DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Norwalk Community College - Early Childhood Education Program

Learning Experience Plan

                                                               (additions for Read-a-loud assignment)

 

                            

Learning Experience for: Eric Carle’s “’Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,’ Said the Sloth”

Non-Project_____ Project____

 

Student Name : Ashlie Bray

Date of Experience: December 5, 2012

 

Ages of Children: 3 – 4 years

Group Size: 5

 

Book Title: “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” said the Sloth

Author & Illustrator: Eric Carle

Copyright Date and Genre type: 2002,  Fiction – Jungle Animals

 

                                   

PLANNING and IMPLEMENTING

 

Identify the domain and the Performance Standard (learning goal).

I chose of performance standard Cognitive 10: shows understanding of stories.

 

The Children will be doing:

 

This Performance Standard was chosen as a result of:

  1. Observation of children’s needs in the classroom. Explain
  2. Results of informal child’s assessment. Explain
  3. Observation of children’s interests. Explain
  4. 4.    Teacher choice based on child’s age, time of year, etc.

I chose of performance standard Cognitive 10 the children will be listening to the story read by myself and then participating in story related activities, understanding aspects of the story, and demonstrating a clear understanding of the characters and events by creating their own interpretation of one of the characters to be used in a second reading of the story. 

 

 

Identify a minimum of two teaching strategies that you will use during the experience

  1. 1.    One strategy I will be using is sequencing and pacing daily activities.  The day of this activity we will be focusing only on the scheduled activity to prevent overwhelming the children of too much new information.
  2. 2.    During the story I will be defining the unknown words and asking simple questions to keep the children’s attention.
  3. 3.    I will also help the children feel in control of their learning by keeping the lesson relative to what is developmentally appropriate.  There will also be pictures of the animals in the story on the table visible for the children to see so they can reference to it often.

 

Strategies: Choose at least one strategy that will support children at each Benchmark on the continuum.  (See attached suggestions of strategies).

Benchmark 1: Participates in story-related activities.  Here the children will be listening to a story read by myself then following the story they will create their own animal from the story to use in a second reading. 

Benchmark 2: Makes connections between story and own experiences or feelings.  While they are working on their animals I will be observing what they are doing ask casually asking questions on why they chose what they did (in a non critical way). 

Benchmark 3: Understands several aspects of story; such as characters of events.  Here the children will be representing this by creating their own animals from the story.  I will reinforce this by having print outs of the animals from the story visible for the children to see while trying to re-create there own idea of whichever animal they choose.  I will also reinforce by asking at the end of the story what types of animals we saw during the story and observing who is choosing what animal.

Benchmark 4: Demonstrates clear understanding of the main characters and sequence of events in a story.  They will be representing this by re-creating their own animal and using it in the second reading of the story.  They will be sequencing the story because each child will hold up their animal at a different time during the story (when they see it on the page).  This also makes sure the children pay close attention to the story the first and second time around.

 

Questioning and Bloom’s Taxonomy: From the open-ended questions you have identified what levels of Bloom’s taxonomy do they represent?  (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, or Creating)?  (See attached examples).

??? Level of thinking that your questions are???

 

By answering all of the following questions you will describe the learning experience from beginning to end in detail.:

 

Within the detail include:

  1. 1.    Materials used and how you will prepare for the learning experience.
    1. “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” said the Sloth by Eric Carle
    2. Laminated copies of each animal represented in the story for the children to see and create their own version of whichever animal they choose.
    3. There will be many art supplies for the children.  Each child will be given a paper plate with a thick Popsicle stick attached to the bottom.  Then the children can use any art supplies on the table.  There will be paint in red, blue, green, yellow, brown, orange, black, purple, and pink and glitter paint in red, yellow, purple, blue, and green.  There will also be glue sticks, paint brushes, ripped up construction paper, kid safe scissors, colored pom poms in assorted sizes, google eyes in assorted sizes, pipe cleaners, and different shaped sponges for paint stamps.
    4. I will also be tuning my voice with the different characters that talk in the story.
    5. Asking open ended questions for the children to engage in the story.

