Reflections on Lesson Plans

Lesson Plan #1-Small Group

IX. Reflection on Planning:

This lesson involves a lot of practice in responding to reading comprehension questions
for the upcoming PSSA assessment. I was thrilled to be able to find a reading
comprehension application for the Ipad that allows the students to use technology and
interact with the Ipads themselves. I feel that with a lot of practice and review of how to
answer these types of questions, the students will be able to excel on the PSSAs. I also
believe that my lesson is beneficial for a small group of students because it allows more
teacher-to-student help and interaction as there is a smaller student-to-teacher ratio, and it
also may help the students to hear the concepts explained from different sources. I think
that the students will enjoy the lesson and that it will benefit them greatly in their practice
for the PSSAs.


Reflection on Instruction:

For teaching my first lesson in my practicum classroom, I believe that overall it went
pretty well. I really enjoyed teaching it and being able to work with the two students that
I worked with. Things that I feel went well in this lesson were that the students were
definitely engaged in the lesson. They seemed to really enjoy working on the Ipads, and
whenever I asked them a questions they provided answers and were able to have a
discussion with me. I also felt that I helped them understand the concept better because
they got many of their answers correct in the multiple choice section of the passage they
had to read. I believe that I interacted well with the students, and that I acted
professionally. I also knew exactly what I wanted to do with the lesson and how I wanted
to structure it, and I was able to make changes and modifications as the lesson went on. I
feel that the objectives were met and that learning definitely occurred. I believe this
because the students were able to offer many ideas when I asked them questions, and as I
observed them reading and working, I saw them use a lot of the strategies we went over
during the lesson. They also answered many of the questions correctly with the multiple
choice questions. The assessment that I used for this lesson with the students was
adequate and informative. It gave me a stronger insight about what the students know and
learned, and what areas they each may still need more practice and help with. Some
things I would change for this lesson are to find a shorter passage to read as an
anticipatory set, and condense my activities to fit a shorter timeframe. I believe that these
revisions would improve this lesson as well. Another area of improvement that this lesson
could have is that I provide the students with more teacher modeling of the concept I am
teaching and showing them how I would do something and how I would expect them to
do it. I strongly believe that teacher modeling is key, and I believe that more teacher
modeling can definitely be incorporated into this lesson. After the lessons, the students
told me how much fun they had and that they really enjoyed the lesson. That was
definitely reassuring, and the feedback from Dr. Selvaggi was also very helpful for my
future lesson planning. Overall, I believe that my first lesson in this classroom went well
and I am happy with how it turned out. I know that in every lesson there is room for
improvement, so I hope that I can improve on the goals I have set for my next lesson.


Lesson Plan #2- Whole Group
I. Reflection on Planning

This lesson involves a lot of review of concepts that these students have
probably learned in the earlier grades. It is being revisited as they are
beginning to look at and read more challenging novels, such as Because of
Winn Dixie. Many of these students have probably learned about these story
elements for short stories and picture books before, so this lesson is designed
to see if these skills carry over with more challenging texts. I really enjoyed
planning this lesson because it involves a lot of student-teacher discussion as
well as student-student discussion. It is a fun way for children to delve deeper
into the concepts of various story elements, and I think that it is a beneficial
lesson for this skill.