Yassick_LessonPlan1

Yassick Lesson Plan # 1 Rationale: Based on the assessment I gave my two focus students it is clear that they are not familiar with the strategy of retelling Objective for this lesson: Performance: Students will retell the book The Sandwich Swap. o    Conditions: Students will do this by filling in a chart that has the five elements of retelling: setting, characters, problem, events, and solution. The chart will be filled in after I read the book to them and explain the five elements with the finger technique. The figure technique shows that there are five elements to retelling.   o    Criterion: The words they add in their chart must be accurate with the actual story The Sandwich Swap. Materials & supplies needed: Glove with the five elements of retelling taped to it, the book The Sandwich Swap, retelling worksheet to be filled out, 2 pencils

Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event  • Introduction to the lesson  “Today I am going to read you the book The Sandwich Swap. After we finish reading the book you will have the opportunity to retell the story. Retelling the story is like explaining the book back to someone else making sure that you mention all the necessary parts. I have chosen a book that I think you will really enjoy!”  (1 minute)  • OUTLINE of key events during the lesson “I mentioned that we are going to retell the story. After you retell a story the person listening to you should know exactly what the book is about when you are done. Do you think that means that you should memorize the entire story and say it back word for word? What do you think you might include in your retell?” -Listen to responses and respond accordingly -Introduce the five finger technique using the glove. If they come up with some of the techniques by answering the previous question make them aware that it is mentioned on one of the fingers if not say the following: “I have a glove (Hold out glove). On each figure it illustrates an element that should be included when you retell a story. The first one is setting. What is the setting of the story (respond/answer accordingly)? The second element is characters. What are characters? Who are the characters in the Nursery Rhyme Little Ms. Muffett? (Respond accordingly). The third element is the problem? What are some problems in the different stories you have read? (Respond accordingly). The fourth element is events. The events are the things that happen after the problem. The fifth element is the solution. What does solution mean? Can you think of a book that had a problem and was then resolved by a solution? (Respond accordingly). -Both children will try on the glove and state each of the five elements of retelling. -Read the book, The Sandwich Swap -Talk about the five elements of retelling out loud getting both student’s input (wear glove while talking) “What was the setting of this story? Who were the characters? Do you think it is necessary to include every single character when retelling a book? Why or why not? What was the problem in the story? What events followed the problem? What was the solution to the problem?” -After talking about the five elements pass out the worksheets and pencils and have the children write what was discussed in their chart. “Now that we have written our answers on the chart format lets practice retelling the story out loud. Start your retelling by saying In the book The Sandwich Swap.....” “Include all of the information you have written on your chart” -When each child is done have the child that was listening go through and make sure each of the five elements were included in the child’s retell. “You both learned how to retell a story today! Besides explaining to another person what the story was about how can retelling help you as a reader?”     (20 minutes) • Closing summary for the lesson “Now that we are finished what did you think of retelling? Have you done anything like this before? How will you use retelling in the future? Do you think the glove will help you remember the five elements of retelling?”  (5 minutes) Ongoing-Assessment: I will know my students are meeting my objective from our discussion. Also, what they write and say out loud in their verbal retelling will be a good indicator of whether or not they remember to include all five elements. I will take notes on the specific things they say because some of the details they might include may not be relevant to a retelling. This may be especially true in the events column. Therefore, I could follow through with a “main ideas” mini lesson.

Adaptations: Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson? The students I am working with in this lesson will not need any adapted support.

Reading Lesson Overview-Maria Yassick

Reading Lesson Overview

            I have decided to work with four students for my two mini reading lessons. These four students were suggested to me by my mentor teacher. The first lesson will focus on the strategy of retelling and I am working with two male students whom I will call Jay and Pete. For the second lesson I am working with two female students whom I will call Hannah and Anne. I will be teaching them how to take a picture walk and make predictions.

            As I was talking with my mentor teacher she suggested Jay and Pete work with me because they are very strong in math. She said they do not struggle with reading, but they could always use extra practice. She also said that comprehension strategies would be especially important for these students because they are beginning to read books with more words which require strong comprehension skills. She also suggested Hannah and Anne because the two of them are up and coming readers. She said that teaching them a reading comprehension strategy would be beneficial since they are at the point where they will be beginning harder books and knowing ways to help them better comprehend the text when reading will help them as they enter into this next reading stage.

