Nicole Meyer Dr.

McKool ELD 308 Lesson Plan Set #1 Reflection My first lesson plan set went very well. I performed an interactive read aloud on the book, Emily by Michael Bedard and accompanied it with a reading mini lesson about connections between text-to-text, text to self and text to world. As a whole, the lesson was a success because the students were able to make connections from the story, Emily, to another text they read, themselves and the world. After I modeled how the book connected to the world, a text I read, and myself, I had the children go back to their seats and use their independent reading book to make those three connections for themselves and write down their connections in their writers notebook. During my interactive read aloud, I introduced the book, asked the students what they saw on the cover and had them make predictions about the story. I stopped several times during the book to confirm predictions or make new ones and to ask some questions about the text which the children willingly answered. Although the children were engaged, I was so worried about losing my place in the reading that I never gave eye contact except when asking a question or addressing a comment. The students need to be engaged in the story and its my job as a teacher to make eye contact with the students to keep them engaged. Also, when I have eye contact with the students, the students can relate to me as I read to them through my expressions and I get a chance to read their body language to understand whether or not what Im reading is making sense or not. After conferring with my cooperative teacher, she explained that if I needed to work on my eye contact, I could hold the book in my lap as I read, look up to

make eye contact and then at the end of the passage, turn the book to show the students the pictures. This may be a good strategy for me to practice until I train myself to read a story with the book facing the students and maintain eye contact. Another problem I have to tackle when I perform a read aloud is the rate in which I speak. I tend to speak fast by nature and when I read aloud to students, I continue to speak quickly. I have to learn how to slow my pace because when I read to fast, the children cant keep up with where I am in the story. Also, when I read to quickly, the students may not be able to comprehend what Im reading because Ill start to jumble the words from reading so quickly. One strategy I could use to help myself slow down is to read to myself in the mirror. When I read to myself in the mirror, Ill be able to monitor my pace, eye contact and how I articulate the words of the text. My reading mini lesson went very well. I was very organized using post it notes to mark my place in the story to make my text-to-text, text to self and text to world connections. The lesson was very structured and I knew that the students understood the objective because they were able to connect to the quotes that I had pulled from the story. One student explained to the class that a newspaper is a prime example of a form of text that is text to world. Her comment was one confirmation that the students understood my objective. During my reading mini lesson, my professor was observing my lesson. During the lesson, I had the students turn to a partner and make connections using three quotes I pulled from the book, Emily. My professor pointed to a student in the corner who did not have a partner in which case I asked the student to come up and make connections with me. If it werent for my professor pointing out the student, I would have never realized

she didnt have a partner and therefore she would have missed an opportunity to take part in the lesson and practice making connections. Due to this lack in observation, I will make sure from now on that I am always aware of my students during a lesson. Even though my reading mini lesson was a success, at the end of the lesson I forgot to ask the students why making connections from text-to-text, text to self and text to world was so important. I had stated at the beginning of the lesson the objective and importance of making connections to the students, yet I neglected to reiterate the importance at the end of the lesson. It is important to ask the students what they learned and why it is important at the conclusion of the lesson so students understand that what they are learning isnt trivial and is beneficial to their comprehension of texts. This lesson was my first lesson in over a semester. I was extremely nervous, as I am before all my lessons, but in the end both the read aloud and reading mini lesson turned out great. I learned more about my teaching abilities, my strengths, and weaknesses and what I could modify next time to enhance my lesson. After talking to my cooperative teacher and professor, I realized that I have to work on eye contact, the rate in which I speak, to be more observant of my students and to recap the purpose and importance of the lesson so the students fully comprehend the objective.