Learning Experience:The Development of Seasonal Word and Sight Word Vocabulary Through Multiple Readings of the Book: Caps, Hats, Socks, and Mittens - Author(s): Linda J. Puleo - This learning experience is based on Standard 1 and 2 of the N.Y.S. English Language Arts Learning Standards. Students will make appropriate and effective use of strategies to construct meaning from print, such as prior knowledge about a subject, structural and context clues, and an understanding of letter-sound relationships to decode difficult words.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Title: The Development of Seasonal Word and Sight Word Vocabulary Through Multiple Readings of the Book Caps, Hats, Socks, and Mittens
by Louise Borden

Author: Linda J. Puleo

School: General Herkimer School
Utica, New York 13502

Learning Context

This learning experience is based on Standard 1 and 2 of the N.Y.S. English Language Arts Learning Standards. Students will make appropriate and effective use of strategies to construct meaning from print, such as prior knowledge about a subject, structural and context clues, and an understanding of letter-sound relationships to decode difficult words.(standard 1-5) In reading for literary response students will engage in prereading and reading activities in order to: make connections between personal experiences and a story read and connect a picture or illustration to a story.(ELA Resource Guide ,Standard 2-3)

This learning experience will be taught as a part of a thematic unit on the four seasons of the year. Activity centers will be set up in the classroom related to the book read. A book and tape will be in the listening center, a seasonal mobile will be made at the art center using the seasonal objects read about in the book, activities related to the number twelve will be in the math center (for the twelve months of the year depicted in the book), writing activities relating to the four seasons will be at the writing center and students will write stories about the four seasons on the computer. The make words table will consist of seasonal word/picture matching, a board game using seasonal words and high frequency sight words from the book, and a velcro board with velcro letters to make seasonal words from the story.

The students need to be able to sit and listen attentively to a big book shared reading. They need a working knowledge of the letters of the alphabet and letter sounds. They will need to have had exposure to the high frequency words ; is, and , the , a, in, to, on, of, I, can, my. The students will also need to listen and follow directions.The students will have previously begun a class KWL chart on the four seasons as part of the unit initiating activity.

Procedure

1^stBig Book Reading: The students will predict what the story will be about after looking at and discussing the cover illustration. The teacher will read the story to the students. Check and discuss student predictions. Discuss how the story made the students feel. The students will draw their favorite part of the story.

Related Writing Lesson: Choose one of the seasons of the year to write a class story using the story pattern from the book and student experiences from that season. Ex. Winter is…

2^nd Reading: Reread the big book pausing on key seasonal words . Discuss letter and picture clues and reading strategies used to figure out the new words. ( skip an unknown word using sentence meaning to help you to read the word, look for smaller known words within a larger word, sound out the word)

3^rd Reading: Reread the story chorally. Close the book and ask students for sentences and phrases that they remember from the story. Write the students’ responses next to their names on the blackboard. Ask each student to read his/her response to the class. Have the students copy one response from the blackboard and illustrate it.

4^th Reading: Reread the story as a shared reading. Complete several cloze sentences from the story on the blackboard together.

5^th Reading: Pocket Chart Lesson- Take several sentences or phrases from the story. Print them on sentence strips. Draw an illustration for each sentence on a separate strip. Pass the illustrations out to the students. Take turns reading the sentence strips orally and matching the strip to the correct picture. Leave the materials out to practice with a partner during center time.

Story –Related Whole Group Activity: Print the letters of the alphabet across the blackboard. Prepare seasonal pictures with the coordinating word from the story to pass out to each student. Explain that we are going to sort the words and pictures to discover which beginning sound from the alphabet is used the most. Students will take turns reading the word for his/her picture and placing it above the corresponding letter for the beginning sound heard.

Story-Related Buddy Activity: Using the student books, work with a partner to find and record how many times the high frequency sight words a, the, and, I, to, on, are found in the book. The teacher will give each pair of students a prepared graph with the sight words printed along the bottom. The students will print the word each time they find it above the like word on the bottom of the graph. (This activity can be varied according to individual and class needs –choose the sight words that need reviewing and practice accordingly.)

Daily Morning Work Related to the Story:

The teacher will type the story lines to make student copies of the book without the illustrations. The students will read one or two pages of the book each morning and illustrate the sentences.

