Literacy Lesson Implementation

Literacy Lesson Post-Reflection

            On Wednesday, April 23^rd, I implemented my formal literacy lesson. I created a small group lesson for a group of four students to work on their use of expression while reading. In this lesson, the students practiced reading a script that they had previously read in class from their large reading textbook.

I introduced the lesson by reading a line of the text in a monotone voice, ignoring punctuation, quietly, and slowly. I then re-read the line, changing the tone in my voice as I read, stopping at correct punctuation, etc. I asked the students to describe the difference in both of the ways I read. They responded saying things like the first way I read it sounded like a robot, I didn’t stop at the periods, etc. They also said that the second way I read it made it more fun and I read with feeling. I had the children tell me what they thought that expression meant. I then modeled the entire story, reading with expression. Next, I had the students partner up and look for places in the story that they could use expression, and to practice reading with expression. Finally, I gave each of the students a part to read out loud and practice reading their part with expression. As they read, I used a checklist to determine if the students were changing the tone of their voice throughout the story, if they changed their voice to reflect exclamation points, question marks, or to reflect the feelings the character was feeling. I wrapped up the lesson by having the students tell me the importance of using expression in reading, and they told me it was important to read with expression because it helps the reader know how the characters are feeling. I then told them that they need to practice reading with expression every time that they read from now on.

Overall, there were some great elements to this lesson, but there were some things that I could have changed to make it even stronger. I believe that the structure of my lesson was very solid. I had a great introduction to the lesson that really got the students involved in what I wanted to teach them. I also thought that the use of the “I do it, we do it, you do it” model was a great element of my lesson because it allowed the students to see the way that I use expression, then they were able to practice using expression in partners, and then they were able try doing it on their own. This model is very beneficial when teaching and re-teaching concepts because it uses scaffolding to help the students see how it’s done before doing it on their own. Another strong part of my lesson was the conclusion. The students were able to tell me why it’s important to use expression, and then I concluded it by telling them the importance of practicing it on their own every time they read after this lesson. Another important part of this lesson was the fact that I used a story that they have all previously read before. I specifically chose this story because this particular group of students struggles with comprehension. If I had given them a new story, they would have been caught up on what was going on in the story and they would not have been focused on their use of expression. I felt that it was more important that they had a story that they were familiar with because they were able to focus on how they read the story and not on what they were reading.

While my lesson was strong, there are always ways to improve it to make it stronger in the future. One thing that could have made it stronger was the use of visuals to help the students see what exactly expression is and the important components of expression. It would also have helped to have an explicit definition of what expression is so that they had a clear understanding of it. This visual would have helped support their learning of expression because they could have referenced it throughout the lesson. Another thing I should have done was to introduce the tough vocabulary before I started so that the students wouldn’t get tripped up on the words. A third thing that would have made my lesson stronger is the pre-planning of student roles. I should have had exactly who was going to be speaking what parts in the final reading of the story pre-planned. During this final reading, one of the students who really struggles with reading was given a part in the story with a lot of reading. She got caught on a lot of the words in the story and the other students struggled with waiting for her to read. In the future, it would be helpful to pre-plan the roles so that I could have given her a part with less reading to allow her to be successful, as well as for the lesson to go much smoother.

One thing that I really struggled with in this lesson was with one of the students. He was not engaged in the lesson, he was on the floor, looking through his textbook, making inappropriate comments, etc. I didn’t know how to approach him without making it difficult for the other children to learn. For the most part, I ignored his behaviors and continued with the lesson. Occasionally, when it was really bad, I tried to redirect him, but was unsuccessful. He was very defiant. I think that if I had had some visuals, it would have kept him more engaged. Also, the table that I used was not beneficial for learning because I was too far away from the students. I should have adjusted the table so that I sat in front of all the students. I also should have had this particular student sit directly beside me so that I could have more control over his behavior.

This project was very beneficial to my learning. It allowed me to pre-assess my students, and then create a lesson based off of those assessments to focus on something that they needed work on. Through the assessments that I chose, I was able to see that these students struggled with the use of expression. This project really helped me to see the purpose of pre-assessing the students because if I had not done those pre-assessments, I would not have known what would benefit these students the most and the lesson may not have been as beneficial for their learning. It is really important to do these assessments to know exactly where all of my students stand in their learning and how I can change my teaching in order to help each student progress. Overall, I really felt this was helpful for me to see and prepare for my future as a teacher.