Lesson Plan: Incy Wincy Spider

Free Nursery Rhyme elearning resource. All Free www.pixelhouseonline.com 

Lesson Plan: Beginner Readers

Skills Be aware of skills to be developed but focus on just few in each session building on what is known

Sight Words: up, down, the, and, came

Letter focus: ‘s’

Punctuation

Picture clues

Letter name: ‘s’

Rhyme: Incy, Wincy

               spout, out

               rain, again

Visual text cues

Tracking left to right, voice to word

One to one matching

Reading for meaning

Reading for pleasure

Sequence: the order of events in the story

Comprehension: Use imagination to predict events and embellish the story.

Day 1

1. Sing the rhyme together with the action then sing-along with the online version.

2. Read Incy Wincy together

Begin by discussing the illustration on the title screen and follow this with questions about the title.

What is the title of this book? What letter does the title start with?

What is the name of this letter? What sound does this letter make?

Does anyone have this letter in his or her name?

Read and talk about each page. Keep the discussion light and playful. Enjoyment is the key, as this will bring them back to repeat the experience.

After two or three pages and if they seem to be grasping the text, ask if anyone can read it.

Locate the ‘s’ sound. Can you find the letter that makes that sound? Can you draw that letter in the air and make the ‘s’ sound.

Ask the children to locate the word  ‘up’.  If they display confidence ask them to locate the other sight words; ‘down’, ‘the’ ‘and’ ‘came’.

3. Create

Be prepared with a variety of threads, string, tubes and tape, set out on a table for children to construct their own spider and water spout.

Discuss the making process. The aim is always for the child to make their unique artwork. Let them enjoy this process so they can tell their story about their artwork.

After the spiders are complete write a caption for each child’s art on a card. Use the child’s words.

Display the spiders and spouts and their caption

Day 2

Begin the following lesson looking at and appreciating each child’s spider creations and read the captions. Where possible each child reads their caption Give them all the support they need to be successful. success at this point is important.

Open the ‘Create’ screen and use the moveable objects to retell the rhyme.

Sing and re-read “Incy Wincy”. Before reading consider the literacy skills that this group of children need to work on and which few you will be the focus. During this reading involve the children as much as you can without loosing the enthusiasm for the book.

Choose a favourite screen in the ‘Write’ Section and write a caption together. Print a writing template for children the write their own story and draw their own picture. If time, share these stories with the class or group reading their work with support, as required.

Day 3

Sing the rhyme to begin today session.

Ask for volunteers to read the rhyme independently. Everyone can join in if this is too challenging. Success now ensures future success, so make sure the child reading is well supported

Re-read together and find the Sight Words. Who can find; ‘up’, ‘down’ ‘the’ ‘and’ ‘came’?

Repeat the previous day’s writing task

Ask the children to provide letter sounds and names to the sight words as you write this story.

Focus on left to right tracking, space between words punctuation and story sequence.

Print off a writing page for children to write their own story.

Make these stories into a group book.

Follow-up

Make this elearning resource available during independent activity time. Encouraging the children to sing, read the rhyme and retell it and new versions using the create screen. Read together when there is five minutes to fill. Repetition is important for a child to feel in control of their learning.

Reflection

Come back to this rhyme and check the skills you introduce with the request ‘who can find…?’ Ensure a ‘light touch’ with these requests as pleasure and meaning will propel the child forward with their reading more than drilled skills. The children’s enthusiasm for these revision activities will inform how successful your lessons have been.

Organic

The Spell-Write Way

At the heart of the Spell-Write Way is writing. We learn to spell to write, to communicate with clarity. It is in a student’s writing that you see their spelling in action, what really is going on.

It is this writing that should inform what you teach. The writing that tells you the words that will go into each student’s ‘Words to Learn’ List and the skills that you will teach.

