Lesson Analysis
For the most part, I was able to follow the lesson plan as I taught. The first change, however, came before the students were even in the pod area! I decided I didn’t want them to sit in chairs at the tables because I wanted them to be able to move up to the charts easily. So I decided to have all of us sit on the floor. That posed a problem, though, because the students needed a hard surface on which to sketch, which I solved by putting their individual story maps on clipboards. That worked well – no one played with the clipboards or made a big deal out of them, and they provided what we needed for the story maps. I made a few on-the-fly changes to the lesson plan as I taught, as well.
First, I realized that in our plan, we assumed the children would know what all the objects and parts of the elephant were. As I read, however, I decided to ask the students if they knew what a pillar was. I’m glad I asked, because they didn’t know! Judging from the students’ responses to each page, I figured out that they didn’t know what a tusk was called either, because when we got to that page, they were quiet. On each previous page, they had actively participated in naming either the object or the part of the elephant. When we got to the tusk, however, no one named it. They knew what the tusk was, they just didn’t know the term; I taught them the word, but didn’t review it later because my goal for the lesson was not for them to be able to name all the parts of the elephant.
Next, I realized that I needed to make sure the students understood what retelling was and why we would want to retell a story. It only took a minute or so, but we talked about wanting to be able to tell our parents or siblings about a great book that we read in school, and how we need to be able to remember what happened in the book so that we can tell them about it.
Another decision I made while teaching was to invite the students to reference the book while completing the sequencing card activity. I modeled Monday - red mouse – pillar, then asked if anyone remembered what happened on Tuesday. The students didn’t remember which color mouse came next. So I used that opportunity to remind students of one of our comprehension strategies – good readers use the pictures to help them remember. It actually fit nicely into the lesson, because retelling is part of comprehension. The students then were able to sequence the story using the book as an aid. They also noticed that the mice appear in order on each page, which I had not noticed when I read the book, so they were able to predict which mouse went next. The students also impressed me by noticing that the color of the mouse corresponded to the color of the object that mouse thought the elephant was. For example, the green mouse thought it was a snake, and the snake is green. The yellow mouse thought it was a spear, and the spear is yellow.
When we moved on to the story map, I decided to activate the students’ prior knowledge by asking them what a map was. They told me that a map tells us where we’re going and what we’re looking for, so I responded by telling them that we were going to make a map to remind us of where the story goes. When I modeled how to fill it out, instead of telling the students that the characters were mice, I asked them to identify the characters. They were so familiar with the story by that point that they had no problem identifying the mice as the characters. I then set them loose to sketch their story maps, which they completed diligently and quickly. I was pleased that I didn’t have to remind any of them to sketch rather than color. One student actually went to write instead of sketch, so I reminded him that we were just sketching now, so that we could write later.
Even though we had gone over it briefly before filling out the story maps, I had to remind some students what problem and solution meant as they were sketching. I could have done a better job of reviewing those definitions up front, but since the students were working independently on their sketches, it didn’t take away from the lesson for me to restate the definitions as students needed to hear them.
When we moved on to the interactive writing, the students exceeded my expectations. I reminded them that when one person is writing, everyone else had to be using their rubber bands, stretching out the words, and helping their classmate. The students remained engaged throughout the activity; I only had to redirect a student once or twice. I accepted “kid spelling” of words, and the students helped each other spell. We noted spelling patterns as they appeared – chunks like “th” and “ou,” sneaky e, and silent letters in night. I chose to scribe the problem myself to keep the activity moving, but the students told me what to write. The problem they settled on was “They were arguing about what it was.” When the students wrote the solution, I pushed them through questioning to make sure they understood that the white mouse felt the whole elephant, not just a part.
First, I realized that in our plan, we assumed the children would know what all the objects and parts of the elephant were. As I read, however, I decided to ask the students if they knew what a pillar was. I’m glad I asked, because they didn’t know! Judging from the students’ responses to each page, I figured out that they didn’t know what a tusk was called either, because when we got to that page, they were quiet. On each previous page, they had actively participated in naming either the object or the part of the elephant. When we got to the tusk, however, no one named it. They knew what the tusk was, they just didn’t know the term; I taught them the word, but didn’t review it later because my goal for the lesson was not for them to be able to name all the parts of the elephant.
Next, I realized that I needed to make sure the students understood what retelling was and why we would want to retell a story. It only took a minute or so, but we talked about wanting to be able to tell our parents or siblings about a great book that we read in school, and how we need to be able to remember what happened in the book so that we can tell them about it.
Another decision I made while teaching was to invite the students to reference the book while completing the sequencing card activity. I modeled Monday - red mouse – pillar, then asked if anyone remembered what happened on Tuesday. The students didn’t remember which color mouse came next. So I used that opportunity to remind students of one of our comprehension strategies – good readers use the pictures to help them remember. It actually fit nicely into the lesson, because retelling is part of comprehension. The students then were able to sequence the story using the book as an aid. They also noticed that the mice appear in order on each page, which I had not noticed when I read the book, so they were able to predict which mouse went next. The students also impressed me by noticing that the color of the mouse corresponded to the color of the object that mouse thought the elephant was. For example, the green mouse thought it was a snake, and the snake is green. The yellow mouse thought it was a spear, and the spear is yellow.
When we moved on to the story map, I decided to activate the students’ prior knowledge by asking them what a map was. They told me that a map tells us where we’re going and what we’re looking for, so I responded by telling them that we were going to make a map to remind us of where the story goes. When I modeled how to fill it out, instead of telling the students that the characters were mice, I asked them to identify the characters. They were so familiar with the story by that point that they had no problem identifying the mice as the characters. I then set them loose to sketch their story maps, which they completed diligently and quickly. I was pleased that I didn’t have to remind any of them to sketch rather than color. One student actually went to write instead of sketch, so I reminded him that we were just sketching now, so that we could write later.
Even though we had gone over it briefly before filling out the story maps, I had to remind some students what problem and solution meant as they were sketching. I could have done a better job of reviewing those definitions up front, but since the students were working independently on their sketches, it didn’t take away from the lesson for me to restate the definitions as students needed to hear them.
When we moved on to the interactive writing, the students exceeded my expectations. I reminded them that when one person is writing, everyone else had to be using their rubber bands, stretching out the words, and helping their classmate. The students remained engaged throughout the activity; I only had to redirect a student once or twice. I accepted “kid spelling” of words, and the students helped each other spell. We noted spelling patterns as they appeared – chunks like “th” and “ou,” sneaky e, and silent letters in night. I chose to scribe the problem myself to keep the activity moving, but the students told me what to write. The problem they settled on was “They were arguing about what it was.” When the students wrote the solution, I pushed them through questioning to make sure they understood that the white mouse felt the whole elephant, not just a part.