Engaging Kindergarten Lesson: Exploring Story Elements

Abstract

Date of lesson planning: March 30, 2016 Classroom grade: Kindergarten Date of lesson implementation: April 12, 2016 Content areas: Language Arts, Science, Art Context of The Lesson (1) Briefly explain how is this lesson related to the classroom’s ongoing curriculum and where does this lesson fit in a sequence of lessons? (2) Provide a brief description of your knowledge about the personal/cultural/community assets of this group of children and their prerequisite skills related to language and literacy development. This is the first of three lessons teaching the elements of a story. We will begin by identifying characters and setting in The Owl and the Woodpecker and record our findings on a story map. This mini unit is nested inside that of a large curriculum unit on winter birds. The students bring prior knowledge of the following winter birds: owls, woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, and crows. This 3-part mini unit will culminate a larger unit about winter birds. The students in my class bring prior knowledge of concepts of print to this lesson. They are able to orient a book, identify the front and back covers, locate a title, and discuss the purpose of print. Central Focus of The Lesson List 2-3 professional learning standards (see websites below) that your lesson will meet: CC.K.R.L.1 Key Ideas and Details: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text. CC.K.R.L.3 Key Ideas and Details: With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story. Please articulate: (1) what SPECIFIC, measurable core concepts, skills, and vocabularies from the learning standards that children will learn from this lesson? What do you want to accomplish in this lesson? (2) What content area does this lesson fit into? Lesson Objectives: Students will be able to define title and identify it on a book. Students will be able to define character(s) and identify them in a story. Students will be able to define setting(s) and identify them in a story. Vocabulary: Title, Character, Setting This lesson will meet the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts. Pre-Assessment of Core Concepts/Skills (1) Assess what children already know about the specific core concepts, skills, and vocabularies that you aim to teach in this lesson BEFORE its implementation. Revise the central focus of the lesson if it is too hard or too easy for children based on the assessment. (2) The assessment can be formal or informal, and in the format of rubric, rating scale, checklist, frequency count, anecdotal recording, and etc; Check off to confirm: ___X____The pre-assessment has been done before the lesson implementation. I will use a checklist to determine if each student can correctly define title, character, and setting in the story The Red Car (Bob’s Book). Planning for Instruction Describe the ways in which the lesson addresses the active and multimodal nature of children’s learning and language/literacy development. During the lesson students will express their intelligence across multiple developmental domains. They will use their cognitive skills to make connections between written word and pictures. They will use their linguistic skills to answer thought-provoking questions. The students will also require use of their fine-motor skills to draw a picture. Describe the developmentally appropriate materials supporting the central focus/learning goals of this lesson. Materials Wildsmith, B. (2007). The Owl and the Woodpecker. [City, State]: Star Bright Books. Story map flipchart (Chart listing Title, Characters, Setting, and Main Events) Post-it notes (Students will draw the characters and setting and place them on story map) Pens Maslen, B.L. (1996). The Red Car. [City, State]: Scholastic Inc. (used for pre- and post-assessment) (1) Describe at the beginning of the lesson, how would you introduce its central focus to children and engage their interests? (2) Describe at the end of the lesson, how would you summarize and loop back to ensure that children understand its central focus and extend their language and literacy development? In order to fully engage the students I will begin discussing owls and woodpeckers. I will ask them to participate in a turn-and-talk and recall some facts about owls and woodpeckers. After the turn-and-talk the pairs will share their findings with the class. During the lesson we will read The Owl and the Woodpecker. Before reading I will ask them to pay careful attention to who the story is about and where it is taking place. After reading the story students will learn about the identifying qualities and of character and setting in a story. We will begin to fill out our story map. Students will use post-it notes to fill in the answers on the chart. At the end of the lesson students will recap what they learned about character and setting. I will ask if they can recall characters from their favorite stories and share their memories with the class. (1) What kind of active and multimodal activities would be available for the variety of learners in your classroom (2) How would you modify materials, activities, and procedures to accommodate a variety of learners? This lesson was designed to accommodate an English Language Learner whose first language is Korean and multiple visual learners. I will provide many pictures to serve as a supplementary definition to the new vocabulary I am using. This technique will support ELLs and visual learners alike. In addition, I will use the cooperative model of teaching to engage interpersonal learners. Post-Assessment of Core Concepts/Skills [Address the following 4 components if the lesson was implemented; Address the 5th component ONLY if the lesson was NOT implemented] (1) Please repeat the SAME assessment that you used during pre-assessment to evaluate children again. (2) Compare children’s knowledge/skills at pre- vs. post-assessments, and use graphic presentations, narrative summary, and/or descriptive statistics (e.g., score differences) to analyze learning growth. This is a way of demonstrating the effectiveness of your teaching. The teaching goals were met for this lesson. Students were able to identify the characters and setting in The Owl and the Woodpecker and add it