Rachele Smith

EDLA 222
Fall 2019
Dr. Stoetzel

A Literacy Lesson Series:

Reflection Response Form

Part 1: Creating a Context

1. Briefly summarize the context you have selected for this assignment. Include relevant
information about the grade level, classroom, focal group and focal student.
Taylor is a 6-year-old in a class of 14 first grade students. Half of her classmates are
ELA students. There are 4 teachers that help give students individual attention for
success. Taylor has 6 letter sounds and has a vary hard time remembering sight words.
Sha has no sentence writing. Each student has their own book boxes tailored to
individual needs, with books going home and having the opportunity for family book
time. Taylor seems to be sad and lacking confidence. With proper motivation Taylor will
try and succeed.

Part II: Choosing a Focus

2. Describe the central focus for your lesson series.

My central focus is to have Taylor Retell a story, using text structure features.

3. Explain why this is a meaningful focus for your classroom/focal group/focal student.
By using chronic logical text structures Taylor can begin gaining confidence. Also,
the school is shifting to using only Common Core State Standards, this will help them
transition.

4. How did you draw upon reading, writing, and other literacy constructs in order to
support student meaning-making?
Taylor will be using new vocabulary with the chronological text structures. Taylor
will use drawing and prompting to describe her pictures. Also, Taylor will be able to
connect her newer vocabulary to her everyday books and personal stories.

5. What standards are these lessons aligned to?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2
Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their
central message or lesson.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

6. What are the learning objectives for the lesson series?

The students will be able to retell a story in three main sections using
chronological text structures.
 The students will be able to use illustrations to retell a story in three sections using
main events.

Part III: Drawing on Knowledge of Students

7. How did you use knowledge of student needs/interests to guide your lesson planning?
Taylor seems to need a boot to her confidence and when she is successful, she has
more motivation to keep trying. By offering a scaffolding lesson this ensures that she can
fins the motivation.

8. What prior content knowledge, skills, and academic vocabulary are necessary for
students to engage in your lesson plans?
Students need to understand the following vocabulary: first/ once upon a time,
next/then, finally.
Students need to, with a refresher, understand: plot, problem, solution, and rising
action.

9. How do you activate and build that prior knowledge in your plans?
Modeling the language during direct instruction.

10. What learning evidence would be helpful to think about during planning, and how
would you use it?
Writing samples that Taylor has done, along with the rest of class. To know how
much additional help students will need with writing, and how students will be able to
use simple sentences to describe their drawings. I would like to see all conference
notes along with parental correspondence, to know how the students are fairing thus
far in the school year. I would like to see all testing data, with that I can better gauge the
classroom dynamics.

11. Describe how you planned multiple opportunities and pathways for student
engagement and meaning-making in your lesson series.
I use writing, reading, drawing, and verbal telling to engage the student in several
different ways. I also wanted to have different levels of encouragement to boost confidence,
having peers, parental volunteers, and my self as the teacher both show the uncertainty
and then mastery of a topic helps with the confidence of the class as a whole.

Part IV: Designing a Text Set

12. Describe the strategy you used to organize your text set.
 Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister; The digital text
 Hank Finds an Egg by Peter Pauper Press
 Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas
 The Little Red Pen by Susan Stevens Crummel
 The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
 I wanted to pick stories that students may know, while also offering new and
exciting texts. While I am not super confident with digital texts, I felt that a story that I
knew well with a very forward beginning, middle, and end would help both the students
and I boost our confidence. Hank Finds an Egg is a book with no words. This gives the
students an opportunity to both explore the story their own way and does not present
the actual language we usually use for context clues.
My final three books are texts that have a well-defined beginning, middle and end
but are differential into groups dependent on the student’s needs, scaffolding the
learning.

13. What knowledge of students did you use to guide your selections?
Taylor seemed to be lacking motivation and confidence, this led me to choose
stories that first graders would be exposed to in kindergarten. Two of my books, Three
Little Wolves and The Big Bad Pig and The Little Red Pen are stories that are parodies. So,
while familiar with the story, the characters and main events are slightly changed. This
exposure can help boost confidence by students making parallels.

14. Explain how these texts will work together to support students in relation to your
central literacy focus.
Each story has a very defined beginning, middle and end. Once we recall the
chronological vocabulary students will be able to link the two together. By picking
books that are developmentally different, each student, no matter their capabilities can
succeed.

