Language Arts Unit Opener - Around the Town

The Lesson

The purpose of this lesson was to create an opener the new Language Arts unit called "Around the Town". Although I utilized the curriculum materials (student reader and read aloud), I created the lesson plan on my own with the help of my Master Teacher. The questions listed on the bottom of my lesson plan are questions that came up about the lesson while I was creating the plan that I asked my Master Teacher during our pre-planning conference.

This lesson was organized to deviate from the traditional lesson structure. The main purpose of this lesson was not to teach new material, but to get the students excited about a new Language Arts unit. Although new material was not taught in the lesson, I still facilitated different activities that not only engaged the students but reinforced their literacy skills and fostered critical thinking. When introducing the unit name, I played a game requiring students to tell me where each letter should go so that it is in its appropriate place. This reinforces phonological awareness and students are reminded of the rules of phonics. I also utilized thinking maps in this lesson by creating a circle map with the class when activating prior knowledge. The students were also scaffolded in coming up with their own concepts and questions about the unit to contribute to the concept and question board. Lastly, I also modeled good reading strategies like asking questions, making predictions, clarifying, during the read-aloud.

The lesson as a whole took around 2 hours to complete. It was my first time teaching Language Arts to my second grade students and it was deemed a success!