Instructional Modifications:

A seasonal word and picture vocabulary chart using words from the story will be displayed in the classroom for use in story rereading and writing activities. Actual seasonal objects and pictures will be used and displayed. This is especially important for the English As A Second Language students in the classroom. The teacher will purposely pair up students who need extra support with partners who are able to act as peer tutors during buddy activities.

Physical Modifications of the Classroom Setting:

The classroom is set up with students sitting at tables. Each table is assigned a color. Those students work together for group projects. The color codes are used as designated center areas during center time. There are bookshelves near each table with related center activities.

Materials & Supplies

Student materials and supplies: paper, pencil, crayons, scissors, glue, student books to illustrate, scotch tape

Teacher materials and supplies: big book, pocket chart, prepared sentence strips and matching picture cards, blackboard and chalk, sight word graph for sight word activity, seasonal objects and pictures, seasonal words and pictures from the story, a computer, a printer , and a word processing program for student use

Center materials to make or purchase- pictures for making the seasons mobile(pictures from the story for each season, two straws for each student, a wire tie to connect the straws, string, strips to write the names of each season for the mobile, seasonal pictures to write about for the writing center, teacher-made matching cards to match seasonal words to the correct picture, seasonal vocabulary word chart with words and pictures, velcro letters to make the seasonal words on the velcro board, puzzles and activities related to the number 12 at the math center, a copy of the book with a listening tape at the listening center

Assessment Tools & Techniques

Teacher Observations

Group Discussions

Peer Evaluation(particularly at sight word center games and buddy reading)

Self Check for some center activities

A collection of written work related to the learning experience (save seasonal stories from the writing center and the computer center)

Center checklist sheet for each student to record completion of center acitvities

Individual oral testing for sight word vocabulary knowledge and progress (You can use a class sight word list or the list may be individualized for each child and the words that they need to learn.)

Matching worksheet with sentences and pictures from the story to read and match(phrases from the story with pictures to draw a line to the match, seasonal pictures from the story with a list of words to choose the correct word to write under the picture)

Student illustrations in student books and oral reading of each page daily to the teacher as illustrations are completed

Caps, Hats, Socks, and Mittens Assessment Checklist

Name: ________________________________________ Date:______________________________

1. The student follows the story lines with the class. __Developed, __Shows Improvement, __Needs Developing

2. The student can illustrate a story line. __Developed, ___Shows Improvement,__Needs Developing

3. The student can read story lines __Developed, ___Shows Improvement, __Needs Developing independently to the teacher

4. The student can write his/her own __Developed, ___Shows Improvement, ___Needs Developing thought about a season in a complete sentence.

5. The student can name the four seasons. __Developed, ___Shows Improvement, ___Needs Developing

6. The student can match seasonal words __Developed, ___Shows Improvement, ___Needs Developing from the story to a matching picture.

7. The student can match phrases and story __Developed, ___Shows Improvement, ___Needs Developing lines from the story to a matching picture.

Teacher Comments:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Time Required

Planning: one week to plan , collect, and make needed materials

Implementation: 2 to 3 weeks of the thematic unit for the whole group and buddy activities; center activities may be kept out throughout the unit for continued practice and reinforcement

Assessment: routine daily progress checks and teacher observations; 1-2 days for worksheet tests and individual sight word testing

Student Work

Student work will be brought to the peer review along with pictures taken during the unit and this particular set of lessons related to the learning experience.

Reflection

To better meet the needs of all students and to better support student progress toward attainment of the learning standards I would implement the use of an intermediate classroom of students to read and share the book with students individually. I would like to purchase student copies of the big book for classroom use and to send home for home reading. We could also have played charades by acting out seasonal activities and finding the corresponding page and sentence in the book to the action. To incorporate ELA Standard 4 , I would ask the children to bring in pictures from home showing their actual seasonal experiences to share with the class during circle time. We could use these pictures to create a class experience book about the four seasons using the story pattern from the book.

This learning experience reflects current scholarship and "best" classroom practice in that students are given visual, auditory, tactile, individual, group, and collaborative experiences. The students are also asked to relate prior knowledge of the seasons to the learning experience.