1.

Overview: Fish Frenzy; Confidence/Rhyming Words/Concepts of Print/Writing A Story,

Kayla Harrison
2. Objectives/Justification/Standards
a) ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS / KEY IDEAS
1. I will be working students in a small group that
promotes socialization between the students and myself.
2. I will be working on concepts of print,
comprehension of a story, and key details of a story.
3. I will be working with the students on identifying
and expressing feelings.
4. I will provide an activity that requires students to
identify rhyming words.
5. Students will focus attention on tasks and
experiences.
6. The uniqueness of each family will be discussed
and respected by the students.
b) OBJECTIVE (NJ Standards1):
1. Students will be able to engage in a group
discussion about fish and where they live. (NJ Standard 0.1.3 Actively
engage in activities and interactions with teachers and peers.) (NJ
Standard SL.PK.1,a,b Participate in conversations and interactions with
peers individually and in small and large groups.)
2. Students will be able to engage in a discussion
about something they feel confident doing. (NJ Standard SL.PK.6 With
guidance and support, speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and
ideas.)
3. Students will be able to identify the role of the
author and illustrator in Fish Frenzy by Kayla Harrison. (NJ Standard
RL.PK.6 With prompting and support, identify the role of author and
illustrator in telling the story.)
4. Students will be able to participate in a read aloud,
and ask and answer questions about unfamiliar words in Fish Frenzy. (NJ
Standard RL.PK.10 Actively participate in read aloud experiences using
age appropriate literature in individual, small and large groups.) (NJ
Standard RL.PK.4 With prompting and support, ask and answer
questions about unfamiliar words in a story or poem read aloud.)
5. Students will be able to identify rhyming words in
Fish Frenzy, and identify them in a word sort. (NJ Standard 0.4.1
Engage appropriately with peers and teachers in classroom activities.)
1 Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards. (2014, January 1). Retrieved March 31, 2015, from
http://www.nj.gov/education/ece/guide/standards.pdf

(NJ Standard RF.PK.2,a Demonstrate understanding of spoken words

and begin to understand syllables and sounds (phonemes). a. Recognize
and produce simple rhyming words.)
6. Students will be able to focus attention on the task
at hand and complete the teacher-directed rhyming activity. (NJ Standard
9.1.3 Focus attention on tasks and experiences, despite interruptions or
distractions.) (NJ Standard 9.1.5 Bring a teacher-directed or selfinitiated task, activity, or project to completion (e.g., showing the teacher,
Look!-I finished it all by myself!).)
7. Students will be able to use a combination of
writing skills to share information about their drawing, which depicts
what they did with the stuffed animal fish they will take home for a night.
(NJ Standard W.PK.2 Use a combination of drawings, dictation,
scribble-writing, letter-strings, or invented spelling to share information
during play or other activities.) (NJ Standard W.PK.5 With guidance
and support, share a drawing with dictation, scribble-writing, letterstrings, or invented spelling to describe an event real or imagined.) (NJ
Standard SL.PK.5 Use drawings or visual displays to add to descriptions
to provide additional detail.)
8. Students will be able to describe familiar people,
places, and events through their take-home project, which describes what
the child did with the fish, and with whom. (NJ Standard SL.PK.4 Begin
to describe familiar people, places, things, and events, and sometimes
with detail.)
9. Students will be able to express individuality and
cultural diversity when sharing with the class their take-home project. (NJ
Standard 6.1.3 Express individuality and cultural diversity.)
10. Students will be able to demonstrate appropriate
audience behavior, and participate in and listen to stories during Show
and Share of the fish projects. (NJ Standard 1.3.8 Begin to demonstrate
appropriate audience skills during storytelling and performances.) (NJ
Standard 1.3.6 Participate in and listen to stories and dramatic
performances from a variety of cultures and times.)
c) Justification:
a. The cooperating teacher has been working with the
students on rhyming words because March is Dr. Seuss month. Since theyve
been working on rhyming, I thought it would be a good idea to continue
practicing rhyming words through a read-aloud and a rhyming activity.
b. I have noticed, through observations, that some students
struggle with confidence when doing tasks. Some of the students get upset
easily when they cannot complete a task as well as the other students. I feel
that teaching students that everyone is good at something, and helping the

students feel confident in everything they do, would be appropriate.

