My Literacy Lesson Analysis

My literacy lesson was created for a first grade class. The standard for this lesson was RL.1.4 - Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses. This lesson was all about learning to use illustrations and words and phrases from a text to be able to identify different feelings within a story. The book My Rotten Red Headed Older Brother by Patricia Polacco was used to guide the lesson. The main activity involved students matching illustrations from the story to different words that describe feelings such as happy, cheerful, mad, angry, silly, goofy etc.

A strength from my lesson was the introduction. The introduction consisted of asking students how they were feeling today and why. I provided my

own example as a starter. I said “Today I feel tired because I went to bed late last night.” I then allowed students to share their own experiences and listed them on the board. The introduction was a strength because it was engaging. I allowed students to express themselves and discuss issues of relevance. In addition, the introduction allowed students to think about different feelings which is important part of the entire lesson. Although my introduction was engaging, I needed to modify a way to get students to add more feelings to the board. I should have included all the different feelings that were going to be used for the activity. I could have done this by giving different scenarios and asking how would a person feel if _____. This would have allowed exposure to all the different feelings that would be discussed for the duration of the lesson and used for the activity.
The next part of my lesson was categorizing the feelings provided. Students had to categorize all the feelings that had similar meanings. A strength for this portion of the lesson was giving students counter examples of feelings that do not have similar meanings. Sad and mad were the two feelings used as an example. I explained that although the words sad and mad look similar, they have different meanings. I also asked students to show their sad faces and mad faces, so they were able to experience the difference between sad and mad themselves. This helped students understand the concept better. Although I provided counter- examples, I could have engaged students more effectively. The category chart is reflective of facial expressions. To modify the chart I would include adjectives that describe what we do to show emotions, and incorporate movement to demonstrate those emotions. Adding adjectives and movement will enhance the lesson and make it more multimodal for first graders. Students could have got out of their seats to show various feelings using movement. I could have asked what does it look like when you’re happy, angry or sad. First grade students have low attention spans and this will help to keep them engaged for a longer period of time.
Additionally, during my lesson one student had mentioned that the word exciting is another word that can have the same meaning as happy. In the video, I noticed that I bypassed the student’s response. I should never do that. I need to listen more carefully to all students’ responses and make sure I include their responses on the board, therefore, none of my students feel left out or feel as if their thoughts are not relevant. Furthermore, I need to adjust some of my words when categorizing. I listed the word upset as having a similar meaning to the word angry and mad. After researching definitions, I learned that the word upset identifies closer with the word sad. To modify the lesson, I will explain to students that the word upset can mean both sad and mad. This will make the lesson more accurate.
The following part of my lesson was the activity.

Modeling the activity was a great strength I had within my lesson. I demonstrated to students exactly what had to be done and talked through it, giving direct examples. This was a strength because when you model for students exactly how the activity should be completed, it will lead to a higher level of success. On note for improvement, however, is making the images that I used for the demonstration larger. I need to make sure that the demonstration is visible for all students. Another strength of the activity was providing positive reinforcements to all my students. This is indeed a strength because praise motivates students. When students are motivated they work better. One way in which I did not provide a positive reinforcement is when I called out a student for not following directions. Instead of calling out students individually, I should have repeated directions to the entire class. This would have prevented the student from feeling targeted. In addition, if any other students made the same mistake, they would have heard the directions all over

again.
Finally, the last part of my lesson was the ending discussion.

The closing was a strength because I end in a way that shows how relevant the lesson is to real life. I bring the entire lesson together by asking why illustrations and words in a story are important. I then relate it to real life by stating “Illustrations are like our facial expressions and gestures, they can show people how we are feelings. On the other hand, words and phrases are like our behaviors and tone of voice, which also are other ways to tell people how we are feeling, similar to stories. Overall, my lesson had many strengths and points of improvements. I think the lesson as a whole was coherent and relevant to students. Many of my points of improvement are minor, but significant to enhance the lesson. After analyzing, my lesson and evaluating myself, I will make the necessary changes in order to be prepared for the field, and present an incredible lesson to a first grade

classroom.