to the Story Map. In addition, students were able to successfully identify the characters in the story The Red Car during their individual evaluations. Please specify how you provided feedback to children based on the assessment, including praise to young children for their comprehension or accomplishment. I showered the children with praise and accomplishments for their effort. I said things like, “I can tell you learned a lot about stories today,” or, “You did a fantastic job answering my questions.” Please specify how children used or reacted to your feedback for further development in language understanding, use, or other skill mastery. The children had big smiles on their faces when receiving praise. I could tell they were proud of what they had learned. Final Reflection (1) How did the assessment inform you about future activities? (2) What kind of home-school connections would be made to reinforce learning outcomes? The assessment informed me that the children are able to apply their understanding of character and setting to other stories. At home, parents/guardians and children can discuss these elements of stories as they read together. They could also apply this to television shows, movie, or plays they see together. Learning Experience 2 Title: Story Elements: Beginning, Middle, End Date of lesson planning: March 31, 2016 Classroom grade: Kindergarten Date of lesson implementation: April 14, 2016 Content Areas: Language Arts, Science, Math Context of The Lesson (1) Briefly explain how is this lesson related to the classroom’s ongoing curriculum and where does this lesson fit in a sequence of lessons? (2) Provide a brief description of your knowledge about the personal/cultural/community assets of this group of children and their prerequisite skills related to language and literacy development. This is the second of three lessons teaching the elements of a story. In this lesson we will identify the main events in The Owl and the Woodpecker and record our findings on a story map. The students bring prerequisite knowledge of the following winter birds: owls, woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, and crows. This 3-part mini unit will culminate a larger unit about winter birds. The students in my class bring prerequisite knowledge of concepts of print to this lesson. They are able to orient a book, identify the front and back covers, locate a title, and discuss the purpose of print. This lesson will expand their current knowledge of books by discussing the main elements required to write a story. Central Focus of The Lesson List 2-3 professional learning standards (see websites below) that your lesson will meet: CC.K.R.L.2 Key Ideas and Details: With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details. CC.K.R.L.3 Key Ideas and Details: With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story. Please articulate: (1) what SPECIFIC, measurable core concepts, skills, and vocabularies from the learning standards that children will learn from this lesson? What do you want to accomplish in this lesson? (2) What content area does this lesson fit into? Lesson Objectives: Students will be able to identify and retell the beginning, middle, and end of a story. Vocabulary: Beginning, Middle, End This lesson will meet the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts. Pre-Assessment of Core Concepts/Skills (1) Assess what children already know about the specific core concepts, skills, and vocabularies that you aim to teach in this lesson BEFORE its implementation. Revise the central focus of the lesson if it is too hard or too easy for children based on the assessment. (2) The assessment can be formal or informal, and in the format of rubric, rating scale, checklist, frequency count, anecdotal recording, and etc; Check off to confirm: ____X___The pre-assessment has been done before the lesson implementation. I will use a checklist to determine if the students can identify the beginning, middle, and end in the story The Red Car. Planning for Instruction Describe the ways in which the lesson addresses the active and multimodal nature of children’s learning and language/literacy development. During the lesson students will receive an opportunity to problem solve with their peers by using manipulatives. Students will be placed in groups of three. I will give each group a series of pictures from The Owl and the Woodpecker. The students will need to work together to place the pictures in the correct order of which they occurred in The Owl and the Woodpecker. At the end of the activity, each group will share their reasoning as to why they put the pictures in that order. This activity requires students to problem solve, use social skills, reflect upon the story, and explain reasoning. It is also an experiential activity that benefits kinesthetic, tactile, and visual learners while addressing their active and multimodal needs. Describe the developmentally appropriate materials supporting the central focus/learning goals of this lesson. Materials Wildsmith, B. (2007). The Owl and the Woodpecker. [City, State]: Star Bright Books. Story map flipchart (Chart listing Title, Characters, Setting, and Main Events) Post-it notes (Students will draw the main events and place them on story map) Pens 5 pictures from the story for the group sequencing activity Sequencing chart numbered 1-5 Maslen, B.L. (1996). The Red Car. [City, State]: Scholastic Inc. (used for pre- and post-assessment) (1) Describe at the beginning of the lesson, how would you introduce its central focus to children and engage their interests? (2) Describe at the end of the lesson, how would you summarize and loop back to ensure that children understand its central focus and extend their language and literacy development? At the beginning of the lesson I will refer to our story map and review the elements we’ve learned so far (title, character and setting). I will point out that today we will focus on the Events portion of our map. I will ask the students to get in small groups of 3 and place pictures in order from The Owl and the Woodpecker. This activity will help the students recall main events from our story. During the lesson we will do a book walk through The Owl and the Woodpecker. We will narrate the story using words such...