Kindergarten Math Lesson

Kindergarten Talk Moves and Close Reading

Today I had the opportunity to visit Mrs. Smith's Kindergarten Classroom. Our focus was on math discourse and getting the kiddos to talk and listen to different opinions using "Which One Doesn't Belong?"



To begin the lesson I introduced talk moves. Talk moves allows every student to engage in the conversation by signaling different motions with their hands as they hear students talk or if they want to answer. In kindergarten, we focused on only three of the talk moves: Thumbs up to answer, pinky and thumb out to agree to a students answer, and both fist together if another student wants to add on to a students answer. Talk moves are great to keep every student engaged in the conversation.




After introducing talk moves. Students were partnered up and we turned to our lesson focus. Students were showed a power point and had to decide which one didn't belong. In each slide there is more than one reason that one of the pictures doesn't belong. Students used talk moves to answer which allowed myself to know which students were engaged and who wanted to add to the conversation.

I had students use the sentence stem, "The _____ doesn't belong because _______. This was great for our English Language Learners.
Student answers to the picture above included: "The triangle doesn't belong because it only has three sides and the other shapes all have four." and "The diamond doesn't belong because it is not shaded in"

To the left answers included: "The purple dice doesn't belong because it is purple and the others are white." "The 5 doesn't belong because it is the only number and the others are dots." and "The one doesn't belong because all the rest show 5 and that dice only shows 1.

Here is a link to the slide show I used to introduce talk moves and Which one doesn't belong.
Slideshow

Her is the address for more "Which one Doesn't Belong" scenarios to use in any grade: Which One Doesn't Belong

Let me know if you would like help implementing this in your classroom!

1st Grade Close Reading

1st Grade Close Reading

Yesterday and today I had the opportunity to visit Mrs. Hochstedler's room and continue our work on close reading. 

Yesterday, we worked together with the nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill, to practice the 3 phases of close reading. In phase 1, we read for general comprehension and understanding. In phase 2, we read again and circled any unknown words that we didn't know the meaning of. In phase 3, we read for the final time to answer the question, "Why did Jack go to bed?. The students had to support their answer. 

Today the students worked independently with the nursery rhyme, Little Miss Muffet. I began the lesson by reviewing the three stages and what happened during each stage.

Phase 1: Their first task was to go to their seats and read the nursery rhyme 2 times on their own. After completing their reading, they were to come back to the front to show me they were ready to discuss the characters, setting, story sequence of the nursery rhyme. 

Phase 2: Students were to return to their seats, reread the nursery rhyme, and circle words that they didn't know the meaning of. Students were also asked to determine the authors purpose of writing the nursery rhyme. As the students were working, I noticed that I needed to clarify that we were underlining words we didn't know the meaning of and not words we did not know how to read. After students were done reading, I called on a student to say a word they didn't know the meaning of. That allowed for other students to help clarify the meaning to the students. Mrs. H has also implemented talk moves which helped me check in with all the students on whether they agreed, wanted to add more, or needed more clarification. 

Phase 3: During phase three, students read for the final time, to answer the question, "Why did the spider sit down beside Miss. Muffet?" Answers from first graders included: "The spider was hungry and wanted some food." "The spider wanted to bite Miss Muffet." and "The spider wanted to scare her away so it could build a web!"

I am so proud of how well these first graders are understanding the stages of close reading! I have attached the documents with the poems and pictures that I used during the lessons! Let me know if you would like help getting this going in your room! 

Little Miss Muffet

Jack and Jill

1st Grade Close Reading

1st Grade Close Reading

Today I had the opportunity to visit Mrs. Hochstedler's Room in 1st Grade. Our lesson focus was on close reading. We did a mini-lesson today on the 3 stages of close reading. I used Smeken's Close Reading Triggers set to introduce each phase so that the students could make a visual connection. I also used a familiar text that most of the students had already heard, Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. 

Phase 1: I introduced this stage by wearing the glasses and talking about this phase is something that we do every time we read a story. We read to determine what is happening, who are the characters, where is the story taking place, and how the story ends.

Phase 2: I introduced this stage by getting out the microscope and had the students tell me the purpose of the microscope. I then modeled how we use that in the second phase of a close read. We may zoom in on unknown words, why the words are written the way they are in the book, and what the author's purpose is for writing.

Phase 3: I introduced this stage by getting out the telescope. Again, the students told me the meaning and we connected it with close reading. We "zoomed out" to determine "Why we thought Pete sand his happy song even after losing all his buttons". Stage three involved making text-to-text connections and/or using text or pictures to support our answer, 

Mrs. Hochstedler's Class did a great job today. Stay tuned as I will visit Mrs. H's Classroom on Monday morning and the students will work more independently on a close read using a nursery rhyme!