Stephanie J.

Falksen
ED 215R Sec 1
Video Lesson Self Assessment
December 6
th
, 2011
In this lesson I presented a lesson about making text to self connections using an interactive
read aloud. The purposes of an interactive read aloud are to model fluent and expressive reading along
with the thinking that readers to so that students learn to construct meaning, to build the semantic and
syntactic cueing systems and to teach children strategies to comprehend text. I felt that using an
interactive read aloud was the best choice for this lesson object because it allowed me to present the
lesson objective with the highest level of scaffolding to my students so that I could model making text to
self connections and students could participate in making connections with me before going to read
independently.
In this lesson demonstrated growth in the Alverno Education Ability of Coordination. In talking
with Teresa while I was preparing this lesson she mentioned that she had briefly introduced the concept
of making connections while reading to the class but some of the students were really struggling to
understand the concept. Because of time constraints in my personal schedule I had not had time to go
to the TMC to look for a book to work with this lesson. In talking with my supervisor, Robin, she
suggested using Owen by Kevin Henkes and because she had used this book for a demonstration lesson
in our ED 225 class and I has just completed an author study on Henkes I knew that this book would be a
great fit. Through conversations at home I found out that my 1st grade daughter had just been
introduced to the same concept the week prior in her class so I talked with her teacher and asked if she
had any suggestions of ideas I could use to help clarify this for my students. She was able to provide me
with a visual suggestion for an arm motion that she used with her students and reiterated the
importance of really concentrating on the language When I read the part about It reminded me of I
thought this action was a great way to reinforce the language and planned to add it into my lesson plan
and as I did I came up with the idea to create a paper chain link to further enforce the visual image that
the arm motion created. I knew that these extra pieces of the lesson would need to be quick and to the
point so I could stay within the time frame for the lesson so before teaching I made sure I had all of the
supplies to create the chain right next to my chair and then displayed it on the easel next to my chair as I
read the story so the students could see it as I asked them to make connections.
I also demonstrated growth in the Alverno Education Ability of Integrative Interaction in the
teaching of this lesson. Based on my interactions with the students during this lesson the level of
rapport I have built with the students is very evident. The students were very comfortable asking me
questions about the information I was sharing with them, following my directions as I directed their
focus onto what we were working on and sharing their text to self connections with me during brief one-
on-one conferences. During one of my conferences one of the girls I talked with shared with me how she
made a text to self connection with the book she was reading because it reminded her about a time the
previous week when she felt she had been bullied by other students on the playground. To share this
type of information shows a level of trust this student had in me as a teacher. I encouraged all students
to participate in the lesson by sharing their personal text to self connections with a partner at specific
points in the book. This allowed each of the students to talk about their thinking while still allowing the
lesson to move along and keep within the guidelines of the class.
This lesson demonstrates my growth in Wisconsin Teaching Standard number two. In planning
this lesson I wanted to make sure that each student would be able to practice making text to self
connections after I presented the mini-lesson. Because of the diverse reading abilities of the students in
the class it was important to find a way that each student could read a book or books independently so
they were able to look for areas where they could make connections. The students individual books
bins were a great solution to this concern. These bins are always filled with books that are within each
individual students reading development level. Students reading abilities are assessed on a regular basis
and the books in the bins are changed frequently to reflect any changes and to keep students interested
in reading a wide variety of books.
The aspect of design this lesson that challenged me the most was finding connections I could
model to the book I read that the student could relate to. I was able to come up with several examples
of how my own children would be able to relate to Owen and his fuzzy yellow blanket but I knew that in
order to properly model making a text to self connection the example I used with the students needed
to be something from my own life and something that they could easily relate to. I read and re-read the
book several times in an attempt to find my own connection to demonstrate for the class. Finally as I
was preparing my introduction for the book I was able to make create a connection between Owens
blanket and a stuffed doll I had as I child. Knowing that many first graders still love to play with toys and
dolls I was confident that this was a text to self connection that the children to understand and relate to.
If I were to teach this lesson again in the future I think that I would model making my own
connections during the reading of the book so students could see more than one example of the
demonstration and then take time after reading to ask students where in the story they were able to
make a text to self connections. My cooperating teacher had made the point after I was done teaching
that its important to remember that not all children make connections at the same place, which I had
not thought about in planning this lesson. It would have been very interesting to see what other places
in the book the students made text to self connections other than the places that I had choosen to stop
and ask them to make connections.