Reflection #1

            For the duration of my lesson, I found these students paid close attention to the story read out loud to them, which made their story maps complete with great detail.  One of the most enjoyable parts of this lesson was observing the students create their own story maps.  They were excited at the opportunity to draw details, rather than write every word out.  I found a strong point in this lesson to be the time aspect.  Students were occupied and attentive throughout the entire lesson and hardly noticed the length of the lesson.  Another factor that I thought the students enjoyed, which made my lesson successful, was the small group size.  These students felt special and able to as questions in such a small group, which made their participation increase immensely.  Raising your hand in a large classroom to ask a question can be very intimidating, especially for second graders!  They are always wondering what so-and-so’s thinking and if they have the right answer or not.  This comprehension lesson also allowed students to answer questions related to the text through writing and drawing, rather than verbally communicating the answers.  Everyday in this classroom, students are to learn from scripted lessons called Reading Street, where they answer questions related to a story through verbal communication.  However, I noticed a few weaknesses in my lesson.  A disadvantage to having the students work in a group is the ability to take ideas from each other.  I noticed the students looking at each other’s papers to see if they were on the right track or had the right answers.  Due to this, I was unable to recognize whether or not each student was really summarizing the story by himself or herself.  However, I still feel like the students learned a great amount from this activity.  As a teacher, I was really happy with how this lesson went.  Seeing how excited the students were to participate in the lesson made me really excited to teach!  There were just a few questions I had regarding summarizing stories.  After reading the story, I did not create a discussion with the students regarding events that happened in the story.  Should I have had a small discussion with them and then passed out the story map?  I did not want to include a discussion, because I wanted to see how students would fill out the story map without my guidance.  With a few tweaks here and there, I thought my lesson was successful, and I was very happy with the outcomes.