Rachel Booker-Reading Reflection 1

Reading Lesson Reflection:  Discuss your experience after teaching each lesson: 

·       What did you notice about your students’ participation and learning in relation to your objectives?

The lesson was very informative in regards to what they understand. The lesson was relatively easy and the students enjoyed it. One of my students were absent, Dave was out sick. His absence caused a little change in the lesson in regards to reading turns but everything turned out great.

Each student participated by reading one voice (I read the first and last voice) and each shared his connection with the character during each pause. At first Kyle was making the connections with the same people, it does show connections and can be very possible, but I pushed him to make connections with other people and experiences. Julius is very soft-spoken and not very descriptive with his connections at first. I had to model the thinking aloud strategy several times about the character in the book and how their details relate to me personally. Eventually Kyle and Julius caught on and became very excited with their connections, they verbally expressed more as they became more confident in the strategy. They remained on topic for the entire lesson and both shared very good self to text connections. Kyle even connected a character to himself, which was Voice 2, a monkey that is lonely and bored until he goes to the park. Julius made several connections for one character, which shown that the connections to one character are endless.

            I feel the students met the learning objectives for various reasons. Julius would identify main and supporting details of each character. For an example, Julius connected Voice 1 to his grandmother. He said that Voice 1 was mean and had very nice clothes. He stated, “She doesn’t like to get her or her pedigree dog dirty at the park, she reminds me of my grandma. She can be mean and not let me play sometimes, she is always cleaning”. In this statement he drew several qualities of the main character and connected it to someone he knows. Both Kyle and Julius concluded that Voice 1 was a mean mother because she has to be clean at all times and won’t let her son have fun. They took their concluded main idea, supported it with details and made a relevant connection they could verbally and textually explain. They were able to contribute for each character with relevant supporting details.

There was not a time when they could not connect to a character or willing to share. All in all, the lesson was a success and the objectives were met. I did notice that “Voices in the Park” may have not been the best book to use since it has so much going on (some adult themes).

·       What were the strengths and limitations of your lesson for supporting your students’ learning?

The strength of the lesson was that it was used with a previously used book. My students were familiar with the events in the story and therefore made it easier to implement self to text connecting strategies. They were able to focus on the strategy and not be overwhelmed with a new book and its information.

      The limitation is that it depends on the student the number of connections they make self to text. It is possible that they only think a set few of people can be used to connect to, like when Kyle was connecting characters to a certain person several times. Students need to know that self to text connection are not necessarily character to person but could be anything that is relatable to you. I still have to work with this skill with my students.

·       What did you notice about yourself as a teacher? What questions do you have? 

Patience is a virtue that I definitely have! I did not mind modeling the skill/strategy several times I remained positive and consistent. I did go over time because I hate rushing student learning, I allow them to explore and question as much as possible. My students and I have a great relationship, we are very relaxed with each other, which I like very much. I want students to be comfortable around me.

Am I possibly to easy going with my students? How do I maintain a relaxed atmosphere and structured learning at the same time (that is well behaved)? I always felt reading strategies are used less in less in my MT’s class…How can I incorporate reading strategies throughout all curriculum?