Small Group Mini Lesson

Mini-Lesson Grade: 5th Rationale (Why are you teaching this lesson?): The work of literacy I am using in this lesson is a historical fiction play about the Titanic. The students are extremely interested in the Titanic, and have been learning about it all year. The students have had little exposure to historical fiction in regards to the Titanic, and seeing facts mixed in with a fictional story, based on a true event. This lesson is important because the students will be coming across facts as well as opinions in the play, and will need to distinguish fact from opinion. Objective for this lesson: Students will be able to… (Remember it must be student centered and observable!!!!!!!) Students will be able to distinguish fact from opinion while reading works of historical fiction. Materials & supplies needed: 4 Scholastic Storyworks Magazines, chart paper

Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event  • Introduction to the lesson  (What will you 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?) (___ minutes)  “I know that you have been learning about the Titanic this year, and ways that you’ve been learning about it is through books, and posters and such, but today we’re going to be reading a historical fiction play about the Titanic. From knowing what ‘fiction’ means, raise your hand to tell me what you think ‘historical fiction’ might mean.” (Students will respond) “Historical fiction is a genre that is fiction; not real, but have elements in the story that are based on a true event. So, we all know that the Titanic is a true event, but the characters and the story isn’t true in this play. In this play, the characters will be saying facts as well as opinions. Raise your hand to tell me what an ‘opinion’ is. An opinion is a judgment about something, that’s not based on facts. It is what someone thinks, and everyone’s’ opinions may differ. While we read through the play, I want you to pay very close attention to the characters telling us facts and opinions. If you come across a statement that you feel is a fact I want you to put one thumb up. If you come across a statement that you feel is an opinion, I want you to put both thumbs up. We will create a chart of these facts and opinions as we go.” • OUTLINE of key events during the lesson (Include specific details about how you will begin and end activities; what questions you will use; how you will help children understand behavior expectations during the lesson; when/how you will distribute supplies and materials) (___ minutes) After introducing historical fiction, fact verses opinion, and what I want the students do to when they come across a fact and opinion, I will assign characters to each of the students. Since I am working with a small group of students, there will be more than one role for each student. I will pick these roles randomly. We will all be sitting at the same table together, so I expect there to be minimal behavioral issues. By holding the students accountable for finding facts and opinions, and showing me they know the difference by putting their thumbs up, I hope this will help the students stay focused and on track.  Next, we will read the play. As we read, we will stop when we reach a fact or opinion to write it on chart paper. This might ruin the flow of the story, however, the goal of the lesson is to be able to distinguish fact from opinion, not necessarily comprehension. We can also read the play over again without disruptions if needed. Once we’ve read the entire play and filled out our fact vs. opinion chart, we will review what we’ve done to make sure it all makes sense. The chart should look something like this: Facts Opinions “It was April 14, 1912, and the Titanic had been at sea for four days.” “The Titanic was the most elegant ship ever built.” “Tragically, of approximately 2,200 people on board, only about 700 survived.” “The food and service on the Titanic was better than on other ships.” • Closing summary for the lesson (How will you 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?) (___ minutes) We will discuss how the students knew that the facts are facts, and that the opinions are opinions. For example, the first opinion states,  “the Titanic was the most elegant ship ever built.” To make sure the students understand why this is an opinion I will say, “How do we know this isn’t a fact? Can we make it into a fact?” Students respond, and we could make this into a fact by stating, “The Titanic was the biggest moving object ever built.” (This is a fact listed in a caption in the play itself) I will help students make connections by having them share facts that they’ve learned either in this play, or previously. I will have the students share an opinion they have about the Titanic as well. I will do this using the think pair share method, so that students have proper think time allotted, are able to feel confident about sharing with one other classmate, and then having the opportunity to share out with the whole group as well. I To have the students prepare for future experiences, I will explain to the students that while reading historical fiction, there will be a mix of both facts and opinions and that it is important for them to know the difference, so they can become knowledgeable about the information they are reading. The feedback I expect from the students at this time is to understand what makes an opinion different from a fact and words such as “better” and “the most” can be clues into an opinion, and not necessarily a fact. I want students to be able to clearly state both a fact and opinion about the Titanic, so I can tell that they’ve learned the difference between the two.

