Blog Week 5 - Entry #8

In the sheltered literacy lesson shown on the videos I watched, the teacher does many different things to promote comprehension. Fist, she has prepared for the lesson by writing down the goals and instructions for the day. She begins with the students by going over the goal for the day, which is for the students to “begin to understand how to make inferences from reading a passage” and explains that it is directly related to what the students have been learning over the past week. She then explains that where the passage they will be reading is coming from and begins a discussion with the students about reading strategies that the students may need in the lesson. She writes what the students say on the board. Then she goes over vocabulary she feels the students may need help with before beginning reading the passage, and she had visuals to go along with each vocab word. She also makes relatable inferences for the students to remember the words. Once she has the students get out their books, she begins reading slowly and clearly to the students as they follow along. As she is reading, she also reminds students of different reading strategies. She goes over different sentences in the story, and talks about using background knowledge to infer what will happen next. She provides many opportunities for the students to review the vocab words and to make connections with the text with either their personal lives or other texts they have read. She constantly gives the students opportunities to talk about the text, and this gives them great practice in using the language they are learning. When the teacher is done teaching the lesson, she also reviews with the students everything they covered that day. The students are completely involved in and engaged in the entire lesson, they are participating, and they are obviously learning. They are given opportunities for clarification by the teacher, they are involved in whole group work, and they are able to participate in hands on activities which all help shelter the lesson for them. The teacher shows patience throughout the lesson, and gives the students a ton of constructive feedback and always makes sure they are on the same page with what she is doing at the time. This is a VERY well taught lesson, and I am impressed with the students levels of participation and their ability to stay focused.