Lesson Self-Assessment for ED 215R

Name: Jessica Boyle

Literacy Objective: The students will be able to infer the authors main message in
order to understand the story better
Balanced Literacy Component: Interactive read-aloud, reading workshop
Date: 4/30/14
School/grade level/ number of students: Brookfield Elementary, 1st grade, 18
students
Name of Cooperating Teacher: Kristin Petersen

Planning and preparation:(AEA:Conceptualization,DiagnosisWTS:1,2,3,4,5,7DISP:

Respect)
Clearly identify the range of literacy development of the learners in your
classroom and describe how you planned to address that range throughout your
lesson plan. Thoroughly explain how an effective theoretical model such as
Holdaway or Vygotsky guided you as you planned your lesson. Explain what
worked well in your plan and what you would have changed/did change and why.
The range of readers in my field classroom varies. I would say that most of the
students are emergent, early, or transitional readers. To address this range, I did an
interactive read-aloud that did not require the students to do the reading so that they
could focus solely on the concept/strategy I was teaching them. After the interactive
read-aloud, I gave the students a chance to practice and participate at their own
level by independently reading at their seats. While independently reading the
students were given the chance to identify the authors main message of a book at
their own development level. By personally reading the book during the interactive
read-aloud and then giving the students the chance to practice at their own
development level, I effectively addressed the range of readers in the class.
I tried to implement Holdaways model into my lesson plan as I was writing it.
During the interactive read-aloud I was modeling how to identify the authors main
message. In the middle of my interactive read-aloud I stopped and had the students
do a turn and talk with their partners, discussing what I was just modeling. When I
gave the students the chance to practice identify the main message in their own
books the students were in the practice stage. The students were even participating
in the performance stage. When I was wrapping up the interactive read-aloud, I
asked the students to write down what they thought the authors main message was
of the story I read. I also asked them to identify what the authors main message was
in the book they were reading independently. By identifying the authors main
message of the books they are showing what they know and are able to do.
One thing I would have changed about my lesson would be the part when I
asked the students to identify the authors main message. If I could go back and redo

this lesson I would have modeled more during the interactive read-aloud. One way I
would have modeled more would be to identify the authors main message of the
story I just read as a group. I would do this because when I was walking around while
the students were writing their thoughts down I noticed that some of the students
were struggling. I think that this was partially due to confusion as well as struggling
with the amount of writing I was asking them to do. After modeling identifying the
authors main message of the book, I would then send them back to their seats to
independently read and then identify on a post-it note what they thought the authors
main message was of the book they were reading. I think that this would have made
things go a lot smoother as well as the having the students get in a lot more reading
time.
Classroom environment: (AEA: Coordination, Integrative Interaction WTS:
1,2,3,4,5,6 DISP: Respect, Responsibility, Collaboration, Communication) Explain
how you set up a positive learning environment and encouraged student
participation in the learning. How did you focus student attention throughout the
learning experience to engage them productively in the learning the lesson
objective? Evaluate your interactions with the students and their interactions with
each other.
In order to set up a positive learning environment as well as encourage student
participation in the learning I set behavior expectations. In my introduction, I set the
expectation that the students should be respectful of their friends and listen to what
they have to say because we all have important things to say and that we can all learn
from each other. By setting this expectation, I was encouraging student participation.
When students feel welcome and encouraged to participate I think a positive
environment for all students. By also setting the behavior expectations of how the
students should be behaving while I was teaching I was also effectively classroom
managing, which helps the lesson run smoothly. When a classroom is ran smoothly, a
positive and encouraging learning environment is formed. I think that by setting the
behavior expectations in the beginning of my lesson helped create positive and
meaningful interactions between myself and the students as well as the interactions
between the students.
Instruction: (AEA: Communication, Coordination, Diagnosis, Integrative Interaction
WTS: 1,2,4,5,6,7,10 DISP: Respect, Communication)
Thoroughly explain how you taught this lesson to meet your literacy objective.
Evaluate your implementation of your plan in relation to student
learning/performance and the theory. Did it have the effect you intended? Were
the needs of your literacy learners met? Explain what you found most difficult in
teaching this lesson. What changes would you make if you repeated this lesson?
Why?
For this lesson I first did an interactive read-aloud which led into the reading
workshop. First I did an interactive read-aloud to model how to identify the authors
main message. During the interactive read-aloud, I incorporated turn and talks to
help the students actively think about what I did during a think aloud I did. After the
interactive read-aloud I transitioned the students into independent reading time.
While they were reading, I was walking around encouraging the students to be
thinking about the authors main message. By encouraging them to think about the
authors main message I was helping to enforce the learning target. One of the

