Reflection on 3 Lessons:

Lesson 1: Character Motives

This lesson was one I had to plan out really well, because I knew my students would need a lot of instruction in order to be successful in this lesson. For this lesson, they listened to me read aloud “Bud, Not Buddy,” the chapter about Bud being tormented by his foster brother, Todd Amos. In the mini lesson before I read aloud, I introduced the concept of character motives. First, I defined character motive as the reasoning behind character’s actions and gave them an example. I then asked if they could give some examples. The students did really well with this, and over half the class raised their hand to offer up an example. When I noticed that a lot of my students had something to say, I decided to have them turn to a partner and talk about their ideas. I did this, because I wanted all the students to have the chance to share their ideas. I then called on a few students to share with the whole class. One girl gave this example, “a motive is when you clean your room, so you can get your allowance.” I was really impressed with her thinking of this, and it was a motive that a lot of my students could relate with. Another student brought up the idea of a motive is why someone kills someone else like in CSI. I thought this was really funny, and I should have anticipated someone bringing up this type of motive! I told the students that we hear about motives in murder cases, but the ones in “Bud, Not Buddy” deal with why characters do a certain action. I tried to reaffirm that this person’s thinking was on the right track but redirected it to the book we were reading. When I read aloud, I made sure to stop a few times to do a think aloud. I wanted my students to start forming ideas of why Todd could be tormenting Bud. After I finished reading, I explained why it’s important to think about character motives. I think it’s important to explain why it’s important so that the students know that it is worthwhile to think about character motives. I then explained the activity of writing a letter from Todd Amos’s perspective explaining to Bud why he tormented him. I asked for “a thumbs up” if they understood the directions, however some students seemed confused. I anticipated some students having trouble with the activity, so I decided to have a student who did understand the activity explain in their own words what the directions were. I then made a bullet list on the smartboard of each step for the activity, and this seemed to really clarify what was expected of the students. While the students were working on their letter independently, I noticed that many students wanted reassurance that they were doing a good job. I had a lot of students raise their hands just to ask if they were doing it right. After I assessed the letters, I found that many students were really creative and detailed; however, some students missed the point of character motive. A handful of students only wrote a couple sentences and they didn’t touch on character motive. Instead some students talked about how Bud felt after being tormented, which told me that we would have to practice more on looking at character motives.

Lesson 2: Predictions & Inferences

For this lesson, I really wanted to have students work on being able to write down ideas and share these ideas with a partner. All year we have been working on predictions and inferences, and that is what this lesson really focused on. In the beginning of my lesson, I asked students if they knew what it meant to make a prediction. My students did really well with this, and I had 4 students offer up their ideas. Although my students knew what it meant to predict, I had to reinforce the idea of basing the prediction in the text. I then moved on to inferences, and asked students to discuss what it meant to make an inference. This was more difficult for my students to define, and they had trouble putting their ideas into words. One of my students shared a perfect example of an inference, “If you are going to someone’s house even if you haven’t been there before, you infer that the house has windows.” I thought this was a great example, and I asked if this helped my students understand what an inference was. I asked for “thumbs up” if they understood what it means to infer, and most of my students seemed to have a good understanding. I then instructed the students to write down at least one prediction or inference they make while I read aloud. When I read aloud, I could tell that some of my students were not writing anything down. I stopped and reminded the students that it was their job to write down predictions and inferences while I read. I also stopped a few times to do a think aloud to show students how to make a good prediction and inference and how to base it in the text. After I was done reading, I explained the activity of a written conversation. My students were a little confused by this idea and one student asked “Well can’t we just have a real conversation?” I had to explain that this activity would help us become better at responding to what others say. I then started to explain what constitutes an appropriate response to someone else’s idea. I said “If someone tells you their favorite color is blue…it is okay to respond with ‘what did you eat for lunch today?’” My students all said no, and they seemed to understand why it’s important to have appropriate responses. They then participated in the written conversation with a partner. This did not go as well as I had hoped. They did really well with writing their own ideas down, but they had trouble responding to their partner. I had a lot of students raise their hand and tell me they did not know how to respond. I had to probe them with questions such as—“well do you agree with what they say?” When I collected their sheets of paper to look at their written conversations, I was really happy with some of them, but some students did not put forth much of an effort. If I do this activity again, I am going to have to approach it in a different way and maybe give some more guidelines.

Lesson 3: Personal connections

To open up this lesson, I had students come up with ideas on why it’s important to make personal connections to texts we read. While they shared their ideas, I wrote them all down on a piece of chart paper. I had a lot of students share ideas, but none of them touched upon making the text more meaningful. I decided to share this idea and tell them that when we make personal connections, the text become more meaningful to us. I then asked “if the text is more meaningful, don’t you think we’ll enjoy it more?” My students said yes, and they seemed to understand the importance of making personal connections. I then reaffirmed some of the ideas they brought up by reading them allowed. During the read aloud, I told them to move their finger up and down when they make a connection so I could see the light bulb going off in their heads. I noticed a lot of my students do this throughout the read aloud, but I could tell that some students were just doing in the entire time. I had to stop and re explain that they only show the light bulb when they make a great connection to a character. After I finished reading, I explained that they would have to write down a connection they made to a character. I knew I had to model how to do so, because my students are very visual learners and need to see what is expected of them. I modeled how to write in complete sentences when writing down a connection. When I asked a student to re explain, he did a nice job and all the students really seemed to understand better having a peer explain the directions. During the time when they were writing down their connections, I had some students who were really stuck. Some students told me that they did not make any connections. I decided then to pull a group of students to the kidney table with me. I re explained what was expected and went through what happened in the story that day to help them think of ideas. These students really did a better job when they were able to sit with a smaller group and me. This helped me realize that some of my students really benefit from small group instruction. When I looked through their connections, I was really happy that all but two of my students wrote in complete sentences. Writing in complete sentences when answering questions is something we’ve been working on all year. I think by modeling how to answer the question really helped my students understand what was expected of them. Many of my students connected to Bud feeling scared but having to put on a brave front. I was really impressed how my students connected to this aspect of Bud, and it showed me that my students understand how to make personal connections.