Teaching a Reading Lesson

I am using the classroom that I work in for my observations. Today I taught a reading lesson to my five first graders and I want to reflect on some of my strengths and weakness that I noticed. A strength that I noticed was how great the brainstorming idea that involved the students discussing things that make them feel happy and sad. The kids were very willing to share and came up with some really great ideas and examples of why someone would feel happy or sad. I believe it really put them in the proper mindset because the book discussed why children were having a bad day and what made them feel better. A second strength I noted was illustrated by the student’s interest in the book itself. They liked the topic and really fought over who got to read first and who got to read for a second time. They illustrated cooperation in the small group and were willing to help the classmates who struggled with reading words.
A weakness I saw is somewhat linked to my second strength. Not all students were able to read more than one page each, which caused some disagreement. I actually allowed the entire group to read the last page simultaneously. They all wanted to read more. Next time I would choose a longer book and a book that is at a higher reading level. Hugs was a bit too easy for all the students involved in this particular lesson. Another weakness I noticed was that while I was teaching my lesson I wish I had placed more emphasis on the cause and the effect. I would have liked to go deeper into explanation of causal relationships and I would have liked to use real life examples, not just examples from the book we had just read. I will certainly take all of these considerations in effect when using this lesson plan in the future.