            I decided that I would assess the two groups on their retelling and prediction skills before giving my actual lessons. I wanted to do something informally so I knew exactly what they did not know so I could scaffold to the best of my ability in the mini lesson. Therefore, I read each child the book, Dog Breath: The Horrible Trouble with Hallie Tosis by Dav Pilkey. In this story, the family dog, Hallie has bad breath. The parents want to get rid of the dog so the children try to help him with his problem. They tried multiple ways to get rid of Hallie’s bad breath, but they did not succeed. However, when burglars came into their house one night the dog saves the family because of his bad breath. In the end the family decided to keep the dog because he was a hero!

            Before I read the book I asked Hannah and Anne if they knew what the phrase ‘making predictions’ meant and both of them responded, “No.” I then asked them to look at the picture on the front and the pictures throughout the book and make a prediction of what they think the book was going to be about. I also explained that a prediction is stating what you think might happen. Hannah immediately said that she thought the dog will have bad breath and then have good breath at the end. Anne said, “The dogs breath smells yucky, nobody likes the dog, got in the newspaper that he had a stinky breath.” After the story Hannah realized that her prediction was wrong. She said, “No, they didn’t sell their dog because they put plugs on their nose.” While Hannah is beginning to realize that her prediction was wrong there is still room for her to give a stronger argument as to what was wrong and what the text said to prove the inaccuracy. When I asked Anne if her prediction was correct she said, “Yes.” When I questioned her about the newspaper part and why he really got into the newspaper she said she forgot that part. Therefore, Anne can also benefit from a thorough picture walk and prediction making lesson that goes back to the initial predictions after reading.

            I then worked with Jay and Pete. I was interested how they retold a book without any prompt of how to retell. Each student went one at a time after I read the book. Jay said, “The dog had bad breath and he got the bad guys and their eyes were wobbly.” Drew said, “The family had to plug their hose ‘cause they had so bad breath. They put a sign up.” What I got from this was that they include some of the parts to retelling, but not all. I will focus the lesson on making sure they know which components are essential when retelling a story.  

            At first I my mentor teaching thought a K-W-L would be beneficial for the students. However after reading the Stahl article I learned that K-W-L’s have had little research done on them so as of now they are not proven to be an effective strategy (Stahl, 2004). While picture walks also do not have a lot of research I am including prediction making as well to strengthen the comprehension strategy. The Stalh article also talks positively about retelling. Stahl says, “Techniques like the five-finger retelling might provide a concrete means for fostering the inclusion of story structure elements with young children” (2004, p. 600). Therefore, I am definitely going to include the five finger technique in my lesson. 

Kusek_Reflection2

What a great experience to be able to work with the same two boys again this week! My MT is very worried about their comprehension, so I taught them a lesson about how to use the questioning strategy of comprehension to be able to stay engaged in the text and understand what is going on. This is a great strategy, especially for the book that my teacher wanted me to use because it was an expository text.    

Louis* and Trevor* weren't excited to be pulled out of the classroom for another time to work with me on reading, but it wasn't as bad as last time, because they weren't in the middle of an engaging activity. The boys were also both more awake today. Louis actually told me that last time, he had to stay up the night before taking care of his siblings, which is why he wasn't as engaged. I explained to the boys the chart we would be using for today, which only had the words "preguntas (questions)" and "respuestas (answers)" on them. I wanted to simplify the chart from last weeks so that the boys would be able to understand it more clearly. 

Right away, Louis was asking questions and digging into the content of the book about bald eagles. It took Trevor a little bit more time to focus in and he was frustrated that "Louis was taking all of his questions" at first, but in about a forty minute lesson, we only got through half of the book because the boys were asking a ton of questions and finding the answers within the text. I was so impressed with how engaged they were and how they were thinking critically about what questions they might ask, as well as what previous questions may have been answered. My chart filled with questions and we only got through half of the book. This time, the boys were pointing directly toward where they were finding the answers to questions, and they were working together to sort out the answers.  

There were a lot of strengths to this lesson. First, it gave the boys a strategy to help them stay engaged in a reading task when this is their struggle. Because the boys were thinking reflectively about what questions to ask and what answers to the questions might show up, their engagement level was a lot higher than I've ever seen it. The chart helped the boys track the questions and answers, and having only one chart promoted their cooperative sides. They cooperated on who would read what first, and they directed the lesson a lot more than I did once they got the hang of the chart. I was so impressed! 

A limitation to this lesson would be that it is possible that some questions the boys ask aren't answered in the book, or that they don't ask the questions that are answered in the book. While at the end of the lesson not all of the questions were answered, the boys asked a great deal of questions that were answered. This book was on their level enough that I think it worked in relation to the questions they asked. 

