Core decisions
What
The curricular content that the students will learn will be to retell the story through the sequencing of events. They will use picture cards with the days of the week, the colored mice and what the blind mice felt-- in this exact order. Students will be able to sequence the events using pictures cards as they will place them on a pocket chart. Along with using a graphic organizer, Story Map, they will be able to identify character, setting, problem and solution.
How
As we sequence the events through using the days of the weeks as an anchor the students will accurately sequence the events recalling from memory or going back to the book for support. The picture cards will be their guide in sequencing events. The picture cards will visually help support student’s comprehension strategy of what they saw and read. Using their prior knowledge about identifying character, setting, problem and solution this provides students to demonstrate a strong understanding of reading within the text.
Why
This lesson plan was influenced by the fact that reading within the text is an important assessment of how students understand a story. Sequencing events in the correct order and synthesizing them into a story map onto a graphic organizer are two methods of reading within the text. There are different types to read a text: within, beyond and about. Reading within the text by sequencing events, asking and answering questions about key details can further student’s understanding about a text. Reading beyond a text such as using text-to-self comprehension strategies provides students to construct different meanings that affects their literary thinking. Reading about the text provides the student to critically analyze the ideas within the text. All of these provide different frameworks when it comes to processing written text.
The curricular content that the students will learn will be to retell the story through the sequencing of events. They will use picture cards with the days of the week, the colored mice and what the blind mice felt-- in this exact order. Students will be able to sequence the events using pictures cards as they will place them on a pocket chart. Along with using a graphic organizer, Story Map, they will be able to identify character, setting, problem and solution.
How
As we sequence the events through using the days of the weeks as an anchor the students will accurately sequence the events recalling from memory or going back to the book for support. The picture cards will be their guide in sequencing events. The picture cards will visually help support student’s comprehension strategy of what they saw and read. Using their prior knowledge about identifying character, setting, problem and solution this provides students to demonstrate a strong understanding of reading within the text.
Why
This lesson plan was influenced by the fact that reading within the text is an important assessment of how students understand a story. Sequencing events in the correct order and synthesizing them into a story map onto a graphic organizer are two methods of reading within the text. There are different types to read a text: within, beyond and about. Reading within the text by sequencing events, asking and answering questions about key details can further student’s understanding about a text. Reading beyond a text such as using text-to-self comprehension strategies provides students to construct different meanings that affects their literary thinking. Reading about the text provides the student to critically analyze the ideas within the text. All of these provide different frameworks when it comes to processing written text.
Observations of Student Learning
Note: I taught this lesson twice to different small groups for my grade partners to observe and separately for my Penn Mentor due to last minute circumstances.
1st lesson- The picture book that I used for this lesson was Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young. During many parts of the read-aloud portion of the lesson, the students would relate parts of the book to their everyday life using the text-to-self comprehension strategy (Wilson, 2006). One student used prior knowledge by bursting into a song that helped him remember the days of the week. Even though I found this to be slightly interrupting I allowed him to sing it to help him and possibly the other students with the days of the week. During the shared writing on the chart paper, we wrote both sentences together using given resources (i.e.: days of the week on the pocket chart, color chart). I used the student's spelling as a guide to write each sentence based on what sounds they heard in each word. When it came to the independent writing activity, the students were to write their own sentence using our shared writing sentences as a guide. Only one student out of the five of them followed my directions in writing a different sentence than the one I had written on the chart paper. The others seemed to have been confused in my instruction. I learned from their writing that I should have assessed their understanding of the activity before they began. The rest of the students simply copied down what I wrote on the chart paper in which I realized that I should have been more explicit in giving instructions.
2nd lesson- After I conducted the 1st lesson, a few days later I read Seven Blind Mice whole group while the students were having their daily snack. The first small group seemed to have enjoyed it that I wanted to share it with the rest of the class. For the 2nd small group lesson that I had to conduct for my Penn Mentor to observe, I had given them a task since they were familiar with the book when I read it to them a couple of weeks before. I gave them the task to sequence the events by remembering the order of the mice based on their color and the objects that they felt. The students understood the task and seemed to have been taking note of the sequences as we read. When it came to the independent writing activity, I assigned each student a specific sentence to which most of them adhered to. The students had a variety of tools to help them write their sentences: prior knowledge of learning how to sound out words, my example sentences from the paper chart, the picture cards on the pocket chart and the color words on the wall. Each student used at least two of these given tools to help them successfully write their sentences.
