Meghan Kelly

Lesson Plan & Rationale

November 27, 2017
LESSON PLAN & RATIONALE

Teachers Name: Ms. Blais

Focus of the Lesson: Letter Production
Grade Level(s): Pre-K
Standard(s): Virginia Literacy Foundation Block 6: Writing
The child will use a variety of materials and technology to convey thoughts, ideas,
and experiences
e) begin to use correct manuscript letter formation
Materials:
Teacher materials:
- Smart board/iPad if able
- Paper and pencil if not

Student materials:
- White board
- White board marker
- Pencil
- Letter worksheet

Procedures:
Depending on the letter being taught, the specific instruction and corresponding
worksheet will differ. However, each lesson will follow a similar structure, mirroring this
one for the letter B.

Minutes What is the teacher doing? What is the student

doing?
1 minute The teacher will introduce the letter that The student is listening and
they are learning to draw that day. The letter watching.
will be shown either on the SmartBoard or
 iPad (for the purpose of this lesson we will
assume a SmartBoard can be used).
3 minutes The teacher will ask the student to think of The student will think of
words that start with the letter B or the words and tell them to the
sound that B makes. As the student teacher.
provides words the teacher will write them
down on a piece of paper. The teacher will
state that the student is going to learn how
to write the first letter of these words today,
the letter B.
3 minutes The teacher will show the student how to The student is listening and
draw the capital letter B on the board, watching.
following correct manuscript formation. The
teacher will verbalize how to draw the letter
by saying Start at the top, and make a line
down. Go back to the top, and go around to
the middle. Then, go around to the bottom
as she draws the letter. After drawing the
letter once, the teacher will draw it again on
the board. Again, she will verbalize it as she
draws saying down, around, and around.
2 minutes The teacher can help with hand-over-hand, The student will draw the
and provide any help the child may need. capital letter B on their
She can demonstrate how to draw the letter whiteboard
a few more times if needed until the child
understands and is able to execute the letter
herself.
3 minutes The teacher will show the student how to The student is listening and
draw the lowercase letter b on the board watching.
following correct manuscript formation. The
 teacher will verbalize how to draw the letter
by saying Start at the top, and make a line
down. Go to the middle, and go all the way
around as she draws it. After drawing the
letter once, the teacher will draw it again on
the board. Again, she will verbalize it as she
draws saying down, around.
2 minutes The teacher can help with hand-over-hand,
and provide any help the children may need.
She can demonstrate how to draw the letter
a few more times if needed until the child
understands and is able to execute the letter
themselves.
1 minute The teacher will show the child the
worksheet she will be completing. The
teacher will ask the student what image she
sees on the worksheet, and what letter
book begins with.
1 minute The teacher will observe the child tracing
the letters that spell book.
10 As the child draws the letters, the teacher
minutes will look to make sure that the child is
holding their pencil correctly, and following
the correct steps to create the letter. Any
demonstration necessary can occur on the
whiteboard.
The student will draw the
lowercase letter b on
their whiteboard.
The child will look at the
worksheet and tell the
teacher that there is a book
on the page. The child will
identify that book starts
with the letter B.
The child will trace the
letters that spell book.
The child will complete the
lines of practice forming
the letters. The child will
complete both sections of
the worksheet, both
uppercase B and
lowercase b.
3 minutes The teacher will show the paper to the child
that they wrote the b words on at the
beginning of the lesson. The teacher will re-
read the words to the child. The teacher will
observe the childs tracing of the letters.
The teacher will explain to the child that
they now know how to write the first letter
of all of these words.
As the teacher reads the
words, the child will trace
the letter bs with their
finger in correct
manuscript formation.
 RATIONALE

While completing the Literacy Assessment with my case study student, I found

that she was scoring impressively on many of the activities that she completed. She has

the ability to recognize all of the lowercase and uppercase letters, and while she did not

complete this activity during the assessment, I have observed her provide the sounds for a

majority of the letters in the alphabet as well. When completing the activity on alphabet

letter production, the child did demonstrate the ability to form some of the letters asked.

However, she did not display any sense of direction in these letters (for example, they

were floating and some were written sideways or upside down on the paper).

According to Words Their Way, the child is in the symbol salad stage, where there are

letter strings but confusion in the use of directionality (Bear et al., 2015). Since

completing that activity, her class has been working on the correct way to hold a pencil

and she has mastered that skill. For these reasons, I decided it is developmentally

appropriate for her to begin learning how to produce the letters of the alphabet.

Because of the childs young age, it is not a goal of the lesson for her to be able to

produce these letters without any mistake. This lesson is to introduce her to writing

letters, grounding them on a line, and formatting them the correct way. This will simply

allow her to get the basics of how to learn this skill, and provide her with the knowledge

and ability to better convey her ideas if she wishes to. Another goal of this lesson is for

the child to continue to make connections between letters and how they make up words.

Learning to write the letters that make up these words reinforces their connection. The

child should also begin to connect that when others are writing, they are using the letters

she is learning to write as well. This lesson directly reflects the standard in Virginia
Literacy Foundation Block 6: Writing that the child will begin to use correct manuscript

letter formation. The standard is not asking for the child to become an expert in this skill,

but for them to begin to get some experience writing letters which this lesson provides.

When completing this lesson with the child, I am really looking forward to seeing

her get it. The child is extremely bright and I can tell that she is on the brink of writing

letters, and I think she will really enjoy being challenged to do so. She does not get

challenged often in the classroom, but enjoys when she does (which often occurs when

doing activities solely with me). I also look forward to her being able to write her own

name successfully and all by herself, as well as maybe other words. She will be able to

express herself more clearly in her drawings by labeling things, which I could tell she

was struggling with not being able to do when drawing a family picture for me. One

concern that I have about this lesson is whether the child will feel pressured to do perfect

in this task after being taught how to form words. According to Morrows Literacy

Development in the Early Ages, while learning to write uppercase and lowercase letters

is appropriate for pre-K classrooms young children should be free to write in

unconventional ways as doing so still enhances phonetic awareness and establishes

preliminary understandings of phonics (Morrow, 2015). The child enjoys being

successful, and struggles with not doing a perfect job or living up to expectations. I plan

to keep expectations low and portray this as practice that doesnt have to be perfect, as

the child is young to be learning this skill (especially compared to the developmental

stages of her peers). Another concern is that other students may express interest in

learning this skill that truly are not ready developmentally to learn it, because they see her

learning it. It is important not to display the child as more intelligent or more-able
than the other students, and to treat each students achievements just the same as any

other.

Following this lesson, I would hope the teacher could go on to teach the child how

to write all 26 letters correctly in a manuscript format. Following this instruction, the next

steps would be to provide opportunities for the child to use their writing skills so that they

become more natural for them, and their ability to write the letters increase. The child

should be writing her own name at all times, and should begin associating the letter, letter

sound, and letter production to label images. For example, if the child draws a family

picture, they could associate D with Dad and write the letter D over their picture of

their dad. Following this, the next step is learning to spell words, and writing them down.

The child is young to be learning this at this point in Pre-K, but should really begin to

focus on this skill in Kindergarten next year.

References

Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2015). Words Their Way.

New Jersey: Pearson.

Morrow, L. M. (2015). Literacy Development in the Early Years: Helping Children Read

and Write. New Jersey: Pearson.

B Lesson Worksheet