This process gives your Spelling Programme meaning. Learning predetermined list of words or skills and drills, in isolation, lacks purpose and will be forgotten. To aid recall we must give the student context. If the words and skills that are posing difficulty when students write are the words and skills a student learns each week then they are learning on a ‘need to know basis’. Meaning and purpose increases recall.

Teacher Knowledge:

This process requires teacher knowledge. Knowledge of:

• The Essential Lists: If any of these words give difficulty to the student as they write they are the first ones to go into their ‘Words to Learn’ list.
• Spelling Skills: If any of these skills give difficulty to the student as they write they are the first ones to go into their ‘Group List’ modelling the skill to learn and for you to teach.
• The Writing Stages: Having a clear understanding of the stages of writing enables the teacher to support the student in a way that is appropriate to them. This knowledge gives the teacher the big picture view and allows for flexibility of instruction, not delivering a predetermined programme that has no meaning for the learner.

The Spell-Write Way: A Brief History

In 1983 Spell-Write was published by NZCER. It was a simple book of Alphabet and Essential Lists, Groups of Words, a 'How to Learn a Word' Chart and a few spelling rules.

It was simple, but powerful. Its power came from the teachers whose hands the book was placed. Teachers who had extraordinary insight into the process of teaching literacy. They absorbed Spell-Write into their current practice. They knew what to do. They knew 'The Spell-Write Way'. Nobody called it 'The Spell-Write Way' it was just 'what teachers did'.

This sophisticated knowledge had evolved over decades in an education system, led by Beeby, that respected the learner. That knew teaching was best when it was holistic and balanced in its approach and the needs of the learners constantly informed teaching.

The arts played a big part. The arts; drama, dance, music and visual art connected the child to their learning. To teach literacy we must first know how to use the arts as a teaching tool. Beeby recognise this in the practice of teachers like Sylvia Ashton-Warner and Elwyn Richardson, and the arts advisory service was born.

With the new millennia came change. I was the last Primary School Art Adviser in the Wellington Region. Like many advisers at the time I had to choose to become a numeracy adviser or leave the service. I left. We now only have numeracy and literacy advisers.

Teachers confidence in their 'way', their knowledge was weakened and threatened. Wave after wave of new claims from influential people, people with easy access to the media, they swamped the humble hard working and skilled practitioner. Who were these people? They were the academics pushing their narrow agendas to make their mark, the 'overseas experts' giving keynote speeches at conferences and the education publishers at these same events selling their wares with their 'international expertise', all paid for by schools under the column of PLD. Tomorrow schools roll out ensured these influences would thrive.

How did this impact Spell-Write? Well it continues to be published and used in NZ classrooms with over 750 teachers and 5,000 student using it online as I write this blog www.spell-write.nz.  Thanks to the resourceful, capable and resilient teachers who held their ground, Spell-Write continues to be a valuable resource. Teachers who tap into the deep well of knowledge that is our education heritage know how to use Spell-Write. They know 'The Spell-Write Way'.

More Writing Prompts, Please

I am frequently asked for ‘Writing Prompts’ that will help to get student's writing. I was initially confused by this often repeated request. Now I realise it's because it's the wrong request. It's the wrong question.

The question that really needs to be asked is the deeper one. How do I connect to my students and their learning? How do I connect to find that magic moment when I see in my student’s eyes that I have captured them, when I know they are away and when I know they will work hard to find out more?

And the answer is; if a student is given time to explore a topic through the arts; music, drama, dance and visual art, the need for artificial prompts disappear. The arts provides the motivation to write by giving deep experiences, unique experiences that must be expressed. 

Draw it, paint it, sculpt it, make soundscapes, use dramatic play or dance to act out the feelings, the challenges and the observations. The capacity to unpack an idea through the arts is endless. All the enthusiastic conversation about the experiences a student is engaged with will provide all the vocabulary they need. The discussions provide the sentences and structure they need to ‘write about it’ and new discoveries give them something unique to say.

