Running Head: Reflection Paper 1

Reflection Paper
Brandi Simmons
8/8/18
Reflection Paper 2

My unit plan was different readings within the area of science focusing on volcanos.

Volcanos was the theme of the summer school where I did my lesson plan teaching. I was placed

at Bryant Elementary School in Owosso. The class age I had was 3rd graders who were going in

to 4th. I was there during the summer school program. It made the experience different than other

placements. Summer school in Owosso involves bringing students from the different Elementary

schools in the district together in one place. In the classroom I was in there were students from

Bryant, Central, and Emerson Elementary schools. This made the classes unique because the

students did not all know each other. My CT was Mrs. McClung. She is a middle school

language arts teacher. She was a lot of help when it came to my lesson plans. It was easy to talk

to her about what I was thinking. I started with first listening and helping in the classroom in

order to gain an idea of what would work best. Then I created my lesson plans that covered areas

of comprehension skills, differentiation, and technology before I taught them..

I found that reading was easy to but in to my lesson plans. Each on of the lesson plans

had a different article for the students to read. I used a website called NEWSELA. It is designed

for teachers to find news articles on all different kinds of topics. I used it to find news articles on

events dealing with volcanoes both now and in the past. I chose this because it was the area that

students were already learning about. It was new to them, so I was able to help build on to the

information that they were already learning. I started each lesson by looking at the skill for

comprehension that I would be teaching. It was the base to my lesson. Second, I would look up

the different standards to find what fit with that skill. Next, I would put the learning targets based

on the skill and standards I was using. Then I found an article that I felt fit in the theme as well

as with the skill. Once I had the article and skill I started with how to introduce the skill. Then I

would figure what to do during and after the reading. I would also see what I could have student
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do to check understanding. After this I looked in to areas that needed differentiation. I also

looked to see if there was a place I could use technology. While doing all of this I made sure to

look for ways to get students writing or speaking. I also using drawing as a form of writing.

I had some struggles with differentiation. The first way that I tried to use differentiation

for ELL students I was told that that was not a good way to do it. So, I went back and looked for

different ideas. There are different ideas for differentiation depending on the skill that I was

trying to teach. It also depended on the activity that I was doing in the lesson plan. In my lesson

plan for monitoring comprehension I the method it used was to have students rehearse out loud

what they want to letter to say before they try to write it. The students getting in to partners

allowed this to happen. Any student that was struggling could get help this way. The lesson on

connecting to the text I used a different method. The students used words and drawings to

connect words to what they knew. It allowed those that are struggling to draw so that the teacher

could see what they were trying to say. Some students find drawing easier then writing or

speaking. My lesson plan on determining importance I used a three-tier system. I selected a tier

1, tier 2 and tier 3 words from the content. I then wrote an ELL-friendly definition for each and

posted them where students can see them. I found that a lot of the differentiation strategies that I

used helped the lesson. It made it easier for all students.

I included technology in different ways. I kept it to uses that the students were familiar

with. One of the technology choices I used was YouTube. It was harder than I thought to use this

format. There are many videos on YouTube that I had to look at a few before I found one that

was appropriate for the class. I felt that a video was a good way to get the students interested in

the topic. They all really enjoyed it. While talking to one of the summer school teachers I learned

that some schools have blockers on for different content on YouTube. One of the teachers as the
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summer school program had to change a video because the school blockers wouldn’t let it play. I

learned this after my lesson had be taught so I was very happy my video played. But I now know

to check for information like that first. Another form of technology I used was Chromebooks. I

personally don’t know a lot about Chromebooks, but Owosso schools provides one for each

student starting in kindergarten. Every student in the summer school classroom had a

Chromebook available and some knowledge on how to use it. There were some that had trouble

logging on and finding different buttons. In order to help with that I had a sticky note with each

student’s login information on it ready for them. They could leave the sticky notes with their

Chromebook because they used the same one every time. While using their Chromebook I had

students use Google. I did run in to some trouble doing this. The students knew what Google

was, but most didn’t know how to use it. I took time to help each student with this problem. I

also used a PowerPoint with the students. It was on different types of graffiti and how it has

changed. It was on my laptop for this lesson. However, I learned how to put in to a Google

classroom for the students to access. I could do the same for the YouTube video. The students

then have access to the information at other times.

