Fall Free Verse Poem Reflection Part 2

From teaching my lesson on fall free verse poetry, I learned that I need to slow down a little when teaching. The students got done with the activities earlier than I expected. At first, we went outside for a few minutes to use our senses to think of words that described Fall. After that, we went inside and learned about how to use Kidspiration to create a web with our words that students brainstormed. Another thing we learned is Pixie and how to decorate the background of our poem. Students got to create their own free verse poem. One other thing I could have done differently is explained a free verse poem in more detail. I didn’t really explain free verse poems that well. My goals and objectives were met through the use of students completing their required tasks and teacher observation. I didn’t need to make any modifications for individuals, but if I needed to I could have.

            For assessment, I did a checklist for my students. I felt that I couldn’t grade students on how creative they were. Students were required to complete a web using Kidspiration, create a free verse poem that was at least 3 lines long, using at least 3 words from their web. Students also were asked to create a background for their poem using Pixie. I’m including a couple of examples of the students’ creations. I feel that these pieces of evidence indicates the level of success that I had teaching my lesson and my students’ level of success because the evidence pieces were done correctly. I think that because I taught college students for this particular lesson, I didn’t explain the two software programs fully. My individuals reflection is that when I teach this lesson to 2^nd graders, I will take more time to explain the two programs better. My classmates agreed with me on that point. They also thought I would need to explain what a free verse poem entails. My classmates also suggested I read a book about Fall in the beginning to introduce the lesson.

Fall Free Verse Poem Reflection Part 1

Accessing Prior Knowledge: Prior experience would have been accessed by asking students what comes to their mind when they think about the Fall season. I would also ask the students if they have had any experience with Kidspiration or Pixie. I would expect to learn about my students’ experience with technology and the season from my questions. This information would be helpful when planning, especially for the technology portion, because I could plan time to introduce the two software programs to the students so they knew how to use them.

Plans Instruction: I feel that my goals and objectives come out of the state standards. The state standard for this lesson is: Strand 1: Writing Process, Concept 1: Prewriting, Prewriting includes using strategies to generate, plan, and organize ideas for specific purposes. PO 1: Generate ideas through prewriting activities (e.g., brainstorming, webbing, drawing, writer’s notebook, group discussion). I also chose: Strand 2: Writing Components, Concept 1: Ideas and Content Writing is clear and focused, holding the reader’s attention throughout. Main ideas stand out and are developed by strong support and rich details. Purpose is accomplished. PO 1: Write stand-alone text that expresses a clear message. Using Kidspiration helps students in the pre-writing stage. I also thought that writing a poem fulfills the standard of having main ideas stand out clearly.

Designing Instruction: I feel that my lesson uses a variety of instructional methods. I allow students to go outside, think of Fall individually, and then bring them back inside to think together as a whole class. This also meets the needs of diverse learners. Technology is also integrated. My lesson doesn’t explicitly talk about safe, legal, and ethical uses of technology or digital etiquette and responsible social interactions. I feel that these are part of the hidden curriculum that students may discover as they progress through my lesson. Higher Order Thinking Skills are implemented by asking students to think about Fall and to share what comes to their minds.

Planning Assessment: My assessment tool is a checklist. This is a simple way for me to assess my students. I feel that this is the best way to assess this type of activity because when writing free verse poetry there is no right or wrong way. It wouldn’t be fair to assess students any other way. This meets the needs of the diverse learners because each student has different abilities when it comes to thinking about abstract topics such as Fall.

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Safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology means that there are certain rules that those who use digital information and technology have to follow. Addressing these three things when it comes to using technology in lessons will enable students to trust the information/technology you provide. Using these three guidelines will also allow for mostly accurate information. Nowadays, many things on the web and even some technology is illegal and not ethically good. Knowing these things will prevent you from getting into trouble.

Digital etiquette and responsible social interactions are appropriate actions that should be performed when using technology. Digital etiquette is a set of rules on how to act online. Responsible social interactions are watching what you are saying or interpreting someone else' information as. These things should be addressed when creating technology integrated lesson plans because communication is key in real life and communication is key online as well These two things help you to communicate online properly. Without these, the information you retrieve or the technology you use may not be good sources.

Meeting diverse needs of learners through learner-centered strategies and equitable access are ways to use technology. No two students are alike these days in the world of education so adapting lesson plans using technology will help cater to the diverse needs of each learner. Equitable access means to ensure that students have equal access to technology both at school and at home. This will help students to get familiar with the technology because they will have more experience with it. More experience with the technology sometimes makes using the technology that much more easier.


Global awareness and digital-age communication are key to using technology. Being globally aware helps when planning lessons because your lesson will be more rounded and serve to teach a diverse culture. Comprehending digital-age communication enables the user to understand the information fully and to better teach the information.