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Adapted from Developmental Reading Reflection document created by Sarah Mwangi, 06/13

Candidate Name: Chelsea Meyer Date: 4-17-14
School: Kelsey Norman Teacher: Miss Hoag Grade level: Kindergarten
Practicum Reflection-Guided Reading Lesson

Name of Book: The Easter Egg Hunt Level: Kindergarten (Level C)




Reading A-Z Lesson, Reflection

About:

Objective: Use the reading strategies of connecting prior knowledge and classification to
understand the story.
Content: We read the story (The Easter Egg Hunt by Keith and Sarah Kortemartin). We talked about
our previous experiences with Easter Egg Hunts. We also talked about the emotions of the
characters in the story during and after the hunt. By having the previous egg-hunting experience,
we understood how the characters were feeling.

Before Reading:
A-Set: We started out by classifying note cards. I asked the student how to best divide the
notecards. After a few guesses, the students determined that we could put the notecards in groups
by colors. We then divided object cards that I cut out. The cards had three groups (plants,
transportation, and animals). Once again, we had to go through a little bit of a discussion before a
student realized that there could be an animal group. We figured out the rest of the groups from
there. We then proceeded to the story.

During reading:
We then read the story. We started with the title. From the title, we predicted what the story
would be about. We talked about what our previous egg-hunting experiences were. We determined
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Adapted from Developmental Reading Reflection document created by Sarah Mwangi, 06/13

that this would help us read the story. Throughout the story, we talked about different hiding spots
that were hidden. I asked if they had any cool hiding places where they had found eggs in the past.
One girl said under the fence. Im not sure how that would work but it sounds interesting. On the
last page, the children were smiling. I said that they were finished with the Easter Egg Hunt, so why
would they be happy? After some pondering, the students determined that it was because they now
got to open their eggs and eat all of their candy.

Reading Strategy Reflection:
I think that the students got a lot more comfortable with the idea of connecting prior
knowledge. Because they were able to make text to self comparisons throughout the text, I
understood that they were understanding the strategy. Classifying was a little more difficult.
Although we were able to classify the hiding places from the story, it took a lot more prompting
from me than I would have liked.

1. What was the area of focus today during the lesson? What activities related to the area of
focus were included in the lesson today?
We focused on connecting prior knowledge and classifying information in todays lesson.
The focus of last weeks lesson was connecting prior knowledge. Therefore, I wanted to build on
that. We started off by classifying notecards (dividing by color) and objects (pictures of objects).
Throughout the story, we connected prior knowledge by comparing to our own egg hunting
experiences.

2. What went well with the instruction? What did students learn?
I think that the student enjoyed the book. I think that they liked how I chose an Easter book
for them to read. However, the students were very distracted. The table in the classroom that
we normally use was full of Easter crafts; therefore, we had to relocate to the hall. This added to
the distraction. I think that the students were at least introduced to the idea of classifying. The
figured out that it is like when their teacher divides them into groups in the class. I also think
that the students became a lot more comfortable with connecting to prior knowledge. I think
that they understood that having the past experience helped them to read and understand the
story.
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Adapted from Developmental Reading Reflection document created by Sarah Mwangi, 06/13


3. Explain a growth moment for yourself where you realized, learned, or confirmed
something from today dealing with student achievement in the area of reading. (phonemic
awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, before/during/after reading)
A growth moment for me was when the students started slowing down in their text. In the
past, I have chosen texts with repetitive text structure. Therefore, it wasnt as necessary for
the students to read word for word. Because of this, the students started off by trying to
repeat the text structure word by word. They quickly figured out that this wouldnt work
when I had them go back and check the words again. I think that this showed me that I will
need to explicitly explain that pictures and text structure will help us to read, we also need
to rely on the actual reading process in order to read efficiently.

4. Describe a moment when a student grasped an idea/concept-that got it! kind of moment.
How was the teacher able to facilitate this experience? Explain the situation.

An aha moment was when the students connected their past experience with the children
of the story. I asked why the children were smiling in the story. Their hunt was done, so they
may be sad. However, the students determined that they were probably excited to open their
eggs and devour their treats. One student then talked about how happy he was after an Easter
Egg hunt to get to open up all of his eggs. This displayed that he understood the concept of
connecting to prior knowledge.