Literacy Lesson Planning

         

        The most memorable ELAR lesson plan I witnessed was during my observational hours prior to Covid-19 making an appearance- forcing schools to halt. My coordinating teacher was teaching Kindergarten and I was told prior that she was one of the best within the district. I remember my coordinating teacher dressing up for the students that day and setting the scene for the books they were to read that week. The book theme was three little pigs and the teacher would read two books specifically relating to the theme. The two books were the traditional story of the Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the Three Little pigs. While reading, the teacher and students would discuss what was going on within the story and checking for understanding. After reading both of the books, they compared and contrasted the stories- as the teacher filled out a chart to add to the wall for the week. The teacher was a veteran teacher of almost 18 years when I was observing and she had tons of stations to rotate and add materials that would fit her theme for that week. While the teacher worked through small- group instruction at the back desk, children were focusing on their stations they were assigned to for that particular day. Every day, the students would rotate and focus on a different skill they needed to master related to the theme. For example, there was a station where children were working with vocabulary words related to the books and they had to spell it out with playdough. Also, there was a writing station where the children would retell the story with a twist. One of my favorite stations was where the children were focusing on "silent E" and had to take a word laminated and focus on repeating the word, adding an e, and writing down the new word they've created. You could tell that my coordinating teacher was practicing responsive teaching with the short amount of hours I was able to observe her for two weeks. She knew the material and made sure that it was intellectually challenging and meaningful for her students. She had amazing classroom management and it was clear that she knew her students very well, and fostered confidence within her students from very early on within the year. The most memorable moment within her classroom wasn't specifically about how she presented material, but how the students knew what was expected. An interesting detail I noticed was that she would purposely wear a silly hat that fit a theme or month that would let the students know that while she's working at the back table with small-groups, she's not to be disturbed- unless for an emergency. 

        Although hard to pinpoint the most important tips to consider while planning for literacy lesson instruction, I've listed some of my favorites below: 

• Incorporate a writing interest inventory throughout the school year. I would consider one at the beginning of the year, middle, and end. This will help you engage your students through what motivates and excites them. Not to mention, it will help you determine prompts that children can select to write their own individual pieces on. This is great because children have a sense of independence or choice of autonomy. It's also important to note that if you are following a responsive teaching model, you will be able to gauge choices by forming relationships with students and their families. Incorporating writing interest inventories benefits teachers in so many ways. You can relate to your students more, you can collect data, and plan for instruction with ease. 
• Another important tip I have for pre-service teachers forming literacy lessons is to look for excellent mirror mentor texts. (Writing Workshop, chapter 4) It's vitally crucial that as educators we are incorporating mentor texts that students can relate to and where they can see themselves represented in a classroom setting. This is an important time where you can consider also bringing in guest speakers within the community and having important real-life discussions with students that reach far beyond the classroom walls. I've included an excellent book geared towards your first week with your students. I just purchased this book and am looking forward to using it within my classroom as well! 
• A resource not talked about often that is a life saver for teachers is HP instant ink. I know for teachers a lot of us are printing so much and that can cost a pretty penny. HP has a subscription service where you're not paying for the amount of ink you use, rather the amount of pages you print. A ton of HP printers qualify, so make sure you have a compatible printer. Your printer will communicate with HP and let them know when your ink is going to run out, and they will ship it to your door when you most need it. A typical cost you may expect is 300 pages for a month at $11.99. There are less and more pages available as well!

• Plan ahead for your students who are ELL's. There are so many ways that you can provide scaffolds and instruction that is geared towards helping your ELL's understand and comprehend. Firstly, consider incorporating cognates into your lesson plans. Cognates are words that are similar within both English and other languages. For example, enorme in Spanish translates to enormous in English. Along with cognates, you should break up words into kid friendly definitions that are easier to understand and comprehend. Another great way to plan for your ELL students is to use tons of graphic supports within your lesson plans. A fact that must be considered and the reason why cognates are so important is simply because we will have students who may not understand English as well and will be stuck on decoding a small detail of the whole discussion rather than the content. A great example of this is providing a picture of a waterfall rather than just describing in words to your students. If a child can spend less time decoding what is said and more on what material is needed to know, we can make sure they're represented within the classroom. Some other ways to differentiate instruction for ELL's are allowing English learners to use their first language, oral rehearse before writing, and partner work. Below I will present supports from one of my prior years lessons plans differentiated for ELL's. 

Resources Mentioned:

Shubitz, S., Dorfman, L. R., Roberts, K., & Roberts, M. B. (2019). Welcome to writing workshop: Engaging today's students with a model that works. In Welcome to writing workshop: Engaging today's students with a model that works. Portsmouth, NH: Stenhouse.

Woodson, J., & López, R. (2019). The day you begin. Toronto: CNIB.

Instantink.hpconnected.com. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2021, from https://instantink.hpconnected.com/us/en/l/