Jo Mari Legner and Nikki Nelson Site: Mosinee Elementary School Teacher: Mrs. Donna Nelson
Lesson Plan for Oral Language, the Writing Process and Listening Grade Level: Kindergarten Rationale: Creative Dramatic performances focus on the oral language component of the reading process. It is important to provide children at an early age, the opportunity to speak in front of groups. Retelling stories provides practice in concepts of print. Creative Dramatics, such as acting out stories, allows for student creativity and self expression in addition to focusing on the multiple intelligences. Objectives:
Children will perform in front of a large group. Students will recall stories from shared reading activities with regard to setting, characters, problems and solutions. Students will adapt stories to their abilities and act out the story lines to the best of their ability. Students will make props for use in the performance. Students will be able to reflect on their performance through writing.
Materials: 1. The story of "The Three Little Pigs" 2. Microphone system (if available) 3. Red Cardboard blocks. 4. Shredded yellow paper for straw 5. Various sticks for the stick house 6. Note cards to help retell the story 7. A picture of a tree
8. Paper 9. Markers 10. Paint
11. Large sheets of tag board 12. Pencils
Activities/Procedure: This will take place in five parts on five separate occasions in order for the students become fully aware of the story and be able to retell the story. Part One: Read the story of "The Three Little Pigs" to the class. After reading the story, go over the main characters with the students and explain their importance. Introduce to the students that the class will be retelling the story as the characters of the book. Part Two: As a class, delegate who will be performing the roles of the characters of the book. You will want a narrator (larger speaking part), three little pigs (smaller speaking roles) wolf (smaller speaking role), and tree (no speaking role). With the variety of roles, students will be able to decide how large of a speaking part they would like because some children are shyer than others. Part Three: After the roles have been picked and the story is well known to the students, they will begin to practice and prepare for their performance. Using large sheets of tag board, trace the characters and cut out places for the hands and of the head of the pigs and the wolf. Use the markers and paint make the characters come to life from the cut outs. Using note cards and picture cues, write down a script for the narrator to tell the story. The note cards will tell the story in an easy way as the student does not have the reading skills to tell the whole story by reading the book. Using cut up yellow paper for the straw, sticks, and blocks create the houses for the pigs. These props can be used to help the students practice for their performance.
Part Four: The students will perform their retelling of the story of "The Three Little Pigs" for the rest of the class using the props they have made. Part Five: The day after the performance have the students sit down and brainstorm their own reflections on their play. The teacher will write down these ideas on the easel in front of the room so that the students know what to write. Have them remember how they felt when they were on stage or just before they were on stage. How did they feel after they were done? Were they happy, sad, or excited? After you brainstorm these ideas on the easel have the students go back to their tables and write down one or two of these ideas that best portrayed how they were feeling during that time. Enrichment/Extensions: Read the book "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs" by Jon Scieszka and have the students compare and contrast the two stories. Have the students predict how they will feel before, during, and after their performance the day before their performance. Compare this to how they actually felt before, during and after the performance. Talk these different feelings and emotions and why the students think they felt that way. Adaptations/Accommodations: Some different safety issues could be of concern during the performance. First, we used yellow paper for straw instead of real straw because of allergies. We also went over how to act using the sticks in an appropriate to manner ensure their safety. Picture cues were used for the narrator because of lower reading abilities. The picture cues helped to remind her of words that she may not have been able to read herself. Evaluation of the lesson (Student and Self):
For the purpose of this assignment, we chose to have Kindergarten students retell the story, "The Three Little Pigs," by putting on a play. We introduced the lesson by first reading the story, "The Three Little Pigs," to the children, while encouraging them to participate in the reading of repeated text. After reading the book, we identified the characters as a class, went over the sequence of the story, and stressed the main events that took place. We then told the children that they would have the opportunity to put on a play in order to retell the story as the characters in the book. As a class, we delegated the roles of the characters, and explained to the children that over several class periods they would have the opportunity to practice and prepare for the performance. In preparation for the performance, we used note cards and picture cues to write a script for the narrator to tell the story, as the student did not have the reading skills necessary to tell the whole story by reading the book. Furthermore, we created character templates for the students, and allowed the children to make the characters in the story come to life by using markers and paint to decorate pre-cut templates. Once all of the characters were created, the students were asked to recall the main events of the story. In doing so, the speaking roles of the individual characters were identified by the students, (i.e.: The wolf would say, "Little pig, little pig let me come in." and the pig would say, "Not by the hair on your chinny chin chin."). The narrator was then provided with the script and picture cues, and the students were able to actively participate in retelling the story while using creativity and self expression. In doing so, the students took on the roles of the characters as they acted out the story while speaking their individual lines. The play was rehearsed several times, over several class periods, so that the children thoroughly understood the pattern of the story, and were able to become accustomed to their individual roles as characters in the book. Finally, after several rehearsals, the students put on
the play for their peers, and parents. The students seemed to really enjoy participating in this activity. They embraced their role in retelling the story, "The Three Little Pigs," and enjoyed the active par...