Acacia Garcia EDUC 461 Hardin 03/31/2014

Textbox 3.0: Contextual Information The classroom is created for a kindergarten grade level. In this classroom, the subjects that are taught are phonics, English language arts, science, social studies, math, and reading. In our classroom, there are 24 students. Four of those students are taken out of the classroom throughout the week for speech help, one student that is taken out for ESOL help, and 2 students that have IEPs. In order to help the many different learning styles in the classroom, the tables are set up to ensure that at each table there is a student that learns differently than the other. This is to make sure that students are able to help each other when they need to. When the students have center time the centers are spread across the classroom to give students plenty of room to move and interact with their groups.

a) In the classroom, I believe a problem that could come about is the way the students interact with each other. They are quick to get upset and they will take it out on their classmates at any given time. This affects the way the students work together in groups and how they interact as a whole. Another problem that may arouse is the way certain students are able to learn. Eventually, the students catch on to whom is doing what classwork and I have found that they will mention it to the teacher. With these two problems, come more issues in areas such as the students health considerations. Whenever we are working with any kind of food we have to ensure that all students are able to handle it without having allergy flare ups. Because of this issue, students miss out on some enjoyable projects because the food used could harm their classmates. Most times, the students are very considerate and understand why we are unable to do some things. b) In the school area, the neighborhoods are not the best. Students come from all kinds of families that are all different in the way they help their child and the way they care for their child. This will affect the students in the classroom because some students are coming in with little to no help at home. There are people that are in the community that try to ensure the students are getting everything they need. These people are at every meeting they can go to and are willing to help with all of the fundraisers for the school. There are also the people that do not want anything to do with the school or the students. With this happening around the school, at times it is difficult for the students to comprehend everything that is going on. They are unsure why certain things occur and with uncertainty come questions. Not all questions can be answered so it is difficult for them to fully comprehend why the community does not always help.

Textbox 3.1.1: Standards and Learning Goals a) The learning theory I used to guide my planning process is behaviorism. This theory is based on knowledge that is changed using controlled stimulus and response conditioning. Using this theory, I will reward students when they do well during the lessons and I will help the students when they are not quite getting the material. Using this will get students motivated to learn the

Acacia Garcia EDUC 461 Hardin 03/31/2014

material and I will also be able to help the students when they need it and reward them when they do learn the material in their own time.

b) The standards used for this assessment are from the common core standards. They are RI.K.10Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding, RF.K.1Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page, and RF.K.3c Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does). The learning goal identified in this lesson is that students will be able to identify a new sight word in the story. The learning goal and the standards will guide the planned learning activities by having students continue to read from left to right and to see sight words and be able to recognize them as they see them.
c) The content focus of this lesson is reading. The students have encountered reading throughout the school year and have worked on how they should read when we read as a class. Skills that have been learned throughout the year are reading left to right, using beginning letters to identify unknown words, asking about key details in a book, and applying grade-level phonics to decode words. Based on this the students will be able to read as a class and they will be able to identify words the see the most when reading. d) Some difficulties that the students may have are that some may not be able to follow along while reading or not being able to find their sight words. Based on these problems, I display new sight words at all times and when we are reading I continue to point at the words as we read as a class. Textbox 3.1.2: Instructional Strategies a) Instructional strategies I will use as part of my assessment are direct instruction, interactive instruction, and indirect instruction. I will use direct instruction in order to introduce the new sight word to the students. I will use interactive instruction in order for students to find the new sight word in the story that we read as a class. I will use indirect instruction to teach the students about different sight words throughout the school year. By using these instructional strategies, I am helping my students learn in different ways about the same subject. b) These instructional strategies connect to the learning goals to facilitate student learning by helping students learn in multiple ways. Each student learns in their own way and by incorporating different instructional strategies, it also incorporates different learning styles for the students. Strategies that are used are reading aloud for auditory learners, repetition for students that join in when reading, a big book for visual learners to see, and hands on for the kinesthetic learners. Altogether, these strategies will help students gain knowledge about the big book. c) For this lesson, I used whole group instruction to facilitate student learning. Based on knowledge from previous lessons, I knew doing this as a whole group would get students more into the story and they would all be able to help each other when needed.

