Lesson Reflection #1

In my first mini-lesson, my students were very excited to work with me one on one. They each participated exceptionally in my lesson. My goal was for the students to be able to recognize and say the high frequency words that we were working with. The students were really engaged when it was time to match up the words. I explained it so that it would be more of a race or a game rather than a task. By this time in the lesson, the students were able to say the words rather quickly. When we played the game, the students were really excited and eager to play. We played the game three times and the students loved it. They wanted to read the words, and they knew the words by the end. I was really impressed by their progress.

One strength of my lesson is that the students were really excited and engaged. Usually, these students are hesitant to do reading activities because they know that they are not good readers. I know this because each of them have told me before that they “don’t know how to read,” which is untrue because I have seen each of them read at least a little bit. The students were excited that I made everything into a game or competition. They really liked playing Follow the Path because it was fun and interactive. By the end of the activity, the students knew all of the high frequency words that we worked with.

One weakness of this activity was that there was not equal participation from each student. Ali, my quiet student, did not say very much at the beginning when I asked what each student noticed about the words. The other two students were saying way more than him. Unless I called on him, he did not say anything. He was engaged in matching the words together and in the Follow the Path game. Although he did not say much, he was able to read the words on the game board. He also matched up some of the words in the matching portion. If I could do this lesson over again, I would have them be in a group together, but I would try to call on the students instead of let them shout out whatever they were thinking. This would give Ali a chance to speak without interruption.

I noticed about myself that I have the ability to get students excited about a task. I posed this lesson as a game or competition, which I noticed my students really liked. Also, when they were playing the game, I kind of took a step back and let the students teach themselves. I explained the rules of the game, but after that I let the students play the game and read the words. At one point, I heard Camila help Jordan with one of the words when he forgot. It was nice to see the students working together without my help. I think I need more practice with setting the students up to help themselves. My only question would be how could I make this activity even better? I would like to see how other students do on this activity.