Direct Instruction

The learning intention for this lesson was for students to use clues within the text as well as their own knowledge to answer questions that require them to infer meaning. This lesson also asked students to think about the author's purpose for writing a text and drawing their own conclusions.

This lesson shows a guided reading session on the journal article called One City - Two Earthquakes as well as the students working together after the session to discuss the text and complete the follow up activity.

Extended plan here

Reflection

I really enjoyed teaching this lesson. I know it is similar to my previous lesson but I thought it was important to show different activities that can have a create element with the same learning intention. This year I have been focusing on inferring meaning and how to make more creative tasks that are engaging and enjoyable for the students for my teaching as inquiry. I have found from this inquiry that changing an element of the create task can make it feel different to the students with the focus still being on the review part and thinking about the author's purpose. I think sometimes as teachers we feel like we have to completely change the task each week or for each journal which is why I wanted to show a very similar reading session but with a different creative task focus. What I really loved about this lesson was that the students decided to use a range of different tools to create their drop, cover, and hold digital art. The students really enjoyed reading this text and asked some really great questions about what happened during the Christchurch earthquakes. They were also able to think critically about what they were reading and answer questions that required them to infer meaning.

Things to note

There was a lot of glare where my teacher table normally sits so I had to move my desk into the middle of the classroom. Two groups of my students for reading have the same text for this week and there were a number of students away at sports so I have mixed the two groups together for this lesson. Some of these students were really quiet with their responses so some of the audio is a bit hard to hear. Trying to fit all the students and myself around the table and not cut everyone off was a bit tricky also so there are camera angles that don't work very well.

Class Site Content

Week 8 - Christchurch

WALT: find clues within the text and read between the lines to understand the hidden meaning to make a conclusion or an assumption.

Instructions

Watch the video about what to do in Christchurch from a child's view.
Complete the four facts, research presentation and response to text tasks.
Read with the teacher when called upon.
Complete required reading tasks for the week.
Add it to your blog with a task description and add the link to the turn it in sheet.