Pigsty+Read+Aloud+Reflection

Kelly Nolan Dr. McKool Pigsty Reflection March 1st, 2011

On March first I taught a read loud using the book //Pigsty// by Marc Teague. This was the first read aloud I did and also this lesson was observed by my professor, Dr. McKool. The combination of these things made me very nervous. I read a re-read my lesson plan to make sure I knew where I wanted to stop and what questions I wanted to ask. I was very well prepared by the time I began the lesson.

The lesson met the objective which was that students be able to ask and answer questions and make and alter predictions about the book //Pigsty// by Mark Teague. The students were able to make good predictions and when I had them turn and talk about the book they seemed to be having good discussions. This was because I thought of good questions in order to prompt them to make good predictions.

One thing that did not go well was the management. There were a few questions in my lesson that called for unison responses. It is because of these unison responses that the students were unclear on when they were supposed to raise their hands and when the response was meant to be for the whole class. My teacher suggested that I work on using more positive reinforcement such as “I’m calling on Jane because she is raising her hand” to show students what the expected behavior is. I believe this is a great suggestion and it is something that I am going to try to work on.

Overall this lesson met the objective but there was a lot to be learned from doing my first read aloud. I really need to work on my managment and using positive reinforcment. I also believe that I read too fast and next time I am going to try to read slower. One other suggestion that Dr. McKool gave me was to ask deeper questions and she suggested I look into the QAR questioning strategy. I will make sure that I do this for this lesson and for future lessons.