Reinink, Reflection 1

Reinink, Reflection 1

I was really surprised in the way the students reacted to my lesson. Usually when these two students are pulled out for anything, they do not like to participate, even in games, they just want to be back in the classroom. However, right when we started the game the children were not shy and caught on really fast to the objectives and rules of the game. They both tried hard to read the word in their head and make a sentence. Neither one of them tried to define the word. I really encouraged sounding the word aloud but the students did not seem interested in doing it that way. After awhile I sounded it out with them aloud, so that I could hear what they were struggling with. I would ask, “What sound does this letter make,” and go through the whole word and then tell them to put all the sounds together. They both did a lot better and they both went through all the words. Once they got a hang of the game, they both tried harder and were a lot more successful at recognizing the words and identifying them by the end of the game.

Thinking back through the lesson, I can see how it was a helpful way for the students to learn these words. Too many times they are stuck reading books the do not enjoy or doing worksheets that are not stimulating, in order to learn words. This gave the students a chance to learn words and show what they know through a fun game, that they showed me they really enjoyed. A limitation to my lesson was that it only focused on the 24 words on the mat. I really could not expand upon it and students could not recognize it in a sentence. This made the words just words and not useful. If they had been in sentences, they would have been more useful for the students since they normally see these words in sentences and not by themselves.

As a teacher I noticed that I sometimes get impatient when children are sounding out words. I just wanted to jump in and tell them the word or that they were saying the wrong sound for the word. What is the best way to help a new reader learn to read? I am super nervous for this for next year since I will be in a classroom full of ELL’s and this is something I am still struggling with.