Reflection
Follow-Up Lesson
Using the knowledge of my students’ understanding of cause and effect, I would design a lesson that builds upon the concepts that they do seem to grasp in an effort to make their understanding not just conceptual but also explicit. I would spend more time at the beginning of the lesson teaching the words cause and effect with tangible, concrete examples. For example, I would start by defining ‘cause’ as being ‘the reason that something happened’, or ‘why it happened,’ and effect as ‘what happened because of, or as a result of, the cause.’ I would then set up a row of dominoes, knock the first one over, and have everyone watch each of them fall over. I would generate a discussion about cause and effect with the dominoes, pointing out both large and small-scale cause and effect. For example, I could say that the cause was that I tapped the first domino and the effect was that the second one tipped over. I could also say that the cause was that I tapped the first domino and all of them proceeded to tip over one by one. Similarly, I could blow some bubbles and make them pop either with my hand or by blowing them directly into a hard surface. My students have been learning about bubbles and air, so a discussion of the cause and effect involved in blowing bubbles would be interesting and meaningful for them.
Teaching the Same Lesson Differently
My classmate tallied the number of times I called on each student.
There are a number of adjustments I would make if I were to teach this lesson again. First, in an effort to make sure that I called on all students with the same frequency, I would use popsicle sticks with their names on them. I noticed as I watched the video of my lesson that I ended up calling on one student in particular a lot. This student is one who often becomes disruptive during read-alouds, so I wanted to keep him engaged to prevent that from happening. Nonetheless, by calling on him so much I worry that other students did not get the opportunity to participate that I was hoping they would. Using popsicle sticks would allow me to be more fair and objective in calling on students. Additionally, as my Penn Mentor and I discussed after the lesson, I could use a more specialized behavior management tool with this particular student that would allow me to validate his good behavior more often and more individually than the 5-star system I was using for the whole group. For example, I could put a post-it in front of him and tell him that every time I noticed him showing excellent behavior I would give him his own star.
Some of the adjustments that I would make are adjustments that my grade partner and I made after she and my Penn Mentor observed my lesson. I would incorporate all of these changes if I were to teach this lesson again. First, we decided to change the way we used the chart. We still had three examples of cause and effect, but the first one was an example from the book the teacher had used the day before during the read-aloud. We wanted to give students a visual tool for accessing their prior knowledge of cause and effect from the very beginning of the lesson. I would fill in both the cause and the effect from the day before using pictures or drawings, if the illustrations from that book lent themselves to me doing so. The second two examples of cause and effect on the chart would come from Strega Nona. My grade partner and I decided that we would ask our students to identify the first two instances of cause and effect in Strega Nona, but not the third. We made this decision for two reasons. First, we felt like there were other interesting things to talk about at the end of the book beyond cause and effect (see discussion below). Second, the final instance of cause and effect is much more abstract, and therefore more difficult to talk about than the first two. Finally, we decided that in an effort to meet the needs of our students, we would provide either the cause or the effect in the chart ahead of time so that our students would be able to use one to help them get the other.
There is one adjustment that I would make to the chart that my grade partner and I did not discuss. I would write the word ‘Why’ under cause and the word ‘What’ under effect and explain both of them. While not all of my students have memorized these sight words, I think that many of them have. For those students it might serve as a helpful reminder of the meaning of the words cause and effect. Furthermore, I don’t think it would interfere with the learning of those students who cannot immediately recognize the words.
I noticed as I watched the video of myself teaching that there were times when my students had their hands raised but did not get called on. I realized that I was so focused on having them understand cause and effect that I did not insert many opportunities for a more general discussion of the book. If I were to teach this lesson again I would try to balance time spent on cause and effect with time spent on the aspects of the story that did not have to do with cause and effect. This would give students a chance to engage in the story in ways that are more natural to them. I would, for example, point out Tomie dePaola’s use of frame in his illustrations, as that is something quite unique about this story. I would also spend some time discussing Big Anthony as a character—his disobedience, his desire to be hero, etc. Finally, instead of talking about cause and effect at the end of the story, I would engage the students in a discussion about the bigger idea, which is stated so nicely by Strega Nona when she says, “The punishment must fit the crime.” This idea of logical consequences would be quite difficult for first graders to grasp, but it is the central moral of the story and is quite important. I would ask questions like,
As a way of wrapping up, I would summarize the instances of cause and effect they found and re-iterate why cause and effect is important. Finally, I would give my students some time for independent practice with cause and effect. I would ask them to identify a cause and effect story from their own lives, but instead of just saying the story out loud to the group they would map it on a piece of paper that looks similar to one row in our chart. They would draw a picture of their cause in one box and write a word or a short sentence underneath, then do the same for effect. This would serve as a tool for assessment for me, and it would give the students a way of making their own voices heard.
