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Whole Brain Teaching:  First Graders Compose Oral Paragraphs!

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Whole Brain Teaching:  First Graders Compose Oral Paragraphs!

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Classroom grit at its finest!

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Whole Brain Teaching:  First Graders Compose Oral Paragraphs!

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Suggestions and guides for parents on how to help their children at home to improve their oral language skills

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First Grade Language Skills | 1st Grade Verbal Skills | Speaking Abilities of a 1st Grader

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Learn more about first grade language skills and verbal skills and how to help your 1st grader improve his or her speaking abilities.

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This is a great lesson plan with all materials included.

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This is a reading skills program that adapts to their own level. Students are able to practice reading sounds, letters, and words into the program as it moves along to work on and improve their oral language skills independently.

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Lexia® PowerUp Literacy™ is designed to help struggling students in grades 6 and above become proficient readers and confident learners. PowerUp helps educators simultaneously address gaps in fundamental literacy skills while helping students build the higher-order skills they need to comprehend, analyze, evaluate, and compare increasingly complex literary and informational texts.

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Using storytelling or fables in a lesson plan for your first grade students will introduce them to this type of literature, as well as let them see the purpose of such narratives.

First Grade Lesson on Storytelling and Fables

Materials

Objectives

Students will listen to an example of a fable.

Students will answer questions about the story and predict what will happen next.

Students will offer their own examples of morals and lessons to the rest of the class.

Students will draw pictures and write sentences demonstrating their understanding of the lesson.

Students will provide their own examples of stories or fables with lessons or morals in them.

Activities

1. The teacher will read the tale out loud to the students. Throughout the course of the reading, the teacher will stop and ask questions such as:

What do you think will happen next?

What is this character like?

Can you tell me what happened so far in the story?

These questions serve to introduce students to the art of story telling, as well as to the important aspects of listening and reading.

2. Once the story is finished, the teacher will introduce the concept of the moral or the lesson of the story by asking students the following question:

3. A very brief lecture ensues in which the teacher explains the definition of a moral.

4. The teacher asks the students the following questions and writes the students' answers on the board:

What are some other lessons or morals that you know?

What lessons or morals do you have in your home?

Have you read other stories with morals or lessons? What were they?

5. The students are asked to draw a picture from the story which shows the main character learning the lesson or moral. Underneath the story, students must write down what the moral or lesson that is being demonstrating in the story. The teacher will circulate in the classroom to help with any questions regarding ideas, words, sentence structure, spelling etc.

6. Homework: The students are asked to bring in their favorite book that has a moral or lesson in it to share with the rest of the class.

Considerations About Teaching with Fables

Since you are working with very early learners, remember that there is probably a wide range of skills present in your classroom. Select a book that is not too challenging for the students at beginning levels, but not too boring for the more advanced students.

Writing is another skill that is just developing at this time. Be prepared to offer assistance to your students and remain patient if they are struggling with forming letters.

Allow some time for the homework assignment to be completed. Not all students will have lesson or moral books at home. A substitute idea for this homework assignment is to have each student select a book with a moral or lesson the next time that the class takes a trip to the library.

If you teach older students, you could still use this lesson plan as a framework, and add different types of age appropriate activities to the lesson plan so that it is suitable for the grade level.

Lesson Plan on Storytelling or Fables for First Grade Children

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Lesson Plan on Storytelling or Fables for First Grade Children

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Using storytelling or fables in a lesson plan for your first grade students will introduce them to this type of literature, as well as let them see the purpose of such narratives. Students will listen to an example of a fable. Students will answer questions about the story and predict what will happen next.

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Use Interactive Modeling to teach academic and social skills, routines, transitions, use of materials-any behavior, skill, or routine that needs to be done in a specific way. When teachers use this technique, children quickly learn exactly what to do, and they remember better. You'll spend less time reteaching, and your students will spend more time learning.

Specialist teachers, parents, coaches, and any other adults who work with children can adapt and use this technique.

This book includes sample lessons, scripts, a planning guide, and a summary of research on the principles behind Interactive Modeling.

What's Different About Interactive Modeling?
Unlike conventional modeling, Interactive Modeling gives children an active role, which helps them stay engaged and better remember what they learned. It uses a seven-step format that entails showing children exactly what to do, helping them notice key elements, and giving them practice while the teacher coaches. This format makes Interactive Modeling an efficient way to help children learn to carry out a procedure or routine correctly and remember it for next time.