Acacia Garcia EDUC 461 Hardin 03/31/2014

Textbox 3.1.3: Learning Activities a) The learning activities that I plan to implement into this lesson is to spell out the new sight word using hand signal and chanting, and also, students will come up to the big book and use highlighter tape to find the new sight word that they used. I decided on these learning activities because it will give the students a chance to use their voices to sound out and say their new sight word. I also wanted the students to have hands on experience finding the sight word and being able to highlight it in a story. b) The chosen activities address student strengths because I can always ask the students challenging questions about different words in the big book. It also addresses student needs by doing this lesson as a whole group so all the students are able to help each other when needed. The students love to help each other and they are not ashamed to ask for help. I also make sure to display the new sight word at all times. c) Based on class demographics, the learning activities I chose are made for all the students. The students that are visual get to come up to the big book and find the sight word, the students that are auditory get to say the word and chant it out loud, and the students that learn in many different ways are able to participate in these activities as well. Textbox 3.1.4: Materials, Resources, and Technology a) The materials I will use to support my instruction and student learning are a big book and highlighter tape. The resources I will use for this lesson is the SmartBoard. By incorporating these into my lesson, I am able to create a learning environment that all students can learn in. Students that are visual will be able to see the big book and see the new sight word on the board. The students that are kinesthetic will be able to come up and put their fingers on the book in order to find the sight word. The students that are auditory listeners will be able to hear the story read to them. b) During instruction I plan to use the SmartBoard. The SmartBoard will be used in order to introduce and display the new sight word for the students and will give them a visual to look back to when they are reading the big book. c) By including the SmartBoard, students are able to see the sight word while they are chanting and spelling it. It also gives them a chance to always look back to ensure that they are spelling it correctly or finding it correctly in the big book. Textbox 3.2.1: Understanding Each of the Two Focus Students and Differentiating Instruction Focus Student 1 a) Focus Student 1s learning strengths in this lesson is that she enjoys reading very much and reads very well. The challenges that are faced with the learning goal of this lesson are that she is one of the class top readers and she is easily bored because she knows a lot of words that some

Acacia Garcia EDUC 461 Hardin 03/31/2014

of the students have not quite learned. She is quick to answer questions about new sight words and at times does not give the other students time to think about their answers. b) For this lesson plan, I will differentiate the assessment portion and I will change how I ask questions. When we are going through the big book as a class, if I ask Focus Student 1 a question, I will make it more challenging. I want her to think a little bit before she blurts out an answer and I want her to be able to take the time to think so she knows that she will always be challenged so she can continue to grow as a student. A question I may ask during this lesson would the word has looks like the word his. How do you know that it is not the word his? c) The evidence I will collect will be anecdotal notes. By taking these notes, I am able to write down questions I have asked or would like to ask, notes about her thinking and the responses that are said in return. This assessment will show me how she progresses with her thinking and how quickly she begins to change her way of thinking for different questions. Focus Student 2 a) Focus Student 2s learning strengths in this lesson is that he is able to recall sight words that he has seen before or that we have just gone over in class. The challenges that are faced are that he is very easily distracted during a lesson and at times is lost when asked a question. He is very capable of reaching the learning goal for this lesson and I will have to ensure that he paying attention at all times throughout the lesson. b) For this lesson plan, I will differentiate the learning style used to introduce the new sight word. By doing so, I will have to students chant out the words and clap so they are having fun while they are learning. He will be more likely to pay attention and participate if we are doing something that is interactive and interesting so he does not get bored. c) The evidence I will collect will be anecdotal notes. By taking these notes, I am able to write down how much participation he did and if he was able to focus on the new material during the lesson. This kind of assessment will also show me his progress towards paying attention during lessons and what type of lessons interest him. Textbox 3.3.1: Analyzing the Lesson for the Whole Class a) This lesson facilitated student learning by teaching the students a new sight word and how to spot it in a book when they are reading. The evidence that I gathered in order to support my conclusion are anecdotal notes. I pulled sticks to call students names but I went through and made sure to call each student. When a student is called, I take notes on how the look for the word and if they are able to do so without any help. The students are usually quick to find their sight word or they take a little while and have to look back to the SmartBoard in order to find the sight word in the book. b) Students used the content presented to demonstrate meaningful learning by creating written pieces using their new sight word. During the lesson students had to find the sight word in the book that we read as a class. When we finished, the students were dismissed to their tables and they were to complete a picture and sentence that used their new sight word. Students were