3. Assessment
c) Pre-Assessment
a. Through observation (informal), I will assess the students
abilities to work in a small group and participate in discussions, while
focusing attention on the task in the group.
b. Students are learning about rhyming words in the
classroom with the cooperating teacher, therefore, the teacher has kept track
of their achievements (formal), and no additional pre-assessment is necessary.
c. Through observation and conversation (informal), I will
assess students self-confidence.
d. Through observation (informal), I will assess students
knowledge about print concepts, and the role of an author and illustrator of a
book.
e. Through observation (informal), I will assess students
strategies when being confronted with unfamiliar words in a text.
f. Through observation (informal), I will assess students
writing abilities.
g. Through observation (informal), I will assess students
abilities to demonstrate appropriate audience behavior.
h. Before reading the story, I will ask students to discuss a
time when they felt they couldnt do something, and then a time when they
knew they could do something. This will assess their ability to describe
familiar situations and places or things. This also will assess their
understanding of confidence.
d) Checking for understanding
a. I will check the students comprehension of the story and
concepts about print by asking questions such as Where is the front cover?,
Where is the back of the book?, Why is JT sad in this part of the story?,
and What do you think will happen next?
b. I will ask students if they know what certain words mean,
that I know are unfamiliar to most of them. This will assess what strategies
they use to learn new words.
c. I will check for understanding of rhyming words by asking
the students questions throughout the story such as Do any of these words
sound similar? and Why do the words school and fool sound similar?
d. I will check the students understanding of confidence, by
asking them why JT won the second race, when he had already lost the first.
I would encourage them to think about what the text said, JT believed in
himself., if the students show some difficulty. This should elicit a response
such as JT believed he could win and he did! or JTs mom cheered him up,
and he felt better, and he believed he could win.

e) Post-Assessment
a. Students will engage in a rhyme sorting activity after
reading the story, which will allow me to informally assess their knowledge
of rhyming words.
b. Students will be asked questions, after the book is read,
about
c. Students will be informally observed throughout the day to
assess their understanding of working in a small group, participating in
discussions, and exhibiting appropriate audience behavior.
d. Students will complete the family take-home project of
making their own book, which entails writing about the experiences they will
have with the stuffed animal fish the night they take it home. This assess
their writing levels and abilities. They also have to draw a picture to go along
with the written text. This will assess their ability to use a drawing to add
more detail to a text.
e. Students will share their family projects with the class,
which I will observe, which will assess students understanding that every
family is unique.
4. Learning Experience
a) Brief description/table/or visual of learning experiences
a. The students will share experiences theyve had when they
felt they couldnt do or complete a task. Then, they will share about a time
when they felt confident, or they knew that they could do something.
b. We will discuss what confidence means, and I will
introduce the book we will read.
c. We will read Fish Frenzy by Kayla Harrison. During the
reading, I will prompt students with questions that will assess their
comprehension of the story.
d. During the reading, I will also ask the students about
words that rhyme in the passage, unfamiliar words, and how JT feels, and
why he feels that way.
e. The students will engage in a rhyming activity that
involves sorting words into three categories by the words they rhyme with.
The three categories are words ending in -at, words ending in -an, and words
ending in -e, -ea, and -ee. The students will sort words into categories based
on how they sound when spoken. For example, if a student picks up the word
bee, they would say it out loud and then say each of the word endings
(headings) out loud to see which ending the word rhymes with.
f. The students will take home the fish writing/drawing
project to complete with their families. This requires the students to bring
home a stuffed animal fish and then write a story of what the student and the
fish did that night. The parents will write underneath to decipher the

students writing. The students will name their fish, and write about their
experiences. Drawings will be added for detail. They will have completed
their own book, titled A Night with _____, where they will fill in their first
name in the blank. Once they complete the project, they will bring it into the
class to share with their classmates.
b) Plan a connected learning experience: The lesson will be taught in a small
group, with about 5-6 students. The students will complete a project, that pertains to
the book read in class, with their families. This project provides a home and school
connection because the project that gets completed by the families will be brought in
to class to be shared.
c) Address the following important considerations for diverse learners
(developmental variations, contextual factors, culturally responsive practices).
1. The lesson instruction includes literacy, writing, and art.
These experiences are built upon the students interests and will create an
integrated learning environment.
2. The students will participate in a rhyme sorting activity
that will be featured in a center during free choice. The students will be able
access it and practice their rhyming/phonological skills through a fun activity.
I will guide the students through the activity during the small group session, if
they show difficulty with the task.
3. The story we will read requires the students to think at a
higher level. The students will be required to think behind the words on the
pages. They will need to recall familiar situations and events to make a
prediction as to why the characters act or speak with the emotions that they
do. Students will develop self-regulation through the use of play during the
fish project at home. They will be able to pretend play with the fish, and then
write about their experience. They can intentionally use emotions and
regulate them during pretend play.
4. The students will be able to listen to the story, as well as
view the illustrations that correspond with the text. The students will also be
able to make their own story about them and their fish through a family
project which requires fine-motor skills to write/draw. The students will
engage in a rhyme sorting activity that involves using their phonological
skills. All of these components of the lesson make the lesson a multi-modal,
multi-sensory experience.
5. The activities and small group experiences support
childrens approaches to learning. The discussion before the story allows
children to engage in conversation (initiative, engagement, and persistence).
Listening to the story and answering questions about it promotes thinking at a
higher level and engaging in discussion (initiative, engagement, and
persistence). The rhyming activity allows children to apply what they have

learned in the classroom,, and if they have difficulty, they will be guided until
they can perform the task individually (Children apply what they have
learned to new situations; initiative, engagement, and persistence). The
family project allows the students and their families to be creative and write a
story about the fish and the students experiences together (creativity and
imagination).