Mini Lesson 1&2 + reflections

Reading Lesson Plan #1

Your Name: Carrie Eby                    Grade Level: Kindergarten  

Date lesson was taught:  4/20/12      Number of Students: 2

1) Rationale (What evidence do you have that your focus students need to learn this skill/strategy?):

These students have been struggling with adding the initial sound of a word to a common ending. (h-am, j-am, etc) In the lessons that I have seen my MT do for this, she often using the same 5 or so letters so it is more than likely that the students will have these few memorized so I am going to try and use different/more letters to get them thinking about the multitudes of words that can be made with one ending.  I am hoping that making the task fun with a game, it will help the students realize that building different rhyming words is easy and helpful.

2) List which reading skill/strategy is the main focus of your lesson (select ONE area):

Building words with common endings (rhyming words)

3) Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria):

Students will be able to build words that rhyme and be able to say the words with 100% accuracy.

4) Materials & supplies needed:

-Easter eggs with word ending on one side and beginning letters on the other.

-(For teacher) Master list of all the possible words that can be built on each egg.

5) OUTLINE OF LESSON PLAN (Provide a bulleted list of ideas):

• Introduction to the lesson (2 minutes) 

“Hi Janya and Melody, thank you for coming to work with me today. We are going to be working on building some words that rhyme, just like when Mrs. C has you do it in class. This time we are going to use some fun tools to help us make our words. When I give you the materials I want to you to take a minute to look at them and become familiar with them. Then I want you to look at the word that the two halves make and then say it slowly. Then once you figure out what the word it, I would like you to say it fast. A lot of the words may look familiar to you, but that is ok, knowing how to recognize and make these words will help us become a better reader and writer!  Let’s get started!”

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

-Hand out one egg to each student. I will randomly give one to them at first.

-I will take a minute to explain that they can turn the half of the egg with the single letters to create a word. I will then let them play with the eggs for about a minute just so they get comfortable manipulating them.

-I will then start with one student and have her read me the first word that she made with the egg.

-Then I will have the second student do the same.

-I will have each student listen to the other student and read the word that was made afterwards. This way they both get practice with all of the words. (/j/ /a/ /m/ - jam, etc)

-We will go through all of the eggs this way.

-I will explain to the students that when they are reading or writing and don’t know how to say or spell a word they can use this strategy to simply add a letter to the common ending as long as they know how to sound out the end of the word, they can make so many words off of this.

• Closing summary for the lesson  (3 minutes)

“Great job you two! You guys have just created so many new words simply by knowing the ending and then sounding the whole words out! I really like how you took your time and sounded out the words before blurting them out. This is what is going to help you become a better reader and writer. What did you think of this task? Was it fun? Did it help you think about how to make words easier? Remember this is just like how Mrs. C uses the letter cards to make words in class. Do you guys have any questions about what we did today?”

6) Ongoing-Assessment:

I will inform my MT about how each of the students did with building words and for the rest of the time that I am in the class, I will observe how the students do during literacy time and if they need a reminder about how they are just adding a letter onto the end sound, I will give them a verbal reminder.

7) Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson?

I think I may need to help one of the students sound the words out because she has trouble with producing letter sounds on occasion. She can recognize the letters and know what sound they make, but she has speech problems so I think if I model what the letters are supposed to sound like, then this will help.

Reflection: This lesson proved to be very difficult for one of the students that I chose to teach to. She could sound out both parts of the words but then had an extremely hard time putting them together. At this point she would just guess a random word with the same beginning sound as the word she was trying to put together. The other student struggled at the beginning, but then when I let her have a few minutes to herself to work on it, it clicked and she successfully was able to read all of the words on the egg. They did have fun twisting the eggs to make new words, so it was good to see that I was moving in the right direction in terms of making words fun! I noticed at some points when the one student was getting frustrated that I would get frustrated too. I was able to solve this by taking a step back and slowly explaining to her again what we were trying to accomplish. The limitations of this lesson were that I could only give so much instruction with the materials that I had. I think that if I did this lesson again, I would have papers with words on them as well as the eggs in case they don’t work for a particular student. 

Reading Lesson Plan #2

Your Name: Carrie Eby                    Grade Level: Kindergarten  

Date lesson was taught:  4/20/12      Number of Students: 2

1) Rationale (What evidence do you have that your focus students need to learn this skill/strategy?):

2) List which reading skill/strategy is the main focus of your lesson (select ONE area): coming up with a rhyming word based on a picture of a person or object.

3) Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria): Students will be able to identify what a picture is and then come up with a rhyming word with 100% accuracy.

4) Materials & supplies needed:

-3 rhyming spinners

5) OUTLINE OF LESSON PLAN (Provide a bulleted list of ideas):

• Introduction to the lesson (2 minutes) 

“Hello Donavin and Kimmy, thank you for coming to work with me today. We are going to be working on thinking about words that rhyme. Do you remember how Mrs. C has you do this in class? Well it’s going to be just like that, but it’s more of a game! When I give you the spinner, I want you to take a minute to look at the pictures and see if you know what all of them are. I am going to have Donavin start by spinning and giving me a word and then Kimmy, you will do the same. Being able to do this will help you to become a better reader and writer. Let’s get started!”

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

-Put the spinner in between the two students so that each of them can reach it.

-Explain that they will spin the paper clip and then whatever word or lands on, they must come up with a word that rhymes with that.

-Have each student in turn spin the spinner and come up with a rhyming word. Once they have completed the words on one spinner, I will give them the next one with slightly harder words.

-After students have given me a couple of rhyming words, I will ask them what they change with the new word when they make it.

-If they are having a hard time thinking of it, I will ask if it is the beginning, middle or end sound that gets changed. Then if they are still struggling, I will say “when you said that HOUSE and MOUSE rhyme, what changed? The beginning, middle or end sound?”

-After this, I will have them keep making words to see if they improve after making this realization that it is just the beginning sound of the word that gets changed.

• Closing summary for the lesson  (3 minutes)

“Great job you two! You guys just created so many rhyming words by knowing the word and then realizing that all you have to change is the beginning sound! I really like how you took your time and thought about the words before telling me what they are. This is what is going to help you become a better reader and writer. What did you think of this task? Was it fun? Did it help you think how and why words rhyme? Remember this is just like when Mrs. C asks you to make rhyming words in class. Do you guys have any questions about what we did today?”

6) Ongoing-Assessment:

I will inform my MT about how each of the students did. I will assess the students’ progress through simple observation during the next few times they do this type of activity in class. If they struggle, I will either give them a verbal reminder myself or inform my MT that they are still having trouble.

7) Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson?

Some of the pictures on the spinners are not necessarily clear as to what it is. So as a support, I may have to tell them what it is. I also may have to ask multiple times what is changed when creating a rhyming word. I may also need to give multiple examples to make sure they get it.

Reflection: The students really had fun with the spinner activity. I noticed and I really liked that they students would identify the picture and then think about what word to say before saying it. Sometimes they had a hard time, but through a little bit of questioning they were able to figure it out. I think this is a very strong task because it is fun and interactive and progressively builds to a higher level of words used. I found that I enjoyed this lesson more than the other one because it was easier for these students to understand and complete.