Reflection and Moving Forward
As a follow-up to this lesson, I would further teach rhymes. It was a good first lesson and offered practice, but all the students would benefit from more rhyming exercises because sounding out words and hearing sounds are such integral parts of kindergarten. I really liked the structure of the lesson because it flowed smoothly and had a nice balance between individual attention and group conversation. I liked the concept of exposing the students to rhymes by famous writers such as Shel Silverstein; I would keep this component but share a new poem in the follow-up lesson.
When the students were not at the board, they were able to practice on their own individual white boards. Moving forward, I would give each student a more challenging word to rhyme – maybe the word “key” and have the conversation that words have to sound the same, not necessarily be spelled the same way. However, the purpose of this first lesson was to show that when you know how to spell one, you could easily figure out how to spell another. Also, based on my experience with this lesson, I can come up with more suitable words to enhance a child’s understanding of rhymes.
In assessing Morena’s individual time at the board and how she gave me so many rhymes in a short amount of time, I would bump her up to a more challenging word or present her with a word such as “key” and show “she, see, be.”
For a closure in a follow-up lesson, I could change around the game a little bit. One example would be groups that would have to match cards based on both words and pictures. Because not many kindergartners are reading, the written words would have to be site words that we go over every day. One match could be the word “look” and a picture of a book. These two would have to get in a group together, and another could be the word “can” with a picture of a pan, and finally, the word “far” with a picture of a star. Another version of this game could be me verbally give them the word “glass” and having them respond verbally with words that rhyme. Not seeing the endings written down may be challenging for some students who need the visual support. This is another example of releasing more responsibility so students can make their own rhymes over the course of several lessons.
At some point down the road, the final group activity could be that the first person chooses any word, then the next person has to rhyme with that word, and so on down the line. We would play this multiple times so everyone would get a chance to go first and everyone would have to go last.
The next time I teach this same first lesson on rhymes, I would make sure the pictures I choose for the final game are clear to avoid unnecessary confusion and conflict. There were a couple instances where students thought the picture was one thing but it was really another, so finding their partner in the matching game was difficult. Specifically, there was a picture of a coffee mug, but the student turned it the other way and looked at it as a bag. As a result, he could not find a rhyming partner. In that same situation, his partner was the bug, who saw her picture as an ant.
My initial reaction when I finished the lesson was I was afraid the lesson was boring. After talking to my mentor and watching the video, I realized I let the misbehavior of one student make me feel like he was bored. After taking a step back, I realized there are many factors that contribute to his behavior and the presence of a camera encouraged his actions – he was essentially putting on a show. His word was “wet” and the first rhyme he gave was “camera.” Since this is his second year in kindergarten, he knows rhymes, so if I did this lesson with him again, there would be no camera.
I found the collaboration component very helpful when planning and implementing this lesson. Although Marna and I had separate lesson plans, we were able to discuss ideas. We have been in the exact same classroom all semester, so we have worked closely together and are starting to figure out our strengths and weaknesses as teachers. Because we are different people, we have different strengths and different teaching styles. After I taught my lesson and Marna watched, the next day we sat on the bench outside GSE and debriefed. This gave me time to reflect and make sense of what I saw and how it went.
Our “big picture” for our lessons was the same but Marna played the closing game differently because she only had four students in her group. One of her rounds included one rhyming pair and then two separate and individual pictures that did not rhyme. She also took out the pictures of bug/ant and purse/mug. (See below.) The kids loved it, and it was necessary to take out bug and mug because it caused confusion. Also, when individual students were at the board, I suggested letters when they got stuck or only had a couple of rhymes. Marna gave them several letters and they had to pick one that worked and ignore the other letters. This collaboration is similar to what I hope grade group meetings or grade partners will be next year. The two of us work well together and I think that is because we are so different. The two groups of students got a lesson on rhymes but with varying strategies.
When the students were not at the board, they were able to practice on their own individual white boards. Moving forward, I would give each student a more challenging word to rhyme – maybe the word “key” and have the conversation that words have to sound the same, not necessarily be spelled the same way. However, the purpose of this first lesson was to show that when you know how to spell one, you could easily figure out how to spell another. Also, based on my experience with this lesson, I can come up with more suitable words to enhance a child’s understanding of rhymes.
In assessing Morena’s individual time at the board and how she gave me so many rhymes in a short amount of time, I would bump her up to a more challenging word or present her with a word such as “key” and show “she, see, be.”
For a closure in a follow-up lesson, I could change around the game a little bit. One example would be groups that would have to match cards based on both words and pictures. Because not many kindergartners are reading, the written words would have to be site words that we go over every day. One match could be the word “look” and a picture of a book. These two would have to get in a group together, and another could be the word “can” with a picture of a pan, and finally, the word “far” with a picture of a star. Another version of this game could be me verbally give them the word “glass” and having them respond verbally with words that rhyme. Not seeing the endings written down may be challenging for some students who need the visual support. This is another example of releasing more responsibility so students can make their own rhymes over the course of several lessons.
At some point down the road, the final group activity could be that the first person chooses any word, then the next person has to rhyme with that word, and so on down the line. We would play this multiple times so everyone would get a chance to go first and everyone would have to go last.
The next time I teach this same first lesson on rhymes, I would make sure the pictures I choose for the final game are clear to avoid unnecessary confusion and conflict. There were a couple instances where students thought the picture was one thing but it was really another, so finding their partner in the matching game was difficult. Specifically, there was a picture of a coffee mug, but the student turned it the other way and looked at it as a bag. As a result, he could not find a rhyming partner. In that same situation, his partner was the bug, who saw her picture as an ant.
My initial reaction when I finished the lesson was I was afraid the lesson was boring. After talking to my mentor and watching the video, I realized I let the misbehavior of one student make me feel like he was bored. After taking a step back, I realized there are many factors that contribute to his behavior and the presence of a camera encouraged his actions – he was essentially putting on a show. His word was “wet” and the first rhyme he gave was “camera.” Since this is his second year in kindergarten, he knows rhymes, so if I did this lesson with him again, there would be no camera.
I found the collaboration component very helpful when planning and implementing this lesson. Although Marna and I had separate lesson plans, we were able to discuss ideas. We have been in the exact same classroom all semester, so we have worked closely together and are starting to figure out our strengths and weaknesses as teachers. Because we are different people, we have different strengths and different teaching styles. After I taught my lesson and Marna watched, the next day we sat on the bench outside GSE and debriefed. This gave me time to reflect and make sense of what I saw and how it went.
Our “big picture” for our lessons was the same but Marna played the closing game differently because she only had four students in her group. One of her rounds included one rhyming pair and then two separate and individual pictures that did not rhyme. She also took out the pictures of bug/ant and purse/mug. (See below.) The kids loved it, and it was necessary to take out bug and mug because it caused confusion. Also, when individual students were at the board, I suggested letters when they got stuck or only had a couple of rhymes. Marna gave them several letters and they had to pick one that worked and ignore the other letters. This collaboration is similar to what I hope grade group meetings or grade partners will be next year. The two of us work well together and I think that is because we are so different. The two groups of students got a lesson on rhymes but with varying strategies.