Lesson 1 - Story Mapping with Folktales

    The focus of this lesson was on the story elements from the same Cinderella folktale from different cultures. The lesson started with introductions from the RIC teachers and the Hennessey students. For the icebreaker, the students were asked to draw a character, symbol, or scene from their favorite book in their journals. We then reviewed the visual agenda for the lesson. With suggestions from the students, we created a “class contract” of expectations to be followed during our lessons. Next, the students filled out a reading interest survey to assess their feelings about reading. We had a quick discussion to activate the students’ prior knowledge about story elements. Each student got to share what they already know about the types of elements in a story. The vocabulary words for the lesson were taken from both stories. One of the teachers wrote the words on a whiteboard for the students to see and asked the students to think of examples using the words. The students were then shown an anchor chart of the story map. We verbally went through each story element section of the map and explained what they were and how they contributed to the story. 

    We then read aloud the American version of “Cinderella” written by Charles Perrault and illustrated by Errol Le Cain. While reading, we paused periodically to ask comprehension questions and keep the students engaged with the story. After reading, the students were given story map graphic organizers to complete. We supported the students by going through each section and discussing possible answers the students could write down. Before starting the second story, the students played “Simon says” as a brain break. Then we read aloud “Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China” by Ali-Ling Louie and illustrated by Ed Young. Again, the teachers asked comprehension questions during the story to keep the students engaged with the text. The students were then shown a Venn Diagram chart and, as a group, filled in each section with support from the teachers. The students were asked to contribute enough ideas to fill in the entire chart, and once it was full, we verbally went through each statement that was written down. As a final writing assignment, the students were given the prompt “Imagine the story took place in your neighborhood.” In their journals, they wrote and drew their own re-imagined Cinderella stories. Once the students were finished, we played another quick game of “Simon Says” before giving the students a preview of the next lesson and saying goodbye for the day.

    Every opportunity for creative drawing and writing went very well with the students. During the icebreaker and the journal writing exercise, the students enjoyed being able to express their thinking in multiple different ways. This was also helpful for us teachers to see where the students’ writing abilities were and how we can support them in the future. An area of weakness was that there could have been more consistency between the worksheets given to the students. I think for future lessons, there needs to be more balance with the use of visuals for the students. The reading interest survey was primarily pictures and felt very simplified for the students, while the story map graphic organizer had few visuals and not enough writing space for some students. 

    Three of the four students met the objective “By the end of the lesson, students will be able to identify and describe elements of the read-aloud story with differentiated core support by completing a story map” with varying percentage levels of proficiency. To meet this objective, each student had to recall the events of “Cinderella”, then determine what the story elements were to fill in the story map graphic organizer. One student was not able to meet the objective due to him having to leave the class for special education services. However, the work he did complete showed that he was on track to meeting the objective and completing the story map. Another student exceeded expectations by writing more sentences than what was modeled by the teacher. She was able to complete the worksheet almost wholly independently, without needing much teacher support.

    From this experience, I saw how students with different support needs interacted with the same material. This being our first lesson with the group of students was so important to not only meet them but also see what their different academic abilities are. This can help us better adjust our supports for the group and for specific students in future lessons. I also learned another example of how important being flexible during a lesson is. While we can prepare to teach by writing a thorough and detailed lesson plan, we have no idea how the lesson will actually progress until it happens. Being able to make quick changes to the lesson and gauge the given situation is something I’m thankful to get more practice at.

    This has been the longest lesson, time-wise, that I have taught as a teacher candidate. It gave me a better idea of how much learning can occur in a longer period of time. With this specific lesson, all the activities followed the “I do, we do, you do” format. Keeping this in mind was important during the planning process when structuring the lesson. As a professional teacher candidate, I will think more critically about how the lessons I teach flow and how they scaffold the students’ learning about the topic at hand.

    For future lessons at Hennessey, I will focus more on how our students will require different levels of support. Since this was our first lesson, we put many different supports in place to accommodate the students. Some students in the group performed better with more one-on-one support, while others needed little teacher support and guidance. Actively seeing this during our first lesson was very eye-opening. I am fortunate to be able to work with a very diverse group of students. Factoring this diversity into our lesson plans will be a standard I hold myself to for all of my future lessons.