Mini Lesson #1

Mini Lesson #1

Your Name: Alyssa Kay

Grade Level: First Grade

Date Lesson was taught: April 12^th

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

 Comprehension is essential to reading. A student learns to enjoy and build connections to text once they obtain the skills of comprehension. Building this skill in early stages of reading is extremely important. Comprehension is the student’s ability to use the components of fluency to understand and process the meaning of a text. When a student understands the text they can further answer questions of the text, connect it to their personal experiences, and understand the books purpose as a whole. When thinking about comprehension specifically with reading, it shows a students ability to accurately understand written material and be able to interpret what they read by decoding, making connections, and thinking deeply about the text. A student who does not understand a text will quickly loose interest or feel defeated. Therefore, for this lesson the student will focus on sequencing and summarizing. Sequencing will help the student put the story in order from what happen first, next, and last (beginning, middle, and end). From practicing sequencing they will be able to summarize the text giving the main point that’s that occurred. A summary does not need to be long and ever bit of detail, it is intended to be short and sweet!

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

• The focus of this lesson is comprehension (sequencing)

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

• After listening to the story, The Mixed-Up Chameleon, the student will sequence the eleven story events by first matching a sentence strip with a picture and then put them in order, understanding that a story has a beginning, middle, and end.  

4) Materials & supplies needed:

• The Mixed up Chameleon by Eric Carle
• Sentence Strips
• Pictures of Chameleon with additional animal parts

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 A we are going to learn about beginning, middle, and last using a very fun and colorful story!”

 “In every book you read there are always parts that are thought of as the beginning, middle, and an ending. These terms are important because they show what in what order the story is told. There are some stories that can be told in a mixed up order but most of the time you will read a story that first starts with a beginning event that leads into middle events, and then finishes with the last event or ending.”

 “While we are reading the book, we also can see what colors a Chameleon can change into! Have you ever seen a Chameleon before?”

 I will make connections from this lesson to others by telling Student A that everyday my Mentor teacher shows the students how one event leads to another or at times a problem and then leads to another event that solves or ends the situation. This also connect with are daily life when we face a problem, need to make a decision, or just a simple part of our day. All of these situations create a story that have a beginning, middle, and end. I will also mention that in the story the Chameleon takes a trip to the Zoo-this will create a personal connection to the students experience and interest in animals.

 I will make a connection to the classroom writing board to Student A, reinstating that everyday my Mentor teacher points to the writing board and shows that their story has a beginning, middle, and end. She sings a song that goes with writing activity to the students remember how their writing will flow together. This will help them relate with the story.

 I will motivate Student A with a warm but exciting voice that sparks an interest with what I say about the book. I will ask what their favorite animal is and we are going to take a journey through the book and maybe that animal will be in there-Lets find out!

 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 Student A the front cover of the book and discussing the different colors the Chameleon has. 

 I will ask Student A will ask Student A what animals they think certain colors my represent. We will discuss the vocabulary word camouflage and how it relates to the title The Mixed-Up Chameleon.”

 I will then make sure Student A correctly understands what camouflage is by asking them to repeat the definition I gave and tell me a spot in the room they could blend into and what color they would change.

 I will then tell Student A that we will learn more about what a Chameleon can change into and why that is special to him during the story.

·       I will give a brief overview of the activity we are going to complete after. I will show the child the sentence strips and picture cards. I will explain that it is important to listen closely to the story to work through this activity. (This will help the student see why we are reading the story, during this time I will briefly explain what the vocabulary term sequencing means and how that relates to the beginning, middle, and end of a story).

 As I read the story I will ask Student A open-ended and reflecting questions about the text to stimulate their organizing of sequencing. (ex: “So what animal did the Chameleon change into before this? How many animal body parts did he add, which ones?”).  

 During the reading I will also have the picture cards out that will relate to the questions I am asking. The student will see how each time the Chameleon wants to be another animal, body parts will continue to be added. (This will make the sequencing activity an extension of sequencing and repeated experience).

 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? (Simplification if need: What happened at the beginning of the story before the Chameleon saw the Zoo?)

o        What happened in the middle, end?

o Why did the Chameleon want to change into all these animals? How did that make him feel?

o        Was he feeling the same or different in the end of the story than he was in the beginning?

