Vocabulary Mini Lesson

Vocabulary with Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type (Taught 4/16)

            There are several things I noticed about my students’ participation in the word investigation activity I had planned. I realized that many of the students worked very hard to try and figure out the word based on the sentence the word came from. The students would ask each other how to solve the words definition and sometimes I heard other students say they were able to figure out the definition based off the picture. I thought this was a great success in my lesson because not only did the students use each other for help first rather than directly going to the teacher but they also were able to solve many of the words on their own. My focus student was a little bit of a different story, she did not catch on as quickly as the others and I noticed myself helping her a lot throughout the activity while the other two students seemed to be working together. I really had hoped that Angel would work with the other students and ask them for guidance rather than automatically going to the teacher, me. I know the students were beginning to understand the idea of my objective and to try to accomplish finding the definition through context and pictures rather than using a dictionary.

            The strengths of this lesson would be that the students started to begin to understand the concept of defining unknown words through context and pictures. Although all the students needed some help to a certain extent and are not experts at this reading strategy, I saw great amounts of effort to accomplish what was asked of them. However, I feel the limitations would be that the two students who most understood how to achieve the understanding of this reading strategy were of middle to higher learning ability. The focus student I also worked with was very reliant on me going through each word, step by step, to help her complete the strategy. So although this was a good strategy for middle to higher-level students, I feel the limitation is that it was not as helpful or useful for the focus student I worked with.

            As a teacher, I realized I was very encouraging to the two student who were starting to understand this strategy. However, unfortunately I was getting a little frustrated with the focus student. I tried to hide my frustration but I felt as though the objective of my lesson was to have the students either work together or alone on this assignment with little direction from me except in the beginning. I felt I failed the focus student, Angel, and myself because she needed me to walk her through the strategy step by step.

            A very important question I would have is how could I redirect or reconstruct this activity of investing unknown words for lower ability level students? I really feel this could be a useful strategy but I do not know how to incorporate or accommodate the abilities of lower level students. I thought I had given enough instruction and supplied the students with words that I felt could be defined in the context but the focus student was still struggling.

THE MINI LESSON:
Your Name:  Kate Bode   Grade Level:  2nd 

Date lesson was taught:  4/16 (Monday)  Number of Students: 3

1) Rationale: Students will need to improve and increase their vocabulary ability through word investigation and also reading the vocabulary word in the context of the sentence in order to better enhance students vocabulary knowledge and understanding of words and be able to utilize these words in real life contexts.

2) List which reading skill/strategy is the main focus of your lesson: Vocabulary

3) Objective for this lesson: While reading Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type, students will make connections to the selected vocabulary words through word investigation and reading context.

4) Materials & supplies needed: Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type, paper, and writing utensils

5) OUTLINE OF LESSON PLAN (Provide a bulleted list of ideas):

• Introduction to the lesson (5 minutes) 

·  “Today we will be reading a new book called Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type. Has any read this before? Well it’s a book about some farm animals, which type of animals do you think the book will be about based on the noises in the title?”

·  “There are some big words in here and words we may not know. Can anyone tell me how you guys try to figure out a word you don’t know? Sound it out? What if you want to know what that word means? What do you do?”

·  “Let’s look at an example word, ‘problem’ on the first page. Can anyone tell me what that word is? What does it mean? How would we try to figure out the definition? What does definition mean?”

·  “I want to give you guys a list of words that I found in this book that I think may be a little difficult for us to read and define. Let’s look through them together and all try to solve for a definition”

• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson (15-20 minutes)

·  I will hand out materials after I give out the directions for this activity (the materials include the worksheet and a writing utensil)

·  Instructions: I am going to read the book Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type out loud to them two times. The first time I just want them to listen and enjoy. The second time I will show them the vocabulary words that I have chosen (written out on big pieces of paper in order that they appear in the book). While I am reading the second time I want the students to point out whenever they see one of the vocabulary words in the book.

·  VOCABULARY WORDS: type, impossible, electric blankets, typewriter, impatient, strike, demand, neutral, deal, emergency

·  By having the students listen one time and then the second time having them point out the vocabulary words I think it allows me to see who is engaged and paying attention and create a fun activity of searching for the words in the books. However, I am worried that it will be distracting to the book so that’s why I want to read them the book one time before looking.

·  Next activity is to hand out the worksheet with spaces for all the words to be written down by each student (not already typed out because I want them to practice writing the word). The worksheet also has columns for: our definition based on the sentence, a new sentence with this word. I will explain that we will be doing this worksheet together so they do not get overwhelmed by it.

·  First, I want to make sure I tell them that this activity is a good way to discover the definition of vocabulary words and how to help you use these words in new sentences. You can use this activity in EVERYTHING you read. Whether it’s for school or fun, you can find words you don’t know and search for the meaning of them through this activity and then consult a dictionary after.

·  For every word we will find the place in the book where it was used. I want one student to read the sentence out loud to the group. Once the sentence is read we will brainstorm as a group what we think the word means in the sentence. Once they have ideas I have make sure to tweak them so they are correct and we will all write our definitions down on the paper. To make sure that everyone participates I will ask students to raise their hands before sharing their definition ideas so that all students can contribute.

·  If students are stuck on the definition I will also come up with sentences not from the book to help them see the word used in different ways so they can still find the definition themselves without being given the answer.

·  Next I will ask the students to take a minute or two and think of a sentence that uses this word. I only need one sentence that the group can write down so for each word we will use a different students sentence to ensure that everyone contributes a word.

·  If students are stuck on making sentences I will tell them to look to their definitions or peers for help and see how their peer is trying to create a sentence. If everyone is confused then I want to make sure I give another example of a sentence so they can see my thinking and mimic the thought process of making a sentence.

·  Thought process: having them ask themselves “what other words does my word relate to? How could I use this word at home? Does my sentence make sense with this word in it?”

·  After we have completed the worksheet I will make sure everyone’s worksheets are complete and give students time to review their worksheet if they have any blanks or questions

• Closing summary for the lesson (5-10 minutes)

·  In order to make a closing summary of this lesson I want to have them practicing the words we just discovered. This is the point in time where I want to ask the students to think of one new word they learned today and create a sentence to share with the group. If they are stuck I want them to either look at the sheet where we created our own definitions and new sentences or ask a student

·  To wrap it up I want all students to share their sentences and have the students comment on if the student used it correctly or not and if not how can we help them fix the sentence?

·  I will go over once more how it is important to learn new vocabulary words we do not know and make sure we practice how to use these words in different contexts

6) Ongoing-Assessment:

·      Students will be able to create their own definitions or ideas of what the words mean in a group through context and the sentence the word was in as well as the pictures in the book

·      Students will be able to use the new vocabulary words in new sentences and real life contexts

·      Looking for: student use of new words correctly, students attempting to define the word through reading the context of the word

7) Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson? For this activity I am going to work with a focus student named Abigail. Abigail is a student that does have the ability to read well but many times chooses not to and can get very stubborn. This student would have the ability to participate in this activity and I feel have the ability to succeed as long as she can get herself motivated. In order to get her motivated and participate I will want to give her encouragement and show her that I know she has the ability to work on this activity. Sometimes I think she gets intimidated and told she cannot do the work. I feel that it is important to encourage her with positive words and also maybe even encourage her with stickers to try and work with me on the vocabulary words I have picked.