Pandora – Reflection

Watching the students as I taught, I noticed …

          Some of the students were not writing and were kept on task by the resource teacher.  Others finished very quickly.  For the most part, they were quiet and respectful.  It appears as though they have had a great deal of experience in learning appropriate behavior for read aloud times.  About half-way through, I noticed some of the students began to lose attention, so I stopped reading and asked for predictions.  This seemed to get them back ‘into’ the story.  During the share portion of the lesson, I noticed that some students talked repeatedly, while others would not even participate by raising their hands when they had written a similar detail.  It may be that this activity was not something they are used to doing in this classroom and might need to be explained/practiced before students would be comfortable using this strategy for participation.

If I had more time to prepare, I would have …

          I would like to know the story better (i.e. have read through it a few more times).  I would also like to have anticipated some of the questions and had some answers prepared.  I had practiced the story several times, but if I had been able to practice it more, it would have been smoother and the voices would have been more varied.

A question for my CT…

          What could I have done to make the transition back to you smoother?  I would like to know more about what other things you wanted me to talk about and share with the class.

For things to run more smoothly, I need to …

          I might have them clear their desks, except for a pencil, in order to minimize distractions.  The directions need to be clearer and I think that they also need more opportunities to predict.  In addition, I would also move closer to the students while reading so that they could see the pictures better.  This would be even more important if the book had smaller or more intricate pictures.