At first, I was rather intimidated by the WTL mini-lesson assignment. I had a difficult time imagining what I could possibly cover in the short five minutes we had to teach, and how I could incorporate my content area, Spanish, while never using the language. After I reread the section in Content Area Writing that described how to successfully implement the KWL strategy, the ideas started flowing, and I was relieved. After I decided to focus my mini-lesson on Argentina, I chose a target age group for my "students." Then, I made a chart that everyone in the class could use to organize their thoughts during my lesson as well as the potential to use it as a template for future teaching. I used the general outline of the main points necessary to thoroughly explain a strategy: what is it? why are we doing this? what does it look like (modeling it to the class)? scaffolding - gradual release of responsibility. I broke down the components of KWL and planned to use the handout as a visual example for the class. I wanted to make it clear that the things that I choose to implement in a classroom have a purpose. My students should know that the activities and strategies I choose are not a way to waste time, but have real value in their own learning process. It was important to me that I made that clear in the mini-lesson. I then decided that I would model the first column and would continue from that point. Finding a way to scaffold the information wasn't difficult because much of the information is in the textbook, but I wanted to make sure that I managed to jump start their ideas because they had little background knowledge. Once my ideas came together, I practiced a lot until I was sure that I was covering the most important material in a concise and accessible manner that was under five minutes.
My main goal was to teach the KWL strategy well and to present it as if I were teaching a real class. I didn't want my lesson to be a presentation because that is not what was assigned. I need to practice teaching (or as close to teaching as I can get) in order to improve. I thought that I succeeded in teaching the class rather than simply talking at them about strategy. I also thought that handout and using the flip chart paper worked well to facilitate what I wanted to communicate and to organize things clearly. That way, I could check to make sure that my "students" understood what I had instructed in the beginning before moving on and creating unnecessary confusion. Another aspect of my lesson that went well was using my pictures from Argentina to jump start ideas for the "What do you want to learn?" part of the lesson. It was a great way to make sure they had something to go off of rather than staring at their small group members because the amount of information they don't know is overwhelming.
I think my classmates truly learned how to implement the KWL strategy in their own classrooms. They have a basic template (the handout) that can guide them to adapt the strategy to their own needs and they have a concrete example of one way to teach the strategy. They also have the advantage of seeing what works well because they were on the other side of the desks - as students. I hope the realized that it is of utmost importance to explain why we, as teachers, are using whatever activity we choose and to make sure that the students feel like the new strategy is something they can handle before we move on to something else.
If I could do the demonstration again, I would want to explain that the "K" column will be comprised of everything the students think they know, whether the information is true or not. If something is contested by other classmates or is blatantly incorrect, the teacher can put a question mark next to that point to make sure it is addressed later. That way, no student feels pressured to provide only the "correct" facts, but everyone is open to sharing what they know. Also, I would have liked to have time for everyone to get into small groups and generate questions for the "W" column. That way, I could have stressed the point that it is important to group the questions on the master sheet so that the guide is more accessible to the students.
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