Alexa D'Auria

Formal Lesson 1- Reflection

3/3/15
EDUG 868

I believe that my reading lesson went very well. I was not that nervous going into
the lesson. In fact, when I began my lesson, all of the other teachers seemed to disappear.
They knew their roles and I knew they would be there to help the class during the lesson.
Since the students were able to recognize a characters feelings, my goal was to review
the parts of a book that a reader must look at to determine a characters feelings and to
use the words I noticed and because to describe/write those feelings. Furthermore, I
was better able to manage my time because I used timers. The timers also helped the
students know what was expected of them. I think that the way my lesson was structured,
going from whole class, to pair shares, to small group and independent work, allowed for
an appropriate gradual release of responsibility. I was able to enhance the students
vocabulary by challenging them to come up with synonyms and writing them down on
the fancy words chart. When the students turned and talked with their reading partners,
they were able to recognize and state the characters feelings in one minute, using the
new terms. The extra tier for the students with disabilities allowed for more targeted
instruction and differentiation. It gave them extra time to understand the directions. I
think the way I paired the four students up with each other was a wise decision because it
increased their social skills and had them read with someone on a different reading level.
HZ is on grade level and G is above grade level. LZ is above grade level and RC is below
grade level. The students above grade level were asked to read. They were able to use the
visual feelings chart appropriately.

Although there were many strengths of my lesson, there were also some
weaknesses that I need to work on. The entire lesson was about 50 minutes long. Even
though this is an appropriate length of a lesson, the whole class instruction on the rug felt
long. I should have used the 10-minute timer to pace myself. In the moment, I felt like
there were specific phrases my teacher wanted me to say to emphasis the teaching point. I
may have been too wordy giving explanations. Also, during the lesson I didnt notice that
Mrs. Tighe handed out turn cards to students who were not paying attention until I called
on LS to restate the directions. Mrs. Tighe suggested when we were planning the lesson
that I hold the turn cards to hand out to them while teaching. I felt like this was too much
of a responsibility with the lesson itself. I thought I could better manage the entire class
using strategies like counting down and clapping. However, I felt overwhelmed by the
amount of times I had to refocus the class.
Additionally, when I was working at the cubby table with the four students it was
difficult to get them to listen to my directions. RC told me I cant read, after I told him
that his partner LS was going to read aloud to him. At one point in the book, RC was able
to read some of the site words. Gillian and HZ took turns reading to one another. The
students did not really discuss with each other what they were going to write down on the
post-it note. I had to prompt them to use the words I noticed and because. However,
identifying the feeling and giving an explanation seemed easy for them. They seemed to
enjoy sharing with each other what they wrote. Although I only gave RC instructions to
draw a picture to illustrate the facial expression that matched the feeling, LS and HZ
wanted to draw a picture too. This wasnt planned, but showed me that they could
identify the facial expression in the text and match it to the chart I gave them.

At the end of the lesson, I got up to circulate the room to see how much each
student wrote. Before I could scan their work, Mrs. Schassler asked me to close up the
lesson and offered to help me choose a student to share their work with the class because
she already walked around the room. I turned off the lights to instruct the students to put
their books away and come to the rug. Most students responded well to this, others
needed verbal prompts to move faster.
Overall, I think the lesson went smoother than my informal lesson a few weeks
ago. I listened to the advice that both cooperating teachers gave me after the informal
lesson and challenged myself to apply it in a meaningful way. My lesson was within a
given time frame and the class responded better to my classroom management
techniques. I have become more familiar with the students interests and their different
levels of performance. I used this background knowledge to differentiate instruction.