324 Lesson 1

    

    During the lesson, students participated in an icebreaker activity and then helped create our classroom norms. Each student gave at least one norm to add to our list, which helped them feel involved in setting expectations. After that, we went over our agenda and introduced the topic of story elements. The students were very engaged and offered to read what was on the anchor chart, taking turns reading every other puzzle piece. I explained that our lesson would focus on story elements using a story map. I had an example ready with The Three Little Pigs, which they had heard of before, and the students took turns reading the example map. After that, my partner explained that they would make a story map with the story Rapunzel . Before we started, we shared vocabulary words from the story, and the students were excited to take turns reading the definitions. 

                                                   

    They sat quietly with their hands raised, waiting to be called on. My partner read the story and stopped throughout to point out story elements. The students completed the story map together and asked questions to help understand the story. 

                                             

    After a brain break with stretching, I explained our next activity: creating a venn diagram to compare two versions of Rapunzel. As I read the second story, I pointed out story elements.

    Students worked together to find similarities and differences between the books. I suggested they start with story elements since the books were about two different cultures. They noticed differences in characters and settings, but the plot was very similar. 

    Then, they looked through the books on their own to find two more similarities and two more differences to add to the Venn diagram. Our students used their background knowledge to discuss the retelling of the story and the anchor chart and word wall to help with spelling and explanations. 

    One area of weakness was that the space for the important events on the story map and the Venn diagram was too small for one student who has larger handwriting. I will adjust the layout next time to make sure all students have enough space to write.

 

    The objectives of the lesson were met. Both students were able to identify the elements of the story with differentiated support by completing an interactive chart together and a story map independently with 90% accuracy. The evidence is shown on the story maps, as both students were able to pull key information from the text and put it into their own words to complete the worksheet. Neither student failed to meet the objectives. Student G exceeded the objectives by answering all of the questions correctly. She was constantly raising her hand and also gave her classmate prompts and time to share, often encouraging her classmate to contribute answers as well.

    From this experience, we learned that our students really enjoyed the brain break because they were able to stand up and move around. Our goal for future lessons is to create more opportunities for them to move around while completing an activity. Since our students were already very interactive during our lessons, we hope that in the future they can read the books to each other instead of just my partner or me reading, because they really enjoyed sharing out and participating.

    This experience will influence my professional identity by helping me see the importance of making lessons interactive and giving students opportunities to participate and share their ideas. I learned that when students are engaged and moving, they are more focused and motivated to learn. This experience will influence how I plan, teach, and assess in the future by reminding me to include more movement and student-led activities. I will try to give students chances to read to each other, work together on activities, and share their thinking more often. I will also make sure that materials, like story maps and Venn diagrams, are the right size for all students so everyone has enough space to write and participate.