Reflections on Kindergarten Lesson 3: Main Ideas

What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson?

I am reflecting on my third lesson in the unit. This lesson topic was main idea. I wanted my students to pick out the main idea/s in the story and be able to support their reasoning using illustrations as well as what they already knew from the book. We had read and discussed the book, Animal Mothers, in my two previous lessons. Therefore my students were familiar with the book. In order to get my students thinking about the story and what the main ideas were, I asked them comprehension questions throughout my lesson. I asked them to compare and contrast animals, use illustrations to predict which animals lived in trees, and I asked them to tell me about the animals (in order) they had already heard about in the story (retelling using sequence of events). Not only was I checking for comprehension, I was assessing them to see what they had learned from my previous two lessons. I noticed that students were able to answer my comprehension questions. They were raising their hands to participate, sharing their reasonings using text and illustrations, and making predictions. During the lesson I was able to see that my students learned how to retell stories and make predictions. When it came to discussing the main idea of the story many of my students seemed to struggle. Some of them really grasped the main idea, which was animal mothers taking care of their young. However, some of my students were discussing specific animals and their functions in reference to the main idea. I tried to lead students to think about what they learned about each animal- how the mother takes care of her young. About half of the class was able to point out a main idea in the story, the other half of the class was not. Since we read the book three times and had two previous discussions about the lesson, I thought students would be able to see the main idea in the story. However, it was the first time this year that we brought up the topic of main ideas in stories. I will be focusing many upcoming lessons on main ideas in stories in order to ensure student comprehension.

What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

My students did a great job answering my comprehension questions. I assessed them informally throughout the lesson by observing them and asking them questions. All of my students were engaged in this lesson and I think it definitely helped that we had read the book a number of times. Students were able to make connections and retell the story using sequence of events. I really wanted to see my students' comprehension of the story through this lesson, especially since this was the third day reading and discussing the book. Even though some of them struggled with the main idea topic, I know there was successful comprehension of the lesson. They had an activity that they did at their centers. They listened to the story, Animal Mothers, on tape and then drew a picture of their favorite animal mentioned in the story. They also included a picture of how that animal cares for their young. I wanted students to be able to go back and remember some of the animals we discussed in the story and something special about that animal mother and her young. After reviewing their worksheets I was able to see that they each remembered an animal from the story and how that animal cared for their young. Some students' pictures were very detailed and specific. Other students could not choose between two animals so they drew pictures of both their favorite ones in the story. I was very pleased with my students' performance both during the lesson and at centers.

What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

I learned that my students were able to make text-to-self connections without any guiding questions. Even though this lesson was not focused on text-to-self connections, I noticed my students making these connections throughout the story. Some of my students were making deep connections which surprised me. For example, in the book I used for my lesson (Animal Mothers) there is a picture of a mother hedgehog and her three babies following her in a straight line. The text read something very simple like, "Baby hedgehogs follow their mother in a straight line." There is obviously not a whole lot to think about and relate to in this part of the story. As a class we were talking about why the babies might follow their mother in a straight line. One of my students raised her hand and began relating the way the hedgehogs following their mother to how the students follow their teacher in a straight line. Other students started adding on to her comment, mentioning how it is important to follow one another in a straight line so that no one gets lost and everyone knows where they are going. It was really quite interesting and something that I had not even thought of. Students also brought up the similarities between a mother chimpanzee holding her baby and a human mother holding her baby. I also learned that my students were familiar with a lot of the animals in the story. I had assumed I would have to introduce many of the unfamiliar animals such as hedgehogs, wild boars, and sloths. However, students were quite familiar. They knew that hedgehogs looked like porcupines and wild boars looked like pigs. When I turned to the page with a sloth on it they all shouted, "Sloth!" When I asked them how they knew what a sloth was they explained "Sloth" was an animal character in a popular children's show, Diego. It was pretty comical and it really surprised me.

When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

When my lesson ended I explained to my teacher that a lot of my students seemed to struggle with the topic: finding main ideas. Since it was their first time discussing main idea/s in a story, a lot of them need more experience with the topic. Since many of my students struggled, I am going to teach another lesson or two about main idea in my upcoming unit. This time I am going to model for the students by thinking aloud. In order to find the main idea in a story, I am going to read the story to them and share with them what I am thinking. For example, if I were to read Animal Mothers again I would read a few pages, stop and say, "I just noticed that the last few pages talked about different animal mothers and what they do to carry their babies around. I think the author might want to teach us about different animals and what they do to carry their babies from one place to another." This will allow students to see how I am thinking about main ideas in the story instead of reflecting on individual animals.

If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

If I were to teach this lesson again, I would modify some of my guiding questions. I was very pleased with my comprehension questions because students were engaged, actively participating, and truly discussing/reflecting on the lesson. When it came to my guiding questions to get students to think about the main idea (my lesson topic), students seemed to get confused. I asked students to think about what the author wanted to teach them through the story. I said, "What did the author want us to learn?" Students began focusing on individual parts of the story. For example, instead of thinking about the main idea/s, students began thinking about specific animals. They would say, "The author wanted us to learn that a baby koala rides on the mother's back," or "The author wanted us to learn that elephants use their trunks to help their babies run. I was looking for answers such as, "The author wanted us to learn how animal mothers carry around their babies." Students were not seeing the whole picture, instead they were focusing on other aspects. As I mentioned previously, I would model finding main idea/s by thinking aloud. Thinking aloud would have allowed students to see what I wanted them to look for and become aware of. I am excited to reteach a lesson about main ideas. I have gained experience and thought of many new ideas to successfully deliver a lesson focusing on main idea/s.