Candidate Name: Taylor Utt School: Columbia Elementary

Date: April 3, 2014 Teacher: Mrs. Graves Grade level: 2

Practicum Reflection-Guided Reading Lesson Name of Book: Swamp Music Level: D

1. What was the area of focus today during the lesson? What activities related to the area of focus did the teacher include in the lesson today? Students were to be able to retell the events that happened in the story/ what the story was about. I started off with introducing how I would retell and story and what it meant to retell a story. I also discussed with the students that we often retell stories in our mind as we are reading, this helps us make sense while reading and helps us comprehend more also.

2. What went well with the instruction? What did students learn? The students read the book and were very interested in what it had to say. The students were able to tell what the story had explained/told us. The story described the different noises that animals make that live in the swamp can make up a band. Each animal contributed to the music that was made in the swamp. Students learned how to retell a story and also learned more about the sounds that each animal makes that lives in a swamp.

3. Explain a growth moment for yourself where you realized, learned, or confirmed something from today dealing with student achievement in the area of reading. (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, before/during/after reading) When I picked the book Swamp Music, it didnt even occur to me that these students may have never heard of the swamp or even seen the word before. When I laid the book in front of the students and asked them to say the title of the book all three had issues sounding out the word Swamp. I should have thought more about the fact that in Missouri there arent any swamps so the students could possibly not know what the word was. Next time I will think about this. On the bright side, the students did learn the term swamp and now know what types of animals live in the swamp and the sounds they make.

Adapted from Developmental Reading Reflection document created by Sarah Mwangi, 06/13

4. Describe a moment when a student grasped an idea/concept-that got it! kind of moment. How was the teacher able to facilitate this experience? Explain the situation. As I mentioned in the previous question, the word swamp was a new term to my three students in my small group. One of my students just moved from China this year, he can speak very good English, even though he came to the country not knowing any. His reading ability is also very good. The word swamp was new to him, so at the end of the book he had learned something new and also learned about all of the different animals that can live in a swamp.

Adapted from Developmental Reading Reflection document created by Sarah Mwangi, 06/13