 

  1. 2.    What 3-5 challenging vocabulary words with visual representation will you choose
    1. Lackadaisical – lazy
    2. Dawdle – to move slowly
    3. Dillydally – to waste time
    4. Unflappable – not easily upset or confused
    5. Languid – slow
    6. Impassive – without emotion, calm
    7. Sluggish – moving slowly
    8. Lethargic – sluggish
    9. Placid – peaceful, pleasantly calm

Unfortunately all these words are jumbled in one paragraph at the end of the story.  Fortunately though they are clumped together by similar meaning making it easier to define them all at once.

  1. 3.    What strategies will you use throughout the week to engage the children’s learning of these words as it relates to the experience?
    1. a.    On Monday before the reading I will ask the children if anyone knows anything about sloths.
    2. b.    During the week prior I will use the more simple words from the story, such as dawdle and dillydally, to express a childs movement or my own movement that day and follow it with, “does anyone remember what dawdle means from our story about sloths? It means to move slowly.”
    3. What Open ended questions(5 questions) will you use to engage and provoke children
      1. The story we just read was about how the sloth takes his time and moves slowly, what is something you like to take your time doing?
      2. Why is it important to take our time when doing things instead of hurrying through the day?
      3. I like to take my time reading a good book.  What do you like to take your time doing? 
      4. What kinds of activities are good to do slowly?
      5. What kinds of activities are good to do quickly?

 

  1. Clearly describe
  • How you will: Transition into and introduce the learning experience for this book.
    • We will transition into this story by having my two helping “5 minute hands” for the week go around nicely telling the other children that in 5 minutes we will be cleaning up and sitting on the circle time rug for story time.  Once all the children are seated I will introduce the story.
    • What props will you use to draw them into the story?
      • During the second reading they will use their own animal props to participate.
      • How will you capture their interest for the learning?
        • I will capture their interest in one way by being excited about the story and the activity myself.  I firmly believe that even if you are not excited at all about the activity that is planned it shows to the children; therefore it is very important to show the children how excited I am for this activity.
        • What will you do with your voice (pace, tone, volume) while reading?
          • My voice will change with the different animals that speak.
          • I will also speak slowly when saying the words slowly, slowly, slowly.
          • Three pages in the story end in, “But the sloth didn’t answer.” After the first reading of that sentence, the second time I will slightly pause for the children to chime in.
          • What questions will you ask to determine PRIOR knowledge?
            • Has anyone heard of or seen a Sloth like the one on the cover of todays story?
            • Does anyone know something about what sloths do or where they live or what they like to eat?
            • Sloths live in the jungle, who can name another animal that lives in the jungle?

            • How will you reinforce the story and give the children the opportunity to recall the events/characters/sequence of the story?
              • Here I will have the children start the project where they will recreate an animal that they saw in the story.  Then to hold their attention during the story they will use their animal to participate in a second reading of the story. When they see their animal in the story they will hold it up and give it a little wave. Following the story, they can keep their animal in their cubbies and play with them whenever they would like during free time.

 

  • How will you connect the story to their experiences and to themselves?
    • I will ask the children if they have ever seen any of the animals from the story around their house or at the zoo. Connecting for the children to engage in personal experiences and share them with the class.
    •  The story is about we as people being like the sloth and slowing down from our busy lives and taking things, “slowly, slowly, slowly.”  I will connect this to them with tying in my open ended questions on why it is good to take our time and bad to rush.
  1. 6.    Clearly describe how what you will do to conclude/end the learning experience.
    1. To end the experience we will transition to lunch by having the students two by two alphabetically get up and go sit at the lunch table.  After lunch before nap, giving their projects time to dry, we will read the story a second time.  This will all be by verbal instruction by myself.
    2. 7.    Clearly describe how you will transition to the next activity.
      1. We will transition to the next activity after the second reading by finishing the reading of the story and myself dismissing the children to their cots for nap time.

 

  1. 8.    During the learning experience how will you document that the children have achieved the skills, behavior or knowledge you intended to promote? (Anecdotal, work sample, photo, check list, video, etc.).
    1. a.    I will be taking photos of the children during the activity, while the children are creating their animals.  There will also be video surveillance videotaping during the readings for documentation.  I will be listening for what the children talk about while creating their animals, such as events that happened during the story.  I will be looking for how well they were paying attention to the story but what their animals look like such as the snake in the story is yellow with blue polka dots, closely related events between the children and the story.