challenges I faced when I was giving my lesson, was that my students seemed to
become distracted and disengaged in the lesson when I released them to fill out the
worksheet I gave them and to independently read. One thing I would change to solve
this problem is I would have transitioned them straight to independent reading rather
than have them fill out the worksheet I gave them.
Assessment: (AEA: Diagnosis, Integrative Interaction WTS: 1,2,3,7,8,9 DISP:
Reflection) Explain how you knew if the students learned what you taught them.
What did you learn from listening to student responses, examining their work or
listening to their interactions? What were your assessment procedures and how
well did they inform you about student attainment of your lessons objectives? To
follow-up this lesson, what would you teach next? Why?
Reflecting on how my lesson went, I believe that some but not all of the
students understood what I was trying to teach them. After talking with my CT after
my lesson she said that the students have already worked on identifying the authors
main message. When I look back now at the students responses, I however, do not
believe that the whole class understood what I was trying to teach them. I believe
that main reason why the students did not understand is because of the language I
used. As I was giving my lesson it appeared that some of the students seemed to be
confused by the words I was using. After talking with Robin when my lesson was
finished she gave me some great tips on how I could have improved this. One of the
things she said I did well at when I was doing the closing was how I phrased some of
my sentences. After she said this, I remember the thinking I was going through when I
said it. As I was reviewing what the students learned for the day I felt like the
students still did not understand, so I tried to rephrase it what the authors main
message is. As it ends up this was the phrase Robin was talking about. Ultimately by
listening to the students responses and looking at the expressions on their faces led
me to believe that I had to make a change, which I started to do at the very end.
In addition to listening to the students responses, I assessed the students by
having them write down what they believed the authors main message was of the
story I read as well as the main message of the book they were reading independently.
As the students were writing out their responses, I was walking around watching as
well as interfering when necessary. As I was walking around I noticed that many of
the students were able to identify the authors main message, but few were able to
list a reason why they picked that to be the authors main message. This also led me
to believe that the students were not picking up on what I was trying to teach them.
To follow up this lesson, I would try to again teach the students about the authors
main message. I would change the language I used however to be simpler and straight
to the point.
Professional responsibilities: (AEA: Communication, Integrative Interaction WTS:
1,2,6,7,9,10 DISP: Respect, Responsibility, Reflection, Collaboration,
Communication
Explain how you will apply what you learned from the feedback you received on
this lesson to teaching future lessons.
In the future, I will not try to have the students do so much in a short period of
time. During the workshop I asked them to write the authors message of the story I
read during the interactive read-aloud as well as the message of the story they read
independently. What I learned is that some students struggled with the amount of
writing I was asking as well as read a book from their book box to then be able to

identify what the main message was. In the future I will focus on having the students
do just one or two tasks.
Reflection: (AEA: Diagnosis WTS: 9 DISP: Reflection)
What did you learn about teaching an effective literacy lesson from this teaching
experience? How will it affect your planning for future teaching of literacy?
Explain how this lesson demonstrates your growth in ONE Wisconsin Teaching
Standard and ONE Alverno Education Ability.
One thing that I learned about effectively teaching literacy is that you should not ask
the students to do too much or else they will become overwhelmed and disengaged.
In the future I will remember this when I am planning how to get the students
participating and practicing what I am teaching them. This demonstrates my growth
in WTS # 5, which states, The teacher uses an understanding of individual and group
motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive
social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation. This lesson
demonstrates standard #5 because I was able to learn what does and does not help
keep the students actively engaged. The AEA ability that relates to this lesson is
diagnosis, which is is the ability to weigh observations about the behavior of
children/adolescents and then to tailor action to assist their learning, e.g., your
problem solving approaches and your interest in considering more than one approach
to a problem. When I was later reflecting on what happened during my lesson I was
looking at the behavior of the students to think about what I will change in future
lessons.