Muer Reflection 2

My objectives for this lesson were seeing if the students could recall and summarize the main points of the story. These skills are needed in order to fully comprehend a text and become able to discuss about the plot. Due to time restrictions I had to do both of my lessons on the same day. Ideally I would have done this second lesson the next day as a follow up activity. I ask the students to write a paragraph summary of the story such as plot, setting, and characters in the book. When the students were finished writing they shared what they had written and compare the story lines what details were focused on, notice similarities and differences.  This writing recall activity can also be an assessment on the student’s writing abilities. While reading the paragraphs I noticed many spelling and punctuation errors. These work samples could then be connected/ used during the writing portion of the day.
The students seemed very engaged and excited to write their paragraphs. After the allotted time for writing was up they asked for five more minutes so they could add more things. I think it really helped that we read a book that was a fun story, unusual and different from a regular academic short story.This lesson provided a written script for the student about what the story was about. When we discussed what they had written or their final thoughts about the story they were able to organize and summarize their thoughts. We talked about what the narrator did when she left the town and things we were curious about such as how does she grow her balloons out of the ground. The biggest thing my lesson focused on and was able to bring out of the students was becoming reflective readers in the sense that they should ask questions about what they are reading and search for their answers. So many times the students read their books without really focusing on the main points or overall meaning of the story.During this lesson I noticed a lot more how little I need to do during the activity which is my goal. I don’t want the lesson to be teacher directed but a joint conversation/ discussion about the book. Many times it ends up being the teacher telling their perspective of the book instead asking the students what outlook they saw the book from. I do have some questions about strategies of how to stick with a focus of the lesson and not get side tracked by trying to instruct about writing skills or spelling.