REFLECTION:
Our lesson plan was on word choice. We first chose to explain to the students what word choice was and why it was important. I thought that overall our presentation and exercises (including the exit ticket) were good but there are a few things I would change after watching the video. If there had been more time I would have liked to already have the sentences written up on the board before the lesson had started. That would have allowed us to have easier transitioning periods which is also something that I want to work on. It was almost too long of a pause between each sentence due to having to write it on the board. Also, when in the actual classroom with younger kids I would have used a different, more distinct and noticeable expo marker. However I did like our sentence activity and giving thumbs up or thumbs down. I also liked that we walked around the room and complimented them on their word choice along with complimenting them when they raised their hands to share better word choices for our sentences on the board. I also really liked the exit ticket because it gave them a chance to come up with their own synonyms for less exciting words and they also got to come up with their own sentence as well. This lesson also ties into two of my beliefs about writing. These two beliefs are that students should get to choose what they write about and writing is a tool for thinking. At the end of the lesson for the exit ticket, the students get to write sentences about whatever they want as long as they include appropriate word choice. It is better for students to write about what they want instead of telling them that their sentences have to all be about a dog because that limits their creativity. My second belief, writing is a tool for thinking, is also used during the exit ticket when they make a list of synonyms for the words fun, sad, and big. Writing this list allows them to think/brainstorm new words that they can later look back at when writing their sentences and possibly can refer back to when writing a paper (tool=own personal thesaurus).