Language Arts Lesson Plan Reflection
After completing my language arts lessons for the first half of my unit, I have a lot to reflect on. When planning my language arts unit, I wanted to create a unit plan that would not only teach my students new comprehension skills but also provide them with an effective way of using these skills. This first week of my unit was used to practice the reading comprehension skills we have already studied, such as making connections and visualizing, and introduce the students to an additional skill, questioning. My students responded well to the reading selection I had chosen to use, Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night, which is the same series we will be using for our reading groups/book clubs in this upcoming week. My language arts unit is working along side of my Making Meaning lessons which helped my students to learn the content of my lesson. Because my students understand the procedure and structure of the Making Meaning lessons, it was easy for them to make the connection that both lessons were centered around reading comprehension.
This past week, the focus of my language arts lessons was questioning and how the students could effectively use this skill to better their comprehension of the text. Through my lessons, I learned that my students are constantly applying the strategies taught to them to aid them in reading all together. Many of my students have gone above and beyond my expectations. During silent reading time, many students are showing me through a hand gesture that they are making connections. Other students have come to show me compound words, which they have just been introduced to through my unit, that they have found within their silent reading books. Many students are eager to share how they have used the skills we have been learning and practicing when reading on their own. I did expect my students to understand the content I taught to them. I did expect them to use these skills when instructed to. The most rewarding feeling is seeing a student use a reading comprehension skill that I provided him/her with and noticing the student using this skill on his/her own.
A great aspect of the Making Meaning lessons is the fact that the previous content and skills are constantly revisited to reinforce that the students are understanding the comprehension skills being taught. Because my unit plan lines up so well with the Making Meaning lessons, I am able to add my own skills into the revisiting aspect of the lessons. If some of my students are still unsure about what questioning is or how to use this skill, they will be able to see to revisit how to use questioning through modeling and reteaching throughout the school year.
If I had the chance to do the lessons over, I would rethink the timing I had set for each activity. I am still having some difficulty judging how long a certain lesson is going to take when I am planning in advance. Some of my lesson were over planned. Throughout the week I had to take some activities out and decide what needed to be taught and what needed to be added to the next day's lesson. I did find it very helpful to have an extension assignment ready for students who finish early.
The core practice I chose to focus on throughout this unit was mainly modeling. The first week of my unit plan used modeling quite a bit. I relied on modeling to show the students my expectations and to provide them with an example of the types of responses I was looking for, the reading skills I was expecting them to use and the thought process I wanted them to follow. It has been very helpful for both myself and my students.
