Hello students!
Here is what we are doing today:
- First, watch a video to show you how to “chunk” a word. Click here to watch the video: http://www.starfall.com/n/skills/chunking/load.htm?f
- Click the Back arrow as soon as the video is over to come back to this page.
- After you watch the video, practice “chunking” these words out loud with a partner:
-Ba / na / na --> banana
-Colorful
-Monkey
-Computer
-Students
- Now work with your partner to read the Butterflies handout out loud.
When you come to a word you don’t know, underline it with a colored pencil, and then “chunk” it! Use your colored pencil to draw lines in the word to show how you “chunk” it, like this: ba/na/na.
- Both you and your partner should read out loud and “chunk” the words. You will each have your own paper to write on.
- When you finish reading, write 3 of the new words you learned how to read on your word wall.
- Then, turn your Butterflies paper in to the teacher.
- Last, you can play the Blending Bowl game to make words. Click here to play: http://pbskids.org/lions/games/blending.html
Overview:
Students:
English language level: Intermediate ESL
Lesson time: 1 hour in classroom with laptops (one per pair of students)
Class Location environment: This lesson will be taught in the ESL or mainstream classroom, depending on the ESL model in place (pull out/collaboration). Students will be paired with another student at a similar or slightly higher reading level for this activity. Laptops will be open to the class blogs, but students will start the lesson in whole group for modeling of the lesson. Once at the laptop stations, students will click on video link, and then follow the remaining steps to complete the lesson.
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Review of Lesson and Web Resource:
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Review of Lesson and Web Resource:
How will you use this resource to meet the needs of your instructional
purposes?
Starfall’s video on chunking words is a great activity to build phonemic awareness and reading fluency among emergent readers because it models the strategy and offers opportunities for interactive guided practice. Students then use the chunking strategy to help them read a nonfiction text on butterflies as a part of a unit on insects.
What handouts or directions will you provide students to focus learning
and adapt this resource for your instructional resources?
I will provide a handout of the Butterflies reading to each student, so they can demonstrate how they are chunking words by drawing separator lines between chunks (ba/na/na). Students will also have their personal word wall handouts out, so they can add 3 new words from the reading. After they turn in their reading handouts, I will look over how well they used word chunking, and will use this information to modify/adjust the next day’s lesson. The students will then get their reading handouts back, and will add them to their insect unit resource folder, so the information is accessible to them at any point in the future.
Are the format, organization, design and language level of this resource
appropriate for your instructional goals?
The resource I chose for this lesson is Starfall, which is a website geared towards emerging readers. The video on chunking words provides audio and pictorial scaffolds for students, and is interactive. The video’s introductory song has a very fast tempo, and will probably be difficult for many intermediate ELLs to understand, but the speed of the rest of the video is determined by the student’s mouse clicks. The video includes some of the words students will see in the Butterflies reading, as well as other common Tier 2 words, which helps students practice the skill.
What are the potential problems, either language based or technical that
you may need to troubleshoot or prepare for?
One potential language based problem that could arise is that emerging readers may have difficulty independently reading and understanding the lesson directions posted on the blog. I would love to include audio clips of me (or a student) reading the directions for each step. I will also model each step for students on a projector prior to sending students to their partner work stations.
purposes?
Starfall’s video on chunking words is a great activity to build phonemic awareness and reading fluency among emergent readers because it models the strategy and offers opportunities for interactive guided practice. Students then use the chunking strategy to help them read a nonfiction text on butterflies as a part of a unit on insects.
What handouts or directions will you provide students to focus learning
and adapt this resource for your instructional resources?
I will provide a handout of the Butterflies reading to each student, so they can demonstrate how they are chunking words by drawing separator lines between chunks (ba/na/na). Students will also have their personal word wall handouts out, so they can add 3 new words from the reading. After they turn in their reading handouts, I will look over how well they used word chunking, and will use this information to modify/adjust the next day’s lesson. The students will then get their reading handouts back, and will add them to their insect unit resource folder, so the information is accessible to them at any point in the future.
Are the format, organization, design and language level of this resource
appropriate for your instructional goals?
The resource I chose for this lesson is Starfall, which is a website geared towards emerging readers. The video on chunking words provides audio and pictorial scaffolds for students, and is interactive. The video’s introductory song has a very fast tempo, and will probably be difficult for many intermediate ELLs to understand, but the speed of the rest of the video is determined by the student’s mouse clicks. The video includes some of the words students will see in the Butterflies reading, as well as other common Tier 2 words, which helps students practice the skill.
What are the potential problems, either language based or technical that
you may need to troubleshoot or prepare for?
One potential language based problem that could arise is that emerging readers may have difficulty independently reading and understanding the lesson directions posted on the blog. I would love to include audio clips of me (or a student) reading the directions for each step. I will also model each step for students on a projector prior to sending students to their partner work stations.
One potential technical problem is that the Starfall video opens in the same window as the blog, so students need to click the back button on the browser to return to the blog after the video. Also, at the end of the video, there is an arrow that brings the viewer back to a page filled with Starfall stories and other videos. I will have to explicitly communicate what students should do as soon as the video ends to continue with the day’s lesson.
This is a great lesson, I have heard of starfall, but never used it myself. I think it would be useful to tell students they must click on the word to make it "chunk", I didn't know that and waited for a while. Also, hitting the back button is a good point to make since the colorful starfall page comes up and could distract people.
ReplyDeleteHow will you decide how students are paired? Also, how will it work for pairs to use one laptop? How will it be chosen who does the clicking? This could be a struggle with first graders. I also think that it is a great lesson for that age level, but am not sure if intermediate ESL level is appropriate. I am not sure because I haven't taught ESL to first grade before.
One more question, if they are in the classroom and the model is push-in, will students be in a small group with you? I am assuming they will wear headphones for this activity, but how will a pair of students do that on one laptop?
I can't wait to use starfall myself, thanks for the introduction to it.
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteGood point about including directions on clicking the word to "chunk" it. I would definitely want to add that before using this lesson. I was thinking that it would be helpful to have students open the link in a new window or tab, so they can just close it as soon as the video is over (or it could already be open in a new tab for them). Because the Butterflies reading has a few difficult words in it (I could also post the reading on the blog for people to reference), I think pairing lower students with higher students could be helpful in making sure students are using/understanding the chunking strategy, along with other reading strategies they already know (sounding out, etc). That said, the ESL level could probably be more accurately classified as high beginning/low intermediate, because the reading is modified to be more accessible to emergent readers, but does include some tier 2 words.
Students will take turns clicking words and navegating the blog. To answer your question about how two students will wear headphones while using one computer, we use shared headphones adapters that allow two sets of headphones to plug into one computer.
Good questions! It helps to have another person think a lesson through, especially one where newer/different technology is being incorporated. Thanks for your comments.
I like the way you organized the lesson and adding video is a great way for your young students to engage in the lesson and further their understanding. One thought that came to mind as I watched the video is will students be able to understand the singing introduction and guide? I know that when I study languages it is almost always harder for me to understand it when it is being sung. Given that challenge, I see how you have scripted it so that the students will have a copy in front of them to use the mechanics of separating the words.
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing us to that nice site. I think their might be a way in the browser settings what will open a new tab or window when you click on the site in your lesson.
Nigel