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I chose the NewELA article to use for this lesson so students were able to change the

reading level read on their devices. I also wanted to make sure that the topic was interesting to

the students and encourage them to read and participate in the activity. I chose the strategy to

go along with this lesson so students were not overwhelmed by the amount of work they needed

to accomplish during the class time. This strategy was effective so students could fill out the

chart during their reading to help comprehend the text as they went along. Students liked the

format of the chart and said it would be useful to use when reading more challenging texts. I

emphasized comprehension as sense-making for this article because students had never

worked with this type of comprehension before. I formatted the lesson to be heavily discussion

based so students were able to formulate their own thoughts and feelings from others thoughts

and feelings.

Students needed some motivation prior to the lesson due to it being the week after

spring break. Once students began, they were engaged with the article and the activity. During

the discussion portion, students' responses were lacking engagement. I then had students turn

and talk to their tables to come up with ideas from the questions I had asked. Once students

did so, there was more involvement and students were able to share more personal

experiences with their peers. I also made sure to share my personal experiences with sports

and the expenses so the students could feel comfortable sharing. Overall, the engagement

could have been better, but they did well for an eighth grade class right away in the morning.

I incorporated the student lives survey by choosing an article the students were most

interested in. One of the questions I had asked was what topics they enjoy reading about. The

majority of the answers were sports. The NewsELA article I chose was about sports and the

cost of them. Due to this school being a low-income school, students were able to relate to the

article on a more personal level. Students were engaged in the discussion when they were

asked to share their personal experiences with this, if they had any. Each student's answers

were different and I connected this to the comprehension as sense-making. I made sure to ask
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the students why they thought every student had a different perception from the article and why

that is. I also asked the students if they were asked to write this down, would everyone’s

answers be the same, similar, or different. This helped students understand this concept.

Overall, this lesson went well. I had to cut it short due to time and my mentor teacher

needing the time to teach her lesson to the students. If I were to do this again, I would make

sure the students have a bit longer of an article and more time to work in their small groups.

Students seemed to feel more comfortable discussing within their groups. I would use this

information to make the next lesson use more group work time.