3, 2, 1 Blast Off

The CVC phonics lesson went better than I expected. I was going into the classroom expecting the worst, but hoping for the best. During previous class times, the class will usually listen to the teacher when she asks them to not do something, and then five minutes later they go back to doing the same thing again. However, the class was well behaved for both my partner and I, which goes to show the great classroom management that is implemented in the classroom (or at least when a special guest(s) is in the class). I won’t try and pretend that everything went according to plan, or that the children are angels sent from heaven above. There were moments of, “Uh oh,” and the want to say, “Please stop talking.”

My partner and I had sent our lesson plan over to the teacher on the previous day, and we had asked her to look over the lesson in case there were any issues that needed to be fixed. She said it looked great! However, as the morning progressed, she transitioned into CVC words (our lesson plan) and started teaching and explaining many of the definitions that were on the Smart Board presentation. This scared me a little bit as our lesson would have been cut shorter had she went on to explain everything. Thankfully, she stopped and let my partner and I take the floor.

The first half of the lesson went according to plan- we even followed the script. I did not think that the script part of the lesson plan would be that useful as I normally would present and say whatever came to mind; but, it is totally different getting up in front of a class and the script was a necessity. Of course, I added some more as I felt necessary once I got up in the front of the classroom as some words you can’t plan for (like behavioral issues and explaining the game).

The children came and picked their own star on the carpet. They all participated together when reading a word aloud, they raised “silent hands” when called upon for answering a question, and they didn’t chatter while we were teaching. There was one slide we skipped early on in the lesson because the teacher had just previously gone over examples of consonants and vowels with them. Then came the passing out of the individual white boards, markers, and erasers. There are a few children in the class who have a “reputation” of fidgeting and not listening. So as my partner was passing out the supplies, I gave strict expectations and directions. I said, “Class, we are about to play a game. Raise silent hands if you are excited about this?” They all raised their hands and smiled, but said not a word. “You are going to get a whiteboard for a 3, 2, 1 showdown. Does everyone know what this is?” The class didn’t know so I explained it. Then, I said, “You cannot play this game unless you raise silent hands and stay seated on the carpet. Can we all do this?” The class responded with a “Yes!” My partner clicked over to the next slide and the class had to write down, first the vowel, and then the consonant in each example word. The class was fabulous and not one student got this part of the lesson incorrect. Some more activities followed with whole group participation. Once the use of the white boards was done for the slide, we asked the students to put all of their materials in front of them. They were expected not to touch them until the next 3, 2, 1 game. There was only one student (the popular “fidgeter”) who did not follow directions. At that time, the in-classroom teacher came over to him and took away his materials until the next activity.

For the next activity, we had the students tell us the vowels and consonants in each example (they also had to say the sound each vowel made), and then they had to think of two more on their own. Many kids excelled and had no issues with this, as they used examples from the lesson their teacher had just taught them (for example, before my partner and I got up to speak, she had the students write six CVC- she didn’t call them this- that she said aloud on their paper. It was a way to check for listening and spelling skills). However, there were a few that needed extra one-on-one- assistance. So, as the class was thinking and writing, my partner and I split up and helped the students who looked like they may have been confused. If they were, I told them to look at the letters taped above the Smart Board, and go down the alphabet. While going down it, they had to think of possible words. For example, one student got to the letter ‘c’ and was able to come up with ‘cat.’ This method seemed to really help the struggling students and they got through the last example all by themselves. We previously tested out their placement by having them read words on the presentation as a class without our help. They did fine, had they not, we would have done extra practice and waited to do this activity.

One of our last activities, before our individual ones, was one where one student came up to the board to drag the CVC word into the box. While one student was doing this, the students on the carpet had to write the word down, and then all together read the word. Once every student had the opportunity to go, there were a few non-CVC words left. I asked, “So why are these words not CVC words?” One little boy raised his hand and said, “Because there is not one vowel and one consonant.” I said, “Correct! Give ____ a round of applause.” A round of applause is clapping in a circle and what my partner and I did when a student got an answer correct. “Is there another reason why?” This was a tricky question, but one student said, “Because it doesn’t end in a consonant, it ends in a vowel.” I was quite impressed and was so proud of them! I have only been with the students one time a week for a few weeks, and I already feel like they are my babies.

Next, came my activity. Individual students came up to the Smart Board and wrote the words in the spaces provided. The kids on the carpet also had to write the word down. Then the child up at the board had to drag the appropriate picture (demonstrating the meaning of the word) in to the box next to the word. Only one boy had an issue, but only because the picture could have fit elsewhere. I picked the CVC words with the vowels ‘e, i and o.’ I had to skip over ‘e’ because I was unaware that they had not learned the vowel ‘e’ sound until right before the lesson. I am usually the kind of person that is very by the book, and must check everything off of the “list” before I move on to the next thing. Skipping over the ‘e’ affected my OCD characteristic, but it made me realize that teachers have to flexible if they are going to get anything accomplished.