Title: Charlottes Web Introductory Lesson

Date: May 2015

Artifact Description:
During the second placement of my student teaching experience, I planned a six-week guided
reading unit covering the book Charlottes Web. The introductory lesson covered chapter 1 &
2 and included a book walk, a vocabulary building activity using a short interactive story, a
short read aloud, an independent reading by students, a cause and effect activity, and a pros
and cons of owning a pet extension activity for students who finished early.
Wisconsin Teacher Standard Alignment:
This experience aligns with Wisconsin Teacher Standard 7: Instructional Planning
- Teachers are able to plan different kinds of lessons. The teacher organizes and
plans systematic instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, pupils, the
community, and curriculum goals.

This experience best aligns with this standard because during the planning of this
unit I had to consider the learning styles of the students in the class and focus on
planning activities that best suited their needs and would be most beneficial to
learning. Through observations of a previous guided reading unit, as well as
many discussions with my cooperating teacher, I knew that to achieve the goal of
having every student read and comprehend this story, each lesson would need to
be interactive rather than journal or worksheet based.
This experience allowed me to reach a higher level of competency because up to
that point I had little experience in planning a guided reading unit of such
magnitude. Although I had knowledge of strategies and practices for building
comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency, I did not have the opportunity to apply
these strategies in an actual classroom setting.
UW-Platteville Knowledge, Skills, Disposition Statement Alignment:
This experience best aligns with KSD1.e: Designs Coherent Instruction - The
candidate, with appropriate student input, has the ability to develop relevant,
goal-directed, engaging, clear, and varied learning activities that progress
coherently and produce a unified instructional setting that reflects recent
professional research.

This experience aligns best with this KSD because the planning of a thematic
unit requires unified instruction that develops and grows as the unit progresses.
It also requires that the instruction remains engaging to students with a variety of
activities planned throughout the unit. Without the use of a variety of reading
strategies, students may become disengaged with the monotony of the task.
I am more competent after this experience because the varying abilities and
learning styles of the class required that every lesson I developed for this unit
allow for multiple opportunities to assess student understanding of the text. I
accomplished this by designing activities that best suited that portion of the text
and which were based on third grade literature standards.
Secondary KSDs:
KSD1.b: Demonstrates knowledge of students
KSD3.b: Uses Questioning and Discussion Techniques
KSD3.c: Engages Students in Learning
Personal Reflection
What I learned about teaching/learning from this experience:
From this experience I learned to be a more effective educator because Ive
learned how and when to incorporate new strategies and techniques for
assessing students comprehension of large amounts of text. Ive also learned
how to design coherent instruction with activities that are varied and engaging
and assist students in achieving the learning objectives of each lesson and
ultimately the unit as a whole.
What I learned about myself as a prospective educator as a result of this experience:
As a prospective educator, I better understand the use and practice of many
more reading strategies than I had in the past. The process of planning such an
extensive unit was daunting and overwhelming to begin, but with guidance from
my cooperating teacher I learned new strategies that would keep the students
active and engaged in their learning. The strategies I gained from this
experience will continue to have applications in so many other aspects of my
teaching.