Literacy Reflection

What worked?
I definitely felt like my lesson plan was strong and informational. I had to teach
the students about subordinate clauses. In this I made sure to show the students
that subordinate clauses are the same as dependent clauses. I also discussed
with them what subordinating conjunctions were and had a poster ready to go
that had a couple of examples of subordinating conjunctions on it, and I hung it
on the board. We did lots of examples where I would write a sentence on the
board and ask them to raise their hand and I would call on one to come to the
board and underline either the independent clause, the subordinate clause, or
the subordinate conjunction. I chose one person for each of these three parts of
the sentence. They seemed to really like this because they got to get up out of
their seat and move around a little bit. I also gave them a worksheet to do where
they basically did what we did in the examples just on their own. Most of them did

this with no problem.

What didnt work?
When I explained to the students that a subordinate clause could not stand on its
own but an independent clause could they really understood that. So much so
that when I gave them the worksheet there were a couple of sentences that I
made up that really had two independent clauses and I didnt realize until the
students showed me. I told them to underline the clause that came after the
subordinate conjunction as the subordinate clause if that was the case for the

sentence. The class that I taught was the highest level learning class so none of
them really struggled with the information.
The biggest problem I had was the teacher. At this school they teach in
teams, so the teacher I was assigned to only taught science and social studies.
The math teacher on this team also had a student from UNCC coming in to do
their IMB clinical, so she was okay with having a student as well. The literacy
teacher, however, did not want a student and she made it clear. Every time I tried
to talk to her she was very short with me. I met with her to plan a date and
subject to teach and she told me what she wanted me to do and we set a date.
When she told me to do subordinate conjunctions I panicked for a moment
because I couldnt even remember what that was! However, I did my research
and figured it out and formed a lesson I thought would work well and suit these
higher level learning students. It was the Monday before I was supposed to teach
and the literacy teacher came up to me and told me that I couldnt do my lesson
on Wednesday anymore because that was the Tech Field Day at school. I
thought okay this is fine I can do it on Tuesday and she agreed. Finally, Tuesday
arrived and I sat in on the other UNCC students lesson to observe. At the end of
her lesson the literacy teacher came up to me and said that I will need to teach a
different block my lesson because someone was coming in to talk with the
Cambridge students, the higher level students. I told her that I wasnt able to stay
for 3rd block that day but if it was my only option I would arrange my schedule and
stay and teach it to that class. She told me that I could either teach 3 rd block or
only have 30 minutes with block 2. I thought about my options and told her I
would do block 2 and just cut out part of my lesson plan. She said that was okay

but honestly did not look that happy about it. So during their specials time I
prepared to shorten my lesson from 1 hour and 15 minutes to a 30 minute
lesson. I thought as long as I can get some good examples up and make sure
they really understand this stuff we should be okay to do the worksheets. The
time came and the kids were coming into 2nd block, as they walked in the literacy
teacher approaches me and says well the lady that was supposed to talk to
them is in a testing room right now so I guess you can go ahead and start and we
will see if she comes in. I thought wonderful. I am so excited to get to teach this
class but you are bringing that excitement down. Real quick. I honestly could
have sworn this woman hated me. Anyways, I began my lesson. I talked with the
students and asked them if any of them knew what subordinate clause meant.
They didnt, but when I asked if they knew what an independent and dependent
clause were they all did. This helped encourage me. So I went over subordinate
conjunctions with them briefly and explained what they help do. Then I wrote the
first sentence on the board and I said who would like to come underline the
independent clause? A lot of them raised their hand with excitement; this
helped encourage me some more because they really seemed excited to do this!
I called on a student and they came up and underlined it, correctly of course.
Then I asked the same for the subordinate clause and then to circle the
subordinate conjunction. Then I wrote my second example on the board. Once I
called on the first student to come up and underline the subordinate clause, I felt
a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and it was the literacy teacher, and she
said they are here to film their plays. Do you mind getting to a stopping point so

they can do this and then you can resume? Since this is her classroom of
course I said yes, that is fine with me. So I stopped what I was doing and told
the students that we were going to pause this and to listen to their teacher on
what they were about to do. They had been working on some Shakespeare plays
and this group was coming in from the Cambridge program to film them doing the
plays. I thought it was a pretty awesome thing that these students got to be
involved in and I saw the excitement they had for it. Once they finished filming,
the lady who needed to talk to them showed up and only talked to them for about
5 minutes. Then, when she was done, the teacher told me I could resume. I
thought to myself well I will do my best. At this point I feel like this lesson isnt
doing anything for these students and that is the last thing I want to think for
these awesome kids. So I get back up there and we do about two or three more
examples. I asked the students if anyone needed to do more because I dont
mind it at all, I just want them to understand it. No one needed to so I passed out
the worksheet and explained to them what they needed to do. At this point I only
had about 10-15 minutes left. Which I was afraid wouldnt be enough time for
them to finish but most of them did. When they finished I asked them to just get
out a book and read until it was time for 3rd block. The students in this class were
awesome, it was just the teacher that made things a lot more stressful for me. If
she would have let me know sooner that I couldnt teach 2 nd block I could have
arranged with her to do it on Thursday or planned my day out differently so I
could have stayed longer. It just felt like a lot at one time that really stressed me
out and to have a teach who doesnt really seem to support you as best as she

can also really put a downer on things. The other two teachers on this team were
unbelievably awesome and they were so helpful!
One other thing that went a little bit wrong was there was one student who
seemed to be struggling a bit with the work sheet, he was mostly confused. So I
sat down with him and helped him work through the sentences by noticing where
the subordinating conjunction was and helping him find the independent clause
and the subordinate clause. I considered this my individual instruction because
there was really no other time I could do a small group lesson because she didnt

want us taking students out of her class while she was teaching.
What would you do differently next time?
I think next time if I did this lesson I would definitely study it more, so that I could
make sure my sentences all had an independent clause and a subordinate
clause. So that my students wont have to be confused about what I am asking in
my assessments. Also I think I will have lots of backups and maybe even ways of
condensing my lesson and being prepared for something like that to happen
where I only have half the time to teach my lesson. I think that keeping the
confidence in front of the students is a huge thing, because if they see that you
dont really believe in yourself why would they believe you? I think I did a good
job of keeping my cool in front of them, but for future I would just make certain
that I am staying confident in the eyes of my students.