Lesson Plan Reflection 6

This was my last lesson with my student. I had my student write her very own Thanksgiving story. I found out this was a great way to engage my student. First, we picked out the main character in the story. Next we came up with the time and place the story was to take place in. And lastly we decided what the plot and the conflict of the story was. My student did have trouble using her creativity and coming up with the rest of her story. I feel maybe instead of the game I used to create the Thanksgiving characters, plot time, place, conflict, and plot I should have had the student come up with that on her own and maybe she could have been more creative from the beginning. The student eventually was able to come up with the rest of her story on her own with a few prompts from me. It was interesting to me to see what my student was able to come up with. After she had her story written I allowed my student to draw a picture of what her story was about or what was going to happen next in the story. My student chose to write a picture about what was happening next in her story. I enjoyed seeing my student get excited about her story.
Over the course of working with my child it was interesting to me to see her strengths and her limitations. This was a good starting field experience for me. I enjoyed this experience because I have chosen to add a literacy minor.

Lesson Plan 5 Reflection

I feel like I have finally got my student engaged in our lesson plan! 😊 This makes me happy because I was getting the feeling I was boring her and not engaged her mind in our lesson plan and during our time together. In the past I have expressed concern about not finding activities that engaged my student enough or challenged her enough. What I discovered is my student is very "book" smart. What challenges my student is thinking outside of just the fundamentals or creating her own work. For example, during the story we read together today I tried to ask her questions that got her creative juices flowing. This makes me excited for our next lesson plan together where she has to come up with and write her own story. My student was able to quickly answer questions that had a specific answer such as what happened in the beginning or the ending of the story. We played a game that required her to change the end of the story The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. This stumped her, which made me happy! I could tell she really needed to dig deep and use her higher order thinking skills to answer this question because there was no clear right or wrong answer. As a bonus, she also got excited about her alternate ending! This makes me very excited for our next lesson plan together because she gets the opportunity to create her own story herself. I wish I would have discovered this information sooner but I'm just happy I finally did!

Lesson Plan 4 Reflection

During this session with my student she was given the Writing Vocabulary Words assessment. I was shocked on how many words she could write and the length of some of them! The word that she wrote that surprised me the most was the word 'nineteen', thats a long word for a five year old! I actually enjoy doing this assessments with the child because she always seems to surprise me on how much she knows and it really is a good tool to find out what my child knows.
With my actual lesson though I still wish I could get my child more engaged in the lesson. I really tried to bring things she was interested in, for example the Pete the Cat book and I brought a vocabulary bingo game this time but she still seemed very relaxed and not engaged. I wonder if this is just her shy personality or if it is me not being able to reach her yet. Regardless, I will continue to try my hardest and get her more engaged and excited about learning!

Lesson Plan 3 Reflection

During this lesson plan I wish I would have added a game or something to engage my student more. She is very advanced in reading and going over the book and having her write words seemed to not be challenging enough for my student. In my future lesson plans I want to work on engaging my student more and create or find a fun game that will not only challenge and engage her but also allow her to have fun while learning. I also did a running record with my student during our time together. She did amazing! I had her read the story Dr. Gurjar provided for us in class. The very first time she read it she didn't stumble or need help at all. As an educator, its becoming challenging for me to come  up with lessons that challenge my student, but don't challenge her beyond her ability. Finding that happy medium is hard for me right now. One thing I might think about doing in the future is having back ups. Have a back up activity that is harder than the original one I brought and if the original activity is too easy for her go to the back up one or have a modification ready that will challenge her more. My student continues to blow me away with her ability, I love it!

Lesson Plan 2 Reflection

During my time with my student and while implementing my phonics lesson plan, the spelling assessment, and the high frequency word list I learned my child is really quite smart! Reflecting upon this lesson I learned I need to improve on making my lesson plans more challenging for my student because she has such a strong literacy foundation. Everything went very smoothly during this lesson plan. I definitely got a better grasp on the content to include in my next lesson plan. My student was also pretty shy the first couple times we met but this time she really seemed to open up to me more, which I really enjoyed. I also discovered my student focuses better if she is sitting at a table rather than on the floor in the busy hallway. Even though my student does an amazing job of staying focused its still distracting sitting in the hallway with other students and teachers passing by. Since I was able to grab a table this time my student was more engaged and more focused on me, the book I read to her, and the lesson activity we did together. Knowing more about my student and watching her become more engaged makes me excited to write lesson plans for her and continue to work with her more!

Lesson Plan 1 Reflection

                 In my first visit to Cunningham, one thing I learned about my student that I thought was important to consider when writing my lesson plans is she has a good grasp of letter recognition and letter sounds. This is important because it shows me that she has a good foundation for literacy learning. When writing my lesson plans, since I am only working with one child, I want to try my best to personalize the lessons towards my specific child to make learning more enjoyable for my student. Since including books in our lesson plans are a super important aspect I want to choose books that excite my child. I will get the books I need to use for my lessons either from my personal library or the UNI library. When I am thinking about the book to use I most importantly consider what I am trying to teach the child or what that specific lesson plan is directed toward. I want the books I use to enhance the learning process. Of course I also take into consideration the child's interest but it is most important to me as a teacher that the book is purposeful when considering the specific lesson or activity.
              If I discover that my student is struggling with a certain task I want to find a way to strengthen my student in the areas that they are weak. In order to do this, I will make sure I involve what the student is weak in in every lesson plan I do with the student. At the end of my literacy field experience teaching my goal is that the student I worked with has stronger literacy skills, especially in the areas she was weak. And of course have fun reading and learning! 😊