Teaching lesson plans that I had created was new to me. I worked with a rotating group

for each lesson. Each lesson started with me passing out the article and materials needed for the

lesson plan. I them would go over the beginning of the article. The lesson would start with a

small discussion about what they would be learning about. In my lesson plan that focus on the

skill of determining importance I started by explaining what was important. I explained what the

title and headers are in an article. We talked about how to find important words in a text. The

class also discussed highlighting too much or too little. Then I walked them through the first part,

finding the title and header. The article was Eight facts about Hawaii's Kilauea volcano from
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NEWSELA. Then as the lesson when on I had students highlight the important parts of the

article. I also had a list of words that I had them highlighting as we read. In this lesson I read the

article out-loud so that students could focus on reading and highlighting. When reading to the

students I used something that I learned from my CT to make sure students were listening not

just highlighting. Occasionally, I would pause and the student would have to tell me the next

word. It was a quick way to see who was listening and who wasn’t. My lesson plan on the skill

that used connecting to the text I had students read the article to themselves. While the were

reading I had them each read part of it out loud to me. This allowed me to know who was

reading and who wasn’t. I chose to have them read to themselves so that they could pause when

they found something they could relate to. I also had a list of words that I had them highlight.

After they were done reading I had them write and draw what they related the highlights words

and phrases to. In my lesson plan coving the skill of monitoring comprehension I had the

students read the article then write a letter. They had to take detail they are read and put it in their

letters. Then they got partners and discussed their letters. I learned that it can be a huge help to

students to allow them to talk things out with a partner. But you must keep track of the

conversations, so the students stay on track. Each lesson was a little different in how I taught it.

They depend on what they article was as well as the skill I was trying to teach. The students had

to read in each lesson and write or draw. I did my best to make it so that they did not do the same

thing every time. I wanted the lessons to be different and engaging.

After each lesson I would sit down and make a few notes about the lesson. I

would make a few notes on what worked. The reason for this was so that I could see what was

good about the lesson. I also made notes about what didn’t work or need improvement. This

allowed me to adapt other lesson plans. One of the things I found I wrote a lot was having
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material ready before hand was key. The fact that I was teaching in a summer school program

meant that I did not have all the materials a normal classroom would have. I had to change plans

quickly because of this. But that helped me learn to be flexible when it comes to my plans. My

CT suggest this to me as a way to remember how each lesson went. I also had discussions with

her after almost every lesson. She Would ask questions that made me think about how I could

change parts of the lesson. She also helped me see what worked well. One thing I found helpful

was I also went over my lessons with her before I taught them. She offered ideas then as well.

When I did this, she was better able to help me afterwards. In class we talked about having

profession dialogs with other teachers. I think this was a good way for me to learn how to do

this. In teaching it is all about helping each other out. Others have ideas and questions that can

make a lesson plan so much better. I evaluated my lesson plan as a success based on different

things. The main way was if the students understood the skill I was trying to teach them. It was a

clear way to see that I was successful. But I also considered how much the students engaged with

their classmates and me. There is not much I would change with how I created my lesson plans

for next time. I think that over all my process works. But I will continue to reflect on each lesson

plan I create in a similar way. It is a quick way to see how a lesson is working.

I did my class work at Bryant Elementary schools in Owosso. My CT Mrs. McClung was

a great help throughout the whole experience. While I was there I taught lessons that I created. It

was a new experience for me. I went through a process with each lesson plan that I created.

There were items that had to be included that helped with the lessons. In each lesson I looked for

a place that I could use differentiation skill. I found that many of the skill that were for ELL

students worked with the others as well. I also tried to use technology in different lesson plans. I
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used a different form each time to make it interesting for the students. Once I had taught each

lesson I reviewed it to see how I could make it better.