The last 3 weeks I have spent my Tuesdays mornings observing a local Grade 1/2 teacher teach literacy to her students. It was a wonderful learning experience for me! She followed the UFLI Foundations and Heggerty literacy programs – both of which seem really amazing. They are both researched based and provide a wonderful script with additional resources for each lesson. After the lesson she play some “heart word” songs that the students LOVED. There are tons of them found at Heidi’s Songs; however, they do require a subscription. Let’s “dive a little deeper” to explore what this teacher did.
The Mini Lesson
1. How Did it Look?
Let’s “set the stage” shall we? As mentioned, the class compiled of Grade 1 and 2 students. The teacher noticed a bit of a learning gap between the two grades a nd, as such, teaches two different literacy lessons in the morning to ensure she meets the needs of all students. To effectively do this, she uses the resources from the UFLI Foundations program to keep one group occupied at their tables while she teaches the other group. Now, the great thing about these resources is they tie into the previous literacy lesson learned, and they are FUN! Take a look at the image for an example of one of the activities they used. They are play-based, educational, and are engaging enough that students stay focused until the teacher is ready to teach their group. The UFLI Foundations program provides many play-based activities that connect with each lesson. This might be one of the best features of UFLI Foundations, in my opinion. As for the other group of students, they gather comfortably around the teacher on the carpet while they go through a slide presentation of the lesson. I’ll talk about that in more detail below.
2. Was it curriculum based?
From my observations, the lesson hit many of the BC Curriculum requirements. I created the following image, based off my observations, showing how this lesson tied into the a Grade 1 BC English Language Arts curriculum. Please note, the teacher did not explicitly state the First Peoples Principles of Learning while teaching, but she did confirm that learning to read and write takes a lot of patience and practice. She also demonstrated that learning language is reciprocal and experiential.
3. What did she do?
After a brief morning meeting, she explained how the table activities would be completed, and her behavior expectations. The great thing about these activities is that there is a large variety for each lesson to choose from, but many of the activities remain the same throughout the years while progressively getting more challenging. That meant that she only need to explain the activity instructions once as both groups were doing the same activity. After explaining the activity (see image), the students went to their appropriate places. She then pulled up the UFLI Foundations slides and commenced the lesson. Two of the days, the students used whiteboards and pens to participate in the lesson, and the other day they used magnetic letter boards (see video below).
The teacher then followed the slides having the students actively engage with the lesson by either writing it on the whiteboards, moving the magnetic tiles on their letter boards, or using corresponding hand actions.
Each week, the UFLI Foundations lessons would provide students an opportunity to review the previous lesson, learn a new concept, and then apply the new concept. The lesson’s focused on 3 different types of drills – visual, auditory, and blending.
Due to privacy, I was unable to video the teacher during her lesson, but I found this video of a teacher going through the parts of a Heggerty lesson. The classroom teacher I observed did the lesson exactly the same way – including the actions.
My Reflection
I think the teacher ran a very effective literacy lesson each morning. I was particularly impressed that she taught two separate lessons to ensure that the lesson met the needs of her students. The teacher was kind, patient and encouraging with each one of her students and, often, personalized feedback even during group work. I am grateful for the time I was able to spend in her classroom.