GLT- Lesson 3

My last lesson during my GLT , was a word study activity in which the learners had to stretch out words and write down all the sounds they heard. This involved both a whole group activity and an independent piece. For the whole group activity, learners were given a picture and they volunteered to help me stretch out the word and write down all the sounds they heard. The pictures were that of a bus, a tent, and a cow. They heard all of the sounds in bus and cow but came up with “tnt” for tent. I explained to them that it is okay if not everyone hears the same amount of sounds. I fostered the idea that if a learner only hears the first sound, that’s okay, because that is all they hear. After I had the learners help me stretch out the words, to label the three pictures, I had them do the same task independently, where they had to stretch out the following words: bib, fork, lamp, and pig. From this lesson, learners learned, and were further reinforced, in practicing how to stretch out words and writing all the sounds they hear. Often times they stretch out words during word study, but then write very few sounds in their words during Writer’s Workshop. This lesson was supposed to help them to get used to writing all the sounds they hear in a word and also to see if they are starting to at least write down the beginning and end sounds, the two sounds we have been specifically working on. Overall, my learners did great. I was impressed that almost all of my learners had a least the beginning and the ending sounds down. Though they may not have been correct, they were writing down the sound that they heard. Furthermore, the majority of my learners had middle sounds down too. Since the task was very individualized, and allowed learners to work at their own developmental level, very few learners struggled. I had some learners who were writing down three or four sounds in words, and I had one little girl who only wrote the beginning sound for each word. I was so excited for my little girl who only wrote the beginning sound though, because she never puts down any sounds or letters down in her Writer’s Workshop notebook unless someone is right next to her stretching out the words with her. Therefore, I was really excited to see she was able to do the task independently. The only two learners who struggled were the two that struggled with the lesson before, in which I had the learners, supply the end letter of a word based upon the end sound. Child M still had trouble with identifying any letter. He kept saying that he did not know, and unless I was not to him stretching out the word, he did not write many sounds down. When I did scaffold him, he was able to get the majority of sounds, but he is not yet independent. My second child, Child C, struggled with the task because, as I said in my other reflection, though he is able to identify the letter needed, based upon the sound, he does not yet know what the letters look like, in order to write them down.
Though I was really excited with what I was seeing, I know that the data is not accurate for some of my learners. I know that some of my learners who struggle with word study, would not have independently written four sounds for the word lamp. This showed me that the child who did this, clearly copied off the person next to him. It is not to say that he does not have the ability to do the task, but he is still working on beginning sounds and is just starting to be able to independently stretch out a word just for the beginning sound. Thus, I know some of the results for a few of my learners is inaccurate, as I know some of them shared results with one another. From this lesson, I learned that my learners are becoming really strong in hearing more than just the beginning and ending sounds. My hopes were that my learners at least were able to identify the beginning and ending sounds, but I was happily surprised when the majority of my learners wrote the middle sounds also. This shows me that my learners are hearing more sounds in words and that they are ready for more in-depth word instruction. For my learners who struggled with the task, I will provide one on one support for them during times such as the Daily 5, where I would either grab them to work with them in a small group, or just work alongside them as they work on a task. I would also continue to provide activities in which the learners have to stretch out a word and write all the sounds they hear, and provide more activities that involve sound/letter associations. I believe the more practice my learners get, the stronger they will become and the more secure the concept will become. Once the concept of writing down all the sounds they hear in a word because secure enough that my learners are writing various sounds for a word, independently, during Writer’s Workshop, I will move on.
Overall, the lesson went really well. The only thing that I would change is I would have moved my learners around the room, so that they could not see each other’s paper. I had wanted to use this lesson as an assessment, and I could tell that at least 6 of my learners copied off of the person next to them, based upon my knowledge of them and what they wrote. Thus, the results were skewed and did not create an accurate picture of all of my learners’ understanding.