 When we are finished talking about the book, I will give them directions for the sequencing activity. Again, I will explain what sequencing is and how it reflects the beginning, middle, and end events in the story. Once the directions are explained I will have Student A match the picture cards with their corresponding sentence strip. Then Student A will put them in order basically retelling the story.

 This will show me that Student A was listening to the story and understands sequencing based on the concept of beginning, middle and last.

 I will explain to Student A that remembering the sequence of events in a story is extremely important because it helps us understand the story better.

 The materials will be distributed after I read the story and give concrete 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 A has finished sequencing all the sentence cards with their matching picture card.

 I will have Student A read through the sequence cards or retell to their best ability the order of what happened in the story. What came first, in the middle, and then last. We will reflect on how these shapes what event comes next in the story and how when you put them all together it creates meaning and understanding to the text.

 Once Student A has finished retelling the story based on the sequence cards. We will take a story walk through the book to show how the order they presented is represented in the story. I will create a meaningful discussion about how this will help them understand the story better and find that enjoyment with reading. This will extend into how the Chameleon was feeling in the text and show how by understanding the sequence of the book can create a personal connection to the text. (“Have you ever wanted to change something about yourself?” Message: It takes a lot of practice but at the end of the day we should always be proud of ourselves. We go through a beginning stage of what we can do or want to accomplish, the middle is our performance obtaining the goal we want, and the end is our final try at it and what we learned about ourselves. What did the Chameleon learn about himself in the end?”)

  I will also tell Student A that now when he writes a story for a class purpose he can think about these events from the story and sequence a situation based on the beginning, middle, and end. (“Ms. W will be very impressed when you show her you understand her writing sequence poster board!”)

 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 desired objective if he understands that a story flows with a sequence or a beginning, a middle, and end
• I will observe how the student decides to sequence the events from the story and the types of questions and retelling they verbally state. This will help me plan for follow up instruction because I will be able to see if this was too much “sequencing” or explanation for a student in this grade level. I will be able to see if I gave appropriate concrete directions that helped the student

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 shows a lack of confidence when it comes to discussing information and/or reading. He becomes very quite and uses many phrases such as, “I can’t do it.” Or “I don’t know.” I will use praise language to keep the child on their toes and feel confident in the information.
• This student is seen on the average level reading scale with his classmates, therefore I will give him basic questions but also challenges that require him to think about the material.

Reflection:

• What did you notice about your students’ participation and learning in relation to your objectives?

I noticed that in the beginning Student A was very antsy and wanted to take this experience more as a time to get out of class. However, once we began reading and I gave simple explanations, he seemed to become more focused. One of my personal goals for him was to gain that focus and chose to be apart of the activity. I was able to see that since the student was working individually they appeared more confident and willing to participate in the material. Student A should he understood the idea process of having a beginning, middle, and ending of a story- and describe the use of going through a sequence. Even when I connected this mini lesson to personal experiences, his response seemed to relate to what he knew about having a beginning, middle, and ending of a story.  Believe the objectives and goals I set for the student were accomplished based on participation, behavior, and assessment of the activity.

• What were the strengths and limitations of your lesson for supporting your students’ learning?

I think the strengths were how I approached the lesson. I wanted to make the lesson have a clear focus but be approach in a fun but also challenging matter. The story I selected was a fun and unique story! I think this kept the students attention and interest in the books and I emphasized specific parts and words. The student I was working with needed a lesson that was approached in this way. Student A gets very down on himself during lessons and questions-therefore, I wanted to make sure he was feeling involved in the lesson. This is where I think open-ended questions play a huge role! In terms of limitations I wonder if there were too many sequences to use. Student A was able to work through some but did need assistance in solving the sequence. I did not want this to hold the student back and make him think he didn’t know the answer.

• What did you notice about yourself as a teacher?

As a teacher I noticed that I truly wanted to make this a “teachable” lesson. I want to make sure I was finding all of the teachable moments and highlight them to the student. I think it is always important to continue emphasizing the little things about a lesson because those are where the teachable moments exist. I noticed myself using strategies my MT used and also found myself being very animated throughout the story. I saw the student become very interest when my voice was loud or high pitched to create a sense of excitement in the story. I felt confident teaching this mini lesson and was able to see the true significance “the sequence” of a story plays in a child’s overall comprehension of the text.

• What questions do you have?

The one question I feel I have is about “how many”. I was unsure if my lesson had too many sequences to assess comprehension. I know this varies amongst learners but where does a good thought process start?