About myself as a teacher, I was extremely apprehensive going into this lesson and not as motivated as I could have been. Last week's lesson with the boys was difficult, and I wasn't sure if these comprehension strategies were actually helping them. When I simplified things as much as possible and made directions clear and explicit, however, the boys caught on much faster and took ownership in the activity. I learned that while not every lesson may work for the students I have in my class, trial and error may be one of the best strategies that I can use as a teacher. In addition, if I maintain patience and build a good relationship with the students, it doesn't matter how bad I think a lesson may go, I still haven't lost having a good reputation with the students. The boys worked hard, and so I felt comfortable enough to let them go have their snack and join the class when I could tell that they were starting to get a little tired. While I normally would have wanted to get through the whole book, my objectives were to teach them the strategy of questioning and I think that got across without reading the whole book.

Questions that I have are I wonder if I will be able to create time in my own classroom to sit down with small groups of students and help them with specific things they struggle with. It will definitely be a challenge budgeting my time and trying to figure out how to level activities so that students are receiving the proper support that they need. I think I will develop these skill through observing more experienced teachers, reading, and trial and error on my own part. This experience was beneficial toward my development as a teacher, and I am glad that I got a chance to enact part of the Tompkins book! 

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith,

            For the past four months I have had the joy of getting to know Conor. He is very pleasant to work with and gets along well with his peers. He is very motivated in mathematics and enjoys playing academic games on the computer. In addition, I have been able to see and assess Conor’s literacy progress. Conor is an emerging reading and I am excited to see him continue to excel. To aide in his growth there are a few areas of literacy in which both you and I can work with. I have noticed that when Conor reads a book out loud he is unable to answer some of the comprehension questions post reading. This is not uncommon for students and there are ways in which we can help him.

            First I am planning on working with him with small groups during our literacy centers. During literacy centers children are either working with me or working with literature games and activities in small groups. When Conor is with me I plan on teaching him comprehension strategies such as communicating background knowledge, retelling, and think-outlouds. When working with me he will be with children at the same level. However, when he is in other centers I plan on having him engage in the various activities with students who will challenge him just a bit! Lastly, I want you to know that I will be starting an after school program for students who want extra time working on comprehension and other reading strategies. If this is something you would be interested in let me know!

            I am confident that Conor will grow from these various instructional strategies. I encourage you to read Conor’s library books at home and talk about them afterwards. Since he is extremely motivated by the computer I have included a few websites you can introduce to him when he is playing at home! If you have any questions feel free to contact me by e-mail at msyassick@elementary.edu or by my school phone at (555-5555). I am also available before or after school.

All the best,
Ms. Yassick

Websites

 http://www.zoodles.com/free-online-kids-games/kindergarten_reading-comprehension

http://www.jumpstart.com/parents/games/reading-games

Kusek_Reflection1

I had the chance to teach the first ELA mini-lesson this morning in my placement classroom to Louis* and Trevor*. I worked with the students for about fifty minutes, and it was a great experience for me to be able to see how these two individual students reacted in response to the lesson that I prepared for them. As a quick summary, we read a book about the different kinds of jobs adults have and we practiced the comprehension strategy of connecting by filling out a double-entry journal.  

Both Louis* and Trevor* were not excited to be pulled out of the classroom to work on reading. This is not something that I think either of them enjoy doing, and they are pulled out multiple times during the week to work on reading with both TE301 students and a resource room teacher. In addition, the students were practicing a play that they have been working on in the classroom, and the boys really wanted to be doing that instead of working on comprehension. Nonetheless, I tried to be as motivating as possible, and I think the boys liked having pieces of construction paper to be able to write their thoughts on. 

I worked really hard to model for them what the double entry journal was and what was supposed to go in each column. The boys really struggled with the first column, where they had to put an idea from the book into it, and then move to the second column where they were supposed to connect a thought. They really wanted to skip right to the personal connection part, which is good and bad. Good, because they were already thinking ahead and making connections, but not so good because when I asked them to point to the spot on the page where they were connecting their idea to, they had a difficult time. 

The strength of my lesson was that the boys knew that they had to pay attention to the content because they would be asked to write down a connection to it each page. I think this kept them a little bit more focused, even though I definitely observed how easily it was for either of them to get distracted and how many times I had to urge them to re-focus. The biggest limitation of my lesson was that I don't think I fully got them to comprehend the main ideas of the text. With this double-entry journal, they were focusing in on certain details that they could connect to, but when I asked them about the main idea of the text at the end, the boys were still missing a good chunk of the main idea. I think a lot of this had to do with their desire to go back in the classroom, however. 