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 that the students are progressing toward the objective by giving the students statements one by one and having them tell me if the sentence is fact or an opinion. I will then ask why and have the student explain to me why the statement is a fact or opinion, so I will be able to tell If they understand the difference. I am able to do this since there it is a small group. If a student seems to hesitate before answering and may not be sure about the answer, I will make a note of that for follow-up instruction. For a whole class assessment, I would create a historical fiction paragraph and have the students put a circle around the facts, and underline the opinions. Then, I would have students write their own historical fiction essay based on something they are learning about in Social Studies or Science. For example, if the students were learning about Space, I would have them write a story about Space using a certain amount of facts (from their textbook) and opinions.           I chose to work with four focus students for my small group lesson. I decided to choose brand new students that I have not focused on for any specific task at all this year. This semester, I have made it a point to get to know a different student each time I visit the class. I take note on how they work, participate, and interact during recess. Student A is a boy who joined the class after Christmas. He seems to have fit in just fine, but still doesn’t participate often during whole class discussions. However, while reading his journals, he seems to make good connections to previous experiences. I would say that Student A’s strengths are being able to make connections to his own life, and what he learned at his old school. Student A’s challenges would be sharing with the class and expanding on ideas other students may have during discussion. Student B is a student who doesn’t participate at all in class, but has been on the honor roll all year. This student’s strengths are his ability to pay attention to minute details in the story and remember them later in the story. For example, he is able to answer comprehension questions and refer to details that were previously mentioned. Student B’s challenges are that he seems to get frustrated easily. He doesn’t seem to have confidence in himself, or his work and often thinks he isn’t doing well. Student C is a girl who has behavioral issues in the class. Her strengths are that when she focuses and stays on task is able to make connections with what she’s learned previously. She is also one of the students who will notice something in the reading that they’ve talked about before, and bring it to the class’s attention. Student C’s challenges are being able to focus and not get so easily distracted. She tends to only do the minimal work, even if she has more to say. Student D is a girl who seems to not have many friends within the class, but is not shy. Her strengths are that she participates and is always willing to read. Her challenges are that she becomes easily frustrated when given an assignment because she doesn’t want to complete it. She comes up with excuses and it takes a while for her to get started. Once she gets on task and stays on task, Student D is able to get out many thoughts on paper and makes valid connections.      For this lesson, I wanted to focus on the skills of focusing, connecting, and really understanding the difference between fact and opinion. Since a few of the students I chose do not often participate in a whole group setting, I was curious to see how they would do in a small group lesson. I gave the students something not only look for while reading, but something to show me they understood, to keep them focused and engaged; which is normally a problem for a few of my students. The lesson went really well. The students were able to share with me what they’ve learned about the Titanic throughout the year, to connect their previous knowledge to the play. The students really seemed to enjoy the play as well. I gave each of the students parts and they were almost fighting over roles, as they all wanted to participate. The students also got into the intonation of the characters, and would speak louder when there was an exclamatory sentence. While reading, the students would put their thumbs up and we would stop to discuss why the statement they just read was a fact or opinion. When we got to the sentence, “The Titanic was the most elegant ship ever built,” the students automatically put two thumbs up. I asked the students to think about why this was an opinion, and not a fact. Then, I had two students share out. Student A said, “They could have thought it was the most elegant, that’s what they think.” Student D said, “She might have never been on a ship before, so that one may be the most elegant, so she doesn’t know.” This helped me to see what the students were thinking through during the activity. After reading, I gave the students each a sentence. Each of the students responded correctly, and wanted to answer for the next student. Overall, they were extremely engaged and excited about the task. I believe that this helped the students to speak up and participate. I also think that this activity helped build confidence with the students because they were so knowledgeable about the Titanic, from previous knowledge. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would create my own historical fiction story that contained harder statements that would make the students think harder about if they were facts or opinions. I would also have the students create their own historical fiction stories, incorporating facts as well as opinions. This would utilize their writing and spelling skills, integrate a different subject, and show me what they’ve learned about facts vs. opinions. I think the writing portion could also be a follow-up lesson, staying with the historical fiction, so that the students have more exposure to this genre.

