The students I chose to work with me
on this mini lesson seemed to be very intrigued and excited they got to go out
in the hall and work with me. At first I realized the students were a little
confused about the objectives and activity of choral reading. The three students
I picked had never heard of that activity so they needed some more explaining
before we went any further in the lesson because I wanted to avoid confusion. I
was really surprised though when I noticed the students were beginning to
understand and say comments like “oh we all read out loud together” and “so
you’re going to read with us when we all read”. This showed me that the
students were catching on to the objectives of my lesson and were ready to
begin and practice their fluency through choral reading. The other thing I
noticed with my focus student, Angel, was that she was the only one sitting in
the group silently and not participating. After some time and encouragement and
questioning from me about the activity she began to participate when we all
read together for the choral read. So she seemed out of the conversation while
we were having our introduction to the lesson but seemed to perk up and
participate during the activity.
The strengths of this mini lesson were
that the students were participating and reading out loud with me for the
choral reading, which I had anticipated. Even my focus student was
participating and although she was quietly reading I could still see her
following along which was a positive sign to me that this was a strength in
choral reading. Another strength in this lesson was to see the students be able
to read by themselves before we read aloud. When the students were reading
silently to themselves before the choral reading they asked me several
questions like “what’s this word”? When it came time to do the choral reading
the students seemed to stumble much less on the words and be able to remember
what the words were from when they were silently reading. The only limitation I
felt was very clear in this activity was the students’ enthusiasm while
reading. My objective was mainly focusing on the fluency and the students’
prosody rather than the enthusiasm or expression. I realized that all three of
the students I worked with seemed to read in a monotone expression rather than
having little to some expression like I tried to show them when I read to them
before they silently read. It was a little discouraging to see that their
expression wasn’t changing but only their fluency and prosody. Their
improvement in prosody was a strength that I did observe as well from the three
students.
I noticed that, as a teacher, I was trying very
hard to have a lot of energy and excitement in my reading. Although this didn’t
convey to the students own expression I was trying to be a good example and I
did make an effort to do that. Another thing I noticed was that whenever
students asked me to help them spell a word that they didn’t when they were
reading silently I made sure to remind them to sound it out or ask their
neighbor for help. This way I was making myself as the teacher guide a less
teacher directed lesson and have the students learn how to work together and
help each other.
I guess some questions I
have would be how to better incorporate students’ expression into choral reading.
My students read along quite well but they lacked their expression as I said
before and I would want to improve that for the future.
THE MINI LESSON:
Your Name: Kate
Bode Grade Level:
2nd
Date lesson was taught: 4/13
(Friday) Number of Students: 3
1) Rationale: Students will need to practice and improve fluency
through an activity, like choral reading, to help improve comprehension and
prosody.
2) List which reading
skill/strategy is the main focus of your lesson: Fluency
3) Objective for this
lesson: While reading Officer
Buckle and Gloria, students will
practice fluency through choral reading.
4) Materials &
supplies needed: Officer Buckle
and Gloria, student’s copies of book
in their reading textbook (provided by my MT)
5) OUTLINE OF LESSON PLAN
(Provide a bulleted list of ideas):
• Introduction to the lesson (5
minutes)
· “Today we are going to re-read Officer Buckle and
Gloria. Remember when we read this in class a little while ago when I did my
lesson? I read to the class instead of having you guys read right? Well I want
us to re-visit this book and practice reading together”
· “Can anyone tell me why it might be important to
re-read a book or part of a book they already read? What happens when we
re-read? Do we remember stuff from the book better? Do we read faster?”
· “We are going to be doing what is called ‘choral
reading’. What do you think that means?”
· “Choral reading is when every student reads the same
part of the book together out loud with the teacher. Will everyone be reading
with me out loud?”
• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson (15-20
minutes)
· After our introduction I will read them the first for
4 pages of the book so they know what part of the book we are reading, I will
also be reading with expression and enthusiasm to be an example of how I want
the students to read out loud.
· The only materials the students will need are their
copy of the book (which are in their reading textbooks) I will hand these
textbooks out to them after I give the instructions
· Instructions: we are going to be reading the first 4
pages of the book in Officer Buckle and Gloria. First, I want everyone to read
these 4 pages to themselves. When everyone is done I want eyes on me so I know
you have completed the reading. After this we will be reading aloud with
everyone so I want everyone to read through very carefully so they can read
with everyone
· When students are reading to themselves I anticipate
that many will be reading silently out loud to themselves and maybe using their
finger to point. In order to make sure they are reading I will be monitoring
them and if I notice someone is not reading I will sit with them and go through
the pages (like my focus student may need me to help reading initially).
· When everyone is done we will come back together as a
group and go over the basic instructions of choral reading: everyone will read
aloud with the teacher, follow along with your pointer finger or pencil which
ever you prefer to stay on the correct word, read slowly and with expression
like the teacher did in the example.
· I want to also explain that choral reading is a good
activity to do in a small group of students or in a large classroom. You can
also do it in partners or at home when you’re reading for fun with friends.
Choral reading helps you practice your reading speed and allows you to stay
connected with the reading so you know what is happening in the book.
· Ask the students to open to the book page we are on
and point to the first word so I know everyone is ready to go and read aloud.
Next I want everyone to say the first word with me so we get a feel for how we
will be reading out loud. Then we begin our choral reading!
· During I anticipate to look for students following
along with their finger or pencil to make sure they are on the correct word and
actually participating and reading aloud. If I see a student not reading I will
quietly point to the word we are no and make sure they know where to read and
that they need to speak out.
· After we are all done I want to ask the students to
tell me what that part of the book was about? Did they like reading out loud
and did it help them remember? Did they find it difficult to keep up? Would
they want to do this activity another time?
•
Closing summary for the lesson (5-10 minutes)
· After we have read the book together, I want to talk
as a group again about why reading out loud and repeatedly is important-to help
increase reading ability and better understand the reading content
· We will discuss if they feel they better understand
the reading content or if they feel it didn’t help. How and why did/not help? I
want to tell them to try and practice this activity at home maybe with a
parent, grandparent, or sibling. If no one will practice with them then I want
them to still practice and instead just read aloud to yourself rather than with
someone else
· Reading passages out loud can help students read with
more enthusiasm and increase prosody (faster reading) so I want the students to
remember this
6) Ongoing-Assessment:
·
Students
will be silently whispering to themselves while reading
·
Students
are going to be able to read at a quicker pace while still completing reading
and not skimming or skipping words
·
If students
read together they will be reading out loud as a group
·
Looking
for: silent reading to self during silent reading time, finger or pencil
following words while they read, less stumbling on unknown words
7) Based on what you
know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic
Support will be needed during the lesson? My focus student is Angel, which I have chosen before, because I have
been observing her success and ability throughout the year. Sadly, I have not
seen much change in her shyness as the year has gone by but I have seen her
ability to read improve in small amounts. I want to practice this activity on
this student because she needs all the practice she can get with reading aloud.
This student needs practice and I would want to sit down and talk with her
about this activity before we begin. She gets shy when she doesn’t know what is
going on so I would want to prepare her for the activity. I feel that in order
to get her to choral read with me I will need to ask her to first read by
herself so I can see words that are difficult for her then go back and have the
student read with me. I am hoping that since we read together, and she reviewed
all the words that she would stumble on, ahead of time then this way she can
improve in her choral reading because she knows the words that will be read.
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