Student Teacher:

Stephanie Welte

Supervisor:

Lauren Delisio

Date:

November 18, 2015

Visit #

Summary of Pre-visit Conference/Goals for this lesson:

Classroom management: making sure students are following directions and creating the
flipbook correctly, so there is not too much noise. Using our classroom techniques to get
students attention.
Student Teacher Reflection:
Our reading block is an hour long, and in reading for the past couple of days we have
been focusing on summarizing a story. To help them learn how to summarize a story we used the
words Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then. The day before I read Duck for President and
together as a class we summarized this story together as a class using those five words as starters.
So, first we came up who the main character was (Somebody), then what they wanted (Wanted),
what the problem was (But), how the main character tried to solve that problem (So), and how it
was resolved (Then). After we came up with each part for this story, I explained how this is not
exactly what we would look for in a summary, and why it is not. Students suggested that we
should have full sentences, and so we made a full summary together using those five words.
However, for this current lesson I wanted to make something that students could use as a
resource, that was tangible, and easy for them to use to help them summarize. So, to start the
lesson I called everyone over to the carpet to review what we had done the day before. I do
usually call students over by groups, and I think it is a better way to transition instead of calling
the whole group all over, so I will try to implement that more as I go. Once we got to the carpet I
made sure all students were listening and facing forward, and then had some students give me
the five words we went over yesterday, as well as our summary. I had students turn and talk to
each other about what the summary was from the day before, and then once we reviewed I
introduced the flipbook resource. One of your suggestions was to have a short story and
summarize again, and the reason I did not do this was because I wanted students to have time to
make the flipbook and also use the flipbook to create their own summary from their strategy
group short stories or their guided reading books.
The review went well, I thought students remembered what we had talked about the day
before rather well. The next part was what I was most nervous because making the flipbook had
a lot of steps to it and it could easily get out of control in the classroom. Because I was slightly
nervous about the transitions, I gave students expectations that I was expecting of the students,
such as having their eyes on me and having nothing in their hands when I am giving directions. I
did send all of the students back to their desks at once, partly because I was thinking ahead to
what directions I would give for the students and how it well it was going to go.
The transitions between each direction went a lot better than I expected. There were a
few reasons why it went smoother than I thought it would, one reason was because I made one
prior to the students making theirs. Having the model of the flipbook was important so I could

show students exactly what part of the directions we were on and also how it should look when
the direction I gave them is completed. I was going to make one with them, but thought having
one done might be more beneficial to those students who need to see a visual before they follow
your directions. Another part that definitely helped during the process was making sure every
student was looking and listening when I was talking. So, there would be some times where I
would try and give a direction, but not all of the students were listening or they were still
working on their flipbook, so I would either wait for the students to be ready or I would ring our
class bell. Once I rang the class bell I would give some reminder for students to listen and have
their eyes on me. I also thought it was important to emphasize to not go ahead of me and to pay
attention when I was speaking so they could all properly use this flipbook resource in the future.
Finally, I did not know if I should have waited for every student to be done each step before I
moved on to the next or to go to the next step when it looked like most students were done a
direction. However, I ended up doing the latter because if I hadnt most students would have
been getting off task waiting for the others to finish, and I also found that for those students who
were behind there were enough teachers in the room to guide the students or to remind them to
ask their tablemates for help.
After all of the flipbooks were created, there was about fifteen minutes left. I thought this
was more important for the students, because this was the part of the lesson where they would
actually be practicing summarizing. I called groups back one at a time to get all of their reading
materials, which included their binder (in their binder are other resources and their reading log of
what and how many genres they read that month), their reading notebooks, and their strategy
short story books. These short story strategy books are nonfiction narratives, and are all about a
few pages. There are more than one story and they are all leveled, for the groups we made in last
few months. So, the next part of the lesson was to have students use those stories they read and
summarize them using their flipbook. To get the students started I gave them a summary chart or
a graphic organizer for the five words, so they could reread the story and come up with the parts
of the story. The students did this for the rest of the period, but the goal for the next lesson was
to have students get into their guided reading groups and create a full summary together of their
story with the assistance of a teacher. I wanted the students to get practice with their guided
reading groups because it is an easier to assess the students in a smaller group.
Overall the lesson went very well in my eyes and the next few lessons proved that when
the groups were easily able to create a summary of their story using the five words and their
flipbook. I made sure students knew that the flipbook is something they should use whenever
they are making a summary for a story or a part of a story to help them remember what each
word should describe in the summary. I knew this lesson was going to be hard to manage, but I
thought this flipbook resource was very beneficial for the students to create with their own hands
and to use in their own way when creating a summary.
Supervisors Feedback:
Today you taught a reading lesson on retelling a story. You called students to the carpet all at
once; reminded kids to face forward. I always preferred calling students back and forth to the rug
in smaller groups, as it was always a smoother, calmer transition that way. You had to remind
some students to face forward.

You started the lesson by reminding students of what they discussed the previous day:
Yesterday we talked about Duck for President, and we summarized the story by talking about
the important details not everything just the important parts. We used these five words what
were they? A student responded with, Somebody wanted .. but.... so. then.. This
summarizing/retelling strategy incorporates all of the major components of a fiction storySomebody wanted identifies the character); but is the problem; so (How did character try
to solve; important events), and then (the solution).
Next, you asked students to turn and talk about the summary of Duck for President, using this
language; then, you asked two students to share their summaries. You explained that todays
activity would involve the students making flipbooks; you showed them your own flipbook as a
model. You explained that after creating the flipbooks, the students would use them to help
summarize their own books, and that they could summarize a few pages or a chapter; it doesnt
necessarily have to be a whole book.
You explained that you would lead the students through the creation of the flipbooks, step by
step. Before sending the students back to their seats, you asked, What are the expectations while
we are doing these? The most important expectation was that the students would be listening for
directions.
You sent everyone back to their seats at once; again, I would send them back by tables or groups,
as the transitions will likely be smoother that way.
You led the students through each step of the creation of the flipbooks, from cutting out the
phrases and their definitions/explanations, to setting up the construction paper, to gluing the
phrases in the correct places on their books. You used a timer so that students had an
expectation of when they should be finished with each step, and you modeled each step for them.
When the students were finished creating their flipbooks, you called students by groups to get
their reading materials. You instructed the students to use the flipbooks to summarize a copy of a
narrative nonfiction story. Was every student able to read this story? It may have been better to
use several, leveled short stories so that the students could complete this with an appropriate text.
You also gave students three tasks: complete summary chart, answer strategy group questions,
and free read. It is always a good idea to provide students with directions as to what to do if they
finish their work early.
Although I know this was a review lesson, I would have modeled this summarizing strategy with
a short story first, before making the flipbooks, because this is a difficult skill for many students
and I think the repetition would have been helpful for a number of students; it also would have
been good to show them how they could use this flipbook as a resource. This was a difficult
lesson as there were a number of directions and a lot of transitioning, and I think overall, you did
a good job handling it.
Cooperating Teachers Feedback:

Review and Revision of Personal Goals:

My goal was classroom management and overall the transitions went very well, because the
students did not get out of control and their flipbooks were made with a lot more ease than
I thought it would be. I thought this was a good goal for this lesson, and I am happy that I
did better than I would have thought.