Literacy Lesson Post Reflection

            Upon reflecting on my lesson that I taught in my clinical classroom, I felt as thought it was strong and went very well with the students. The students were to be able to identify the location of definitions, number of definitions for an entry, and most common use. This lesson was important for the students to be aware of the dictionary as a resource because it can be beneficial for the students understanding of terms in the future.

            I did this lesson with rotating small groups throughout the day. I personally thought that doing the lesson like this really helped me to ensure that the students were understanding and grasping the content I was teaching. I cannot image how this lesson would have worked out if it were done through whole class instruction. Earlier in the day I had the opportunity to see my CT incorporate the use of dictionaries into a lesson, so I was able to connect to the students prior knowledge by saying, “I know that you are familiar with dictionaries because I saw you use them this morning.” To hook the students, I showed the students two different dictionaries. I then asked the students what they are and what they can be used for, which led to a discussion about dictionaries. I am very glad that I was able to see them use the dictionaries because I feel as though this helped my understanding of the students prior knowledge and helped with the flow of the lesson as well as its outcomes by having them connect to what they have used dictionaries for in the past.

            I then asked the students what a dictionary tells us and what a definition is. I had visuals made up of information regarding a dictionary and definition to reference when explicitly teaching the students. Next, I had the students open the dictionary in front of them to any page and look at an entry of their choice. I asked the students what they saw for each entry, what each part tells us, and how many definitions they saw listed. I was very pleased with what the students were able to tell me.

            After I regained the student’s attention and focus, I started to do more explicit teaching through the use of an enlarged sheet with dictionary entries. I should have transitioned the students a lot better than I did; I could have told the students why we were moving on and what we were going to do next. While modeling the students through this sheet, I was very please with the way that I asked questions to the students to push them in answering questions and understanding the content.

            When it came time to do shared practice, the student’s that I had previously done the mini-lesson with, because I was doing rotating small groups, had no problem working together to complete the model sheet together. This group, however, seemed to work more independently during the shared practice and I should have prompted more interactions and provided guidelines. The students also had many questions during this. Looking back, I definitely should have readdressed my teaching points and expectations for the sheet before moving on to ensure the students success in this lesson.

            While reflecting on my chosen assessment strategies I planned to use during the lesson, I was proud of myself with using the checklist. However, using assessments during lesson implementation is fairly difficult for me and it definitely something that I will need more experience working with. I am glad that I did use the checklist because it did help me have a better understanding of the students as well as how well the lesson was working. It also provided me with great feedback for myself in how well or not so well my lesson went for the students.

            If I were to do this lesson again, I would change a couple of things. Instead of having worksheets for the students to use during independent practice, I would come up with a list of words that the students are learning about and using in the curriculum. This could also be done during shared practice with the students. The students would be presented with kid-friendly dictionaries to look up the words themselves rather than them already being shown and printed for them. Doing this would really make my lesson stronger and the rationale for the lesson more successful.

            Overall, I am very pleased with my lesson implementations. I am glad that I took Kira’s advice of adding visuals to the lesson because they helped not only me but also the students during the lesson. I am glad I provided dictionaries for the students to physically see and look through/at, but in the future I will have more kid-friendly dictionaries available and point out to the students parts of the dictionary. I am also glad that I took Kira’s advice and created my own worksheets using definitions that the children had been learning about in there literacy readings to help connect the content; however, as I mentioned earlier, I will just give the students a list a words connecting to the curriculum and have them search for the words themselves. Using a word list instead will also help to differentiate the lesson a little more because I could create different difficulty levels of words to meet the students individual needs. I also need to work on my transitioning of students during lessons. It is important to have these transitions to help aid the students during the lesson and to help with the flow.