Reflection:

I think overall, my teaching of this lesson went well. Students in this class do a fantastic job of listening to the instructions given, moving quickly to get to the floor. Once the students were there, they were focused and ready to learn. Some students are quieter than others, but they do their best to participate, especially during turn and talks.

I believe I presented the hook sentence in the opening paragraph well, providing an example that would draw attention to the presenter. I think students got a grasp of this aspect of the opening paragraph. As they asked questions about what to write or having me review the content they had put on their template, their hooks got me engaged to what their National Park speech was about.

I can improve on helping provide a better understanding of a thesis statement. Many students were confused on what to write for this sentence, and it took several reminders about what a thesis statement is. For this project, the thesis should be about the National Park students were presenting on. This went in and out it seemed, and I should have spent more time on this during the instruction portion of the lesson. I felt pressure to allow as much work time as possible, but I should have cemented the idea first before moving on.

These lessons were fun to teach, and I appreciate how students are starting to dive deeper into their content. I encouraged one student to write like a tour guide, mainly because he was already talking like one. He had a lightbulb moment, and a big smile came across his face. Moments like that are what excite me about teaching, and I am excited for more opportunities like this in the future.