In this process you the teacher will be gifted all the information you need for their writing programme. What vocabulary to explore, what spelling skills and words they need to learn, what sentence structures and language features they need to improve their ability to communicate their experiences, observations, thoughts and ideas. 

Help them to have something worthwhile to write about, something that has captured their attention and delve into that with the arts. Don't worry if it is not yet a complete story. Primary age students often write really well about part of an idea, the part that is important to them, they are fascinated by the detail, the completed whole, the bigger picture, comes later.

An audience to hear their stories will help complete the process, but if a student is enthusiastic about their subject they will find their audience. Your role as the teacher is always to know when guidance is needed, what organisation they need to present their work and what needs to be taught to help them to the next step.

The Art of Learning

A child learns the fragility of a flower by touching it, the way a spider moves by crawling across the floor and the beauty of ice by watching it glisten and melt in the sun.

Pixelhouse eBooks www.pixelhouseonline.com have follow-up activities, some on science, some on art and some on both. The eBook "Swimming in the Sea." asks the child "Hey there, hey there. What do you see?" The child looks closer and discovers something swimming there, from the part to the whole, from the fin to the fish.

The follow-up activity here begins with a frozen gem. Blue dyed frozen water and rocks, a frozen rock pool, melting in the sun. The children observe and draw what they see. Black rocks gradually appear as the blue water drains away. Science and art, art and science.

Let go and let the children explore the magic that is science and art. Let the observations be real. Let the deep discoveries be the child's. And let them draw all this and it will be beautiful.

Creativity, An Important Literacy Tool

Each ebook in the 20/20 Literacy Programme www.pixelhouseonline.com has follow-up creative activities to enable the child to connect with the content from their understanding of the world and their experiences. Also to build comprehension skills that begin with the imagination.

Connecting to the Content

The first word most children learn to read and write is their name. This tells us a
lot. It tells us that the child’s connection to the word they are learning is a key
factor in committing the word to memory. Providing creative activities as part of the
learning process establishes a connection to the text of the ebook and to the words
to be learnt. It gives the child a chance to examine the concepts of a story in the
context of their world and their experiences. In this way the connection is made
and learning is enhanced.

Building Comprehension Skills

When we read we enter the world of a book in our imagination. We imagine the
places, the characters, the events and motivations of the story through our own
inner world of our imagination. The greater our imagination the greater our ability
to enter the world of the book and our ability to comprehend. Creative activities
that challenge children to use their imagination grows their inner world, enhancing
their memory, empathy and understanding.

A Lesson Plan for the Beginner Reader

Sample Lesson Plan: Robots

The 20/20 Literacy Programme: 20 eBooks to teach 20 Sight Words

www.pixelhouseonline.com

Skills:
Sight Words: me  can  am  I
Letter focus: m
Reading for meaning
Reading for pleasure to right tracking
One to one matching
Sound letter relationships
Text cues and punctuation
Picture analysis

 Day 1: Time to Begin

1. You Tell the Story

• Talk about each robot as you view these screens to engage children in the learning.
• What does each robot look like?
• Legs: How would this robot move, walk, run, roll, climb etc...?
• Head: How would this robot see, eat, talk, think...etc
• Body: What would this robot do, make, produce...etc?
• Where would you find this robot?
• Where would it sleep?
• Does this robot have a family?
• Do you think this robot would be useful? Why?  How?

2. Read

• Begin by discussing the illustration on the front page and follow this with questions about the title.
• What is the title of this book? What letter does the title start with? 
• What is the name of this letter? What sound does this letter make? 
• Does anyone have this letter in their name?
• Read and talk about each page as you did with the above ‘You Tell the Story’ discussion. Keep the discussion light and playful. Enjoyment is key here as this will bring them back to repeat the experience.
• After two or three pages and if they seem to be grasping the repititon of the text, ask if anyone can read it.
• Ask the children to locate the word  ‘me’. If they display confidence ask them to locate the other sight words; I, can, am.

