2/25

Constructing this Independent Reading Unit as a lot harder than I expected! I kept second-guessing myself because I didn’t know how detailed I should be. In the end I concluded that my audience was composed of educators, so I could write this unit exactly as I would write it if Ms.D’s class was really my class and someone in the department needed to read it. I also feel like, at least for me, the goal of independent reading is to help struggling readers improve, and most of that I feel cannot be captured during the pre-planning period. I can only emphasize that it is my hope and goal through the instructional approaches. Conferencing is very important as well, and I was also unsure how explicit we should be in describing that component of the unit.

            Constructing the video was really hard as well. It is so odd watching yourself on camera. I really didn’t know that my voice and my demeanor was so bossy. I wish I could have been a lot warmer to the students, but I had been observing how they could take advantage of that so I knew I had to be assertive. Teaching that lesson was not easy because there were so many distractions, I couldn’t keep up with my own thoughts. Next time I’m going to try to pace myself and try not to anticipate the distraction so my speech and ideas come out a lot clearer than what they did.

            Nonetheless, the lesson wasn’t a complete fail and I’m happy about that. For a good moment, the students were engaged, and I think they all learned something.