Bailey Reflection 1

Reading Lesson Reflection 1:

What did you notice about your students’ participation and learning in relation to your objectives?

I noticed that both the students had used the word-learning strategy where you look at surrounding words to find the meaning of a word.  They both agreed that this was the easiest method for both of them to use, but it was the only method that they had ever used while reading.  After going over a different strategy, looking at word parts, one of the students said that he liked using it.  At first he was confused about “word parts” (prefixes, suffixes, root word), but after I explained that at the beginning of the word is “re-“which means to do again he said, “Oh I get it now, reunited means to be united again.”  So then I asked him what united means and I brought my hand up and clasped them together to give him an example.  He said questionably, “Together? Again.”  I looked at him for a short moment and he said, “I get it! To bring together again!”  The other agreed with him and also commented, “Two things were brought together again.”  They both participated by practicing each word-learning strategy together and even on their own also.    Using the strategies helped them understand the book, and I know this because at the end of each page they would talk to each other about the strategies and changing the sentences to use similar words (synonyms).

 

What were the strengths and limitations of your lesson for supporting your students’ learning?

One of the strengths of this mini lesson is working with only a couple students to go over each word-learning strategy because I could model it to them and watch them individually practice each strategy.  Another strength of this lesson was that I chose two students who work really well together.  They took turns practicing strategies and if they needed help with something, then the other student would help, and if they still couldn’t figure it out, then they would ask me.  It was nice to see them working together to solve the problem (figure the meaning of a word) on their own or together, without assistance from me.  The biggest limitation of this lesson was that it was a Friday after lunch and I had to pull the students out of math class to do the lesson.  At first, it was hard for both of them to focus on their task or listen to me read, because the entire class was chaotic that day, ready for the weekend.  Also, in math the students were going to play a new game.  The two students I worked with were excited to work with me, but also wanted to play the new math game.

What did you notice about yourself as a teacher? What questions do you have? 

I noticed that at first I let the students talk about the book and look at the pictures more closely at the beginning, because I thought that would help them stay more on task later when they were to practice the word-learning strategies.  I was interested in hearing all the wonderful ideas they had that related to the book, but not to the lesson, because they knew a little bit about some of the presidents and seemed curious to learn more about a few of the presidents in the book.  As a teacher, I try to let the students further their curiosity in hopes that they will try to figure things out for themselves to broaden their own knowledge.  I also noticed that when the students were not talking about the book, at first I panicked because I thought they were not going to listen to me, but when I asked them to come back to what we were supposed to be doing they did without a problem.    This made me relax more and give them more control over the situation (discussing the book and word-learning strategies).