See for yourself: Here are 7 short videos showing Interactive Modeling lessons in real elementary classrooms!

Copyright ©2012 Center for Responsive Schools, Inc

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Use Interactive Modeling to teach academic and social skills, routines, transitions, use of materials-any behavior, skill, or routine that needs to be done in a specific way. When teachers use this technique, children quickly learn exactly what to do, and they remember better. You'll spend less time reteaching, and your students will spend more time learning.

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Partner talking-  Interactive Modeling, a Responsive Classroom technique

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Partner talking-  Interactive Modeling, a Responsive Classroom technique

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Talking to a Partner (Interactive Modeling)

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As the school year is winding down and you are thinking about all of the new things to include in your daily routine next year keep reading!!! The Expanding Expression Tool is an AMAZING resource that has helped my students become not only better writers but better communicators too.

The Expanding Expression Tool or EET is used as a multi-sensory approach to improve oral and written language. Okay...so what does it look like and how does it work? Let's check it out.....

What it looks like?:

Each part of the EET serves a purpose. Check out the chart below to see what each color stands for.

How can you use this to improve oral and/or written language?

2nd- have a student describe it

4th- have the student describe the item again and be amazed!!

Example: You show the student penguin. They may say it's an animal that lives in the cold. After introducing EET the student will be able to share a lot more about the penguin. They will be able to tell you.....

blue/do: swim, walk/waddle, eat, lay eggs

what does it look like?: black and white

what is it made of?: comes from an egg

pink/parts: flippers, bill, feathers, neck, eyes, webbed feet, claws

white/where: Antarctica, zoo

what else do you know?: males sit on eggs, mates for life, waddle and swim

As the students get used to this their overall oral and written language will improve tremendously. You can use this tool in a variety of ways including, direct instruction, para led station, writing center, homework and more!!

After my students were comfortable with EET, I set up an EET station in my classroom in lieu of my traditional writing center.

You can even differentiate within EET. You may have some students who are just working on stating 1 word answers, but you can also have students practice responding in full sentences.

Student 1 Example: Green/Group: animal

Student 2 Example: Green/Group: The penguin belongs to the animal group.

Overall, EET has been an amazing tool for my students and a wonderful additional to my classroom. We use this resource but you can also check out Teachers Pay Teachers for more. Or you can check out the original kit here!

I hope you are able to implement EET into your day next year!!

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As the school year is winding down and you are thinking about all of the new things to include in your daily routine next year keep reading!!! The Expanding Expression Tool is an AMAZING resource that has helped my students become not only better writers but better communicators too.

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Mystery Bag activity- youtube video explanation

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Mystery Bag activity- youtube video explanation

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Mystery Bag: Developing Oral Language Skills in First Grade

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http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/balancedliteracydiet/Recipe/50591/

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Transcript

Teacher:  A way to develop oral language in your classroom is to have a mystery bag. This is a great alternative to show and tell.  In first grade, I give them a sheet of paper that has five clues, in which the star of the week must fill out.  They take it home with them, and they fill it out with the help of a parent or by themselves depending on their writing ability.  The first clue is, "The shape of my object is a blank, " "The color of my object is a blank," "Blank gave me my object," or "I made my object," and finally, "My object is special to me because..."Im going to go through an example of a student who filled this out and brought in an object, which is in this bag.  Usually this happens at carpet time, and you can make this really creative in which they pretend to put their detective hats on, and you give clue by clue in which students will guess what the object is.  So, the first clue is, "The shape of my object is a circle." And you ask for guesses.  The second clue, "The color of my object is gold." The third clue, "Mommy gave me my object, or, I made my object," in which she had said "no".  And finally, "My object is special to me because my mommy gave it to me."  So you take your clues, and finally you shake it around.  You ask the children, is it heavy or is it light?  And if the students still havent guessed it, the teacher can look in and maybe give another clue.  And finally, we pull out the object, and its a necklace.  The children have a great deal of fun doing this activity.

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BALANCEDLITERACYDIET :: index :: Balanced Literacy Diet

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Teacher: A way to develop oral language in your classroom is to have a mystery bag. This is a great alternative to show and tell. In first grade, I give them a sheet of paper that has five clues, in which the star of the week must fill out.