In regards to myself as a teacher, I liked having the construction paper so that I could quickly scan the connections that the boys were making in the journal. I noticed that I had to explain the purpose of the journal in a couple of different ways, and I was proud that I was able to do this in Spanish. I know that I had to use a lot of patience in this lesson, as it was a little discouraging that the boys really didn't want to participate. I am still wondering if this was a good strategy in helping the boys develop comprehension skills. Comprehension is such a big idea, and breaking it down into teaching different strategies was the way that seemed the most logical to me. I am wondering how I could use the strategy of connection to help the boys focus more on the main ideas rather than the minute details. 

Overall, this lesson was insightful and helpful in my teaching development. I am excited to see how the questioning technique works with the boys next week on an expository text, and I hope that I won't have to pull them from something that they want to be part of in the classroom again! 

Preston Lesson Plan 1

Rationale:  When reading new text, the children in my classroom often hesitate when they come across a word that they don’t recognize.  The students will immediately look to the teacher for help.  The students attempt to guess the word based on the picture in the book.  Most of the time the word they are guessing is not even based on contextual clues, such as the first letter in the word, but is based exclusively from the given picture.  For example if there is a picture of a hen next to the word “hen” they instantly read the word as “chicken” basing their knowledge on the picture.  When I ask them to sound out the word they are able to identify that the first letter begins with “h” but still will resort to guessing the word as “chicken”.  This tells me that the child is not using the letters in the word as a clue to help him decode the word. This strategy hinders the children’s comprehension of the text.  During this guided reading lesson I will work on the strategy of combining both prior knowledge of sounding out words with the use of context clues to enhance their reading abilities and guide them to becoming more independent readers.

Objective for this lesson:  Students will develop word knowledge and comprehension skills by reading s selection and using context clues to identify unknown words. 

Materials & supplies needed: 5 copies of the book Spring will Bring (printable book from www.kinderblogger.org) 

***PROCEDURE***

Introduction to the lesson  (3 minutes):  

My guided reading lesson will take place during literacy centers, in which I will call the four students over to work with my a separate table.  Each student will have their own copy of the book and I will also have a copy. 

•   I will begin the lesson by tapping into the children’s background knowledge.  I will ask, “Tell me what you know about spring? What do you do in the Springtime? How do you know that it is spring?  Anticipated student responses include, "It's warmer outside" "There are lots of flowers."

• I will introduce the activity by saying, "Today we are going to be reading about the things that happen in the spring.  Sometimes when you read something, you come across a word that you don't recognize.  When this happens, it is your job to be a detective and look for clues in the book to help you figure out the new word.  Book have clues to help us learn.  Today we are going to be reading detectives.  Detectives have a problem or a mystery to solve.  Out questions that we are going to investigate is 'What will Spring Bring?'  As we read this book we are going to look for clues that will help us identify the new words on each page. Clues we will look for include the letters in the word and the pictures on each page." 

 OUTLINE of key events during the lesson  (10 minutes): 

I will first model how to use context clues to figure out unfamiliar words. the strategy by "thinking

aloud" as I read the first page to the students.  I will start by saying "The title of this book is

'Spring will Bring'".  I will point to the words as I read them.   

• On page 1 I will read "Spring will bring....”  and I will stop on the word “colorful.”  I will say "hmmm I don’t know what this word is so I will first skip it and keep reading.”  I will then read the next word which is "flowers."  

• I will say, “ So far I know this page says 'Spring will bring blank flowers'.  Hmmmm lets look at the clues to figure out what the unfamiliar word could be."

• I will go through where to look for the different clues on the page. 

•  "The first place I will look for clues is in the letters in the word.  I notice that the first letter is a C.  Hmmm what do I know about the letter C? It makes the sound /k/.  The next letter in the word is an O.  I know an O makes an /u/ sound.  Now I know this word starts with the sound /ku/. 

• "The next place I will look for clues is in the picture. I notice that the picture has lots of flowers.  The flowers are different colors. One is a yellow flower, a blue flower, and a pink flower.  Remember the word I am trying to figure out starts with the sound /ku/.  I will reread the sentence, "Spring will bring something flowers. Maybe it's blue flowers. Spring will bring blue flowers.  Does that make sense? Does blues start with the sound /ku/? No. May  is color.  Does color start with the sound /ku/?  Yes.  The word could be color." 

