Julie Palmisano

Lessons 14 and 15

School Reading Problems Lesson Reflection

Objective

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.4

Read with sufficient accuracy

and fluency to support
comprehension.
TSWBAT orally read a selected
passage for one minute to
determine her words per
minute.
TSWBAT compare her WPM
score to the third grade average.
TSWBAT use fluency strategies
to orally read a passage while
being timed.
TSWBAT set a goal for herself
based on the WPM results.
TSWBAT participate in a
readers theater, make her cues,
and use expression.

Teaching Strategy

Fluency
Having the student complete a
words per minute assessment was a
great teaching strategy because it
allowed us to see where our student
was in comparison to her peers as
far as fluency. When we began the
activity, we allowed the student to
choose the topic that she was going
to read about for the next minute,
which was helpful for this activity
because it gave her more
motivation to read the story.
However, I understand that she will
not always get the opportunity to
select what she wants to read, so it
would be interesting to do a WPM
assessment when she is reading
informational text, or something
less appealing to her. Knowing the
student tends to get intimidated
with unknown technology, before
doing the activity I showed her the
stopwatch (located on my phone)
and I walked her through exactly
how it worked. This was helpful
because she could see that the
phone was doing nothing other than
keeping track of time, so she was
less nervous when she began

Outcomes

(Descriptive evidence objective was

met)

During the words per minute

activity, the student was able to
read 122 words in one minute,
which is an average third grade
level. She was very pleased with
these results, and we were able to
witness her using the different
fluency techniques (phrasing,
expression, etc.) while reading.
Based on these results, the student
decided that she should work on
more things with expression and
accuracy, but that she was on target
with rate. She seemed very pleased
with her results.
As tutors, these results showed us
that our objectives had been met
and that we could move on to other
activities. In the future we will
practice more with expression and
accuracy to help the student
accomplish her goals. It would be
interesting to complete a cWPM to
see how the student does or we can
continue working on consistently
using expression in the text.
Our objective was mostly met in
the readers theater. During this
time, the student was able to make

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI3.8

Describe the logical connection

between particular sentences
and paragraphs in a text (e.g.
cause and effect)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.1

Ask and answer questions to

demonstrate understanding of a
text, referring explicitly to the
text as the basis for the answers.
TSWBAT discuss the authors

reading.
The readers theater was also a
successful strategy because it
allows the student to practice using
expression in her voice without
seeming like work. While the
student was reading the play, she
made every cue appropriately.

Comprehension
Though anchor charts have worked
in the past to give the student a
visual representation of the concept
we are learning, in this case the
anchor chart seemed to confuse the
student more than help. I noticed
early on that the typical definition
given to explain cause and effect
seemed to confuse the student,
despite the examples shown on the
chart. For this reason, we put the

all of her cues and she was an

active participant. Her behavior
during the lesson (eyes on paper,
sitting straight in chair, holding the
paper closer to her) showed us that
she was fully focused and engaged
on the task. However, her use of
expression is still slightly
inconsistent. Sometimes she will
begin the sentence and fluctuate her
tone and volume to match the line.
However, in other instances she
fades off, so she sounds slightly
more robotic when reading.
Though the words were read with
accuracy, in the future we will
work on maintaining expression for
the entire time (perhaps by adding
actions to the readers theater).

The student was able to explain

why the author might have written
two different endings, and she
evaluated both endings to decide
which she enjoyed more. She stated
that she thought the author might
have written multiple endings
because he could not decide which
one to use, or to give the readers
options on what they could read.
The student was able to match the

purpose after reading the story and

explain why he might have written
two endings.
TSWBAT identify three examples
of cause and effect in the text and
explain her reasoning.
TSWBAT match different cause
and effect sentences to their
appropriate counterparts.
TSWBAT identify if an underlined
phrase is a cause or effect and
explain her reasoning.
TSWBAT define cause and effect
and give three possible clue words
that might be used.
TSWBAT explain why it is
important to understand cause and
effect in reading and the real world.
TSWBAT make connections from
the text to real life.
TSWBAT explain the importance
of making connections while
reading.
TSWBAT explain the difference
between surface level and deep
connections.
TSWBAT define the three different
types of connections (text-to-self,
text-to-text, text-to-world) and
identify them when reading.

anchor chart away and tried to

begin with a clean slate by coming
up with our own definition.
However, by this time, the student
was still slightly confused because
she was still remembering the
previous definition.
The matching cause and effect
activity was a great idea because it
gave the student the chance to use
logical thinking in order to
determine which sentences aligned
and which came first. During this,
we used a highlighter to highlight
clue words that appear when an
author is using cause and effect,
which was extremely helpful
because the student began to
recognize a pattern.
Using the task cards, in this case,
seemed to only confuse the student
more, so I stopped using this
activity and created sentences for
the student to identify the cause
and effect. If the student had a
stronger foundation of the concept,
these task cards would have been
useful. Unfortunately, the student
needed more instruction and more
guided examples, so these were
slightly too difficult for her.
However, using the book to show
how authors include cause and
effect was the saving point of the
lesson. This gave the student the
chance to take her mind off of the
concept, but after she was finished
reading it she was able to

different cause and effect sentences

to their counterparts; however, she
needed help to determine which
sentence was the cause and which
sentence was the effect. When the
student was trying to identify
whether the underlined phrase in a
sentence was the cause or effect,
she was unable to do so without
being walked through the process
step by step. With this in mind, I
think that it is important to reteach
this concept in the future. If I could
repeat this lesson, I would have
prepared multiple definitions for
the student in case the one was too
confusing. However, this will be a
good starting point for a future
lesson.
The student was able to
independently explain why
understanding cause and effect is
important both in literature in the
real world. We were able to connect
cause and effect to different real
life situations such as weather,
people, and actions/consequences.
The student was also able to
explain the importance of making
connections with reading. She
listed the three different types of
connections that the reader can
make, and was able to identify
them in the text. However, the text
to world connection was one that
she needed some help from the
tutors. She was extremely
successful with the text-to-self

CCSS.ELALITERACY.W.3.3 Write
narratives to develop real or

independently identify the different

instances of cause and effect. This
book in particular was useful for
the activity because it had two
endings, so the student could look
at the different actions of the
characters and the consequences of
these actions.
Teaching the student about making
connections was a great idea, but
more work could be done in the
area of what connections she is
making. When it was time for the
student to make deep
connections, I felt that sometimes
we pushed her a little too hard,
which caused her to shy away from
the activity. In the future, I think it
would be helpful to choose a text
that is highly relatable to the
student, that way she can make
these connections on her own
without any added pressure.

Writing
Using Milo and the
Magical Stones as a mentor
text to give the student a

connections.
The student was able to explain the
difference between surface level
and deep connections; however, she
was sometimes unable to give a
deeper level connection when
reading. This could be due to the
fact that she was being asked to
make a connection, rather than just
making the connection on her own.
In the future, it would be helpful to
stop and discuss connections if the
student makes one while reading.

All of the objectives for this

activity were met. The
student was able to use her

imagined experiences or
events using effective
technique, descriptive
details, and clear event
sequences.
TSWBATwriteastory
withtwoendingsthatdiffer
fromeachother.
TSWBATcompletea
writingpromptincludingall
majorstoryelementssuch
asproblem,setting,
characters,andsolution.
TSWBATidentifythe
importantstoryelements
andexplaineachinherown
words.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.4

Determine or clarify the

meaning of unknown and
multiple-meaning word and
phrases based on grade 3
reading and content, choosing

new idea for writing was a

great idea because she
could try writing like
Marcus Pfister and it also
allowed her to think of
different outcomes while
brainstorming her idea.
Having the student list and
explain the different
elements of the story was
helpful because she knew
what she should include
when answering the writing
prompt.
One strategy that was
especially useful was
having a checklist with each
other the story elements on
it. When the student was
finished writing, the tutor
read her writing out loud.
As she read, the tutee
checked off the different
elements when she heard
them being read aloud.
Using this allowed her to
evaluate her own writing,
and showed her exactly
what it was missing so that
she could revise her work.

Word Study
Unfortunately, we were unable to
get to the multiple meaning words
activity. However, we will be sure
to make this a priority in the next
lesson.
Completing the word wall activity

knowledge of story
elements in her own
writing, and she created a
paragraph that included two
different endings. The tutee
was also able to evaluate
her own work in order to
make sure that she included
all major story elements
such as problem, setting,
characters, and solution, in
her paragraph. In the future,
I think we can continue
with the gradual release of
responsibility by allowing
the student to write
independently, and then
having minimal teacher
input. For this lesson and
lessons in the past, writing
lessons have included a lot
of teaching prompting to
help create a full paragraph.

Since we were unable to do the

activity we have not yet completed
the objectives for multiple meaning
words or context clues. However,
this will be one of the first
activities we teach in the next

flexibly from a range of

strategies.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.4.A

Use sentence-level context as a

clue to the meaning of a word or
phrase
TSWBAT define multiple meaning
words and give at least five
examples.
TSWBAT explain how context can
be used to determine the meaning
of a word.
TSWBAT determine which
definition of a word is appropriate
for the sentence.
TSWBAT define word wall words
and give an example of the word
used in a sentence.
TSWBAT classify word wall words
in an open word sort.

game was useful because it allowed

us to see what vocabulary terms the
student has retained over the past
few weeks and gave us the chance
to check for understanding in an
informal, fun manner. This also
gave use the chance to review any
words that the student had
forgotten, which was also very
helpful.
By having the student complete an
open word sort, she was able to
group the words however she found
most helpful to her. We had come
up with several ideas prior to the
lesson such as syllables, vowel
sound, word type, etc.

lesson.
All of the objectives were met
during the word wall activity. The
student was fully engaged in the
lesson and she was able to give an
example of most of the words that
came up during the game. This
activity also gave us a great
instruction opportunity because we
were able to teach and give
examples for any of the words that
she could not remember.
During the word sort, the student
was able to classify the words into
groups that made sense to her and
then explain her reasoning, so we
know that she was able to
understand and meet the objectives.
When we have done open word
sorts in the past, they had not been
as successful so this shows that our
student has made a lot of progress
over the last several weeks.