Sara Riemer

EDUC 359
Dr. Reilly
November 20, 2016
Reflection on Live Lesson
Our lesson was on how to find the main idea in the reading passage. We taught Jack on
how to find the main idea in the passage by giving him tips using a power point. We also taught
Jack vocabulary words that were in the passage. Our language objective for the lesson was that
the students will be able to summarize in writing of the main idea of the passage using a few
vocabulary words for accurate key details. Our content objective for the lesson was that the
students will be able to determine a main idea of a passage by citing evidence of a text and
connect a new vocabulary word to a personal picture. I feel like we have achieved our two
objectives because at the end of the lesson we assessed Jack on if he was able to summarize the
main idea. We gave Jack a hand worksheet to use to help him figure out the main idea. The hand
worksheet assessed Jack to find the main idea. He would write the main idea of the story in the
palm of the hand. The palm of the hand is the biggest part of the hand, therefore, the main
concept of our story will be written in the biggest part of the hand. Jack would then write
supporting details on the fingers to help him think of the main idea. We assessed the language
objective by giving Jack a Frayer model to assess his knowledge on the vocabulary words to use
the vocabulary words for the hand worksheet. I feel like we have achieved this because Jack
knew how to find the main idea and he used the vocabulary words accurately on the hand
worksheet.

The goal of the lesson was to challenge the students vocabulary development. I feel like
our lesson achieved this goal because the vocabulary words that we chose in the passage, Jack
was not familiar with any of the words. We instructed Jack on the new vocabulary by giving him
the passage to see if he knew any of the words and he told us no. Then we showed him the power
point and showed him the definition of the word with a visual representation of the word. I feel
like we challenged him in the vocabulary development because he did not know any of the words
at all until we went over them. We also challenged Jack by giving him the Frayer model. Jack
had to pick one of the vocabulary words and write the definition of the word. We direct
instructed him by giving him an example of a word. We first assessed him by asking if he could
remember the definition of the word using context clues in the passage. Jack guessed a definition
of a word using the context clues. He was very close of the word and then we showed him the
definition of the word on the power point. After this we challenged him by asking him if could
think of a characteristic of the word by looking at the visual representation of the word on the
power point. During the lesson, I thought the Frayer model was a little too difficult because he
was not used to this model and we had to direct instruct him more than I thought we would. He
knew what to do after we direct instructed him and helped scaffold him on characteristics of the
word by looking at the visual representations. I also thought the hand was a little difficult
because he needed help understanding the hand worksheet. Jack understood what the main idea
was, but he could only think of a couple of supporting details to help him get to the main idea.
We all helped scaffold him by asking him questions from the reading to help him think of more
supporting details. He understood how to find the main idea based on the tips we gave him. If I
was to do this lesson again, I would make this lesson different by showing the students visual
representations of the vocabulary words and ask the students if they could guess what the

vocabulary word means. This would allow the student to cognitively think outside the box. If I
was to redo this lesson for an ELL student, I would have to assess the student differently for
vocabulary words. I would give the student visual representations to all of the words and ask the
student to draw a picture of the word on the Frayer model. I would give the student a worksheet
with all the words with visual representations and examples of the words with the definition as
well. I would ask the student to write the definition and draw a picture of the word. I would also
ask the student to describe the characteristics of the word and not have the student write the
characteristics down. I would assess the student verbally. I would also change the direct
instruction of teaching how to find the main idea. I would give the student tips to find the main
idea and print the tips out for the student. We would read the story together and work together to
figure out the main idea and supporting details. I would assess the student by giving the hand
worksheet, but showing the student that the main idea goes in the palm and the supporting details
go on the fingers. I would show a student an example. I would also tell the student that we could
have less supporting details than five for the main idea, because five supporting details may be
too many for the student. I would also scaffold the student more in helping the student figure out
the main idea and supporting details.