What Went Well & Why
- I think the kids loved the memory game about -self. They seemed engaged. I kept it egalitarian, not making it a contest of winners and losers but one of reinforcing collocations. It succeeded because a) Ss were engaged, b) there was a sense of fun and community, c) noncompetitive, d) visual, and e) seemed effective in getting them to know the concept: one they hadn’t gotten last week.
- The song and movement. I was amazed that they have, after only one prior experience with the song, already memorized words, and want to sing them. It built community, fluency (even though they don’t understand all the words), targeted vocab… and it gets their bodies moving.
What Didn’t Go Well & Why
- The reading totally bombed. I had read the teacher’s guide and mistakenly assumed that their detailed instruction was based on the children’s prior learning and knowledge. I was wrong. I had expected that whoever wrote the instructions wouldn’t involve words, structures and concepts totally alien to the children without preparation. Wrong again. So I followed the lesson plan exactly as outline in the teacher’s guide, asking the first question, and realized they had no clue what the story was about. I should have been tipped off by the title, which included “Third Grade” without an explanation. Only in the US would that have meaning. So I got the kids to figure out how old third grade was. But that was the only specific additional prep I did.
- Behavioral issues: Minor but disruptive. I didn’t know how to manage them.
What I Would Have Changed
- I would have done the reading completely differently. Maybe brought in photos and realia and had them act out the story once we’d reviewed its meaning.
- I would find a way to break the monotony of the text while still following the curriculum
In Summary
In general I want to figure out how to balance the restrictions and sometimes stupidities (in my opinion) of the text with stuff that holds more interest. Here they are, well into the Health unit that was begun before my arrival, and they don’t know what the word “health” means. Merely repeating the words in different contexts (as per the text) isn’t working.
Here is the lesson plan for that class:
Lesson Plan T/T Children: February 2, 2010
Supplies:
| Time | Teacher | Students | Notes |
| Write on board: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF | |||
| 10:00 | Hand out body drawing. Remember parts of body we’ve talked about before. | Identify parts: muscles, heart, stomach, ears, throat, legs, feet, arms, hands, mind. Label your drawing. | Handout |
| 10:00 | Put up their sports drawings. Record their spoken descriptions. | What should you do to keep yourself safe when you play ______? What parts of the body does the exercise keep healthy? | |
| 5:00 | Write on board EXCERCISES and SPORTS. Whisper a word to a child. Once the sport is guessed correctly, write word on board. |
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| 5:00 | “Should” and “shouldn’t” exercises: present “safe” and “dangerous” versions of sports. | Match the photos and say which they should do to be safe. | Handout |
| 10:00 | Look at homework (#9): the grid | Have each child take turns reading the grid. | |
| 5:00 | #10: Take are of yourself exercise. One at a time, describe picture to your partner and describe what you do (or don’t do). | Write “stay up late” and “go to bed early.” Sunscreen. Helmet. Eat healthy foods. | |
| 10:00 | Self memory game | Index cards | |
| 5:00 | SAFE & SOUND: PRE 1. Ask Ss to look at the S&S header and the photos and predict what the story is about. Write predictions on board. Write S&S on board and explain it means away from danger. | ||
| 5:00 | SAFE & SOUND: PRE 2. Point to life preserver and to 1st aid kit and id words. Ask when do we use them? Lines from words to pix | ||
| 10:00 | SAFE & SOUND: DURING. Read 1st article to selves. Do you know words? Have the figure from pix & context: “What do you think?” If they can’t guess, skip it and go on. After quiet review, I read, stopping for comprehension. | Then they read a sentence each. Then three of them act it out (comprehension) | Note: do during and post for each article before moving on to next. |
| 5:00 | Hand out index cards with questions. | Have them answer by referring to text if necessary. | For some, hand out questions before reading, some after |
| 20:00 | Repeat for all readings. Sometimes hand out the cards first. | ||
| 15:00 | Optional to insert for vocab reinforcement: Bingo Grid | Kid makes a grid of 2 x 2. | I write on WB: Flu, cold, scissors, aspirin, thermometer, healthy, soap, blanket, stomachache, earache, soccer, swimming, gymnastics, basketball, doctor, toothache, tea, exercise, headache, dentist |
| HOMEWORK: Set context for cartoon (man & bird): Who are they? Do they know each other? Are they friends? Where are they going? | Write what they are saying to each other about what they want to do together. | ||
| 15:00 | Optional: Build schema for Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly. Review vocab & lyrics. | Listen. Ask questions: have you even eaten a fly? Have you ever eaten something you shouldn’t. Why did she eat a fly? | Handout. |
| 10:00 | Optional: Shel Silverstein poem |