Claire Bowman

March 14th, 2019

Student Teaching Portfolio

ADEPT 4.0 Pre-Conference Reflection

My ADEPT 4.0 lesson was be an introductory ELA lesson for the upcoming

Communications unit. The focus of this unit will be how the author uses figurative language and

other creative elements to communicate meaning to the reader. The focus of my introductory

lesson was identifying what it means to communicate and the comparing a text that features

figurative language and one that did not with an arts integration activity.

The lesson plan included an introductory read aloud of Deborah Ruddell’s ​A Whiff of

Pine and a Hint of Skunk, d​ uring which we first analyzed the illustration and discussed what we

thought it meant as a class and then read the corresponding text and discussed how the meaning

we pulled changed based on the author’s word choice. This particular activity went very well, as

the students seemed to make a strong connection between the text and the way that the

illustration was perceived. We then discussed what it means to communicate and Introduced the

new ELA unit to the class. Next, we moved into an arts integrated illustration activity. For this

activity, I created a sheet that had two versions of the same short story, one rich with figurative

language and detail, and one with very little detail or figurative language. Each text had a space

below for the students to illustrate what they envisioned in their heads after reading the text. I

had the pieces of paper folded in half, so that the students can only see the one version at a time,

and I read each portion out loud to the class so that those who are struggling readers could follow

along and understand better. The students loved this activity and they did very well illustrating
their thoughts in the short amount of time given to them. In the excitement, I forgot to put the

timer up on the board, however the students seemed to do fine without it, they are fairly used to

Mrs. Robinson and I using timers during our lessons. After both text had been read and

illustrated, the students were given time to discuss why they illustrated the text the way they did

and what changed the second time and why. I was very pleased with how they discussed their

thoughts with one another and I feel that many made good connections through this activity. We

then concluded the lesson as a class by reviewing what we learned and the students were then

instructed glue their illustration sheets into their ELA notebooks so that they could reference it

later. Overall, I was very pleased with how this lesson went, and I feel that the students truly

enjoyed it and made some good connections about communication and rich text versus simple

text.

The post conference was helpful for me, and left me feeling confident about my lesson

yet reflective about how I can improve my instructional methods. I feel that Dr. Miller’s

assessment of my lesson was fair, however I do feel that the score on academic feedback could

have been higher, as every piece of feedback could not be heard as I was walking around and

monitoring the students as they were discussing their illustrations and the two different text. I

feel that my feedback was specific to their individual work on the illustrating activity and their

conversations with one another. I also know that Dr. Miller is intentional with her feedback and I

have appreciated how she has pushed me to stretch myself throughout my student teaching

experience.