Quadrant Sequence of events in Robert Lovering’s lesson on Identifying

Symbolism in a story

4 10:00- 10:03 Students came to the rug and were instructed to sit in their
assigned reading spots. Mr. Lovering introduced the lesson by asking
students if any of them could attempt a guess at what symbolism is. The
second student to guess, M.G. was able to identify symbolism as an
item which means something to a character.

4 10:04-10:06 Mr. Lovering asked the class to think quickly and

individually to identify something that means something to them or is
symbolic. There were a few suggestions, ranging from a teddy bear to
the flag of U.S.A

3 10:07-10:10 Mr. Lovering introduced the lesson for the day, identifying
symbolism in a story we are reading. Upon giving the teaching point
“Readers identify physical things which mean something to a character
and ask themselves ‘Why does this item mean so much?’” Mr. Lovering
then modeled an example from the mentor text Because of Winn-Dixie.

4 10:11- 10:14 Students were then given an excerpt from the mentor text
and given two minutes to work with a reading partner to read the excerpt
and identify the expected example of symbolism. After two minutes, Mr.
Lovering asked a few students their take on the example of symbolism.

2 10:15-10:16 Students were then asked to return to their desks and were
asked to read their independent stories looking for an example of
symbolism in their books.

4 10:17- 10:36 While students were working, Mr. Lovering was circulating
the room checking in with students to see how they were doing. Many
students really got the message and did an amazing job of finding
examples.
 4 10:36 - 10:45 Students returned to the carpet and again paired up with
their reading partners to discuss examples they found from their
individual book for two minutes. Then Mr. Lovering asked for three
volunteers to share before tasking students with writing their one word
summary of the lesson per TPT and posting the Post-It to the anchor
chart.

Journal Entry:
Today in reading, I taught a lesson on symbolism. I felt very prepared for the lesson as
the mentor text I used Because of Winn-Dixie has quite a few great examples of symbolism and
so I had plenty of opportunities to give students examples while also allowing them to discover
examples for themselves as well. After my experience with the first recorded lesson and
learning how to better make the lesson more student centered, I welcomed the opportunity to
practice those skills with this lesson.
When the lesson began, I really tried to engage the students right away by asking them
in an open discussion about what they knew about the word symbolism. I really enjoyed
listening to the answers I received from the three or four students who volunteered. I was
pleasantly surprised as a collection of their thoughts brought the discussion to a place where I
could reveal the anchor chart and give them the notes on symbolism I had prepared for them. I
really enjoyed discussing different examples the students came up with of things which means
something to them as a person and linking it to the characters in the story.
The part which I am really starting to enjoy is giving the students an excerpt of the
mentor text and allowing them the time to work with their reading partners in trying to identify an
example. When I pull the popsicle sticks to decide who to call on, I can see that most if not all of
the students are actually excited to possibly be called on. This is amazing to see as most times
it is the same old few who volunteer. I guess that since they are able to work with their reading
partners directly before hand and discover together, they feel more confident in their answers.
Additionally, I have been feeling a lot better about my wrap up activities as well. I have
really been liking the one word summary TPT wrap-up technique lately and have seen students
getting better at it each time. I really like how it allows the students the opportunity to take a step
back and think about what they are learning. Why are they learning it? And where does this
knowledge fit in with previous lessons? This ability to synthesize the lesson into a single word
can seem daunting but the TPT book states that after students come up with the one word
summary, they can then use the half sheet to explain their reasoning. This is where I think the
learning really happens as students are given the opportunity to reflect. I love the TPTs and am
slowly but surely starting to try them out in the best way I see fit in helping my students.
I think when it came to this lesson, especially after the experience of my first recorded
lesson and then taking feedback to make it stronger, that my lesson spends a large majority of
the time near that 3 to 4 quadrant range. However, I am not exactly sure how to feel about this. I
know according to the quadrant scale at the top this is good and I am glad for it. I also know that
given someone who really understood how to make lessons which hit fours all the time, they
would find many areas where I could improve this lesson. So I take the 3 to 4 range with a grain
of salt. I do definitely feel that the TPT wrap-up activity and maybe if I could implement them
throughout the lesson as well, could really make this lesson stronger.