Theresa Forte

School Reading Problems Lesson Reflection

Objective

Teaching Strategy

Outcomes
(Descriptive evidence objective was
met)

Lesson #5:
Student will be able to read Bat
Helps Out by Ellen Dreyer and
Two Tests by Becky Gold, and
identify the different blend in these
books.

Lesson #5:
Student will be able to orally retell
events from Bat Helps Out by Ellen
Dreyer and Two Tests by Becky
Gold and find the similar
events/idea between the two.

Fluency
I used Bat Helps Out by Ellen Dreyer and
Two Tests by Becky Gold, as a way to test
Frans fluency because these books are not
only at his instructional level, but they
contain blends, an area where Fran
struggles. Weve worked on reading with
expression with our Fluency Strip bag in
a previous lesson, so I wanted to see if he
could apply the proper expression with
punctuation to a text he has never seen
before. I also wanted to see his pace while
reading with these instructional level texts,
in addition to how he read cite words or
the words that started with blends from our
word sort.
Comprehension
We read Bat Helps Out by Ellen Dreyer
and Two Tests by Becky Gold, both stories
containing beginning blend sounds. Before
reading, we did the flashcard game,
completed a word sort, and wrote example
words on the board (see Word Study).
During our reading, comprehension
questions were asked at each stopping
point and Fran would orally respond to
these questions; this would show me if he
understood the events in the story. After

For the most part with both stories, Fran

held a steady pace while reading, but was
slow and paused at times. He was
monotone at times, however, he did show
how to read with expression; with Bat
Helps Out, Fran read the line, What a lot
of mud! with enthusiasm and a higher
pitched inflection in his voice. He also
screamed Help! in the same story,
implying the character was in danger; this
expression was originally seen on a
fluency strip in a previous lesson. With cite
words, such as and and the, he read
them correctly. When he came across he
in Bat Helps Out, he read the word as
they.
Fran mispronounced Two Tests as Two
Tears, in addition to other words, such as
speed for sped and gasped for grasp. He
also made the right sound for the sh
blend, in addition to the blends from the
sort; Fran was asked four questions during
the reading session (two per book). He
answered the questions correctly as
follows:
Who has faster wings? Owl or bat?
(Pg. 5 of Two Tests) (His answer

reading both books, we did a Venn

Diagram. Fran told me how a Venn
diagram worked by saying they show
differences while in the middle they show
the same stuff. I modeled one event that
occurred in the story and wrote it on the
Venn diagram. Fran then completed this
activity, and decided he wanted to write
one of the events down on the poster. This
activity was done to see if Fran could not
only retell events from both stories, but
also see if he could find the similar ideas
or events between the two.

Lesson #5:
Student will be able to brainstorm
about topic/provide reasoning and
organize ideas before writing down
an answer to the prompt.

Writing
**Writing Activity will be
completed during Lesson #6**
The following prompt will be
answered during the next lesson:
Think about an animal that can
move fast. Write about it. Tell how
being fast keeps animals safe.
Fran and I did a brainstorm
together to help organize his
ideas and provide reasons for his
topic. Fran had told me he did a
brainstorm before in school, so we

was bat, and that is correct.)

Who won the sleeping contest?
(Pg. 8 of Two Tests) (His answer
was no one, and that is correct.)
Who got stuck in the mud? (Pg. 4
of Bat Helps Out) (His answer was
frog and that is correct.)
Where did the story take place?
(Pg. 8 of Bat Helps Out). (His
answer was on a hill by some
water, which is pretty much right.)

With the Venn diagram, if Fran had

difficulty, he referred to the Ways to Help
Me Understand poster and reread the
page. He was able to retell all events from
the story and find the similarity. (Please
see the attached Venn diagram.)

Fran chose the cheetah as our

topic since the prompt talks about
an animal. We then broke apart
the prompt more and saw how we
needed to talk about animals
being fast so they could be safe.
Fran said one of the reasons why
they are fast is so they can
outrun predators. Time ran out
at this point, so next session, we
will continue to brainstorm and
then lead into answering the
writing prompt.

Lesson #5:
Student will be able to sort words
into their four possible categories
(st, sk, sp, and oddball) and explain
why those words belong there by
demonstrating the sounds of the
blend.

decided to do a sample
brainstorm on the board. This
activity was done because even
though both texts were fiction, I
want to start slowly introducing
ways to help make writing a paper
or answering a prompt easier by
developing reasons and making
things have an order. We broke
down the prompt and focused on
one sentence at a time to see
what was being asked of us. This
helped us make sure we were
responding to every question.
Word Study
We started off this session by playing a
card game. I picked up a card, made the
blend sound that was on the card, and gave
an example of a word that started with that
blend. Fran completed this activity just as I
did, by picking up one card at a time. We
were focusing on sk, sp, and st blends that
day, since those blends were found in both
Bat Helps Out by Ellen Dreyer and Two
Tests by Becky Gold. Those three blends
were written on board, and Fran made the
blend sounds and wrote words that
corresponded with the blend, before I got
the opportunity to model the activity. We
then did a word sort with sk, sp, and st
blends and these words can be found in
both stories, as well as Words Their Way. I
pronounced and spread out all the words,
but he did not want me to model the
activity. I wanted to see if Fran could
categorize these words, understand the
sounds they make/model the mouth
motions, spot these words in the text, and

As soon as Fran walked in and saw st,

sk, and sp on the board, he made their
blended sound, looked at the blend poster,
and gave examples of words that start with
the blend before I ever gave him directions
to do so. The sounds he made were correct
and he used the words star, skate, and
spend as examples. After the playing the
card game, Fran said the proper sounds for
wh and th; the words he chose to say were
wheels and things. With the word sort, he
pronounced shush as sut, speak as
ski, and skunk as suck. The sort was
correct besides ski being in the oddball
category, but once we reviewed the other
categories, he corrected his answer. The
only word he said that was in one of the
stories or followed the blend patterns was
still.

think of words that follow the same

pattern.