Allyson Bennett SED 285 Dr.

Tyminski Lesson Plan #2 Reflection Reading Comprehension Lesson Plan Reflection My reading comprehension lesson was taught to seven students which created a personable atmosphere. The small group dynamic allowed this lesson to be successful and informative. The objectives of this lesson were for the students to identify key text features, define five vocabulary words, and comprehend the major ideas of the story, Leaving Her Mark. This story is about a horse named Molly, who was severely attacked by a dog. The attack resulted in Molly receiving an infection in her leg. The only way to save this horses life was to amputate the leg. After the amputation, veterinarians thought that Molly would have to be euthanized. However, Molly made a surprising recovery and this led to her receiving a prosthetic leg with a stamp on the legs bottom. The stamps design was of a smiley face. Every time Molly would walk in the dirt or sand, the impression of a smiley face would appear. When I first read this story, I was not sure if the topic was appropriate for the students due to the vocabulary words, such as prosthesis, euthanize, and amputate, which were defined throughout this lesson. The story turned out to be perfect for the students to read because some students had made connection to previous experiences although the experiences were sad. One student shared his story of how his parents euthanized their dog due to severe health reasons. Another student made the connection to the movie Marley & Me, where he saw the injection that veterinarians use to put animals to sleep. These connections progressed in the students having conversations among themselves which were relevant to the topic. I did not mind when the students were talking among themselves because my past observations during reading instruction have shown that these students normally do not interact with each other while they

are in the resource room. Of course, I did not let the students talk for the entire period, but I was glad to see some social interaction with the students. After the story was read, there were five comprehension questions which I had the students answer. One question had the students match five vocabulary words with their definitions by drawing a line. Before the story was read, I had the students highlight certain text features which were contained in this story such as the title, subheading, author, and a picture. The purpose of the highlighting were for the students to identify the text features and make a predictions about the story based on the highlighted material. The students had some difficulty making predictions based on what they highlighted, but all of them knew the story was going to be about a horse. I also created visual supports which included the vocabulary word, its definition, and a picture to match the word. Tyric especially responded well to the pictures in order to help him remember the words. Makayla had one minor difficulty with two vocabulary words which were amputate and limbs. I believe she got them confused because one definition means an arm or leg and the other means to remove a body part. Once I showed her the visual supports, she immediately knew her mistake. For the remaining comprehension questions, I reminded the students to use the POQIA (Part Of Question In Answer) strategy in order for the students to write in complete sentences. All the students did an excellent job using POQIA. I would have given them a ticket for their excellent work, but I did not have any to give out. Mrs. Kent said she would give them all tickets the next day. The positives of my lesson plan were the story itself and the visual supports. I was surprised at how much of a response I got from the students based on this story. I was glad that I took the risk to use this story because the end result was successful. Any time I teach a lesson, I always use visual supports that include text and pictures on them. At this placement, I find that a

lot of students that I work with learn best with visually presented information. Visually learning a concept worked best for me when I was in school so I am glad that I can use this approach to help other students learn. Additionally, I included three pictures that related to the story. The pictures were of Molly, her smiley face stamp, and the book that is based on her life. The students enjoyed looking at the pictures and they were mostly interested in the picture of the smiley face stamp. Since this picture was of the students interest, I asked the students, If you were Molly, what design would you have put on your stamp? Tyrics answer was my favorite. He told me that the stamps design would say, Tyric Was Here. Overall, I thought my lesson went extremely well. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would use the actual book that was written about Molly. I believe that this book would give the class more information about Mollys life than the information that was contained in the story used for this lesson. I am pleased with how my lesson turned out because the students were engaged, focused, and socially interacted with each other over the content of the story.