 

Final Entry/Mini Lesson

Grade: 1st grade Mini-Lesson Rationale (Why are you teaching this lesson?): To work with students who still have trouble with or are unconfident with blending and sounding out words. Objective for this lesson: Students will be able to… Practice and demonstrate blending larger words. Materials & supplies needed: Blending cards.(Index cards with different clusters that can be blended)

Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event  • Introduction to the lesson  (What will you 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?) (2 minutes)  I am going to tell my student that we are going to work on some blends. I am going to say I am going to try something out I have never done and would like to see if it is something a student would enjoy and learn from so I could possibly use it in the future. I am going to explain how I know that she has worked with these before, but I want to see just how great she is at it. I want to sort of treat it like a challenge and try and get her to overcome her insecurity with sounding out words and really grasp that she can do it. I am only working with one specific student because I know that she can do it if she really tries hard, but she is not confident with herself. I really want to show her that it’s okay to be unsure and take chances. • OUTLINE of key events during the lesson (Include specific details about how you will begin and end activities; what questions you will use; how you will help children understand behavior expectations during the lesson; when/how you will distribute supplies and materials) (6-7 minutes) -Introduction -Cluster Cards: do a simple run through of all the cluster cards and the sounds they make. Just so she gets an understanding of how to use them -Segue into adding vowels, more clusters to make words. -Blending game: Popcorn Blends -Farewell high-fives • Closing summary for the lesson (How will you 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?) (2 minutes) -I will just talk to her about the lesson. I want to see if she enjoyed it and if she feels like she learned anything. I really want to ask her what she learned, to gauge what she thinks she gained, if anything. I really want to work on her confidence, so I’m really hope she feels like she learned a lot. 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?) By observing her progress through the lesson and the game, I will be able to tell if she is feeling more confident with her skills or not. I want to be really encouraging with her in hopes that she really gains some confidence in herself and is able to blend the words without asking for help. For the mini-lesson I conducted I only used one focus student. This focus student has always been one of the students who really clings to me and looks to me for guidance. She is a wonderful student who is always smiling and always eager to learn. She is one of the better-behaved students in my class, and has great manners and a good attitude. The reason I chose this student, however, is because she sometimes looks to me TOO often for help and really lacks the confidence she needs. She does this for two specific subjects, math and reading. She really possesses the information and knowledge she needs to do the work correctly, but she has a really hard time believing that she can do it. The reason I chose to work with her was because of one specific instance in class that really bothered me. One day the students were asked to complete a worksheet. It was a really simple worksheet that required basic blending. This student, who normally is one of the first students done with worksheets, was the last person to complete it, and had to go sit at a side table to finish it while the class moved on. This blew me away! I would have never ever expected that out of her. I decided I’d go sit with her while she completed it, but when I did, she seemed to really think that I was going to give her the answers if she just asked. I told her that I knew she could do it, all she had to do was sound it out. So, I asked her to do it aloud so I could hear her work the problems out herself. She did a great job, and finished the worksheet correctly. Her lack of confidence in this was astounding to me, so I decided she maybe needed a little extra help, and if not help, she maybe needed a little extra reaffirmation that she was able to do it! For my mini-lesson I did a game called Popcorn Blends with my student. The game gave many “Blends” and many “endings.” The “endings” were part of a spinner and the student had to spin and land on an “ending,” she then had to choose a blend that fit with the ending to make a word. If it made an actual word, she could write it down. It was a very fun game for the student, and she really seemed to enjoy it. At first, she struggled when trying to make words, but eventually she got the hang of it. Seeing her sound out the ending, and saying it combined with the blend was so exciting, because I could really see her grasp how many options she had to make a real word. I really think it was a confidence booster for her because she really demonstrated to herself, and I, that she was able to do it. I was really proud of her!

Mini Lesson

Grade: Kindergarten Mini-Lesson Rationale (Why are you teaching this lesson?): The students that I am focusing on are still struggling with initial sounds, blends, and blending sounds together to make words. I wanted to focus on these aspects to strengthen their skills with creating words through combining sounds. This will essentially help them with their spelling. Objective for this lesson: Students will be able to create words through adding single sounds to –it and –in as well as make words by adding blends to the beginning of words.  Materials & supplies needed: Alphabet letter magnets: b, k, I, n, p, w, t, s, h, m and v and cookie sheet.

Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event  • Introduction to the lesson  (What will you 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?) (_1__ minutes)  Teacher will say: “Ok guys I know that we have been working with sounds and blending sounds to make words all year. Today we’re going to work with the word work letters to make different words when we add sounds to the beginning of –it and –in. So I want you to look at these letters and move different sounds in front of –it and –in and tell me what word you have made. Were going to take turns doing this so pay close attention to what words your friends have made so you can make a different word.” • OUTLINE of key events during the lesson (Include specific details about how you will begin and end activities; what questions you will use; how you will help children understand behavior expectations during the lesson; when/how you will distribute supplies and materials) (_20__ minutes) Begin the activity by sitting the three students in a half circle around the cookie sheet and letters and place the letters on the sheet. Remind the students that they will be taking turns so to allow every person’s brain to do their own work and keep their ideas in their own head so that were not giving our own ideas to each other. First ask the students how to spell it. Allow each student to place an initial sound in front of –it to make different words. Have the students take turns until all of the possible sounds have been used. Ask the students what two letters can be combined that can create a blend that will make a word. Scaffold the students if they are struggling by giving one of the letters from the blends. Once all of the blends have been found repeat the process with –in. • Closing summary for the lesson (How will you 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?) (_1__ minutes) Discuss with the students the different sounds that each letter makes by holding up the letter and having them make the sounds including the sounds that blends make. Discuss with the students how adding sounds to words makes new words and remind the students that they have been doing this all year long with stretching their words to help them spell. Discuss with the students that this is a good use of both reading and writing words by finding words inside words that they already know and sound out the rest of the word. Ask the students how they would do this with s-it. The students should be able to recognize that they know it and just have to sound out the initial sound /s/. 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 be conducting an ongoing oral assessment throughout the activity. I want to see if my students can identify all of the initial correct sounds, say the word correctly, and see what they struggle the most with. Their struggle will help me identify what I need to focus on in a follow-up lesson as well as see if they are ready for the next step of working with sounds at the end of words. In my mini-lesson, I chose to work with a group that has been labeled as the lowest proficiency level in regards to their reading comprehension. There normally is 4 students in this group, however my boy with cerebral palsy was absent today, so I did not get to work with him. There is one girl in my group, who struggles a lot with sounds in regards to initial, middle, ending and stretching sounds to make words. She has very little self-confidence and often times needs to be told what to do multiple times. She also needs a lot of scaffolding to complete tasks. She does however, generally do well when she is working one on one with someone and has made improvements over the school year. One of the boys I am working with in this lesson has a difficulty in recognizing the letter names. While he does not know the letter names he is able to assign the correct sounds to the letters. He is pulled out twice everyday, once for a group intervention where they work on their reading skills, as well as once one on one with a reading specialist who works with him on his individual needs for reading. He has made a lot of improvements since the year began, but still needs help with blending sounds especially when words contain blends. My other little boy began the year extremely low, with not knowing any sounds that the letters make and could not apply the connection between the sounds he heard to the letters. He has increased greatly in his abilities and is now reading words and knows the assignments of the sounds with the symbols. He is pulled out once a day for the same group intervention that my other boy is pulled out for to work on group reading skills.             I have worked one on one with all three of these students over the year on different aspects of their reading. Every week I do an end of the week assessment with my students where they must read a group of words that is both heart words and amazing words that they learn from the curriculum “Reading Street.” They also are responsible for reading 4 sentences on the assessment. I also have sat with this group of students during their reading groups where they take turns reading a book that is on their level. Both of these experiences on top of the normal time I spend helping the students with their writing has given me a lot of data on these students. I have gotten to know these students really well, and have become familiar with their misconceptions and needs pertaining to reading.             In this mini-lesson I wanted to focus on initial sounds in words to help these students with their reading and writing skills. My MT has been focusing on this with this particular group of students because they often times struggle with initial sounds and blending. I wanted to strengthen their abilities by providing them with two words that they are familiar with –it and –in, and show them how adding initial sounds can change the words into different words. I also wanted to help my students become familiar with adding blends to the initial sounds. I lastly, wanted to strengthen their reading and writing abilities by showing them how when words contain words they know they only have to figure out the initial sounds to figure out how to read or spell it.             This lesson went really well for me. My students were really engaged in the activity and were really thinking and sounding the words out to figure out which sounds made a word and which sounds did not. My students would often times move a letter in front of the word and would sound it out and on their own would say “that’s not a word,” and then look to find another initial sound that did make a word. My students did struggle with blends as I anticipated and needed scaffolding to help them find the different blends. I did this through giving them one letter of the blend and have them find the other letter that would make sense. For example, if the word was spit I would give them p-i-t and ask them what other letter could be added to the beginning that would make a blend to create a word.             I think that if I were to teach this lesson again, I would review with my students first all of the different initial blends that can be added to words, and what sounds they make. I feel that this would have helped my students think on their own a little better to recognize different words that could be created with blends. I also may chose words that could have more blends added to them than what –it and –in had, because there were only a couple of words that could be made.             If I were to make a follow up lesson to this lesson, I would discuss with my students about the blends and initial sounds that we used to create words, and remind them of the words that we formulated from the past activity. I then would focus with them on end sounds that can be added to familiar words to make different words. This would extend their understandings to incorporate what they learned to apply it to a different method.