•  I will reread the sentence to see if it makes sense. "Spring will bring color flowers. Does that make sense? No. Les’t look at the word again." I will sound out the word color and look at the end of the word-ful. I will sound out the end of this word.  "This part says color.  What is this ending part say. /f/, /u/, /l/. I will blend the sounds together to say "ful".   "Color-ful. I think I got it! Let’s reread the sentence to see if that makes sense.  Does that make sense? “Yes it did!”   I used the clues on the page to figure out the word I didn't know. 

For the rest of the book I will explain that the children will take turns reading each page. 

• I will have the children to point to the words as they read. 

•  If a student stops on a word that he doesn't know, I will encourage all students to look for clues to help them figure out the unknown word. “What clues on the page can help you figure out the word.”  This will support the gradual release of teacher led instruction and guide them to use more independent thinking. 

Closing summary for the lesson (5 minutes): 

• I will reread the book with the students using choral reading.  This repetition will build the readers confidence and further familiarize them with the new words they are learning. 

• While the students are reading I will point our one or two words that each child struggles with and ask them to explain how what clues they used to figure out the word.  For example I will say, "Remember Joseph when you first read this page you didn't know the word ladybug.  You used your detective skills to figure out what word it was. What were the clues that helped you figure out the word?" 

• At the end of the lesson I will review the different context clues to look for when you come across an unfamiliar word: 
• Looking at the letters at the beginning of the word.
• Looking at the pictures on the page
• Rereading the sentence to see if the word they think it is makes sense based on the clues. 

• I will discuss with the children how all of the "detective skills" we used when reading this book can be used when they are reading any book. I will explain, "All books have clues to help the reader learn new words all you have to do is use your detective skills to figure them out." 

• I will give the books to the children to take home with them and challenge them to read the book to someone in their family. 

Ongoing-Assessment: I will observe what strategies the children use when they come across a new word. Are they able to identify the context clues that will help the determine the word?  Are they successfully able to apply the new information?  I will take notes of the words that the student originally struggled with but were eventually able to figure out using the context clues and apply them to to future reading lessons to see if they are able to recognize the word. 

Adaptations: Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson?  To support the students during this lesson I will provide each with their own copy of the book.  If student don't know what to do when the come across an unfamiliar word I will support their recognition of the steps to use the new learned strategy by asking them guided questions such as "Where should you look for the clues first."  In addition I will encourage all students to look to clues and work together to figure out the unfamiliar word. 

Preston Guided Reading Lesson Overview

For my two guided reading lessons I will work with a group of four boys in my kindergarten classroom.  These students were selected by my mentor teacher because they scored low on the informal reading assessment that my teacher implemented a couple weeks ago before parent teacher conferences.  When I talked to my mentor teacher about what specific skills these students needed to work on she said using context clues to figure out unfamiliar words and blending sounds together to make words.

Kenny, Joseph, Javier, and Omar are all five year old students who scored low in phonemic awareness and vocabulary.  Throughout the year I have worked with these students individually during literacy centers.  I have noticed that these children all have a tendency to guess words when they are reading.  The only context clue that they use when they are guessing is the picture on the page.  For example, if there is a picture of a hen and the word "hen" is written below it, the students will instantly guess chicken (thinking it is a picture of a chicken).  When working with these students I encourage them to read the letters on the page and not just guess.  Even if they are successfully able to sound out each individual letter they struggle with being able to blend the individual sounds together to make a word.  I want to work with these students on how to use multiple context clues, such as the letters in the words and the illustrations to figure out unfamiliar words.  In addition I want to work with the students on segmenting and blending sounds in words to further support their developing phonemic awareness.  This is a fundamental skill for student to be able to "read" unfamiliar words (Tompkins, p. 155). 

For my first lesson I will focus on using context clues to figure out unfamiliar words.  Different types of context clues that readers use include using grammar, illustrations, and thinking of what word would logically fit into the  the given sentence.  According to Tompkins, doing a “think-aloud” to modeling strategies on how to use context clues to figure out unknown words is very beneficial when teaching students this skills to children (Tompkins, p. 245).  For the second  lesson I will focus on building the students phonemic awareness.  Phonemic awareness focuses on two main strategies; segmenting and blending.  The students I will be working with students are able to segment words into individual sounds when decoding words but have difficulty blending sounds the sounds together.  Instead of blending the sounds together the students attempt to guess the word, often guessing words with no phonics relation.  According to Tompkins, phonemic awareness requires students to focus on the linguistic features of speech rather than the meaning of each word (Tompkins, p.147).  I am excited to implement these two lessons and teach these four students reading strategies that will help them become more independent readers. 

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