Word Study Lesson
Lesson: Life Cycle of a Butterfly
Context: I developed this word study lesson in collaboration with a colleague while we were students in the graduate course, Teaching the Language Arts, at ASU. This course was a study of the latest research, practices, interpretation, methods, materials and strategies in teaching the language arts. We were to develop instructional practices designed to enhance children's reading. I worked collaboratively with a partner to develop, implement, and present a class lesson using a selected instructional technique. I had read and reflected on the Character of Spelling and Integrated Word Study in the ASU course, Reading Assessment and Correction. Using this understanding of word study, and the practical application of word study in my Title I classroom, my colleague and I developed a word study lesson in context with a thematic unit on penguins. Goals, objectives, and action plans were developed. The goal of the lesson was to use words from expository and narrative texts about penguins to teach students how to add the -ing and -ed suffixes to verbs, thus, providing a contextual approach to teaching vocabulary. This lesson was used in both a second grade regular classroom and a fourth grade Title I reading classroom.
Impact: My fourth grade Title I reading students skimmed and scanned several expository texts while researching facts about penguins. This was done in preparation for reading the narrative text, Mr. Popper's Penguins. In this particular word study lesson, students first brainstormed action words that describe what penguins do. Using a word web and/or a list as a visual, students then compared and contrasted the word patterns for the base words. After I wrote the -ed and -ing forms of the words on the board, students determined the principles for adding the suffixes to the words. Students were then given cards with base words and cards with the suffixes added to the base words to be used for sorting activities, concentration, and Bingo. Finally, the students connected these activities with the text as they returned to the text for word hunts. They were locating and writing words with similar patterns. This lesson was aligned with the goals and objectives outlined in the NC Standard Course of Study for the language arts.
Alignment: This word study lesson fulfills with the following INTASC Standards:
- Standard 1 - The inquiry process outlined in the action plans of this word study demonstrate my knowledge of subject matter.
- Standard 2 - My reading and reflections on spelling/word study provide evidence of my understanding of how children learn and develop. The lesson plans show the opportunities the students had to support their intellectual development.
- Standard 3 - The fact that this word study lesson was used in both a second-grade regular classroom and a fourth grade Title I reading room is evident of my ability to adapt instruction for the individual needs of my students.
- Standard 4 - The brainstorming, webbing, listing, sorting, searching, writing, and playing that was incorporated into this single lesson plan are evidence of the multiple instructional strategies I am able to incorporate into my classroom.
- Standard 5 - My use of grouping students in pairs for learning activities that were shared with the whole group demonstrates my effective use of classroom motivation and management.
- Standard 8 - The word sorts and word hunts are used to check the students understanding of adding word endings and their transfer of knowledge to other words in the text that have similar patterns. This demonstrates my assessment of student learning