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Candidate Name: Chelsea Meyer Date: 4-10-14

School: Kelsey Norman Teacher: Miss Hoag Grade level: Kindergarten
Name of Book: What is at the Zoo? by Katie Knight Level: C

Reading A-Z Lesson 1, Reflection 4
Lesson
About:
Objective: Use the reading strategy of connecting prior knowledge to understand text
Content: We read the story (What is at the Zoo? by Katie Knight) and talked about how knowing
the names of the animals helped us read the text.
Before Reading:
A-Set: I asked the students if they had ever been to a zoo before. We talked about where
the zoo was, what types of animals were seen, and what their favorite thing to see at the zoo was.
We then looked at the cover of the book and predicted (using the strategy that we learned
last week) what the book was going to be about. The cover of the book has a polar bear on it.
Therefore, we talked about whether the book would have lots of different animals or just polar
bears. They guessed that there would be lots of different animals. We proceeded to talk about the
punctuation at the end of the title (question mark). We also talked about when an author uses a
question mark. Because of this, we guessed that the book would answer the question of what
exactly is at the zoo.

During Reading:
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We then read the book. I demonstrated how to read the words aloud and point to each
word by doing this on the first page. The students then read the rest of the book aloud. Because
the book followed a sentence pattern, the students would get a little ahead of themselves at times.
For example, there is a page with the word sea lion. Instead of reading the words, the student
noticed that the picture was a seal. Therefore, they would read the word seal instead of sea
lion. One student even said fish instead of sea lion. This told me that students were using the
pictures as visual clues rather than trying to read the words.

Reading Strategy Reflection:
Once finished, we talked about our reading strategy. We determined that going to the zoo
in the past helped us to read and understand the story. A few of the words (giraffe, dinosaur,
elephant, etc.) were a little more difficult than words that the kindergartners normally read.
However, because the students were familiar with the animals, they were able to read the words
easily.
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 connecting prior knowledge. We talked
about our experiences with zoos and how these experiences helped us understand the story.
Because the students had experiences with the animals, they were able to read more difficult
words than they would normally be able to read.


2. What went well with the instruction? What did students learn?
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Overall, the lesson went okay. I would have liked for the students to spend more time
reading the words. I think that they depended too much on pictures and repetitive sentence
structure. Therefore, I think that I will find a less predictable text for my next lesson. I may
also cover up a few pictures in order to ensure that the students are paying attention.
However, I havent completely decided on that yet. However, I do think that the students
understood the concept. I think that the students understood that having previous experience
with the topic helped them understand the story. Hopefully, this will show them that they are
capable of reading more difficult texts if they are familiar with the topic.


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 at the amount of vocabulary that the students knew. They
recognized and used the names of all of the animals with ease. I was also surprised at how
quickly the students picked up the word there. Because it was repeated on every page, the
students could read it (or at least recognize it) after the first two pages. This showed me
how young vocabulary development starts. The more that students are exposed to a word, the
easier that it will be for them to learn, understand, and use the word.

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 connected an animal that they read in the
story to one that they had actually seen. After reading the book, we flipped back through the
book to pick our favorite animals. One student proclaimed that the tiger was their favorite
because they had seen one before at a zoo. Although this wasnt a huge reading step, it
showed me that the student was making connections between real life and text. This was my
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major goal for the lesson and it is beneficial for students to start using text-to-self connection
at such a young age.