Julia Parzyck Mini Lesson #2

TE 402 READING LESSON PLAN

Reading Lesson Plan #2

Your Name: Julia Parzyck Grade Level: Kindergarten

Date lesson was taught: April 10, 2012 Number of Students: 1

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

• Comprehension strategies help children understand, remember and communicate what they read. These strategies also help children link what they read to their prior knowledge. It is important for students to comprehend what they read because comprehension is essential in understanding and remembering the text. For students to become independent readers and thinkers they need a lot of practice reading and using comprehension strategies to strengthen their comprehension. Students need to learn how to predict what is coming next in the text, they need to learn how to question the text and question themselves during reading, and they also need to access their prior knowledge all while simultaneously reading. Children need to know the steps good readers use to make sure they understand text. Students who practice this and become strong readers will be in control of their own reading comprehension become more purposeful, active readers. For this lesson the student will focus on the concept that many times stories have a sequence of what happens first, next, and last. Students should understand that stories and plays have a sequence or order that illustrates what happens first, what happens next, and what happens last. Being able to arrange events and ideas in sequential order closely relates to the ability to comprehend a story. The awareness that events occurring in sequential order can be related to each other helps to bring meaning to a story.

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

• The focus of this lesson is comprehension (order of story)

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

• After listening to the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the student will sequence seven events from the story by matching the correct food eaten with the day of the week written on the board and understand that a story has a beginning, middle, and an end.

4) Materials & supplies needed:

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• Days of the week cards
• Calendar
• Pictures of food the caterpillar ate
• Whiteboard

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

• Introduction to the lesson (List what you will say to help children understand the purpose of the lesson? How will you help them make connections to prior lessons or experiences? How will you motivate them to become engaged in the lesson?) (5 minutes)

· “Today Student D we are going to learn about beginning, middle, and last, and also learn about the days of the week!”

· “When we read stories, there is always a beginning, a middle, and an end and it is important to understand that stories a lot of the time go in order from beginning, to middle, to end”

· “We also will be learning about the days of the week because the story we read goes through one week and we need to know the days of the week because that is an important skill to have, especially going into first grade!”

· I will make connections from this lesson to others by telling Student D that we go over the days of the week every day in class and that we also talk about how stories flow when we read them

· I will make a connection by telling Student D that when we talked about writing in our journals it should have a beginning, a middle, and an end and that it is the same when we read and we need to notice those things while we are reading to fully understand the story

· I will motivate Student D by using a fun, exciting voice and informing him that learning the days of the week and reading this story will be a fun activity that he and I can do together!

• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson (Include specific details about how you will begin and end activities; list how you will teach students what the strategy is, how to use the strategy, and when to use it; what questions you will use; how you will help children understand behavior expectations during the lesson; when/how you will distribute supplies and materials) (12 minutes)

· I will begin the lesson by showing a calendar to Student D

· I will ask Student D what the days of the week are (Monday through Sunday) and what the day of the week today is

· I will then make sure Student D correctly understands the days of the week and go through them by pointing to each day and saying the name

· I will then tell Student D that we will learn more about the days of the week by listening to the story about a very hungry caterpillar and his order of events during the week

· As I read the story I will ask Student D what might happen as each day comes up and what predictions he might have for the story

· During the reading I will also have pictures of the food the caterpillar eats and hold it up every time the caterpillar eats something

· When I am finished with the book I will ask questions pertaining to the order of events in the book;

o What happened at the beginning of the story, the middle, the end?

o What was the reason the caterpillar got so fat?

· When we are finished talking about the book I will have Student D match the picture of the food with the day of the week he ate it

· This will show me that Student D was listening to the story and understands the concept of beginning, middle and last

· I will inform Student D that remembering the sequence of events in a story is very important and it helps us understand the story better

· The materials will be distributed after I read the story and give instructions on how to the activity

• Closing summary for the lesson (List how you will bring closure to the lesson and involve children in reflecting on their experiences. How will you involve them making connections to prior lessons or prepare for future experiences? What kind of feedback do you want from them at this time?) (7 minutes)

· I will bring closure to the lesson when Student D has finished sequencing the cards

· I will inform Student D that I want him to retell me the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar the best he can using the cards

· I will then have Student D retell me the story the best he can

· After Student D retells me the story I will emphasize that because he told the story himself he will remember the story a lot better now and that he did a very good job remembering that the story had a beginning, middle and end

· I will also tell him that knowing the days of the week is so important because we work on them every day in the classroom so working on them today will really help him out

· I will also tell Student D that now when he writes in his journal he will need to think more about including a beginning, a middle, and end, like in the story we just read

6) Ongoing-Assessment: (How will you know the students are progressing toward your identified objective? What will you observe for and/or take notes on to help you plan follow-up instruction?)

• I will know my student is progressing towards the objective if he understands the days of the week better and that a story contains a beginning, a middle, and end
• I will observe how my student orders the sequence of events from the story and the type of questions he may have during the lesson. This will help me plan for follow up instruction because I can see if my wording or organization is too confusing or complex for my students and can then cater my lesson for a better fit

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

• This student has a very hard time concentrating during lessons and I will make sure I keep him focused by using very animated, exciting speech to keep him excited and also provide a chance for him to move around a little bit during the sequencing part of the lesson to get his body moving
• This student is very high achieving and I will make sure to challenge him by digging deeper with my questioning if the lesson seems to easy for him

Reflection:

• What did you notice about your students’ participation and learning in relation to your objectives?
• I noticed that my student was very attentive during the lesson because I told him that he would need to be concentrating on the foods the caterpillar ate for the day. He was also a lot quieter and did not move as much during the lesson as he does during regular class periods. I was not sure if it was because it was a different setting or that it was just him and I but he seemed to really be listening throughout the whole lesson. He did a very good job during the activity as well. He was able to match most of the foods correctly to the days of the week and had no trouble understanding the directions of the activity. It did get confusing when day 6 came around and the caterpillar ate all different kinds of food and he had to ask for assistance but other than that he did it all on his own.
• What were the strengths and limitations of your lesson for supporting your students’ learning?
• The strengths of this lesson was that it was challenging for my student but he was also still capable of finishing it and understanding the concepts of my objective. He was able to understand that a story has a beginning, middle, and an end and he really understood that he needed to pay attention to certain parts of the story and that’s what I was really trying to emphasize. The limitations to this lesson would be that it could be very challenging for other students that are not as high achieving as Student D. I know in my other mini lesson I said I should not underestimate my students but I my MT thought that Student D being the highest achieving could do the best at it and he still had some complications. I think I could change the lesson to be simpler and maybe take remembering the exact days of the week the caterpillar ate what to just remembering the things he ate and the sequence of the story and how he goes from small to big to a butterfly.
• What did you notice about yourself as a teacher?
• In this lesson I noticed that I have a lot of patience and I pride myself on that because I am usually a very impatient person. It was taking Student D a long time to work through some of the days of the week and while he was trying to figure out what food he ate when I was being very patient and waiting for him to ask me questions. I believe it is so important, especially in younger grades that a teacher has patience because sometimes it takes students a long time to get a grasp on an idea or finish something and it is important that as a teacher you let them finish it instead of finishing it for them or providing an answer.
• What questions do you have?
• The main question I still have is what are some other techniques when teaching comprehension? I had a difficult time coming up with a lesson on comprehension because it seems like a difficult area to teach, do you explicitly teach the strategies or do you somehow weave them into the lessons?