3. Create

• View the ‘Get ready to make.’ screen. Be prepared with a variety of boxes, tubes and  tape, all set out on a table for children to construct their own robot. 
• Open the ‘Create’ screen and discuss the making process. Look at the robots made here and talk about 
• how they are constructed, then discuss how they might make their robot.
• The aim is always for the child to make their unique artwork. Let them enjoy this process. 
• After the robots are complete write a caption for each child’s robot on a card. Use the child’s words.
• Display the robots and their captions.

Day 2

• Begin the following lesson looking at and appreciating each child’s robot and read their captions.
• Re-read ‘Robots’. Before reading consider the literacy skills that this group of children need to work
• on and which few you will focus on. During this reading involve the children as much as you can without losing the enthusiasm for the book. 
• Follow-up with the Word Activities. Begin by finding the words they know then work through each screen taking turns with the activities provided. 
• Children work independently with the printable Word Activity Worksheet.

Day 3

• Re-read ‘Robots’ together and find the Sight Words. Who can find  me, I, can, am?
• Use the Write section. Choose a robot to write about together. Use the Day One questions to prompt the writing. Ask the children to provide letter sounds and names to the sight words as you write this story. 
• Focus on left to right tracking, space between words  punctuation and story sequence.
• Print off a writing worksheet for each children to write their own story and to draw their own illustration. 
• Make these stories into a group book.

Revisit the ebook, the children's writing and their constructed Robots often. Returning to well known and well loved work builds confidence and a child's feeling of control over their learning.

Activities for Using Spell-Write Online with Your Class

The essence of the Spell-Write concept is that spelling is a writing skill. We learn to spell to write, to communicate with clarity. Spelling therefore needs to be embedded into the classroom writing programme. The process is this:

1. Students write lots anywhere and everywhere, not just online
2. The words that give the student difficulty when they write go into their 'Words to Learn' List 
3. The teacher needs to support and monitor this list to make sure the words are spelt correctly and are appropriate for that student (see previous blog)
4. The student uses the online 'How to Learn a Word' tool to learn each word on their list at home and at school
5. At the end of the week students test each other on the words from their 'Words to Learn' list

Alphabetical and Dictionary Skills.

There are lots of activities that can be part of the class reading, writing and spelling programme or just a fun and worthwhile five minutes before the bell using Spell-Write Online. These can be quick- fire activities with individuals in the class or with the class organised in small groups for a challenge. Here are some:

1. Find a word
Use the online alphabetical lists. Students find a given word. Have some words prepared in advanced that are at the reading level range of your students. Use words with different beginning sound Eg zebra, noisy, awesome, words that will challenge students to predict the order of letters in the word and the alphabet. Extend this to words that begin the same letter to learn about the order of sounds and letters within each word.

2. Print versus IT 
Groups or individuals use the book or  IT device. Challenge the students to find a given word and be the first to find the word. Record the results, Eg best to 10 or 20. Change the groups around and begin again this way everyone gets to be part of a successful group. Where are your students quickest, with the book or online?

3. Find a word that...
Find a word that begins with 'th', 'tr', 'tw' etc... Use Spell-Write Online and/or the Spell-Write book. Adapt this activity to a particular skill your students are working on. Extend this by asking "How many can you find?" or "How many are listed?" Then move to another skill.

4. Order 
This will work best when students can see the screen together. Open part of the list, Eg. pop to port. The challenge is for the students to predict the beginning letter of the word before the ones on the screen. Then the first two letters of the word, then the first three letters and finally the word itself. Now this activity is repeated with the words that come after the last visible word on the screen. Now move to another set of words.

5. Search 
Open the 'Groups of Words' section of Spell-Write Online. Have some words ready for the students to search for Eg Autumn, moment etc... Students race to find the word as individuals or in groups. Once the word is found they then have to explain why the word is in this category and the criteria for ordering the words in this list..

