Engaging Kindergarten Lesson: Exploring Story Elements

Learning Experience 1 Title: Story Elements: Character and Setting 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. Cambridge, MA: 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. New York, New York: 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 favor