Strategies planned, used and results

Reflection Blog 3: Reading strategies: Plan, Used and Results

Planning

For the week of March 8 – 12 , I planned to employ the following reading strategies in my lesson plan. They are

Make connections with students’ prior knowledge by telling stories or creating descriptions that explain the definition.
Use of pre-reading, during and post-reading tools
Insist that the students learn the meanings of prefixes, suffixes, and roots
Use of graphic organizers
Ensure classroom access to various types of print ( books, internet )
Use of models and charts
Use of video clips that emphasize or demonstrate key learning
Use of graphs, charts, and maps to identify key information presented
Highlighting text to indicate main ideas.

Strategies used and results

The following are the strategies that I was able to use in my 3 classes.

Use of video clips.- I have used this strategy to introduce a concept. I used the brainpop.com website. I find it to be effective because it is short, contains a lot of visuals and most of the vocabulary words used are the ones given in the text or article.
Use of pre-reading, during and post-reading strategies - I have used two tools form the book for the pre-reading and during strategies for my 6th grade class lesson. The tools that I have used are How Sure Are You ?for the pre-reading and Bubble Chart to Identify Characteristics or Facts for during reading strategy. I did not have the chance to give post-reading strategy due to lack of time. The main topic for the two strategies is the Storm. I’m so happy with the answers of my students. For the How Sure Are You? strategy, I was able to find out that a lot of my students have questions and misconceptions about storms. Some of the questions they written are: why are there storms? Why do they occur? How do storms form? What causes them? Some of the misconceptions they have written are: earthquakes are storms, lightning is an atmospheric reaction and storms shock people. For the during-reading strategy, most of my students were able to read the article well and were able to gather a lot of good facts using the bubble chart. I made them write their answers on the board too. We were able to discuss their answers and they get to evaluate their responses. Some of the facts they have gathered are the following: storm is a violent disturbance, thunderstorms are heavy storms, lightning occurs when electricity jump within clouds or between clouds, and early on 1998, a series of powerful tornadoes roared through central Florida. I am so happy with my students responses and I plan to use a post-reading strategy this week before giving them a test about the topic.
For the use of prefixes, suffixes and roots, I was not able to really made an emphasis on this because of lack of time. The words that we have encountered are the cyclones, anticyclones, polar and continental. For cyclone, students learned that it came from the Greek word meaning “wheel”, anticyclone- anti means opposite, polar from the root word pole and continental from continents.
Use of graphic organizer – I have used this strategy to determine the cause and effect of a specific natural disaster. Students have identified the kind of damage these disasters can cause in the boxes on the right. I have used this strategy also for my lesson about the systems of the body for my 7th grade class. They have identified where each of the organ should be placed in the system of the body. I find this strategy in organizing the concepts and useful for my special education students.
Use of the internet – I have used this strategy to let the students research on the meaning of the following words: genetics, heredity, hybrid, purebred, allele, dominant, and recessive. I find this strategy good because students get to know a lot of information about the word not just their meaning and also they get to see pictures or visuals that make them know the concept easily.
Use of model and map – I used the map of the U.S. and weather symbols to help students understand the weather for a particular state and predict the weather next day. I find this very important strategy because it enhances critical thinking skills of the students.
Use of stories – I did not get the chance to do this because of lack of time. We had MSA last week and for this week too.
Highlighting text to indicate main ideas – I used this strategy for my 8th grade class. I gave them a packet about energy and they have read it silently. As they read they highlighted the key words and write their meaning on the worksheet I gave them. I find this strategy good too because it makes students become more focused on what they are reading.

Overall, I am happy with the results of the reading strategies that I employed with students. I plan to have more interesting, engaging and meaningful reading strategies for my students.