 

Why do this Learning Experience? Consider the 3 elements of DAP plus CT Frameworks PAF model of observing and assessing behaviors, interests and skills

  1. 1.    Why is this experience age appropriate based on what we know about children’s development within a given age range?
    1. This activity is appropriate because it gives the children an opportunity to be creative and use their imagination of what they saw in the story. It is also appropriate because although it is a short story, the sloth is repetitive on each page as well as the words on the first four pages.  There are also many different animals in the story other than the sloth, which will be familiar to the children.

 

  1. 2.    Why is it individually appropriate?

a)      Think of an individual child and what support will he/she will need to be successful. 

A child in a wheel chair.

b)  What accommodations would you make for a child with special needs how will you meet his/her individual needs.

            For a child that is in a wheelchair I would make sure each supply that is offered is close by for them to use and easily access.

  1. 3.    Why is this appropriate, relevant and respectful to the social and cultural contexts in which children live?  Think about your Anti-bias environment and curriculum.

This assignment is appropriate because it is about animals, particularly a sloth and how the sloth survives.  Therefore it is not bias in any way and is respectful to cultures.  It is also not bias because it does not use gender when talking about the different animals, they are only described by their technical name, i.e. Sloth, instead of he said she said.

 

Learning Connections:

 

  • How will you build on this learning experience in other areas of the classroom/or outdoors?

Depending on what animals from the story intrigue the children after the readings, I will plan a new LEP around that animal.  For example, if the children take interest in the birds or the butterflies then we can learn about that specific bird or butterfly more then take the activity outside to see what birds and butterflies live around our area.  In the book area we will have a non fiction book about sloths and other popular animals (depicted by the children) in the book area for furthering their knowledge on the animals. Also in the dramatic play area we can turn it into a small amazon with animals displayed in the story for the children to act out their own interpretation of the story.

  • How will you involve families prior to, during or after this experience?
  1. a.    They will be able to see their child’s artwork on the wall after the experience and we will be sending home the activities description and what we did in the weekly news letter.
  • What opportunities will the children have to re-tell or re-create the story in the classroom?
  1. a.    During the project they will be recreating an animal from the story.  Depending on their interest in the story and or animals of the story there could be a second LEP stemming from this LEP about a different animal from the story.  Their props will be kept in their cubbies and can be brought out during free play if they would like for up to one week and then I will send them home.  The following day, say if we do this project on a Monday then, Tuesday I will have a new story about one of the animals from Mondays story to tie together the LEPs.

 

OBSERVING and ASSESSING

 

1)    Through observing, what skills, behaviors or knowledge did the children gain during this learning experience?

I will be expecting the children to reflect on what they saw and heard in the story and use that knowledge to create their own animal from the story.  I will also be listening to the conversations between the children and listening for their remarks on the story, what they’re making, why they’re making it, and any other story related remarks.  

2)    Based on your observation of a small group of children, assess the benchmark level for this performance standard.

3)    What might your plans be for future learning experiences for specific individuals or the group related to this performance standard?

4)    How will you use the documentation you indicated above (#7) for future planning?

 

 

 

Reflection:

 

  1. How did this learning experience meet your goal?  Why or why not?
  2. If you repeated the learning experience what would you do differently?
  3. What did you learn about children’s development in this standard?
  4. [i]Which strategies worked well?
  5. How did your observation plan work?
  6. 6.    What did you struggle with?
    1. a.    I definitely struggled at first with thinking of an idea, and even after this LEP was finished I was still coming up with a hundred more ideas.  Although, once I really got going I found myself moving quickly through each question and being able to answer about what my goal and activity was for the children.
    2. 7.    What did you learn about yourself as a teacher from this learning experience?
      1. a.    This experience was challenging but not unbearable.  Excitingly enough though, for the first time I found that doing the bench marks and teaching strategies were not as hard as I remember them being in the past.  I learned that even the most-simple book, like this one, could really bring out so many creative and great ideas.  I also learned that it takes a lot of effort but not a lot of time to come up and create and LEP once you really get the brain juices flowing.  From personally acting out this experience with my sister I learned how much more excited children get when they can participate in the reading.

 

 

 

 

 

Please be sure your mentor has a copy of your completed learning experience plan when evaluating you


 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
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