Part V: Developing Lesson Plans

Lesson 1 Title: introduction to 3-Frame Teacher: Rachele Smith

Grade Level: 1st Subject Area: Language Arts
Time Needed: 35 minutes Topic: B-M-E

Common Core State Standards addressed in this lesson:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2
Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central
message or lesson.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Learning Objectives:
I can retell a story in three main sections.

Materials Needed:
 Rainbow fish digital text
 Hank Finds an Egg book (teacher copy, and one for each group)
 Elmo
  2 3-Frame worksheets
 Rainbow fish graphics in Beginning, middle, end
 Glue
 Scissors
 Color pencils
 Writing utensil

Lesson Context:
 Classroom expectations for glue and scissors.
 Beginning, middle, and end vocabulary as used with retelling

Lesson Opening:
Gather student’s attention at their desks. “Remember when we talked about friendship?
How we talked but helping others? Today we are going to look over two different stories that are
going to highlight that. Our focus will be how the story is told. Remember when I told you the
story of the gross cheesecake? How at the end I said, ‘and it all went into the trash’? We can’t
start a story with the end since that would make for a strange story.”

Procedures:
Begin with viewing Rainbow Fish, the digital text. Once finished we will look at the 3-
Frame together. With the help of the Elmo students will, during we do instruction, label the three
boxes, beginning, middle, end. They will then work in their table groups, cutting out the pictures
of rainbow fish and glue them in order as the story went. Together as a class we will talk about
the beginning picture, middle picture and end picture.
Then using the Elmo, we will go though Hank Finds an Egg. Giving students time to look
through the book slowly. Because this book has no words each student can create their ow
narratives. Working with in their table groups students will draw their 3-Frame detailing Hank’s
story in the three major sections.

Closure:
I would like you to turn to your partner and use your think, pair, share time to describe
your favorite recess story. Remember to give your story a beginning, middle and end.

Assessment:
I will use the 3-Frame worksheets to assess the students understanding of how a story can
be broken into three main parts.
Lesson 2 Title: Small group story chunks Teacher: Rachele Smith
Grade Level: 1st Subject Area: Language Arts
Time Needed: 60 minutes Topic: First/Then/Finally

Common Core State Standards addressed in this lesson:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2
Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central
message or lesson.

Learning Objectives:
I can retell a story using different chronological language structures in small groups.

Materials Needed:
 3 pocket charts
 3 parental volunteers
 4 copies of Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig
 4 copies of The Little Red Pen
 4 copies of The Very Hungry Caterpillar
 Story cards for each story

Lesson Context:
 Classroom expectation for Reading Group work
 Vocabulary: First, Then, Next, Finally, Last as pertaining to storytelling

Lesson Opening:
Yesterday we talked about the beginning, middle, and end of two stories. Each story was a
little different but had the same theme of friendship. Todays stories are a bit different. There are
three different stories, and you will get time to visit each story and explore. Let’s break into our
reading groups an get started.

Procedures:
Each group Leader will have been briefed on what the groups will look like. Gather
students, explore the story cards, and then rad through the story. Each leader will have
prompting questions for the stories if students need help exploring the new language of the
day. “What came first? Then what happens? Finally, what is the end?”

Closure:
Once dismissed from the reading groups students will return to their table groups and
think, pair, share their favorite story and why.

Assessment:
During reading groups, I will be able to move between groups and assess how well the
students can use the new chronological language by how they describe the story cards.
Lesson 3 Title: Personal story retell drawings Teacher: Rachele Smith
Grade Level: 1st Subject Area: Language Arts
Time Needed: one hour- SSR time Topic: Retelling (BME)

Common Core State Standards addressed in this lesson:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2
Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central
message or lesson.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Learning Objectives:
I can use drawings to retell a personal text in three main sections using main events and
chronological language.

Materials Needed:
 Personal text
 3-Frame worksheets
 Drawing utensils

Lesson Context:
 Individual project expectations

Lesson Opening:
Today I want to be able to sit with each of you and talk about what book has your
interest. While we work on the last 3-Frame this week, each student will get 3 minutes for some
one-on-one time.

Procedures:
Students will pick their favorite book from their book bins. I will remind children of the
vocabulary we used this past week for our 3-Frame retelling.
I will call each student to our meeting table, and chat about the drawings and their book,
going over the main three sections.

Closure:
Once I meet with each student, we will meet as a group on the rug. “Do you remember
my story in the beginning of week?” After that we will discuss why it is important to keep
stories in order.

Assessment:
The summative assessment is the one-on-one conference and 3-frame about their
personal text from the book box. This will let me check once again that they are using the
language from the week, able to draw the main parts of story, and verbalize the retelling of
their story.