Brianna Jones

Integrated Unit Reflection

ED 318
An Integrated Reflection
I believe that teaching literacy integrated into content areas is a two way street. When you
are in the moment teaching a subject, literacy is flowing out of the eyes, ears, hands, and mouths.
When you sit down and force literacy into the lesson plans or moments you overthink and must
dig for justified literacy. I found myself on both of these streets while teaching this literacy
integrated unit. I found that during my lessons, literacy made itself present in more ways than
planned in my creation of the lesson. My students would read a specific article designated by me,
then interact independently based on questions they had from the content. These listening and
inquiry skills are essential for literacy growth in all grades. Ive learned that integrating literacy
in content areas doesnt have to be hard work. It will come naturally when planning and
implementing lesson plans. I also learned that it is important to choose modeling practices that
will prompt their natural literacy skills.
Proper planning means you must consider all of the levels of literacy. I choose to work
with the students on Earth Science, specifically Ecosystems and Food Webs. With science we are
able to address many different realms of literacy such as: comprehension, fluency,
spelling/phonics, vocabulary, writing conventions, writing composition, speaking/listening to
communicate effectively, and viewing/comprehending images. We were able to put heavy focus
on viewing and comprehending images as this science subject provided us with many diagrams
and photographs. I learned that the best way to teach this was to model the proper method. For

every diagram or photograph I would ask the students to dissect, I would show my own diagram
and dissect it for them. They would then use this modeling example to look into their own
photographs and diagrams. This modeling method also worked when asking the students about
their comprehension of reading. One lesson in this unit required our group to read an article that
was far beyond their reading comprehension level. To work through the article the students
listened to me read the first few paragraphs out loud. I then worked through the Backpack
strategy with my sections information. This modeling then lead to the students reading the rest
of the article out loud together and filling in their backpacks.
With all of this proper planning and implementing I had to design assessments. This
became increasingly difficult as the time we had with our students became shorter with time. I
often decided on one writing objective and one action objective for my students. The writing
assessment would always be the conventional assessment used to assess the students and myself.
This would come in the form of reading strategies, Observational notes, and R.A.F.T. letters. I
learned that these assessments can be powerful tools for myself as a teacher. Even though time
was often short, I would learn a lot from what my students were grasping during and after each
lesson. I also choose specific action objectives to gauge if my students were understanding the
subject matter. Often with science you can find many fun and interesting hands-on activities but
fail to find the assessment behind them. I needed to find activities that challenged the students
intellectually. My biggest action objective was to build a proper Biodome. The students had to
prove they knew the important parts of the food web by assembling the Biodome properly. When
they would question the importance of the crickets, I would ask them to refer to their food web
cycles they had drawn up previously. They would use previous written activities to work through
the action objectives. I was thoroughly impressed with my students week after week with how

they were able to answer their own questions with previous lessons. Ive learned that many
moments can be considered assessments and it is important to be continually assessing your
students throughout your unit. I also know that written physical evidence of assessment proved
to assist me in planning the upcoming lessons.
I learned a lot about myself as a teacher during this unit, I always learn something new
when Im implementing a lesson with students. The biggest lesson learned during this Unit was
the skills to adapt. Countless times I have sighed to myself, Im going to have to adjust this.
We were given the objective to teach an ELA integrated Unit Plan with a focus on reading
strategies for Informational Text. It sounds simple enough but I went through three sets of
students, two different unit plans, and lesson time limits cut by half and even lost two whole
weeks. I desired a simpler assignment from this course as it seemed that every time we looked,
we were losing a little more control over our units, but we never gave up. As a teacher I learned
how to adjust before, during and after lessons. I learned the most from working with the students
and adjusting our day to day activities. This became very apparent when working on our reading
strategies. I had to continually adjust the amount of work done by myself and the amount done
by the students individually. I felt as though I had to use my best judgement as a teacher when
deciding what individual components of my lesson plan were most vital for the expanding of my
students knowledge.
Even with the many trials and errors of this unit assignment, I am satisfied with the
outcome. I made many self-assessments along the way, distinguishing activities and words that I
would change for the next week and even the next time I may perform this unit. I felt as though I
was greeted with many obstacles and had many chances to overcome. My greatest
accomplishment was watching my group talk with their peers about their project. Not only did

they show enthusiasm but they answered peer questions with great understanding and use of
appropriate vocabulary words. I was confident in my groups ability to share their knowledge
successfully. I was a proud teacher during that celebration and I am very appreciative of the
opportunity.