I have found that one of the hardest parts of teaching is the actual lesson planning. It is difficult to fit everything you want to get covered into the lesson perfectly within a limited time frame. For this lesson, we had three days to teach comparing and contrasting between two texts. On Monday, the students had no school and on Friday, second grade was going on a field trip, leaving us with limited time to teach the concept.
The week before the lesson was going to be implemented, Michelle and I met with our content coach to plan for the lesson. We knew what the objective was going to be, getting the students to be able to compare and contrast two texts. The difficult part was deciding what we wanted the students to compare and contrast and how we were going to teach the lesson in three days. The first thing we did was decide what we wanted the students to compare and contrast. We read the two stories and search for overall themes, and what we noticed. We saw that we could have the students compare and contrast the animals in the story, the themes we noticed (safety, types of homes, where the homes are located, and hard work, and the types of non-fiction text features in the book. We decided on comparing and contrasting the overall themes of the books. We thought that this would get the students to understand the concept of comparing and contrasting between two texts because there were many similarities and differences between the themes but both stories touched on all the themes that we noticed. While we were discussing what to compare and contrast, we also thought that that it was important for the students to think about the different non-fiction text features, but we did not think that there would be enough time during the lessons, but we tried to think about where we could fit the content in.
The second thing we did was to decide how we were going to cover the content in three days. The students had two stories to read and comprehend, as well as compare and contrast them. They also had to compare and contrast two stories independently as a performance task. This was not an easy task. We contemplated many things. We wanted to read one story a day and compare and contrast them on the last day, but that would not give the students enough time to complete their performance task. We sometimes forgot that were were going on a field trip and planned for four days, but we noticed that that would not work either. We thought about summarizing both stories in one day and comparing and contrasting them in one day. We figured that this way would work the best. This way, the students would have one day to do their performance task
The third thing we did was decide on how this was going to look in the classroom. We liked the idea of co-teaching a lesson because there was a lot of content to cover in a short amount of time. Since there were two stories, we thought about each of us covering one story, and then having the students switch after reading the first story. We liked this idea and we stuck to it. Michelle would come into my classroom. We would split the students into two groups, one group per story. After we each read our story, the groups would switch and read the other story. This way, they were able to read both stories. We would do the same thing in her classroom. We liked this idea and we though that it would work out well. We decided that we would have the students make a web chart for each story, mapping out the different themes in both stories: with animal homes being in the middle and protection, hard work, names and where being the different categories. Before we could teach the lesson, we had to think about what that chart was going to look like. As a group, we made web charts for both stories, so we were clear about the content that was going to be covered. We then focused on the second day of the lesson, where they would compare and contrast both stories. Since the first day included a lot of teacher talk and guiding, we wanted to have the student work together, with the teacher acting as a guide. We decided on having the students work in groups to compare and contrast both stories according to their themes. Michelle and I were going to model how to compare and contrast so the students had a guide to follow while working independently.
When it was time to teach reading, Michelle came over to my classroom. I introduced the lesson, introduced Michelle to my classroom, although some of my students already knew who she was. I made sure that the students knew the norms for working in groups and working with a guest in the classroom. My students were excited to be working with Michelle, and I was excited to get a chance to experience co-teaching a lesson. Although I was excited, I was quite nervous as well because of the time constraints. We were supposed to read the story and chart it in about 15 minutes. As I found out, that was not enough time to read and discuss a story.
We split up the students, one group went with me to read one story, and the other group went with Michelle to read the other story. We began by reading the text, Building Animal Homes, in the Journey's text. As we were reading, my students were truly engaged in the text. They were wanting to talk about the story, make connections to their lives, and ask questions about the text. I thought that this was wonderful! However, I was a little hesitant to allow my students to talk and discuss as much as I would have liked because of the time constraint. Plus, we still had a web to fill out. We kept reading though and we eventually moved onto the chart, filling it out according to the four themes in both stories. My students still wanted to talk about the story and there was a lot of information to be filled out. I often looked at Michelle's group to see where they were and so I could gauge how much time we had left. When I looked over while we were filling out the chart, I saw that she as done and she was asking extension questions. Her chart had only three animals to cover, but went into more detail. My story, on the other had, had a lot of animals to cover and did not go into much detail. By the time we were finished with the story and the chart, 25-30 minutes had passed! We switched groups and I thought about different ways that I could reduce time. I thought about reading quicker and less discussion, but I had trouble doing this. Again, I did not want to deny my students the opportunity to discuss, make connections, and truly understand the text. But, the same thing happened. There was just to much content to cover in such a short amount of time.
This day, the students were to get into pre-made groups to compare and contrast the two tests. Michelle and I were supposed to model how to compare and contrast, but she was not able to, so I modeled this for the students. They then got into four groups and each group got a piece of butcher paper with a Venn diagram. They were supposed to compare and contrast the two stories according to the four themes: protection, hard work, names of the homes, and where the homes are located.
Before I told them to go to their groups, I made sure they understood the directions and the norms for working in groups. I went around and helped the students compare and contrast. In the beginning it seemed like the students were having some difficulties with this assignment. They did not seem to know where to begin, or that they were supposed to compare the two stories according to themes, despite modeling this and telling them to do this. At this point, I stopped the students and drew a Venn diagram on the board. I wrote the four themes on the board, and told them to do the same thing on their charts, so they knew what they were supposed to be comparing. I continued to go around the groups, listening to their discussion, seeing them use the book as they make their comparisons (which I loved!). I also helped some students explain their thinking, as they were having trouble articulating what they wanted to say. I had to explicitly model to another group because they were not understanding how to compare and contrast the themes. I stayed with them as they did one as a group, and they seemed to understand the concept.
Overall, I thought that this lesson had a few weak points and a few strong points.
Strong Points:
- The content - I believe that this lesson was important for the students. Comparing and contrasting is a skill that the students are going to use for the rest of their lives and they should be well practiced in this skill.
- The format - I liked how we took time to read each story and somewhat discuss it. I also liked the co-teach model. It was a really great experience and I believe that the students got a lot out of being able to hear two types of teaching, plus it was helpful to have someone helping me cover the content. I also liked the group work on the second day. I strongly believe that group work is powerful for students. They learn to work as a team, they learn from each other and they also practice social skills.
Weak Points:
- Time, time, time! - There was not enough time to cover time content in depth. The time constraints did not allow for the students to have ample time to discuss the text. They kept wanting to talk about the story, make connections to their live and learn about the different animals.I felt distress because the students were not able to be students, have their questions answered, and have a quality discussion about the chart. From this experience and talking with my teacher, we thought that this lesson would have needed four days. one day per story, one day to compare and contrast, and one day for the performance task.
-Too much to cover - Because we were not able to adequately cover all of the themes, we thought that there was too much to cover in such a short time. Since this was only a three day lesson, we should have focused on one or two themes, not all four. This would have given the students more time to discuss the text while being able to compare and contrast.
This lesson was a real eye-opener for me about planning for the right amount of content based on the time that is given to cover the content.