Keep the pace of these activities fast and achievable, but always light-hearted with success for all possible. The skill of the teacher will produce positive outcomes for everyone. Enjoy.

How to use the 'Word to Learn' Section in Spell-Write Online

The best predictor of future success is success now. It is not the size of the success that is important, it is success itself. With this in mind what will give a child the most success and desire to continue learning their words in their ‘Word to Learn’ List, a tool in the Spell-Write Online site, www.spell-write.nz

What will give them a positive start to build on?

1. Use the words a child has difficulty with when writing. 
Why?      

•    The words need to be meaningful for the child
•      Words that have meaning are easier to learn
•     They are more likely to use these words in the future
•    Words they use are more likely to be remembered

·     

2. Begin with a small number of words, three to five words.  Why?

•       When first using the 'Words to Learn' section in www.spell-write.nz  a child is figuring out the mechanics of the site
•       The teacher needs to know that the child has completed the task correctly, that the words have been entered in correctly and that they are ready to be learnt
•       The parent who is supporting the process at home needs to know that the child’s list is correct and the anticipated number of words are there
•       The child needs to feel the success to want to continue the process
•       The teacher, child and supporting adult, at home, need to feel safe, that the predicted number of words are available in the child’s list

3. Use the animation and poster available in the ‘Words to Learn’ section to inform the ‘How to Learn a Word’ process. Why? 
(If you have a mac it might not show the below video so go here )

•         Children learn in a range of ways and different parts of this given process will have more meaning for each child
•     We can aid the memory of words by giving prompts to the skills a child can use to recall words:

1.          What letters did I use to make the word?
2.           What did the word look like?
3.           What was the shape of the word?
4.       How did the word sound?
5.       What sounds made up the word?
6.       What does the word mean?

A child will need to have words entered into their 'Word to Learn' list to access the interactive ‘How to Learn a Word’ process.

Spell-Write Online/ A Long and Loving Connection

If you have been involved in education like me for a while you will know Spell-Write. It has been part of NZ classrooms since it was first published in 1983. Over the past year my company Pixelhouse, in partnership with NZCER, have worked with students and teachers to bring Spell-Write online. www.spell-write.nz

 As I began this project I was intrigued to find out what it is that has made Spell-Write so successful. To get to the essence of literacy education so that Spell-Write online could continue the success of the Spell-Write books.

 It turns out the success of Spell-Write is entwined with the success of NZ Literacy Education which owes much to teachers of the past. Teachers who took risks. Teachers like Sylvia Ashton Warner and Elwyn Richardson. Teachers who found themselves away from the gazing eyes of bureaucracy, who could work closely with their students and ‘become’ the teacher their students needed them to be.

 Over my years of teaching I have had the privilege of working with teachers such as these. Teachers with passion and commitment that give new insight and wisdom. Sylvia and Elwyn recorded their experiences so we can be inspired by their experiences and understandings.

 Sylvia in her book “Teacher” talks about Key Vocabulary. The process of using words to begin to teach a child to read and write, important words that have intense meaning for the child. She conversed and listened closely to her students as the arrived for the day. She captured on a large card with a black crayon the one word that for that child had a ‘big inner picture’. These words became the basis of their spelling and writing programme. Spell-Write had its early beginnings here. Sylvia describes it as the ‘moulding together of spelling and comprehension’.

 Elwyn Richardson worked with older students, year 4 to 8 students. His students had words they knew and they could write sentences and stories. He saw his role as helping them add depth to their writing. He took his students out into their world, their environment. Elwyn saw talk as the beginning of things, talk and looking closely. From these conversations and observations came a connection, an emotional attachment to the thing being analysed and observed. Once an emotional response was captured‘ intense feelings had to be expressed’ through art, drama and writing.

 On Friday afternoons the students would share and discuss their work. When there was energy for this it had been a good week. It was a starting place too. A place to find the bits that had given difficulty and the skills that would be helpful to master. This became the content for the following week’s lessons.