1st lesson- The picture book that I used for this lesson was Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young. During many parts of the read-aloud portion of the lesson, the students would relate parts of the book to their everyday life using the text-to-self comprehension strategy (Wilson, 2006). One student used prior knowledge by bursting into a song that helped him remember the days of the week. Even though I found this to be slightly interrupting I allowed him to sing it to help him and possibly the other students with the days of the week. During the shared writing on the chart paper, we wrote both sentences together using given resources (i.e.: days of the week on the pocket chart, color chart). I used the student's spelling as a guide to write each sentence based on what sounds they heard in each word. When it came to the independent writing activity, the students were to write their own sentence using our shared writing sentences as a guide. Only one student out of the five of them followed my directions in writing a different sentence than the one I had written on the chart paper. The others seemed to have been confused in my instruction. I learned from their writing that I should have assessed their understanding of the activity before they began. The rest of the students simply copied down what I wrote on the chart paper in which I realized that I should have been more explicit in giving instructions.
2nd lesson- After I conducted the 1st lesson, a few days later I read Seven Blind Mice whole group while the students were having their daily snack. The first small group seemed to have enjoyed it that I wanted to share it with the rest of the class. For the 2nd small group lesson that I had to conduct for my Penn Mentor to observe, I had given them a task since they were familiar with the book when I read it to them a couple of weeks before. I gave them the task to sequence the events by remembering the order of the mice based on their color and the objects that they felt. The students understood the task and seemed to have been taking note of the sequences as we read. When it came to the independent writing activity, I assigned each student a specific sentence to which most of them adhered to. The students had a variety of tools to help them write their sentences: prior knowledge of learning how to sound out words, my example sentences from the paper chart, the picture cards on the pocket chart and the color words on the wall. Each student used at least two of these given tools to help them successfully write their sentences.
STUDENT OBSERVATION NOTES FROM THE 1ST LESSON
[Picture 1] Clearly, I was not explicit enough in my instructions because Shahrin was copying the days on the pocket chart and Chikwendu seemed to have been confused as to what the directions were.
[Picture 2] Both Nat and Violet copied what I wrote on the chart paper which was not the objective of this activity. This could have been prevented had I circulated to check their understanding while they were writing or even better if I checked before they began to write.
[Picture 3] Rae was the only one who seemed to have understood my directions as she chose to write a different sentence. She used the pocket chart to write the word ‘Sunday’, the chart paper to format her sentence, the color chart to spell ‘white’ correctly, and then attempted to sound out the rest of her sentence using prior knowledge of sounding out words.
[Picture 2] Both Nat and Violet copied what I wrote on the chart paper which was not the objective of this activity. This could have been prevented had I circulated to check their understanding while they were writing or even better if I checked before they began to write.
[Picture 3] Rae was the only one who seemed to have understood my directions as she chose to write a different sentence. She used the pocket chart to write the word ‘Sunday’, the chart paper to format her sentence, the color chart to spell ‘white’ correctly, and then attempted to sound out the rest of her sentence using prior knowledge of sounding out words.
STUDENT OBSERVATION NOTES FROM THE 2ND LESSON
[Picture 4] Maia, used the chart paper to structure the format of her sentence, the pocket chart as she capitalized the word 'Wednesday' along with the color chart that was displayed on the wall. She utilized all of her surrounding resources along with her ability to sound out the word ‘spear’ as she spelled it ‘speer’.
[Picture 5] Anna used what we wrote together on the chart paper and tweaked it to her taste by adding the words ‘went’ and ‘it’. She wrote “On Friday orange mouse went it thought it was a fan.” Initially, she wrote ‘spear’ which was a part of Maia's Wednesday’s sentence but I believe this happened because she focused on adding extra words into her sentence. Maia, who wrote the sentence for Wednesday noticed this immediately as she said, “Spear is in my sentence!” which Anna realized her mistake and corrected right away.
[Picture 5] Anna used what we wrote together on the chart paper and tweaked it to her taste by adding the words ‘went’ and ‘it’. She wrote “On Friday orange mouse went it thought it was a fan.” Initially, she wrote ‘spear’ which was a part of Maia's Wednesday’s sentence but I believe this happened because she focused on adding extra words into her sentence. Maia, who wrote the sentence for Wednesday noticed this immediately as she said, “Spear is in my sentence!” which Anna realized her mistake and corrected right away.
As you can see, every student is utilizing surrounding physical resources (chart paper, color chart, pocket chart) to guide them during the independent writing activity.
