324 Lesson 5

 

We started the lesson with a butterfly-themed ice breaker, since our book mentioned butterflies, we had the students color a butterfly picture of themselves and write affirmations in the butterfly wings.

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These were things she could say to help her “butter butterflies” go away when she feels nervous. We spent about ten minutes on this before moving into the main lesson.

We reviewed the class agenda and classroom rules like we always do. I explained what sentence expansion was, and because we only had one student, the explanation went quickly. After reviewing our anchor chart, we had her read the vocabulary words about butterflies. She told us she had learned a lot about butterflies in second grade, so she already had strong background knowledge.

Next, we read our story about a girl who wanted to build a butterfly garden and wrote to her town council to persuade them. After reading, we worked on a sentence expansion activity.

Since her partner was not there, my partner and I also did the activity so she could see three examples. She wrote a detailed sentence about butterflies migrating to Mexico for the winter.

When we finished, we took a quick brain break. She did not want to keep coloring her butterfly from the icebreaker, so we did some stretches instead. After the break, we worked on a sensory poem about butterflies. 

                                                     

She was getting restless, so we let her be creative and choose whether she wanted to pretend to be a butterfly or a person observing one. 

My partner and I shared our poems too. Her poem matched the five senses, even if it was not realistic, and we allowed that because we encouraged creativity.

We were moving faster than usual and finished early, so we had around an hour left for our last activity. We used the idea from the story of writing about a problem in the community. My partner and I also chose people from our own towns to write to. Since our student lives in East Providence, she wrote to the mayor.

We filled out a graphic organizer first. She has become comfortable using graphic organizers because we use them often. She wrote neatly about an issue she cared about and shared her story with us.

Since we still had extra time and she was restless again, we played Simon Says. After the game, we explained that it was time to write the final letter on real letter paper. She said she wanted to write very neatly because she wanted to show her parents.

 

My partner and I also wrote our own letters to model the process. We taught her where to put the date, how to start the letter, how to indent, and how to sign it. She did not know these steps before, so it became a helpful mini-lesson. She wrote her neatest work and took her time, which helped fill the extra time we had.

         

We all read our letters out loud. She added nice transition words and made a strong case for the issue she chose. 

                                                          

With about ten minutes left, we completed one more sentence expansion since we had an extra worksheet. She did this one on her own and shared it confidently. After that, it was time to pack up.

All of our objectives were met. Our student completed the sentence-expansion worksheet, the sensory poem, and the letter accurately and followed all the directions. No students missed the objectives.

From this experience, I learned how to support a student in building stronger descriptive writing by using clear models, visuals, and step-by-step guidance. I also learned how breaking tasks into smaller parts helps the student feel confident and complete the work accurately.

In the future, I will plan lessons with more structure and clear examples so students know exactly what is expected. I will also include frequent check-ins during lessons to make sure students understand each part before moving on. When assessing, I will pay attention to both the final work and the strategies the student used along the way. This experience showed me that breaking tasks into smaller steps helps students succeed, so I will continue to use that approach in my teaching.