 Spell-Write built on these treasured findings. NZCER research found the words students most commonly used in their writing and put them in a book, Spell-Write. Now children could find the words they needed to write, quickly. The Essential Lists narrowed these alphabetical lists down to the ‘most commonly used words’, the words that are the most useful to know since a child is likely to use them. The Essential Lists were intended as a teacher’s guide, not lists to learn.

 Now Spell-Write Online www.spell-write.nz provides each word with an audio file with common NZ pronunciation. And there is more. A place to store words that have ‘a big inner picture’ and a place to write, to express their ‘intense feelings and new understandings’ and  for the teacher a place to find out the skills that would be helpful for that child to know. There is more, but that’s for next time.

First Day at School, Teacher's Expectations

 

First Day at School,  Teacher's Expectations

or

 What are the signs that will let a New Entrant Teacher know that this child is ready to learn to read and write?

Self Awareness (Disposition)

1.     Able to look after themselves and their things E.g. Can hang up their bag and coat, put away their lunch box, at the end of the day can put on their coat and pack their bag ready for the journey home

1.     Shows an awareness of others E.g. Can smile, and be friendly to others, is able to wait, take turns, move around with a consideration for others and show empathy

2.     Behaves appropriately in a range of situations

3.     Perseveres at a task and overcomes obstacles

4.     Settles after the departure of a caregiver and to a given task

Knowledge of Sound

1.     Can hear and describe environmental sounds

2.     Able to identify and distinguish between common sounds

3.     Able to listen to a simple set of instructions and carry them out

4.     Can hear the beginning and end sound in a word

5.     Can give letter names to 10 sounds of the alphabet

6.     Knows the sound that his name starts with

7.     Can name the letter that makes this sound

8.     Can respond to rhythm, move to a simple beat

9.     Can hear and repeat rhymes

10.  Can hear and enjoy alliteration

Visual Knowledge

1.     Can recognise patterns, and repeat a simple pattern

2.     Can complete a simple puzzle

3.     Can sort shapes

4.     Can draw their own interpretation of their world and experiences
5.   Can recognise and name most colours: Red, blue, yellow, green, black and white.

Spatial Awareness

1.     Has an awareness of the space around themselves

2.     Understands the concept of up, down, around, under, over, out and in

3.     Developing an understanding of beside, behind, between and position, (first, second etc…)

4.     Able to find their way around a familiar environment

Book Knowledge

1.     Knows that books give pleasure

2.     Knows that books can give information

3.     Have experienced being read to lots of times

4.     Have experience of being read their favourite books lots and lots

5.     Can read their favourite book in their own words

6.     Can retell a favourite story in their own way

7.     Can discuss a book illustration and use it to predict what a story might be about

8.     Know what the cover of a book is and where to begin reading

9.     Developing sequencing skills

Print Knowledge

1.     Recognise that sounds can be written as letters for about 10 sounds e.g.  ’t’  can be written as t

2.     Can write their own name, (the letters may be quite wobbly) using a capital and lower case letters appropriately.

3.     Can write some letters

4.     Can write their own story with purposeful marks and “read”  these marks in a way that has meaning to them

5.     Recognise signs that covey meaning e.g. Stop in a stop sign

Motor Skills

1.     Is active and can move freely

2.     Enjoys running about

3.     Can sit still for small periods of time

4.     Can hold a large paint brush

5.     Can hold a pencil firmly

6.     Can use scissors

7.     Can dress themselves

Imagination and Creativity

1.     Is curious

2.     Has a desire to find out

3.     Is able to explore their understanding of their world, people and things in it through their imagination and creative expression

4.     Is able to express themselves and their understanding of things, events and situations through imaginative play, artwork, a sandpit play, storytelling, woodwork construction, a dance etc...

5.     Is able to extend their understanding and knowledge by applying it to new situations