Given the opportunity to teach an additional lesson, I would revisit making inferences.  I believe that developing this skill is critical to fully comprehending a text and becoming a strong reader.  I would frame the lesson around a different text to reinforce the notion that strong, fully engaged readers should always be ready to infer while reading.  While the students' verbal comments and written responses during the lesson indicate that the majority of them have a solid understanding of the concept of inferences, I believe that additional practice can only be beneficial.

 

If I were to reteach the lesson, I would make a variety of management based and logistical changes.  The clearest lesson that I learned in teaching the lesson is that establishing expectations is critical to maintaining focus and attention.  Going forward, I would--and will:

 

• display expectations in writing, to be reviewed prior to and referenced throughout the lesson;

• have the students revoice the requirements of a task to confirm whether or not the instructions are clear;

• model more extensively.

 

Based on my observations and reflections, I believe that these changes would contribute to a stronger, and in turn more beneficial, lesson.

 

I would use continue, in both situations, to use that graphic organizer that I developed for the original lesson.  My observations during the lesson and while reviewing student work, indicate that the organizer was an effective tool.