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.