IMB Small Group Activity

 the identification of the area/aspect of literacy you are choosing to develop/support

and an explanation of how you determined this need within the class you are teaching,
including references to curriculum, student performance, and classroom
climate/environment

For my small group lesson, I chose to focus on reading comprehension. I determined that
this was a need among several students in the class by watching them interact when the
teacher would do read alouds. There were several specific students who would not understand
what was happening in the book and because of that they were unable to make predictions
based off of their prior knowledge. I also noticed that during independent reading time, when I
would walk around and ask what they were reading about, the same students were unable to
tell me what was happening within their books. I made these observations in a
reading/language arts class and realized that reading comprehension was what I would focus
on for my small group activity.

 the materials required to implement this instruction, including student and teacher
resources

The materials I used to complete the small group activity were given to me by my teacher.
She gave me 8 short reading passages and each passage had a multiple-choice question at the
end that asked what the main idea of the text was according to what they had just read. I also
used mini whiteboards and dry erase markers for each student. They used these to write down
what they thought the answer was and would flip them over at the same time to show me.

 the intended/hopeful outcomes of this intervention

The intended and hopeful outcomes of this intervention would be to help the students
learn helpful strategies for comprehension while reading a passage or book. While reading the
passages during the small group activity, I used several different strategies to promote student
thinking and understanding. My intentions were to model these strategies with the hopes of
the students learning and applying them. The ultimate goal was to improve the student’s
reading comprehension.

 a reflection on the results (both successes and challenges) of the implementation of

this intervention and modification you would make for future implementations (to be
completed after clinical experience)

Overall, I felt good about the results of this small group activity. Each student seemed to be
engaged and understood the content well. They all enjoyed reading the passages and trying to
figure out the main idea of the text. They did not get every question correct, but they worked
hard to understand and apply their skills. I also think that I successfully modeled different
comprehension strategies, which were helpful for the students. The weeks to follow after
implementing this activity, I saw a few of the students using the different strategies I taught
them to comprehend what they were reading. A few challenges for me would be creating an
environment that was free of distractions and supported growth in learning. I completed this
activity within the classroom while other students were working on projects, so it was loud
which hindered my listening and understanding. I also found it challenging to meet the needs
of each student in my small group. They are all at different levels and achieve different things
academically so it was difficult to figure out strategies and tools that worked for every student.