Mini Lesson Reflection

For this lesson, I chose to work with three of my students who tend to struggle in comprehending what they read and making meaning of it.  For this reason, I chose to work on a predicting lesson.  I felt this would be beneficial to the students, as they would need to focus on a few pages at a time, comprehending what they read to make educated guesses as to what may happen next in the book.  I have worked with these students numerous times throughout the year on group work, but felt these three in particular could use some extra reading attention in the classroom.  All three of these students love to talk and are very imaginative, but struggle in comprehending what they read or what they hear when being read to.  I thought incorporating an activity where they would be able to have some creativity was important, as these three students are especially active and work best with hands-on activities. 

As they have worked a lot with Eric Carle books this semester (and LOVE them), I chose to bring in the book, “The Very Busy Spider.”  I chose to do this activity as a read aloud instead of having the students try to read pages with me, as they are not yet strong enough in the reading category, and trying to read would distract them from my overall goal of the lesson.  When I took the students into the hall to work on the activity, they were all instantly excited that they were receiving “special time” with me, but this made their focus levels drop slightly from when they were in the classroom.  I was able to get them back on track when I told them this activity would help me with my class at MSU (they love when I tell them they are helping me with homework), so the lesson progressed well after that.

I began by asking the students if they knew what a prediction was, and all three were able to give me a varying definition from what they had discussed in a previous lesson with my MT.  I was pleased to see this was something they still remembered, as they do not have a lot of work in this subject matter.  I then went on to show the students the front and back cover of the book, and read the title aloud to them.  When I asked the students what they thought would happen, I had responses such as, “I think the spider will go on vacation,” and “The spider is going to have a busy day because it is going to make a big, big web.”  I was happy to see the students understood the initial intent of predictions, and that they were grasping pieces of the overall concept.  I then explained the assignment, and begin reading the story to them.  When I paused to have the students draw pictures of what they thought would happen next, all three of the students drew pictures that could potentially occur next in the story.  They each included the spider, and gave acceptable responses for why they drew what they did.  The students all seemed to enjoy this activity, and got excited when they were able to draw the pictures for the predictions.

Overall, I felt this lesson went really well.  Since the book choice was at a level they were comfortable with, it helped the students to be able to think past simply the text they heard.  This helped the students to be able to focus on what may happen next, as they actually understood what they had heard.  If I were to give a follow up lesson, I would possibly choose a book that was slightly increased from the level of “The Very Busy Spider,” so that I could see if the students were still understanding predictions with a slightly more advanced book with a different type of plot.

Lesson used:

Grade: Kindergarten Mini-Lesson Rationale (Why are you teaching this lesson?): I have several students in my class who are still struggling to make predictions when reading, and don’t know how to use prior knowledge or given information to make accurate predictions in a reading. Objective for this lesson: Students will be able to…  make predictions when reading a story based on what they have read so far. Materials & supplies needed:  -        “The Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle -        Plain paper for each student -        Crayons

Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event  • Introduction to the lesson (2 minutes)    “Since we have been working on reading new stories, I thought it would be fun to do something a little different today.  Who can remember what it means to make a prediction.” Explain prediction definition if necessary as reminder from previously lesson with MT.  Tell students they need to use their best thinking and best imaginations when doing this activity, to make the best predictions they can. • OUTLINE of key events during the lesson (15-20 minutes) -        Explain to students that we need to use our “level one voices” (whisper/quiet talk) in this discussion, as we are working in the hallway and other rooms have doors open.  Tell the group the lesson should be fun, but that they still need to be responsible students. -        Read students the title of the book, and show students the front cover and back cover.  Ask students to share predictions on what they think the book will be about, or what they think may happen.  To build student ideas, ask students who they think the main character is, if they think there will be a problem, and what they think this problem may be. I will ask each student to share an idea. -        Read the first few pages to the students aloud to the students.  I will read it aloud so they can purely focus on the occurrences in the story instead of on the fluency aspects that would occur if they were reading.  I will then ask each student to draw a picture of what they think will happen next on the piece of paper with the crayons provided.  Ask students to share their pictures, explaining why they drew what they did.  Read a few more pages of the story, and ask students to draw another picture showing what they think will happen next.  Have students share and discuss pictures/reasoning.  Finish reading story to students. • Closing summary for the lesson (2-3 minutes) - After finishing the story, I will ask the students if they liked making predictions, and why it is a good thing to know how to do.  I will ask the students what helped them make the predictions, and will tell them to try this activity with a family member at home for a fun activity. Assessment: For the assessment, I will examine the students’ pictures to see if they understood the concept of making predictions and educated guesses.  I will also audio record the activity to listen back to the discussions and student responses throughout the activity.  If the students were able to make educated, on-task predictions with the pictures, I will know they are grasping the concept.