Analysis of Read Write Think lesson, Word Study with Henry and Mudge. This is a standard lesson geared to grades K-3. After reviewing the lesson, I think it is appropriate for second graders through struggling third graders.
The lessons are built around the Fountas and Pinnell guided reading format. The guided reading lessons are straightforward: pre-reading, word work, read aloud, and re-reading for fluency and accuracy. I did not see anything new or unique in these guided reading lessons. The connection to Henry and Mudge is vague, any book could easily be substituted in this lesson.
One aspect of the guided reading lesson is using the Henry and Mudge book to build a sight vocabulary word bank. The author built this around Beverly Tyner’s work (she is a graduate of the ASU reading program!). I found it puzzling that late second graders and struggling third graders would be working on building a basic sight word vocabulary. The author has the children reading a chapter from the book independently and then playing a game where they guess a covered basic sight word.
I was drawn to this ReadWriteThink because it utilized the comic creator. I explored the tool. It would be sufficient, but I prefer to use Kidspiration. With the Kidspiration program, the students are able to do everything that the Comic Creator does: add the speech bubbles, insert pictures, and include writing and captions. I would prefer using Kidspiration because there are many more pictures to choose from, it can be saved to the computer (Comic Creator has to be printed or it is lost), and it is colorful. Kidspiration also has a thinking map component for the prewriting activities, which the Comic Creator doesn't have.
While I was disappointed overall in this lesson, it inspired me to use it as a springboard for my own ReadWriteThink. I would like to develop a similar lesson, with a variety of activities, using alternative technology.
Linda Dearman
Hickory Cohort