Animals of Alaska

Candidate Name: DeAnna Thoma Host Teacher Name:

School: Grade Level(s): K # of Students: 21

Date & Time of Lesson: 11/17/15, 2:00pm Length of Lesson: 30 min

Topic of Lesson: Animals of Alaska Content Area(s): Literacy

Materials including technology:

Polly Polar Bear, pre-made booklets, crayons, pencils

Alaska Standards: RL.K.1, RL.K.3, W.K.2, SL.K.2, L.K.1F

STAGE ONE STAGE TWO: Objective(s): Students will understand how to:

1.   Answer questions about a story that was read to them.

2.   Identify characters, settings, and major events in a story that is read aloud to them, confirming their understanding of the text.

3.   Compose informational texts about information from the story using complete sentences.

Student Assessment: 1.   Students will be able to answer various questions

about the content of a story. 2.   Students will describe the main features of a story

that is read to them. 3.   Students will write about certain features of the story

that was read to them.

STAGE THREE: Opportunities to Learn Introduction/Hook: I will ask them all to show me their best “polar bear” without moving from their spots and by making as much noise as possible! Procedure and products Differentiation/Accommodations/Modifications

1.   I will begin by reading An Adventure With Polly Polar Bear. I will first show them the cover and ask a few questions: who do you think the main character is? Where do you think this story takes place? Why do you think that?

2.   We will discuss each page as we go through the book. I will have them guess which animal is “hiding.” I will also ask them what they think is going to happen next and why as well discuss new words with them using the pictures to prompt their understanding.

3.   At the end of the book we will revisit the questions I asked at the beginning of the story. I will also ask: What would you have done if you were Polly? How would you have felt if you were Polly?

4.   I will then have a discussion with the children about the animals they saw. I will ask if they've ever seen any before in real life. Some will say yes, and I will say that’s because these are all Alaskan animals! You might see these animals when you are out hiking or playing outside so we are going to make a book about the animals you saw in the story we read.

Advanced group: this group will write their own sentences in their workbook. Average group: this group will have part of their workbooks already written. Struggling group: this group will write the verb and color word, and will be able to copy it from an example. During the discussion I will ask various levels of questions and call on the students to answer questions that are appropriate for their current developmental level.

5.   I will release them to their seats to work on a pre-prepared coloring book titled “I Saw Alaskan Animals.” Each page will have a different animal on it. The pages will be completed or will already be complete (see differentiation) to say “I saw a ______.” The blank will be filled in with a color and the animal’s name.

Closure: I will have them read me one or two of their pages.

Reflection

I really enjoyed this lesson. It was very fun to read the story to the children, and they had heard of most

of the animals, so they were very excited as well! The book discussion went well, though where the story took

place was clearly something they weren’t familiar with, and required prompting. I questioned them throughout

the book about the animals and the things they were seeing. The kids were super engaged and were more than

eager to answer the questions. I actually had trouble with the shouting out during the discussion. Afterward Mrs.

Wonders suggested that I start my questions with “Raise your hand if you know…” so that they already know

that they shouldn’t be calling out. Best of all, I don’t explicitly have to tell them what not to do, I’m just

reinforcing it through other ways of speaking with the students. I also like to call on students that don’t have

their hands raised to give them the opportunity to speak, however I forgot to do that during this discussion. That

is one way that I will definitely further differentiation in future lessons. I read them the book and they grasped

the animals and the story well. They understood what was going on and why as well as who the story was about

and what time of year it took place in. They clearly didn’t know what a stoat or lemming was, so I had them say

those names with me to reinforce it. Knowing most of the animals helped students who aren’t as efficient with

their literacy skills better to understand the story, because they already have a schema in which to relate some of

the information they are being presented with. The students I also told them that these were all animals they

could see right around where we live, which made them even more excited to read and learn about them.

After the reading and discussion, I gave each of them their books and showed them what they needed to

do using the document camera. They set right to work. We did one page at a time together, and I definitely

would NOT do it that way in the future. The kids that needed more time held everyone back and ended up with

partially finished books. Fortunately, the kids that were ahead just worked on coloring the pictures, but then the

slower kids got upset that they didn’t have time to color. It had seemed like such a good idea, so I got stuck with

it. It was such an easy way to differentiate, especially with this lesson, because the students would at least be

finishing a few sentences, rather than partially finishing all of them. All of the students had trouble with the

animal names. I had thought that putting my example under the document camera they would be able to read it

from their seats, but even the most advanced had trouble with this. We ended up writing the word in highlighter

on many of the pages for the students to trace. I had intended on doing this for the intermediate students

anyway, but we just ended up doing it for more students than I had planned. This was still great writing

practice, and they were still connecting the animal’s name to written text. Another thing that Mrs. Wonders

suggested was still writing the animal names but leaving the first letter blank for them next time so that they

don’t have to write the whole word but thy are still being challenged by some aspect of it. Almost every student

was able to write “I see a (color)” without a problem on their paper. I had originally wanted them to write “I

saw” but Mrs. Wonders felt that “I see” was more appropriate for their current theme. Some had to use their

color word chart to copy from, but that was encouraged. I was just very impressed by the number of students

that already knew their color words by memory. None of the students present in class needed the book that was

for struggling students. The one that I had intended it for was absent, but you will see it below. I was going to

have them trace my writing, and if there was time read it with me. This was a great lesson for me to better

understand how I can help children learn. Attachments: 3 artifacts of student work Advanced Student:

Average Level Student:

Strugglng Student: