Reflection for #1

Because I chose an informational article about dogs for this lesson the students were very interested. I started out the lesson by informing the students of what a high-quality summary contains. As I was going through the points I had to explain more in depth some of the points and relate them to our article we were about to read. I had each student take turns reading because I didnt want to be the only one talking during the entire lesson. When it came time to pick out big ideas from the text, the students had difficulty. They couldnt decipher a big idea from a small, minor idea. One student wanted to use "All dogs have four legs" whereas another student wanted to use my idea of "When dogs are born, they're called puppies". This part, of deciphering a big idea from a small idea, took longer than I thought. We spent a lot of time talking about this after we finished the text. However, although that part was difficult, the students enjoyed writing their summaries after they thought of some big ideas. Numerous times the students would glance at the list of the characteristics of a good summary while they were writing. The students had to keep in mind that they're summary had to stay organized, so they tried their hardest to relate their big ideas. After the lesson when I read their summaries this proved to be the hardest for them to do. Although they had good, main ideas to talk about it was hard for them to keep their paper organized. In one summary a student was talking about puppies and then the next sentence was about food and what dogs like to eat. After I read this I pulled the student aside later in the day to remind him that summaries are organized so his work has to flow. Overall, I thought the lesson went great and I hope the students continue to think about the characteristics of a good summary. I only used four students for this lesson but I think it'd be great for my CT to talk about this with the whole class.