I had some very interesting conversations with several of my students this week. It was an odd feeling being the one asking them how I have done with past lessons but I loved it! I felt validated with how I ensure that I have examples for my lessons and listened carefully to their ideas.  I asked a variety of grade 2 and 3 students  about what I need to do to help them better understand my lesson ; 2.If there was a time when I could have made my lessons better to understand and complete; 3.What did they find hard about answering questions that aren’t in the materials .  They all seemed to agree that they like when several examples are shown at the lesson; real samples of the lesson such as in the parts of the flower they liked seeing the real parts of the flower and enjoyed  dissecting  the parts themselves which all reinforced the concepts.  They like the visual and sensorial aspects of lessons which seems to be what they need to better understand and complete their work.  They also mentioned that they liked to see samples of the work of past students as well as the usual examples that I give when the lesson is only started.    Some stated that they like having several library books there as additional sources when the new lesson is introduced which is what is usually done.  There are very much visual learners.  They  all seemed to agree that they find it difficult to answer questions\ make predictions when they cannot find the information in the reading materials.  They would prefer to research questions when they have facts in front of them.  They expressed concern that what they may write may be not be right.  I have found many times when I ask their opinion on something in past novel studies that the students are hesitant to offer an answer as they are worried they will be wrong versus giving fact based answers.

This was most enjoyable and informative moving forward. Indicates more work to be done away from content based questions. See you all on Saturday!