All in all, the biggest changes I would make if I were to teach the same lesson again address the overarching question I have with all of my lessons about finding the balance between putting the cognitive workload on students and providing appropriate scaffolding. In this case, many of my changes involved providing more scaffolding because my students’ responses from the first lesson demonstrated that while they understood the concept of cause and effect they did not understand the words on their own.
Some of the adjustments that I would make are adjustments that my grade partner and I made after she and my Penn Mentor observed my lesson. I would incorporate all of these changes if I were to teach this lesson again. First, we decided to change the way we used the chart. We still had three examples of cause and effect, but the first one was an example from the book the teacher had used the day before during the read-aloud. We wanted to give students a visual tool for accessing their prior knowledge of cause and effect from the very beginning of the lesson. I would fill in both the cause and the effect from the day before using pictures or drawings, if the illustrations from that book lent themselves to me doing so. The second two examples of cause and effect on the chart would come from Strega Nona. My grade partner and I decided that we would ask our students to identify the first two instances of cause and effect in Strega Nona, but not the third. We made this decision for two reasons. First, we felt like there were other interesting things to talk about at the end of the book beyond cause and effect (see discussion below). Second, the final instance of cause and effect is much more abstract, and therefore more difficult to talk about than the first two. Finally, we decided that in an effort to meet the needs of our students, we would provide either the cause or the effect in the chart ahead of time so that our students would be able to use one to help them get the other.
There is one adjustment that I would make to the chart that my grade partner and I did not discuss. I would write the word ‘Why’ under cause and the word ‘What’ under effect and explain both of them. While not all of my students have memorized these sight words, I think that many of them have. For those students it might serve as a helpful reminder of the meaning of the words cause and effect. Furthermore, I don’t think it would interfere with the learning of those students who cannot immediately recognize the words.
I noticed as I watched the video of myself teaching that there were times when my students had their hands raised but did not get called on. I realized that I was so focused on having them understand cause and effect that I did not insert many opportunities for a more general discussion of the book. If I were to teach this lesson again I would try to balance time spent on cause and effect with time spent on the aspects of the story that did not have to do with cause and effect. This would give students a chance to engage in the story in ways that are more natural to them. I would, for example, point out Tomie dePaola’s use of frame in his illustrations, as that is something quite unique about this story. I would also spend some time discussing Big Anthony as a character—his disobedience, his desire to be hero, etc. Finally, instead of talking about cause and effect at the end of the story, I would engage the students in a discussion about the bigger idea, which is stated so nicely by Strega Nona when she says, “The punishment must fit the crime.” This idea of logical consequences would be quite difficult for first graders to grasp, but it is the central moral of the story and is quite important. I would ask questions like,
- Why do you think Strega Nona decided to punish Big Anthony by making him eat all the pasta instead of making him sweep
- The townspeople were so angry with Big Anthony that they wanted to ‘string him up’. Strega Nona chose not to, and instead she made him eat all the pasta. Why do you think she chose this punishment? What would you have chosen?
- What do you think would have better helped Big Anthony remember or learn not to disobey Strega Nona, eating pasta or doing chores?
As a way of wrapping up, I would summarize the instances of cause and effect they found and re-iterate why cause and effect is important. Finally, I would give my students some time for independent practice with cause and effect. I would ask them to identify a cause and effect story from their own lives, but instead of just saying the story out loud to the group they would map it on a piece of paper that looks similar to one row in our chart. They would draw a picture of their cause in one box and write a word or a short sentence underneath, then do the same for effect. This would serve as a tool for assessment for me, and it would give the students a way of making their own voices heard.
All in all, the biggest changes I would make if I were to teach the same lesson again address the overarching question I have with all of my lessons about finding the balance between putting the cognitive workload on students and providing appropriate scaffolding. In this case, many of my changes involved providing more scaffolding because my students’ responses from the first lesson demonstrated that while they understood the concept of cause and effect they did not understand the words on their own.