Read Write Think Lesson Analysis
I analyzed the lesson, “Descriptive Writing and the 100th Day of School”. It is a lesson for kindergarten through second grade. I think that this lesson is appropriate for the listed grades, but if it was done in kindergarten there would need to be a joint effort between child and parent. The writing activities would need to be changed or there would need to be some volunteers to help the student record the writing activities. The child would have to dictate many of the things to the adult especially for the struggling student.
The lessons center on the 100th day of school. This day is a special day in my classroom and I try to have many activities to do on this day. This lesson is a good lesson to involve the parents in a project with their students. There is a parent letter that is sent home to explain the activity. The lesson focuses on writing a description about the items that are in their 100th day bottle. Each student places 100 items in a drink bottle. They cover the bottle with a label so the items cannot be seen. The student writes descriptive clues about the items in the bottle and the class tries to guess the item after hearing the clues. This is a good lesson on writing descriptions. When students write they are always encouraged to use descriptive words. As a teacher I am always telling my students to tell me the details of an object and we work on writing descriptions about an object during the year.
The first day of the lesson involves reading a book about the 100th day of school. This lesson is done the day before the 100th day. The teacher shares her 100th day bottle reading the clues she has written and the students try to guess what is inside. After they guess the teacher explains that each student will be making their own bottle at home. A parent letter is sent home along with the clues worksheet, a bag to put the bottle in, and the label for the bottle.
The second day which would be the 100th day of school is kicked off with another 100th day book. Then students take turns sharing their bottles and clues. After all have been shared the students compare the bottles by weight, size of the objects, etc… There are two worksheets that are completed on day two. These could be completed independently by first and second graders, but they would need to be revised to use in kindergarten.
On day three the students make a class book about their 100th day bottles. There is a sentence template to use. A class book is made and will be put in the classroom for the students to read.
This is a lesson that I am thinking about using on the 100th day of school this year. I always send home a collection bag for the students to bring in 100 objects. The objects must fit inside the bag, so instead of using the bag I am going to try using the bottle. I think that this lesson is beneficial in that it involves the parents and students working together. I can see that it could be a problem because it is sometimes hard to get the parents to participate in home/school activities. I think that there would have to be some bottles created for students to use whose parents do not participate in the activity. Overall I enjoyed this lesson and I have enjoyed looking at lesson ideas on this website.
Michelle Moffitt