First Article Lesson Plan Read Along

This lesson is designed with strategies from the article Picture Book Power: Connecting Children's Literature and Mathematics by Joyce Shatzer (2008, May) The Reading Teacher, 61(8) 649-653.doi: 10.1598/RT.61.8.6

Background information: This reading/math lesson is presented to a first grade inclusive classroom. In this room there is a general education teacher, a special education teacher and a special education paraprofessional. There are nine students receiveing special education services. There is a total of 22, students in the classroom. Students with identified disabilities are served in multiple areas including Significantly Developmentally Delayed, Orthopeically Impaired and Speach Language.

Objective: 
     To increase student's engagement with a read aloud text.
     To develop student's skills when comparing and counting letters in a name.
     To recognize that we are all unique and different in our own way.
     To count the number of letters in the students names and then use their names to make a graph.

Standards addressed: 
M1N4 Students will count collections of up to 100 objects by dividing them into equal parts and represent the results using words, pictures, or diagrams.
M1M1 Still will compare the length ,height, weight, or capacity of two or more objects using direct comparison or a nonstandard unit.
M1D1 Students will create a simple table and graph and interpret them.
ELA1R3 The students demonstrates the relationship between letters and letter combinations of written words and the sounds of spoken words.

Materials used for lesson:

The book that I chose for my lesson was Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. I also used the Promethean Board to display a color chart guide for writing students name. Sentence strip paper, crayons and  a number line graph display in the hallway were also needed for the lesson.

Procedure:
1. A mini prelesson was taught in which the students played a game to introduced themselves saying there names while tossing a small beach ball back in forth to each other while sitting in a circle at morning meeting. The teacher then introduced the book Chrysanthemum to the students and told them that it was a story about a very little mouse with a very large and unusual name.
2. After reading the story the teacher allowed the students time to discuss and ask questions about the book.
3. The teacher then introduced the color chart for numbers of letters in your name to the students. Each student was then given a sentence strip and instructed to count how many letter in his/her name and write their name in the given color from the chart. During this time the teachers monitored students writing to make sure students were counting correctly and using the correct color.
4. The student's then returned there name card to the teacher to use to make a large name graph in the hall way outside the classroom. Across the bottom of the graph numbers from 2 to 14 were placed on the wall graph. The student then come up as there names are called and place their names above the correct number on the graph. This activity was completed with the other first grade classes on our hallway.
5. After the graph is completed students will come back to the class room and make a classroom chart to summarize what they have done and interpret the graph results.

Differentiation:
 
This is an inclusive classroom so in order to accommodate all students some modifications and assisted technology was needed in order for all students to be successful. To accommodate one student stamps were provided for her to print her name on to her strip of paper. Another student needed a visual timer in order to get his work done in a timely manner this students also required preferential seating in order to stay on task during the reading of the story. Some of the students also required more one on one instruction in order to complete the writing portion of the lesson.

Reflections: 
This was a great lesson to use with my first graders. They enjoyed the read aloud and it was a good way to introduce the students to each other and make a math lesson fun. The students were excited about the work. It was an interesting way to introduce counting and graphing skills while learning their classmates names. They were motivated by the story of Chrysanthemum and loved interacting with each other during the pre-game name introduction activity.