Reflections on and Analysis of teaching the lesson
I was the second of my three-person Kindergarten team to teach the lesson. After watching Emily teach, I decided to take a slightly different route for my lesson the next day. Instead of concentrating on two comprehension strategies, the sequencing of events with picture cards and a written story map, I chose to focus solely on the sequencing of events. Having two comprehension strategies crammed in one lesson was, in hindsight, overambitious so I chose to emphasize on the sequencing of events with picture cards for my lesson. I also believed that the Story Mapping Activity was not developmentally appropriate for my students' grade level in which my classroom teacher and Penn mentor agreed as well. Previously my students learned how to sequence events using the story's beginning, middle, and end. The purpose for this small group lesson went on beyond the concepts of knowing the beginning, middle and end. I wanted the students to retell the story using the framework of reading within the text. As they sequenced the picture cards in the correct order they could visually retell the story more accurately using specific anchors such as the days of the week, followed by the colored mice and what each mouse thought it felt on the elephant. I realized that there was no need to put the elephant’s body part on the pocket chart because the students could visualize what body part it was just by looking at the mouse’s prediction. Using the story map to discuss characters, setting, problem and solution should be taught separately in another lesson as it concentrates on a completely different comprehension strategy.
I taught this small group lesson twice; once for my Kindergarten team and on another day for my Penn Mentor. Though they were the same exact lesson both lessons produced different data from student learning to my teaching practices. Speaking to the first lesson that my Kindergarten team observed, the group of students I had chosen were selected shortly before the lesson was conducted. I selected students that co-operated the most during read-alouds which resulted in excessive amounts of participation, competition with each other and calling-out during the lesson. I intended on doing this lesson in 30 minutes but realized that I spent a lot of time during the picture walk looking at each page which should have only been a quick skim of the book. By the end of the sequencing activity using the pocket chart, I felt rushed to move onto the next activity because of time constraints that I did not review the actual sequencing of events using the picture cards! I wish I had the students retell the story after they placed the picture cards up on the pocket chart so they could visually see the sequencing of events. The sudden rush of my very first small group lesson resulted in rushing to the next activity where I intended to conduct a shared writing activity using the picture cards but instead of using the student’s example sentences (which I had forgotten to do previously) I ended up writing the first sentence on my own. By copying the days of the week directly from the pocket chart, using different colors for the different color mice and for the objects that each mouse thought it felt, I thought the students would be able to read the sentences based on my intentional visual cues using different colored markers. This was not entirely so. When I assigned the students to their independent writing activity I had not been explicit in my instructions. I wanted the students to write different sentences using the pocket chart and the format of the sentence from the chart paper. Most of the students ended up copying what I had written on the chart paper which led me to believe that I had not met the objectives of the lesson. I realized that circulating around the circle was important from the beginning of the activity to assess if the students understood my directions.
The 1st lesson did not go the way I had planned so I was lucky enough to be given another chance to redeem myself. My classroom mentor suggested that I read the book, Seven Blind Mice, to the whole class just for pleasure while the students were having their snack. A couple of weeks later, I conducted my second small group lesson again for my Penn Mentor to observe. Reflecting back to my first small group lesson, I kept the following things in mind for this lesson: state my expectations/rules before I started, use teaching strategies such as calling on a friend if a student is struggling with an answer, wiggling of thumbs as a signal of agreement, think-pair-share, use wait time, be explicit in all of my instructions and oversee individual behavior/management. Since I had all of these in mind throughout the lesson, I felt more confident in my teaching practices. I had made describable changes from the 1st lesson that there was not a moment where I felt uncertain. I believe other than making describable changes the group of students that I had pulled out also made an impact of how the lesson went. The students are considered well behaved which made classroom management easy to handle. They were cooperative students who often raise their hand in the classroom which I believe that the students were engaged in this lesson's activities.
I taught this small group lesson twice; once for my Kindergarten team and on another day for my Penn Mentor. Though they were the same exact lesson both lessons produced different data from student learning to my teaching practices. Speaking to the first lesson that my Kindergarten team observed, the group of students I had chosen were selected shortly before the lesson was conducted. I selected students that co-operated the most during read-alouds which resulted in excessive amounts of participation, competition with each other and calling-out during the lesson. I intended on doing this lesson in 30 minutes but realized that I spent a lot of time during the picture walk looking at each page which should have only been a quick skim of the book. By the end of the sequencing activity using the pocket chart, I felt rushed to move onto the next activity because of time constraints that I did not review the actual sequencing of events using the picture cards! I wish I had the students retell the story after they placed the picture cards up on the pocket chart so they could visually see the sequencing of events. The sudden rush of my very first small group lesson resulted in rushing to the next activity where I intended to conduct a shared writing activity using the picture cards but instead of using the student’s example sentences (which I had forgotten to do previously) I ended up writing the first sentence on my own. By copying the days of the week directly from the pocket chart, using different colors for the different color mice and for the objects that each mouse thought it felt, I thought the students would be able to read the sentences based on my intentional visual cues using different colored markers. This was not entirely so. When I assigned the students to their independent writing activity I had not been explicit in my instructions. I wanted the students to write different sentences using the pocket chart and the format of the sentence from the chart paper. Most of the students ended up copying what I had written on the chart paper which led me to believe that I had not met the objectives of the lesson. I realized that circulating around the circle was important from the beginning of the activity to assess if the students understood my directions.
