Miller Lesson 1 Reflection

Lesson 1

Overall, I was somewhat disappointed in how the students performed. I took them out into the hallway for the lesson so  they would not be distracted by what was going on in the classroom, but they found ways to distract themselves anyway (flicking their pencils to the other side of the hallway, flopping around, making jokes about Barbies). Jackson especially was very distracted and caused John to lose focus as well. Jackson has the lowest motivation of the class, which is unfortunate because it causes him not to show how smart he really is on assessments and worksheets and whatnot. I was impressed with John however for trying to stay on-task even with Jackson being distracting. He kept reminding himself that he was supposed to be thinking about connections (he kept saying things like “So how is it the same as my family’s vacation?”) I had a really hard time getting Jackson to focus on the task, but I was able to have him make a few connections. He compared his family’s trip to the one in the story by remembering what their hotel was like and what he played with in the car. He made connections to important ideas of the story that we talked about in the pre-reading comprehension questions. It took a lot of scaffolding; I had to ask him explicitly if there was a pool at the hotel his family went to or if he took his Nintendo in the car. He did not write anything on his paper but his name, but after debriefing with my MT I realized that a writing exercise was probably not a good thing for him. I had seen him write before in class, but it is something he struggles with and it probably caused him to lose all motivation during my mini-lesson. Fortunately, I was able to see him make some connections in our conversation, so even though he did not do the activity as I had planned, he worked towards the learning objectives by discussing similarities and differences between himself and the character in the text. However, I do not think Jackson really grasped the activity as a comprehension strategy and I do not think he will use it on his own in the future. Since I had to explicitly ask him to make certain connections, I think it will take more scaffolding before he can/will do it on his own. John wrote something in his journal entry and drew a picture to go with it (an airplane). However, all he wrote was, “I went on a trip with my family. I dru—“ He was not able to finish what he was writing even though he had about 10-15 minutes in the hallway and an additional 5 minutes in the classroom. He was getting distracted by talking with Jackson about Barbies. He and I did have a conversation though just like Jackson and I. We sort of had a group discussion with making connections. John made connections himself without needing to be asked explicit questions like Jackson. I asked him a couple whenever he got off track, like, “Did your family drive?” He talked about how they took a plane. The lesson ended up feeling like an introduction to text-to-self connections and I think they will both still need more scaffolding before doing it on their own successfully.

I really thought these students would be okay with writing their responses because I have seen them write before at my reading center. However, my MT said that was probably why they struggled. I should have used more assessment data in determining an appropriate task. I learned that I need to be stricter with class management and keeping students focused on the task.  I also learned that asking them certain questions can direct them towards the learning goal and it is important to think of those questions beforehand, but you really cannot anticipate exactly what the students will say or ask, and what kinds of questions will come up for you as the teacher to ask. It all depends on where the lesson goes. I think it is also really important to stress to the students the helpfulness of the task to their learning. It was hard for me not to become discouraged as this lesson went on, but I think keeping the energy up and/or expressing the importance of the lesson and the behavior expectations you have for the students is very important. I honestly felt discouraged in my teaching abilities after this lesson because I felt like it was my job to keep them focused and that did not really happen. I think it is going to take a while and more experience for me to develop my teaching style.