1 Ty Hodge November 12, 2012 Literacy Lesson Professors Barrow and Levitt What: During this lesson students

will be introduced to the classroom dictionary as a resource to utilize. Additionally, in the future they could use the dictionary during literacy class or journal writing Since there are six students in this small group instruction, they will be placed in groups of two. Each group will be assigned one of the following letters: A, J or R. Each group has a member whose name begins with one of the letters. Hopefully this will serve as a further engagement strategy and aid in helping students generate words. The class will be told that each group is assigned a certain letter and each group will become experts in that letter by drawing it correctly and creating 3 words that begin with that letter. They will be provided with a piece of construction paper. Working as partners will be emphasized as a necessary step for the group to achieve success. In their partnerships they must decide on their 3 words (hopefully fortifying the beginning steps of creating a caring, safe and understanding environment, where students feel comfortable sharing their ideas with one another). Before staring, I will ask if there are any questions about the assignmenta purposeful choice of words as I do not want any stray questions or comments unrelated to the task. Students will work on the task for 20 minutes. Then they will present their work to the entire group. The final step will be for them to staple the words all together to create a word book. During their regular scheduled literacy block, the class has been working on word groups and memorizing their alphabet. I saw this as an opportunity to build on previous acquired knowledge. I wanted the students to apply what they have learned in their classroom to the activity they were doing now. Moreover, I wanted each student to gain practice writing their letters and generating words for those letters. As a bonus it would allow the kids to practice sharing ideas with each other and hopefully learning different strategies from one another. This all ties into my overarching question nicely. I would like to learn how to create lessons that meet the kids where they are while simultaneously keeping them up with core curriculum standards. Even thought my students are below grade level my goal was to create interesting lessons to both engage students and challenge them as learners. How: The lesson will take place in the students classroom where there is access to the blackboard and the word wall. Being in the students classroom lends itself to familiarity and allows them to utilize the assets all around them. They are accustomed to their classroom and know where to locate any tools that they might need. The students who were selected to participate in the small group instruction were the high-performing students in the class. However, even though they are the high performing students they are still performing below grade level according to state standards. I hypothesized that these students would benefit from small group instruction to further push them academically to be on par with national state standards and expectations. A particular approach I will make heavy use of is direct modeling. I hope direct modeling will help the students visualize what I expect from them and the format in which I expect it. Another resource for the students will be the agenda written on the blackboard. Every time we switch activities I will highlight where we are in the agenda so the students will be aware of the schedule for a particular activity and know where they are in it.

2 Why: The lesson was purposefully designed to highlight hands-on activity and getting out of ones seat and tactilely engaging with the materials. In the 10 weeks that I have been in my first grade classroom I have noticed that the students seem to spend a lot of time in school sitting at their desk doing worksheets. In order to shake things up a little bit I thought that perhaps it would be beneficial for them to engage with learning in a new and hopefully exciting way. I wanted to create an environment where the students took an active and direct role in their learning and valued one others input; shifting the possessor of knowledge from the teacher to the students; giving them more autonomy in the classroom. This delves into Paulo Freires understanding of an education system where teacher and student are engaged in a dialogue of equity where input from both student and teachers are valued. Hopefully a lesson designed as such would lay the foundation for future lessons and for the students becoming more responsible for their learning. Furthermore, they might begin to take a personal interest in their scholastic success, shifting the burden of responsible from the teacher to the student. Classroom Arrangement and Potential Management Issues: Possibly a group might have difficulty generating words out of thin air. If this occurs they will be redirected to the dictionary introduced at the beginning of the lesson and the word wall in the classroom. Another challenge might be redirecting energies if a person or a group that finishes early. First, I would emphasis to the individual who finished early that this is a group activity and thus you must work together. I would have them check the work they have completed so far and aid the partner as necessary. Afterwards, I would have he/she/them draw pictures from the words that they have selected and explain if anyone from our class picks up their book they should be able to use it. Having pictures in the book helps those who are having difficulty with their letters to still be able to use the class word book.

