Rutherford Literacy Lesson Plan Reflection 1

Self-Reflection
To be used by the teacher candidate after observation by the Field Experience instructor and post conference

Name: Heather Rutherford

Date: 5/22/13

My lesson plan was for a 5th grade boy who struggles with reading. I chose a Level C book from the Reading A-Z program. From this book I chose ten high frequency sight words. I put these sight words in a chart, and also in sentence strips. Each sight word was used in a sentence and the sight word was highlighted. I put the chart of sight words in front of the student and I would read a word, he and I would read the word together, and then he would read the word himself. After we read the word, we would read the sentence strip with the sight word. We would follow the same procedure: I would read the sentence, he and I would read the sentence together, and then he would read the sentence by himself. After we went through all the sight words, the student read the Level C book from Reading A-Z. While the student read the book, I followed along with a teacher-made data sheet to record how the student read. The student was interested in the book and stayed engaged in the lesson. The lesson was fairly quick, and only took about 15 minutes. I feel that this length, for this particular task and student, was appropriate. The student would look at the word and often get the initial sound correct, but had difficulty completing the correct sounds in the word. When reading the book the student would often look at the picture and substitute words with what he saw in the pictures.

Rutherford Literacy Lesson Plan Reflection 2

For a future lesson, I would present the book to the student without the pictures. I think that if the student does not have pictures to look at, he may be able to focus more on the words. I think I would also enlarge the font of the book. The sentence strips were in a fairly large font, I think if I match the book with the same size font, and no pictures, he might be better focused on the words. This lesson will best meet the students needs by being repeated at least three times. After repeating this lesson until the student can read the sight words with 100% accuracy, I will add ten new sight words to the chart and create ten new sentence strips. I think keeping all of the sight words together on the chart will help the student to review, and retain, the sight words he has already learned.