttons, opportunity for scaffolding is convenient and natural. 

Although I haven't taught this lesson yet, I can picture it being more engaging to my students because of the playfulness of its design and its simplicity. My experience has shown me that sometimes that cleanest, most streamlined activities make for the most popular moments in a day. The hope is that by engaging in more tasks that require creative engagement during math, students will strengthen conceptual understanding and increase flexibility in their relationship to numbers. If I were to tweak this lesson, I might add more specifics in terms of challenge opportunities for learners who need enrichment. 

I'm looking forward to a chance to test this out in real life--my aim was to breathe life and joy into what might otherwise be a ho-hum part of first grade. 

References

Ernst, K., Ryan, S. (2014). Success from the start: Your first years teaching elementary mathematics. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc: Reston, VA.

Small, M. (2010). Beyond one right answer. Educational Leadership, 68(1), p. 28-32.