Lesson Reflection: Feb.5, 07 – Recount

I did two lessons today, but they are actually one lesson divided into two sections. The first part is reading, and the second part is writing. While reading the story "Miska and the Long, Cold Winter", I asked questions and filled out the recounting plan with the students. I introduced the 5 Ws in the plan, but I thought that I should elaborate it and explain it more so they understand how important it is. If I can do it again next time, I'll tell them that "Who, what, when, where, and why" are essential elements to notice when reading or telling a story, because we need information from each of the Ws in order to form a complete and detailed story.

I think that teaching students to do text-to-self connection is pretty difficult. It is an abstract concept, so students need more exposure and time to get used to it. I used the recountng plan of the story as my guide to relate to my life. I pointed to the "what" section, and told the students that when the animals felt hungry, it reminds me of last time when I felt really really hungry. Then I went on to tell them my story and how to fit it in a recounting plan. I also told them that when they think about how the text relates to their life, they can think about the characters in the story, maybe the mouse reminds them of something, etc. I think it makes them realize that they don't need to have a similar experience in order to relate to the story.

I think the best part of the lesson was the part where I asked them to do "think, pair, share". I gave them two minutes to think about how the story relates to them. I noticed that some of them were just sitting there, and they didn't look like they were thinking. Then, I asked them to turn to the person beside them, and tell them about what they thought about. That worked! They started talking, and I could hear some great conversations going on. One girl sat there, couldn't think of anything to tell anyone. So I started asking her questions like, "Have you ever seen a mouse before? What about a squirrel?" Then she said, "Yeah! I have seen a squirrel before. It was jumping on the wires while me and my parents were in the car." So I said, "Great! That's a good connection!", and she went on to talk to another student about her story. I think the thinking part really got them into organizing their thoughts, which is good for the next part of the lesson. I asked a few students to share with the class afterwards. Then I handed out the recounting plans, and asked them to organize their stories into the 5 Ws.

Up till then, I thought the lesson was alright. After lunch, I showed them how I would use my plan as a guide to write the story in sentence form, and then let them write individually. However, since I split the lesson into two, and the gap inbetween was too big, some of them seemed to have forgotten about what they were doing before. So it took them some time to realize what they were doing. I didn't want to do the whole lesson in a big chunk of time, because they might feel tired and bored of the writing. If I can do the lesson again, I would minimize the gap between the lessons.