Lesson Three

Day three lesson

Objectives:

1. Good readers are able to track and write favorite facts from the story they are reading.
2. Good readers are able to visualize characters, settings, or main events with the help of existing pictures in the text.
3. Good readers are able to make predictions and conclusions of the story based on the chapters they read.
4. Good readers are able to create unique poems based on vocabulary words in the text.
5. Good readers are able to create story maps based on setting, characters and main events of the story.

Procedures:

1. We will start today's lesson continuing to read chapter 3 of the "Dragon of the Red Dawn" book. As we read I will make sure to encourage the student to think about interesting facts he may encounter as we read through the chapter together. During this time he will be able to fill out the 'Jack's Facts' worksheet. We will only start on the first column as we read and save the rest of the page until after we are finished with the chapter.
2. After we finish reading I will ask the student to let me know about some of the interesting facts he was intrigued by and wrote down we will then discuss why he considered them important to the story. This will be a part where we will be predicting what may happen next in the story.
3. During our discussion I will be asking a few simple questions about setting, characters and main important events that can then be placed on our story map. The student will fill in what he feels are important events on the map before we continue to the activities on 'Jack's Facts' sheet.
4. After we are finished with the chapter I will ask the student to create a map, diagram, or illustration relating to the chapter that we read. this will be a task that I will make sure he does not just copy a picture from the book but create his own visualization of what a scene may look like.
5. If we still have time at the end of the session I will go over what an acrostic poem is and how good readers are able to create the poem based on what they have already read. I will give him a vocabulary word based on chapter three and ask that he completes the poem using only words or phrases related to what we have already read in the entire book.
6. Should we have time at the very end I will let him free read into chapter 4 as we will continue the lesson on "Dragon of the Red Dawn" during our next session.

Reflection of student:

During this time Jason (pseudonym) has a lot of questions about the text that was only sometimes relevant to what we were reading. It took him a while to get on track and when he would ask a question about what he was reading he would pause and think about my response until prompted to get back to reading. Although this only happened a couple of times he still got through all but one or our procedures throughout the day. He also may need a little help keeping his place when he looks away from the text. This took him a little while to find where he was and often times needed assistance finding where he left off.
Jason is already able to grasp a lot of concepts when it comes to reading chapter books. He makes sure to go back and re-read a sentence or even a paragraph if something does not make sense to him when reading. He knows that voice of the characters and although prosody is still something he needs to work on he does understand quotations and that this is a character speaking now and reads to the best of what he feels they sound like. He also stops in the text and makes sure to analyze the few pictures that are in the book. When I asked him why he spent so long looking at them his simple reply was "I need to get a visual of what is going on in the book in my head while I read." He has already made predictions and drawn conclusions from the text without being asked to do so. He enjoys talking about what is going on in the text and also having me give my opinions as well as his own. He also utilizes a lot of I wonder statements or questions during reading.
During our task of drawing a picture to represent what was happening in the story he started working right away. I had planned on instructing him to create a picture other than one already in the book but he did not need to be told so. He started working on a detailed picture of a bridge and the men that were off to the side. He even went as far as dressing the man based on what was described in the text.
Over all Jason has shown great interest in reading and remaining engaged in the activities I have given him. He has yet to refuse to work or say that he doesn't like a task that I have assigned for the day. I believe that with more tutoring and motivation to read he will go on to be a great reader and overall great student.

Reflection of teacher:

This lesson was very in depth. Going back through my objectives and procedures I noticed that although they all tied into the book we were reading the objectives were all different. We did not focus on just one area of comprehension but rather 4-5 different skills. Jason (pseudonym) was able to get through all of the tasks that were asked of him with time to spare but I could tell that it was almost rushed to get done with every task. He knew that we had a lot to do for the day so he was focused on finishing rather than making sure they were done correctly and in depth. As I start to create me lesson for our forth visit I want to make sure that I keep our objectives to a maximum of 3 and really spend a good chunk of time on each task. I need to make sure we are getting the most out of our time together rather than just trying to get through as many comprehension tasks. This would be a lot easier if I have more background knowledge on the student and knew what areas he needed help with or if he had already perfected the strategy and did not need extra assistance. If I were to spend time doing a tutor session again with a different student I would do what I could to make sure I had better resources for the individual student. This goes back to not everybody learns the same and trying to create a lesson that is solely based on the age of the child is almost impossible when trying to make sure they are engaging and that the student will be able to get the most out what we trying to accomplish. In my next lesson I plan on getting away from the same book and focusing on a new word study as well as a closed reading passage to help activate some higher order thinking. I want to challenge the student to see just how far he can go. I believe he is capable of doing great things with reading and I want to try and open that door for him and get him started. This way when he starts school in the fall he is prepared to challenge himself and become a better reader overall.