Effective questions

Here are a list of effective questions that my partner and I would use for The Very Busy Spider.By: Eric Carle
Questions:
1. Before even reading the story we would being the lesson by asking the students: What do you know about spiders or what do you think you know about spiders? These questions would go into a KWL chart on the smart board.

2. After the children share their answers we would show them the cover of the book and maybe even a few pages from the book. Based on their answers to the first questions and their conclusions from the pictures in the story they will b asked: Why do you think this is a very busy spider?

3. Students will then be asked: Are you a busy person? If so explain why? Each student will be allowed to share what they do on a daily base that they feel makes them busy. For example: I am a busy person because every day I got to school, I got to extra help, and I do homework.

4.Once the students have share we will read the story. Students will be allowed to make the animal sounds for each animal in the story. When the story is over they will be asked to recall: What were some of the animals mentioned in the book?

5. The students will be asked: Why do you think the spider fell asleep? They will answer that the spider had a very busy day and she was tired.

reflection on classmates lesson

There were many great lessons this semester. There were many lessons that I myself may mock in my future classroom. One of my favorite lessons was Craig and Kyle's lesson. Down by the bay is one of my favorite story books. I actually did a unit on this book in a different class. There are so many activities that go great with this book. I really enjoyed that they had the class sing along to book. It was a great idea to give the students the lyrics to the song. This is also a great way to get the students to read along. A good idea might have been to review the lyrics before singing the song this would be a good strategy for younger children.

In Alejandra's lesson I loved the activity with the mixing of the colors. I thought it was a great idea that one teacher was doing the messy activity while the other teacher was working with the rest of the class. I feel it was very important that the students kept busy while other were working at the front of the room. The reward and punishment system with the jar was also a great idea. I think that it would have been more effective if perhaps the teachers had let the students fill each jar on their own this way the students were more aware of the reward as well as the punishment. Over all it was a great lesson and I would probably use a similar lesson in the future.

reflection on incorporating podcast

Originally my partner and I had incorporated our podcast into our lesson plan by playing it toward the end of lesson. When we revised our lesson plan we decided that we would not use the podcast in this particular lesson because it really did not fit well into the overall lesson. We did not use the podcast in the lesson either. I personally incorporated the podcast into my unit. I decided that the podcast could be useful in my lesson on context clues. In this lesson in my unit I would play the podcast while students use context clues they hear in order to define vocabulary words from the story. I feel pod-casting can be an effective tool that I would use in my classroom. I could also use a podcast to play while the students did work so that it is easier for them to recall parts of the story.

final blog on my lesson

Over all I feel our lesson went very well. We took a great deal of time preparing for this lesson. The first time we met up to prep for our lesson we spent about an hour and a half just making a seating chart that we thought would be best considering each students individual behavior. In our preparation we also came up with a rewards system as well as discussed all the activities that we would do through out the lesson. Our objective was that students would be able to recall, recognize, and know how to spell four of the animal names that where in the story. In order to meet our objective we assessed each student by having them come up the smart board to and write an animals name from the book. We also played a matching game where students had to match animal pictures to the correct spelling. Finally, we had each student write at least four sentences using four different animal names from the story.

We did a fairly good job sticking to our lesson plan. We completed every task we wanted to and even had the chance to do a few extra smart board activities. For example, it was not in our lesson to have students write their sentences on the smart board but I feel it enhanced the lesson in a positive way. The most important thing I tried to teach the students was that team work is important; this is why everything the students did was done in pairs or teams. I feel that this went very well especially when it came down to the reward system because one person could not receive points if his or her partner was misbehaved. My students taught me that how each student learns at their own pace and it is important to be patient. I don’t think I would have done anything differently, the lesson went very smoothly and we completed the entire task and more. However, one thing I feel I need to work on is discipline and being a little stricter. Also, learning not to give students the option of saying no.