Vocabulary Minilesson

1. Introduction of Topic
Scott O’Dell’s Sing Down the Moon has already been introduced to the class. Students should have read the first few chapters at least already. Explain to students that there are plenty of words in this book (as well as others) that may be new to them; and that there are words which may be familiar to them, but seem to be used in a different way than they are used to. Offer the seven words printed on the handout as examples: (sled, flounder, swell, stunt, bear, league, draw).

2. Share Examples
Distribute the handouts and ask students for initial thoughts on definitions or meanings of the words. Have them write down these thoughts for some or all of the given examples. As an example, take the first word, sled, and ask for definitions, or offer one such as “Santa’s vehicle”. Then look up the page that the word is located on and have the students read the sentence. “Out of the two willow poles and a blanket we fashioned a sled and put him on it, hitching the sled to the strongest horse”.
Ask students how the word used in this context relates to the definition offered before reading the passage. What is similar/different? A possible question could be: Usually when we think of the word sled, we think of snow—but these characters are in the deserts and canyons of Arizona—what does that make you think about the word?
Look up the definition of the word in a dictionary and/or thesaurus. Discuss findings about the definition(s) of the word.

3. Provide Information
Explain to students that it will be to their benefit if they make use of dictionaries/thesauruses, and the skills to find out more about words they don’t know or that are used in a context they’re not used to. Offer examples of ways they can look up words such as those discussed—with technology (websites, online dictionaries, etc.) books (paper thesaurus, dictionary), and others.

4. Guide Practice
Have the students look up the rest of the words on the handout in the novel and continue with the steps as followed for the example. Spaces on the handout are provided so that students may add new or interesting words that aren’t included on the list that they may choose to look up and learn about. Students should be encouraged and required to fill in at least two more words on the sheet.

5. Assess Learning
After the handouts are completed, probably during the next lesson, ask for volunteers to share findings on any of the words on the list. Compare these results with those of other students in the class. Also, ask for volunteers to share new words they added to the list and the findings for those words as well. A list or poster can be created in the classroom to show findings and offer examples of “multiple definition words”.

Language Vocabulary Lesson

Angela Lowry
03-31-09
TE 402 mini lesson/ language vocabulary
Sing Down th Moon

• While reading the story I would have the students write in their writing journal two action or descriptive words from each chapter and write down next the word the page number so they can find the sentence the word came from.
  
• When we are finished reading the book we will look at their lists, with 23 chapters they should have about 45-46 words.
  
• I will have the students pick 20 of those words and write them on a separate paper and each student will get a Thesaurus.
  
• Then they will look up the words and write down two more words that are synonyms.
  They will then rewrite the sentence that the original word came from with one of their new words. The new word should be underlined.
  
• I hope to have the students recognize that there are more words out there that can be used is similar situations. This will increase their vocabulary and make them better readers and be more aware of the words that they are reading. They will also learn that you can uses other sources to find similar words and meanings (dictionaries, thesaurus).
  

Some examples are
Chapter 1

Original word-steep
page number-1
two new words- towering, ascending
sentence- "Warm winds melted the snow and blue water gathered under the trees and ran through the meadows and down the towering barrancas."

Original word-scatter
page number-3
two new words-disperse, spread out
sentence-"When we left the trail it was fun to see them disperse out over the meadow to crop the first young grass, as though they had never eaten in their lives."

here is the vocabulary lesson plan that I came up with




Vocab. lesson rational: to increase word knowledge the students will make a list of words that are not familiar to them from the book.
Objective of the lesson: to help students expand their vocabulary
Materials: large piece of butcher paper, construction paper, and art supplies

Introduction to the lesson: Inform the students that the class will be reading the novel,” Breadwinner” and that the book may contain words that are unfamiliar to them. Explain that in order to enhance the students understanding the class will be making a word wall of unfamiliar words that they can explore further.
Outline
- assign small groups of students to skim specific chapters for words that they do not recognize
- have each group make a list of words to share with the class
- The class will compile the lists on to a piece of butcher paper
- Assign each student a word to look up or research
- Students will make a poster to visual represent each word
- Posters will be presented and displayed in the classroom for students to refer back to as they read the novel.
- Reorganize the words on a word wall into groups based on parts of speech or topics.

Example word:
Nooria
Parvanna
Kabul
Taliban
Shalwar Kameez
Malali
Burqu
Ongoing assessment: Set aside some time for the students to take turns reading the novel aloud as a group. when a word wall word is used stop and ask a child what the word means. If the child is unable to remember have him or her refer to the posters.

Mrs. Potter write up

In reading the article about accommodations that can be made for children in the classroom who have specific learning needs, it seems that each child that Mrs. Potter described could benefit from some form of visual support in the classroom. In Lupita’s case it seems that her only difficulty is the language barrier. The use of signs to label objects around the classroom that featured visual images along with words would help her expand her vocabulary. Putting pictures with the directions would also help her to become more self sufficient with English based assignments.

Regarding Eddie’s situation it appears as if he has a case of ADD. In dealing with such students the article suggested that visual aids such as schedules and work diagrams. These will give Eddie direction on where to go and the steps that he should be doing in an activity.

Thought it is hard to specifically identify Jonathon’s barriers to learning it seems that it giving pictorial directions or steps that he can follow to accomplish a taste would also benefit him as well.

"Gifted and Challenging"

After reading the "Gifted and Challenging" article (Kostelnick, 2002), I started thinking about the students in my placement classroom. There are more than a handful of "challenging" students among my first graders, but the article has caused me to look closer, looking for the possibilities of gifted and talented students among the challenging ones.

Some of my students who tend to be "off task" a lot of the time may in fact just be bored with the work they are doing. I know that a lot of them are struggling with the classwork, some more than others, but I never thought to think that their "problems" may not be just behavioral but educational--I need to start paying closer attention to these students to get a better look at what really is happening.

I think an important lesson I took from this article was that (as we've heard many times before) students learn in different ways with different needs. As teachers, it's vital that we are sensitive to these differences so that all students can achieve to the best of their abilities.