Lesson Plan Reflections

Lesson Plan #1
During this lesson students witnessed a think aloud of The Napping House. They learned how to visualize what an author writes by taking the “description words” (also known as adjectives!) and relating them to their own lives. The students that struggled the most with this lesson were the few students that have trouble sitting still and focusing. In order to visualize, they had to listen to what I was saying the entire time which was difficult for them.
While listening to the think aloud, students were able to picture what I was describing because when we would get to silly parts, I would hear, “Oh man!” and other reactions that would not have been present if they did not have a mental picture of the story. I also know that my students were able to give a list of reasons why visualizing is important. I heard some partners during turn and talk time, and other partners shared their ideas with the class. A few students were only able to tell me that visualizing is important because it “helps us picture what we read.” This is true, but this more describes what visualizing is and not why it is important.
I learned that fluency impedes many of my students’ visualizing abilities. They are so focused on decoding a text that they never get the opportunity to create mental pictures of what the author is saying. Because of this, their visualization skills are significantly stronger when they are listening to a read aloud.
Read to self time during the next couple of weeks is when I plan to reach all of my struggling visualizers. They will continue to get practice in my whole group lessons, but because they have a hard time focusing, I think I will be more successful reading individually to them a few pages at a time. I will basically repeat what I did for the entire class, only look for more response because it will be one on one.
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would change it so that my students had more time to talk throughout the book. I think that if they had more turn and talk time that they would have an easier time sitting and focusing while I was reading. This would help them create a stronger visualization because they will be able to focus on only one or two pages at a time.


Lesson Plan #2
My students learned that their visualizations became better as they received more details from the text. They also learned that it is okay for students’ drawings to all look different, because our “schemas” are all different. Many of my first graders struggled with understanding that the drawings began with a text-to-self connection and changed to look more like what the author wanted us to visualize.
All of my students began by drawing a baby in the first square. Because of this, I know that all of them were visualizing the title and first two lines of the poem. It also tells me that whether they knew it or not, they were making text-to-self connections because each baby looked different. Many of my students made changes in their drawings in each square that followed the poem (i.e. black, curly hair). This is proof that they were listening and visualizing what the author suggested.
I learned that my students are able to communicate their understanding much easier in pictures than in words. The past few lessons I have had students write in their journal and turn and talk, but today I saw really clear results when they were asked to draw pictures. This shows me that their comprehension is greater than what they can typically express.
I will not worry about teaching this lesson again to the first graders that struggled because I know they will receive this same information again next year. Because we are on second grade GLCEs this year, it is just an introduction for first graders so they have prior knowledge of the concept next year. I will work with the few second graders that did not show me in their drawings that they were visualizing what the author wanted in a small group during read to self. I will have them verbalize their visualizations of the poem to a partner to see if they are more successful.
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would probably give the students a shorter amount of time to draw each picture. The students who were on task the entire time finished early, and were waiting on the students who were talking and messing around. Shortening the time they had to complete the drawings may have ensured that they got right to work and concentrated better. Also, being able to complete the entire lesson in a shorter amount of time would probably help students to remember the entire lesson when wrapping up at the end. In reality, first and second graders can barely remember what happened 30 seconds ago!


Lesson Plan #3
During this lesson, my students learned that visualizing requires more than just sight, it requires all five senses. All of my students seemed to understand this, but some of the first graders struggled with knowing which sense they were using.
Students were all able to shout out, “sight” when I asked them which sense the author wanted them to use for the first excerpt. Less students were as confident about the other senses, which tells me that they have not had as much practice and they are more confusing. All students had something written down for each sense, which tells me that they were at least following along and understand that we were using different senses.
I learned that my students have a difficult time with vocabulary. If there is a word they are unfamiliar with, they are unable to move past the individual word to understand the entire sentence.
Students will continuously get more practice using their senses throughout the year. We have Rocky Raccoon that we use to remind them to visualize when they read, and I will mention little reminders about using all five senses. At the end of the day, it is not as important for me to see that students are visualizing with all five senses as it is for me to see that they are comprehending what they are reading. Therefore, if showing me that they are visualizing with five senses is confusing them, I will try other ways to ensure they are comprehending.
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would be more prepared to discuss vocabulary words. I am horrible at describing what basic words mean and I did not anticipate them being unfamiliar with so many words. This would improve students understanding of what sense they should be using because they would not be concentrating on figuring out what the text means.