Lesson Reflection: Peters Chair

On a Thursday afternoon after snack in a third grade classroom, the wonderful readers were
eager to learn something new. On this day I was given the great opportunity of teaching a reading
lesson from 11:30-12:00pm, a shortened period. The main concept of this lesson was a utilizing
the helpful tool of a story mountain. This is a reading lesson that I have not taught before, but
going into the lesson I was extremely excited about what I had planned. The objective of this
lesson was that Students will be able to read closely in order to identify details about characters and how
they deal with conflicts and resolve them by using a story mountain to track the story progression. Overall
the major aspects of this lesson were to begin with a read Aloud of the picture book titled Peters Chair
by Ezra Keats; and end with a completed story mountain based on the read aloud. These two major
aspects were conducted but not exactly as planned.
To begin students were asked to paste the story map worksheet into their reading notebooks and come
to the carpet with their notebooks. With the nervousness of being pressed for time I mistakenly began the
lesson without receiving full attention of every student. Before beginning a lesson it is vital to assure that
each student is focused and ready to learn. As an introduction to the lesson students were praised for the
wonderful work that they have completed in previous reading lessons. Next students were asked to put a
thumbs up if they have read the picture book titled Peters Chair. Many students put thumbs up and
were excited to hear the story again. As the story was being read I stopped to model what information
should be placed in the story mountain. I modeled the very first part of the mountain, then students were
asked to assist with filling in the second box. Then I continued to read the story in which I stopped during
specific parts of the story to point out the events that the main charter encountered. Once the story was
complete, the students were instructed to return to their seats to finish the rest of the story mountain
independently. As students completed the rest of the story map on their own I conferred with each of them

to assess their understanding. A printed version of the text was given to each student to refer back to when
necessary, a story map model was also displayed on the board as extra guidance.
At the very end of the lesson, students were asked to volunteer to state what they have written on
their story mountain. As a whole I believe most students understood the main concept of the story
mountain but I do not believe the lesson was as successful as I would have liked it to be. I believe I
should have put a stronger emphasis on many parts of the lesson, starting with distinguishing the specific
parts of the story mountain. Since this lesson was not as successful as expected I would give students the
opportunity to practice using the story mountain again for a different story, a story that they knew very
well.
If given the opportunity to teach this lesson again I would break the lesson into two separate lessons.
The first lesson would solely focus on the read aloud of the book, Peters Chair, emphasizing largely on
the main character and the lesson of the storyline. Once students have developed a clear understanding of
the book itself, the second lesson would solely focus on the concept of the story mountain. To begin the
second lesson I would review Peters chair and possibly even read it over again to assure that students
are able to pick out the most important events.