Lesson Plan: Pause and Reflect for Vocabulary and Comprehension

This lesson plan can be used by teachers in the classroom or by parents either studying with your child at home or teaching them at home. There are two parts to this lesson. Vocabulary instruction and comprehension instruction are both included in this plan. I actually did this lesson with my children at school, so it is written from that perspective, but you can change it around as needed for your own use. Remember that I teach special education, learning disabled students, but this can be used with any level of student

Vocabulary Strategy Pause and Reflect ( Vocabulary Log)

On October 17th, I implemented the Vocabulary Log Strategy in Science. The students had been writing down the vocabulary word, and writing a definition I gave them. They seemed to have very little memory of the words on the exam on Friday. Being ESE, they were not too excited about changing their routine, but I explained that this new strategy would assist them in remembering the words, as people learned differently. Many had problems even folding the paper in fours to divide it into the categories. I of course had to walk them through the routine for the first several days. But by Thursday, they seemed to get the general idea, and were able to complete the log on their own. The second week, went even better. They folded the paper by themselves, and began the log immediately.
Today, I asked the students what they thought about our vocabulary log. They all liked it, thought they were remembering the words better, but it was almost unanimous that they did not like drawing the picture. I have found during the past two weeks, that they could not think of a picture, even knowing the definition, which we go over while they are writing. I think they just need some practice with this skill. I believe also it might merely be a self confidence issue with the students. However, when I graded the tests today, they did seem to do better on remembering the vocabulary words, so this strategy seems to be working.

Comprehension Strategy Pause and Reflect ( Interacting with Text - Sticky Notes)