School: Kelsey Norman Teacher: Miss Hoag Grade level: Kindergarten Name of Book: Going Away by Ned Jenson Level: C
Reading A-Z Lesson 1, Reflection 4 Lesson About: Objective: Make, Revise, and Confirm Prediction Content: We read the story (Going Away by Ned Jenson) and made predictions about the story. Before Reading: A-Set: I asked the students what they did over Spring Break (hoping that one of them had gone on a trip). Two said that they stayed home and the third said that she had gone to Silver Dollar City. I asked how she got there and she was a bit confused. So, I asked if she walked or did something else. She said in a car. We then talked a little bit about how you can get places (transportation). We then talked about what the word prediction means. The students didnt know, so I told them. I then gave them the example of a book cover. If you saw a book with a dolphin on the front, then the book would probably be about dolphins. We gave a few other examples before I asked them what a prediction was. We then proceeded to the book. We all looked at the cover (three children on a boat) and I told them what I predicted the story was going to be about. I then asked the students what they thought it was going to be about. One student said that they were probably going on a fishing Chelsea Meyer 2 student. However, another student said that they didnt have poles or a net. This was a pretty good observation. During Reading: We then started by looking at the first few pages of the book. I gave the students sticky notes to put on words that they dont know and on page 5 so that they knew where we were stopping. The students read aloud and pointed to each word as they said it. We talked about the words that they put a sticky note on and figured out what the word was. Once finishing page 5, we made new predictions about what the book was going to be about. Because we had seen three different types of transportation (ways to get places was their definition), we determined that the book was probably about transportation. Even though we originally thought that it was about a trip, we had to change our prediction. We then read the rest of the book. Reading Strategy Reflection: Once finished, we determined that our last prediction was correct. I talked to the students about how a good reader makes predictions (or guesses) to how a story is going. This helps readers to understand the book. It also gives readers the motivation to finish the story because they want to determine if their prediction was correct or not. Reflection 4:
1. What was the area of focus today during the lesson? What activities related to the area of focus did the teacher include in the lesson today? The reading lesson that I did was over the concept of prediction. The students predicted what our book was going to be about from the cover. We then read part of the book and tried to guess if what we predicted was correct. After finishing the book, we confirmed our prediction. Chelsea Meyer 3
2. What went well with the instruction? What did students learn? Overall, the lesson went pretty well. The students could read most of the words in the story and they were able to figure out the rest based on the pictures. The only problem that I had was with distraction. Because the lead teacher continued with her normal instruction (we were sitting at the reading table at one side of the room), the students would often look to see what their peers were doing. We then had to refocus to continue the lesson. I think that the students learned that we sometimes have to change our predictions (or guesses) throughout a story in order to understand the story.
3. Explain a growth moment for yourself where you realized, learned, or confirmed something from today dealing with student achievement in the area of reading. (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, before/during/after reading) I was really surprised by how much the student relied on the pictures for word recognition. Although the students knew most of the words, they just made up the unknown words based on the picture. At this point, I had to ask them to go back and pay closer attention to the word. However, they could then determine the word based on the first letter and context. They were also very good at reading for comprehension. We had to go back a few times to make sure that we understood. However, the students were able to tell me what the book was about when we were finished. This was how we confirmed our prediction.
4. Describe a moment when a student grasped an idea/concept-that got it! kind of moment. How was the teacher able to facilitate this experience? Explain the situation. The best aha moment was when a student finally understood the word away. This was apparently a new word that didnt follow the sounding out rules. However, it did appear Chelsea Meyer 4 on every page. After reading the word the first time, the students began to recognize it. It took a few pages, but the students could finally do it on their own by the third or fourth page. This was an aha moment because it was a new word that the students could now read on their own. Although this wasnt exactly the goal of my lesson, I was really glad that the students learned a new word out of the lesson.