Hawes Lesson 1 Reflection

Lesson 1 Reflection

My objectives for this lesson were: 1. Introduction to the weekly concept and question 2. Discuss four new amazing words and 3. Introduce the weekly phonics focus (V/CV and VC/V) and practice breaking the words apart.

I think this lesson went really well. The students learned about the structures of some plants and animals and how they help them survive. They learned some new oral vocabulary words (what the words are and their definitions). They learned about two-syllable words and where they are split when you say the two syllables (V/CV, VC/V). I think that students reached all of my objectives from the lesson. The GLCEs are a little broader and so we didn’t complete the goal of the GLCEs within this lesson. By the end of the week, the students should be skilled in the objectives and should still be working towards the GLCEs. Most of the students struggled with the phonics portion of the lesson because this was a difficult concept and was new to most of them. In my lesson I put that I would explain what structures were in the weekly concept discussion and I think that was a wise decision because it took a few explanations before they understood what the word meant and then we were able to move forward with the conversation. They were contributing to the conversation in a way that was thoughtful and questioning. The Amazing Words portion went really well, as always. They are usually really engaged and are interested in talking about the new words. We have a routine that we do each time and it works really well because they know what to expect and they are ready and willing to participate.

The assessments that I did for the phonics portion went better than expected. We did a lot of practice words and went over the rule many times. I also tried to think of a little rhyme to remember which way to split the word. So when it came time for the assessment, they were ready. This also continued over to the end of the week reading assessment because they did well on the phonics portion. The weekly concept discussion requires me to take short notes on what they are saying and to listen to their responses to questions in order for it to be a form of assessment. I like doing this because later I can remember who responded, who didn’t, and some of the interesting things some of them said. I think if I want to assess a discussion again, I will tape it so I can get a better idea of what they said.

I learned that my students enjoy doing the Amazing Words. They get really into the conversations we have about the words and I give them a lot of opportunities to share their ideas with the whole class and with small groups/partners so they can get all of their ideas out. I know some of the classes don’t do the Amazing Words section, but I think my students learn a lot doing this part, and I also think they really enjoy it so it is a break from the monotony of some of the regular Reading Street activities.
I will not re-teach these concepts because I think the assessments say that they learned what I wanted them to learn. The weekly concept ties to the unit concept (6-weeks long) so it is somewhat brought back up throughout the rest of the unit. This is good so that the concept/ideas are reinforced. This is also true with the Amazing Words. They are used often throughout Reading Street texts and whenever a student sees one in something we are reading they are excited to point it out.

If I were to teach this lesson again I would think of a very straightforward way to teach the phonics portion. When I first started teaching it I started with one way to explain, then switched because it seemed like they weren’t getting it. But I think if I would have stuck to the same way the whole time, it would have been easier for them. I know you have to sometimes change the way you are explaining things if they aren’t understanding, but I think in this case it would have been better to stick to one way and to think of a rhyme or something for them to remember the rule with right from the beginning.