Final Blog Post-mini lesson reflection

I only worked with one focus student for my mini lesson because I wanted to be able to provide him with a great deal of support. My student is in the first grade and he is struggling with his fluency. His strengths are that he does not get discouraged or frustrated while he is reading, he just keeps powering through, decoding each word slowly. He is a really hyper boy who cannot sit still but for some reason this does not translate over to his reading. For every other subject he has a very difficult time sitting still and staying on task, but he can sit down with a book and read through the whole thing without even thinking about something else. His challenges are that he is slow at decoding the words so he loses comprehension of the text. He is also learning to read in two different languages simultaneously so he experiences a lot of language interference. When he is reading in English he pronounces the individual letters as if they were Spanish, and vice versa. This is one of the things that led me to wanting to work with him. He is very focused on determined on his reading he just needs a little extra support, which he does not get from my MT. I have been working with him during reading for the past two weeks to get to know him better as a reader and a learner. I have also been asking him questions about the books that he has been reading to find out more about his interests of reading. For my lesson I really wanted to focus on fluency. I wanted my student to be able to hear what fluent reading sounds like and also get practice reading fluently. For this reason I chose to work with a text that he was already familiar with. The second main thing that I wanted to focus on was voice inflection when reading dialogue within a story. The lesson went really well. He really picked up on my inflection while listening to me read and that really transferred over to his reading. He also did a really good job working with the dialogue. He got really into it and we ended up acting out a few of the interactions. He said too, that he liked doing the different voices for the characters because it was more fun that way. This is exactly what I wanted him to notice. I really wanted him to see that how you read the parts affects how you interpret the story. If I had to teach this lesson again I may try doing a bit more of an introduction, to stress the importance of fluency. I think that it worked really well to use a story that the student was familiar with because then he wasn’t too focused on decoding, so this is something that I would keep the same. If I were to teach a follow-up lesson with this student I would move into a book that he wasn’t as familiar with but still start out reading it through together. 

Grade: First Mini-Lesson Rationale (Why are you teaching this lesson?): I decided to work with one student, David, for this mini-lesson. I am doing this because I feel like he needs a little more one on one structured practice with his reading in order to improve his fluency. Right now he is working very hard to decode each word that he reads so he is not reading very fluently, which is also really affecting his comprehension of the text. We are reading in Spanish so I wanted to use a story that he is already somewhat familiar with so we read Caperucita Roja (Little Red Riding Hood). Objective for this lesson: Student will be able to… Read along with the teacher keeping up with the pace set by the teacher. Read dialogue using different voice inflection than used during other parts of the story. Materials & supplies needed:

Caperucita Roja (book)

Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event  • Introduction to the lesson  (__2_ minutes)  Tell David that becoming a good reader takes lots of practice and that when good readers are reading they sound like they are talking. They don’t read too slow, or too fast, and use the right kind of voice for different types of sentences. This is a book that David really likes and has read before so I think this will help make him motivated. I am also going to be reading along with him and he really likes one on one attention so I think he will be engaged for this reason. • OUTLINE of key events during the lesson  (_20__ minutes) For the first half of the book I want David to be able to hear what a fluent reader sounds like. I plan on reading a line and then have him read the same line right after me. I am hoping that he will start to pick up on my reading patterns. Then for the second half of the book I want to allow him to be a bit freer so we will switch to alternating pages. I’ll read a page then he’ll read a page. There is a lot of dialogue in this story so when we first encounter it I really want to point this out and demonstrate what reading dialogue should sound like. Emphasize that the words in the quotation marks are what the character is saying so we should try and sound like that person. Then we switch back to normal reading voice when we say “said little red riding hood.” I will pick out a few of the longer dialogues that take place and have me be one of the characters while David is the other. Then we will read aloud, but it will sound like a conversation. I am really going to draw his attention to how natural the conversation should sound and how our reading should sound like that too. • Closing summary for the lesson (__5_ minutes) When we finish the story I am going to ask David to retell some of the main events and key details that we read. I am going to ask David if the story was easier to read because he was already a little familiar with it. At this point I want him to say that he was able to read quicker because he already had an idea of the words he was reading. Then tell him that once he becomes familiar with more words, he will be able to read more fluently, and that he just needs to keep practicing like we were today. Assessment: There really isn’t a set assessment for this type of fluency lesson, I will need to just be paying attention to how David is reading and take note of that when thinking about planning a follow-up lesson. I am looking to see if his fluency improves as he progresses through the book and as we practice reading the dialogue together, acting it out a bit.