The 1st lesson did not go the way I had planned so I was lucky enough to be given another chance to redeem myself. My classroom mentor suggested that I read the book, Seven Blind Mice, to the whole class just for pleasure while the students were having their snack. A couple of weeks later, I conducted my second small group lesson again for my Penn Mentor to observe. Reflecting back to my first small group lesson, I kept the following things in mind for this lesson: state my expectations/rules before I started, use teaching strategies such as calling on a friend if a student is struggling with an answer, wiggling of thumbs as a signal of agreement, think-pair-share, use wait time, be explicit in all of my instructions and oversee individual behavior/management. Since I had all of these in mind throughout the lesson, I felt more confident in my teaching practices. I had made describable changes from the 1st lesson that there was not a moment where I felt uncertain. I believe other than making describable changes the group of students that I had pulled out also made an impact of how the lesson went. The students are considered well behaved which made classroom management easy to handle. They were cooperative students who often raise their hand in the classroom which I believe that the students were engaged in this lesson's activities.
Reflection and Planning
As a follow up to this lesson, I would continue to focus on the sequencing of events with two approaches. I would either do a similar activity with another book such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Brown Bear, Brown Bear or I may want to use the same book, Seven Blind Mice, and incorporate transitional words into the sequencing of events. Students can deepen their understanding by using another book to hone in on the sequencing of events strategy. This would be a great way to practice the taught strategy from the book Seven Blind Mice. I can reteach the lesson for those who did not comprehend main points from the lesson particularly speaking to the first group of students from my first lesson.
Another follow up option would be to continue using Seven Blind Mice but this time enhance their comprehension strategy of sequencing along with retelling through transitional words such as first, then, next, last. This will expand their reading comprehension, writing and speaking skills. This lesson would be a shared writing response to literature as they recap to the text using transition words. I would complete a graphic organizer with four boxes labeled First, Then, Next and Last.
Since I taught this lesson twice, I would like to reflect on how I would teach this lesson again to the first group of students. Aside from freaking out it being my first small group lesson, I had minor behavioral issues where students would interrupt by calling out, they kept crawling up closer and closer to me throughout the lesson, and I believe that because the lesson was 45 minutes long they became exhausted. If I taught this lesson again to a similar group of students with their personality I would state my rules and expectations before I began the lesson to control classroom management. Because I had not stated what my expectations were the students must have thought that the classroom rules did not apply in the Kindergarten pod area. Because I had not properly scaffolded the final activity, most of the students did not understand my directions. Had I double checked their understanding and kept them on task, I could have had the students share their sentences with the group. In the moment, I specifically remember being completely nervous that the lesson was going to become a disaster as the students kept calling out, interrupting one another and getting drinks at the water fountain without permission.
References
- Wilson, L. (2002). Reading to live: how to teach reading for today's world. Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH.
Another follow up option would be to continue using Seven Blind Mice but this time enhance their comprehension strategy of sequencing along with retelling through transitional words such as first, then, next, last. This will expand their reading comprehension, writing and speaking skills. This lesson would be a shared writing response to literature as they recap to the text using transition words. I would complete a graphic organizer with four boxes labeled First, Then, Next and Last.
Since I taught this lesson twice, I would like to reflect on how I would teach this lesson again to the first group of students. Aside from freaking out it being my first small group lesson, I had minor behavioral issues where students would interrupt by calling out, they kept crawling up closer and closer to me throughout the lesson, and I believe that because the lesson was 45 minutes long they became exhausted. If I taught this lesson again to a similar group of students with their personality I would state my rules and expectations before I began the lesson to control classroom management. Because I had not stated what my expectations were the students must have thought that the classroom rules did not apply in the Kindergarten pod area. Because I had not properly scaffolded the final activity, most of the students did not understand my directions. Had I double checked their understanding and kept them on task, I could have had the students share their sentences with the group. In the moment, I specifically remember being completely nervous that the lesson was going to become a disaster as the students kept calling out, interrupting one another and getting drinks at the water fountain without permission.
References
- Wilson, L. (2002). Reading to live: how to teach reading for today's world. Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH.