Small Group Reading Adjustment Reflection

Over the past few weeks, I started using some of the small group reading ideas during our ANZAC unit, which my mentor Josh helped our team to create. Before reading the text Lest We Forget, I showed the students a video about ANZAC Day and got them to take notes while watching. I noticed this helped a lot because students already had some understanding of the topic before we even started reading. During guided reading, I tried to slow down more and pay attention to how students were thinking and responding to the text instead of just focusing on finishing it. I noticed students were more engaged because they were already interested in the topic and had some background knowledge. I also made sure the follow-up tasks connected properly to the reading. After reading the text, students did inquiry work around the “who, what, where, and why” of ANZAC Day. They also made posters about some of the fallen soldiers mentioned in the text and learned more about their lives. Later, they wrote poems and letters from the perspective of a soldier. I found that these activities helped students connect more deeply to the topic and really think about what soldiers may have gone through. Something else I noticed was that students were sharing more ideas during discussions and using information from the text to support their thinking. Because all the learning connected together, the unit felt more meaningful for them. Overall, this unit reminded me how important it is to build background knowledge first and make sure reading tasks actually connect to the text and learning. I could see that students were more engaged and got more out of the learning because of it.