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Breanna Cook

Immersion Week 2: Mini Unit Reflection


This week I conducted a mini unit focused on elements of informational texts.
These elements include main idea, summarizing, text structure, and comparing and
contrasting text structures. The goal of the mini unit is to see whether or not the
students, individually and as a whole group, made intellectual gains with the
elements of informational texts.
The first day, I used a cross-curricular lesson with the students social
students text. I modeled with the students how to complete a Somebody Wanted But
So chart to find details in a text. Using a read aloud with stopping points, the
students helped me create the chart on the Smartboard. Then, I modeled how to use
the details in the chart to create a summary sentence for the particular section of
reading material. Then, using the Harry I Was?! text, the students worked in their
table groups to read another section and complete their own Somebody Wanted But
So chart and summary sentence. In each group, I assigned jobs by placing a piece of
paper with a different job title in each of the four corners. I also gave students a job
description sheet so they would know their job description. While I thought the
random assigning of jobs would work, it seemed to be problematic because many
students wanted to change their job or would not compromise with their peers.
Additionally, some groups wanted to waste time during the lesson and needed me to
redirect their attention throughout the lesson. The students are not familiar with
working in groups. Therefore, it will take more encounters with group work and
possibly a new seating chart to resolve group work conflicts. Overall the lesson
went well, the students understood the concept of the chart and how to use the

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information in the chart to create a summary sentence. I primarily chose to use this
reading strategy with my students because the majority of the students need help
with determining main idea and using details to write summary sentences.
According to my observation sheet, I explained clearly and thoroughly when
teaching and circulated around the room to ensure all students were engaged in the
lesson activity. As I observed students working in their groups, I heard appropriate
and high level thinking and reasoning for the given text section. I collected group
work and after reading through the student charts and summary sentences, I
noticed that the students grasped the strategy and content of main idea and
summarizing.
The second lesson involved the use of the Pass the Bag game in order for
students to identify text structures using clues in a paper bag. The students enjoyed
this fun and engaging activity. Prior to this lesson, the students had been introduced
to text structure, but had not worked on identifying text structures of informational
texts. For this activity, the students worked in table groups. Each group was given a
paper bag with a definition, key words, a picture, and a passage. The groups were
given 3 minutes to look at the contents of the bag and determine the text structure
and then write their choice on an answer sheet. After the three minutes, the
students passed their bag to the group beside them in a clockwise manner. During
the lesson, some student groups experienced frustration, which helped motivate
them to determine the text structure at hand. All of the students in the groups
participated in the activity. Again, there was some group conflict, where 1-2
individuals wanted to take control and do all of the work. However, the majority of

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the table groups worked diligently and thoroughly enjoyed the lesson activity. As
indicated on my lesson observation sheet, the students took ownership of their
learning through the entirety of this lesson. The observation sheet also stated that I
included good questioning at the end of the lesson and that the lesson allowed for
meaningful learning. I ended the lesson with student completion of a written
description or drawing of one of the text structures identified during the Pass the
Bag game. The students were able to complete this written activity without issues.
Therefore progress seemed to be made for identifying text structures of
informational texts.
The third lesson helped students work with comparing and contrasting text
structures. For this lesson, I first created and explained a model of a Venn diagram.
I also reviewed Venn diagram and asked students when Venn diagrams are used and
how we write information in a Venn diagram. I provided a checklist for students so
they could visually see their expectations throughout the lesson. The students were
given two passages, which they read and summarized as a table group before the
group could create their Venn diagram. Then the students analyzed the passages to
determine the text structure and other key features to include in their Venn
diagram. With this lesson, I pulled chart paper for the students to create their Venn
diagrams. Before the start of the lesson, I already had the table group materials set
up. Therefore, time was not wasted on passing out materials during the lesson.
Thus, creating better management of the classroom. The observation sheet showed
that I constantly monitored student progress of each group. During this lesson, I
had a few focus issues, however I was easily able to redirect the students attention.

Breanna Cook
Students also took ownership of their work during this lesson. I modeled the
expectations, but we did not discuss the passages as a class. Therefore, students had
to think critically and problem solve when comparing and contrasting the two
passages to create their Venn diagrams. The students enjoyed this activity and the
majority of the table groups worked diligently. At the conclusion of the lesson, the
students wrote a sentence contrasting the two passages using a sentence starter in
their reading notebook and the information written in their Venn diagrams. The
exit slip data showed that eleven students accurately completed the contrasting text
structures sentence starter, six students wrote a sentence contrasting the details or
topics of the two passages rather than the text structures, and one student did not
complete the sentence starter at all. This data shows me that the students need to
continue to work on comparing and contrasting text structures of informational
texts.
As I move forward in my teaching practice, I will continue to use group work
with this class. I noticed that by the third lesson, the table groups became more
accustom to my procedures and expectations. Therefore, through continued use of
group activities, the students will increase their ability to collaborate and listen to
their peers. I will also continue to have the class set up before the start of each block
to eliminate down time and to help create a better transition into each lesson. I
learned this week that there is an advantage to teaching the same lesson four times
a day. Reason being, I am able to experiment and modify the small aspects of the
lesson that did not necessarily work with one group or another. Knowing each class
and their personality helped me modify the lessons to better meet the needs of

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individual classes and students. Since my first lesson this week was one of the first
times this year that the students have worked in groups, I knew that my third and
fourth block students would need more scaffolding. Therefore, I used more
modeling and explanations. This was a wonderful modification, because it helped
the lesson run more smoothly with the third and fourth block students and provided
the students with more purpose and direction.

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