Germane Reflection 2

Lesson Plan #2 Reflection on Reading Speed:

Since only one of my focus students was present the day I taught this lesson, I chose two additional students to give the lesson to. Miller I already knew was a low level student, so I wanted to chose a student who I knew was above reading level as well as one who was at the appropriate reading level for 4^th grade. Because the class was doing silent reading and filling out worksheets on what they read, I was easily able to chose any student I wanted, granted they were done with their worksheet. I ended up choosing Dillon, who is at the appropriate reading level, and Sally, who is well above grade level. All three of my students were happy to come in the hall with me, and once I told them the rules you could tell they were eager to start to see if they could beat their scores. At the end of each lesson, I asked each student what this lesson taught them and what they could learn by looking at their three marks on the paper. Each one answered that reading more and being able to recognize harder words will increase how fast they read things. The strengths of my lesson was that it allowed students to see how much they can read in one minute, and how many more words they can read in one minute if they know the words on the page. A limitation deals with Miller, who will probably not get much more help on reading speed since the class is moving so much ahead of him. This lesson goes nicely with differential instruction because Sally, who read 215 words in one minute on her last try, compared to Dillon, who read 141 on his last try, and Miller, who read 90 on his last try. From these three students alone it is very obvious that this class ranges greatly with reading skills. As a teacher, I need to learn ways to help all students learn depending on where they are. Centers is not always going to work in a classroom and I would be interested in learning more ways to help students, like Miller, who fall much farther behind their classmates.