Literacy Lesson Plan #1 Unit: Literary resources and alphabetization Lesson: Creating their own dictionary Intended Grade Level: 1st Grade Group A: Ayla & Nyla, Group J: Justice & Brian, Group R: Ramsest & Joshua Objective(s): SWBAT read emergent reader text that they have personally created with purpose and understanding. SWBAT identify 3 words that begin the letters A, J and R. They will be able to write these words using proper grammatical form (capitalization). SWBAT summarize the main idea of our activity; explain what a dictionary is and how we use it. Standards: CC.1.1.K.E: Read emergent reader text with purpose and understanding. CC.1.4.K.V: Participate in individual or shared research projects on a topic of interest.

Materials Needed: Construction paper Markers or Crayons Cut outs of pictures that begin with the letters selected (to model activity) Pencils Magnetic letters (to help visualize and aid students in creating words)

Agenda: Total Time Planned: 50 minutes Rules and Expectations: 3 minutes Warm Up: 2 minutes Direct Instruction 10 minutes Independent Practice: 20 minutes Share: 10 minutes Wrap up: 5 minutes Rules and Expectations: First I will go over the rules and expectations for todays activity in order to set the tone for the duration of time we will be working together. Warm Up: I will ask my students to recite the alphabet from beginning to end (we have our own classroom routine centered on this and the students recite a different song that differs from the traditional ABC song. The classroom song incorporates nouns that begin with each letter). This recitation of the alphabet will serve as the warm up activity and review of all the letters in the alphabet.

Direct Instruction: I will introduce the students to a dictionary. I will explain its use and how it can be used as a resource while writing. I will tell them that today we are going to make our own dictionary. I will explain to them that they will be placed in groups of two and each group will be responsible for 1 letter. And they will become experts in that one letter. Each group has to draw their letter and write 3 words that begin with that letter. I will model on the chalk board the format and what I would like to see on their papers. Afterwards, they will share their letter and words with the entire group. Finally, we will staple their pages together to make our own word book that will be used in their class by all. I will emphasize neatness, capital letters, and working kindly in their groups. Independent Practice: Each group will work together writing their letters and creating their words to match. They will be provided with construction paper and crayons. Wrap Up: We will all work together cleaning up our work area and then they will be dismissed. This time might also be used for some extra class time in case things run a little long.

Assessment: I will assess each student on their class participation and their final group project. Each group must have 3 words written by the end of class. Additionally, during their independent practice I will go around and observe each group and assess each member individually based on two things: 1) Are they contributing to the group? And, 2) What were they responsible for in their group? Furthermore, the chart in appendix A will be utilized as an assessment method. Rationale: For this lesson plan my hope was that the students would pick words that were familiar to them and that they use every day in class. I wanted them to get practice writing and spelling these words so that when they come across those words in a book they will recognize it and be able to say it or sound it out. Additionally, when writing in their English journals for class and they want to use one of the words they came up with today, they wont find it as difficult to spell or sound out since they have encountered those words before in a different and hopefully memorable setting. Another lofty goal I had here was to introduce classroom resources that can help them when they are struggling. In this case, it was a dictionary. I wanted to get them in the beginning stages of no longer asking the teacher how to spell a word but rather utilize classroom resources that are all around them; from the word wall to the classroom dictionary (which is of course a childrens dictionary with adjacent pictures to go with the words). Purposefully for this activity I selected kids who I felt would be open and excited about using a resource such as the dictionary; students who might find interest or a new found sense of independent utilizing an instrument other than the teacher.

5 Appendix A-Checklist:

Student Recognize and recite entire alphabet

Recognize and say sounds A, J and R

Write Present Participate words list to in that class dictionary begin entry with discussion assigned letter

Illustrate Other assigned page appropriately

Ayla Nyla Justice Brian Ramsest Joshua