Acacia Garcia EDUC 461 Hardin 03/31/2014

creating sentences by themselves and they were able to spell their new sight word correctly without any more guidance. c) During the lesson, the modifications that I had to make were to challenge the students that thought it was too easy and reword questions for the students that were still a little unsure about what we were learning about. By asking students challenging questions or rewording questions, I was ensuring that each student was learning the same thing but was still helping them without directly saying what they needed to do. d) In order to foster teacher-to-student interaction I made sure throughout the lesson that I was always participating with the class and chanting and clapping the new sight word that we were learning. By doing this, students saw that I was interested in the content of the lesson and they also wanted to participate along with me. To foster student-to-student interaction throughout the lesson, the students were allowed to chant and clap as a whole and if their classmates needed help, the students were allowed to help when asked. By having these interactions, it made the lesson fun and exciting for the class. The students were learning while they were able to interact with each other and they also were able to see their teacher participate along with them. e) During the lesson, the feedback that I provided was positive comments when a student was doing well and helpful comments when a student was unsure of the content. The students were spoken too with respect and I never talk to them like they have done something wrong. By doing so, the students are able to keep their confidence and are able to finish their answer to a question or finish the work that they need to finish. If a student is not doing well during a lesson, it does not do any good to tell him or her that they are wrong. As a teacher, I have to reword my question in order for them to succeed and not feel as though they failed. Textbox 3.3.2: Analyzing the Differentiated Instruction for Each of the Two Focus Students a) Focus Student 1 achieved the learning goals by being able to find the sight word in our big book and she also was able to draw a picture and complete a sentence that used our new sight word. Focus Student 2 achieved the learning by being to find the sight word in our big book and completing a sentence that using the new sight word. He was not able to draw a picture that went with his sentence but he was able to use the sight word correctly. b) The differentiated part of the lesson for Focus Student 1 helped her meet the learning goal by continuing to challenge her to ensure that she was getting the best out of the lesson. She was unable to feel like she knew the word already and was being asked questions that made her think about our new sight word. For Focus Student 2, the differentiated part of the lesson helped him meet the learning goal by keeping him focused on the content in order to gain the information about the new sight word. He was able to remember the sight word and he was able to use it correctly in a sentence when asked. Textbox 3.4.1: Reflecting on the Lesson for the Whole Class

Acacia Garcia EDUC 461 Hardin 03/31/2014

a) For the students that did not meet the learning goals, I will incorporate strategies that catch their interests. A lot of students really enjoy songs and are able to learn better when they hear a song. By incorporating this into the lesson, I am including a new instructional strategy and I am continuing to use technology in order to help my students continue to learn. The students will also be able to sing along and remember the content as though it were any other song that they hear on the radio. b) For future lessons, I will use the analysis of this lesson to ensure that I am reaching all of my students and their needs. If a student learns better by visuals, I will ensure there is a visual. If a student learns better by auditory, I will try to find a song that the entire class will enjoy so they do not feel as though they cannot have fun while learning. Textbox 3.4.2: Reflecting on the Lesson for Each of the Two Focus Students a) For future lessons, I will use the analysis of the lesson to ensure that I continue to guide the two focus students in the right direction with their learning. I will continue to challenge Focus Student 1 and I will continue to help Focus Student 2 stay focused by creating lessons that are interesting and enjoyable. b) When teaching future lessons, I will try harder to challenge Focus Student 1 and help Focus Student 2 concentrate on the content. Each student is hard working in their own ways and I need to be able to challenge Focus Student 1 while being able to help Focus Student 2 when he needs it. If I ask Focus Student 1 a question, I need to be able to reword it quickly so I can ask Focus Student 2 the same question in a different way.