Small Group Activity

I completed my small group activity on Tuesday, October 21, 2014 with a group of five students.
This group was reading the book Shoeshine Girl by Clyde Robert Bulla. The purpose of this small
group activity was to continue on with their guided reading groups and to find evidence in the book to
support our thoughts on the characters. During the lesson I had the students to pick up where they left
off with reading the day before. Some of the students took a little longer to read then others which was
fine because they seemed to comprehend the story better. The students only read four pages total
during our 20 minutes but after every two pages I had them stop and I asked them questions for them
to reflect on what they just read. Some of the responses they gave me where very thought out but a
couple didnt really make sense and I felt like they didnt really comprehend what they had read. I think
they focused on reading faster instead of reading to comprehend. After the students finished reading
we made a T-chart together and I wrote on one side Why might Sarah Ida not want to work for Al? On
the other side I wrote the word Evidence. We completed one together and then the students had to
go back to their desk and find two more reasons with supportive evidence. The students responded
very well to me and they seemed excited that I was working with them. The activity was very easy for
them to complete and they responded to it with enthusiasm. As I walked around the classroom when
they were finished, the five students that I had just worked with were eagerly going back through their
books to find the evidence. This activity was easy to complete they just had to make some inferences as
to why Sarah Ida wouldnt want to work for Al, then support where they got it from. I think they
responded well to it because there really wasnt a wrong answer, so they didnt have to stress over it.
Reflection
1. What do you think your students learned as a result of this activity? What evidence do you have
of your students learning?

I believe that my students learned how to look back in the text and find the actual evidence and
the page they found it on. They may have known about this beforehand but some of them
struggled with looking back through the text so I think this activity helped these particular
students to have extra practice. The evidence that I have of my students learning is in their
reading journals. As I walked around I could see their inference to why and look on the page
number they gave and find the evidence to support it.
2. Name at least 1 aspect of the activity that was successful. What caused it to be successful? How
did you contribute to this success?
I believe that having the students find the evidence was successful because it gave the students
accountability on actually reading and also to looking back for the evidence. I contributed to
this success by modeling to the students what needed to be on their paper and how to do it. I
came up with a reason, then looked back in the book to support it.
3. Name at least 1 aspect of the activity that was less successful. What caused it to be less
successful? How did you contribute to this?
One aspect of the activity that I didnt feel was that successful is my questions. I seemed to be
repeating the questions but with different characters. My part in this is that Im not great at
asking questions and need more practice at it
4. What changes might make this learning activity more successful? Why might these changes
help improve the activity?
I believe that the changes that need to be made is my questions which if I had asked more open
ended questions then they would have been fine. This will just take practice for me. These
changes might help improve the lesson because the students would be able to infer better
about the book and have a better understanding why it is important to find the evidence.