Language Arts Lesson- The Importance Of Illustrations In Writing

Last week during my Tuesday Experience I conducted my first lesson with the students in the classroom that I am working in. I have been working in a second grade classroom at Bugbee Elementary School in West Hartford Ct. I felt that before I went out to create my lesson that I should talk to my classroom teacher to get advise on something I should teach. I asked her if there was anything specific she wanted me to focus on in my lesson, and boy did she have some really great ideas for me. Amoung the many she gave me one stood out in my mind above the others. It was a lesson that I wouldn't have even thought of doing. I thought it was something different that I would really have fun teaching the class, and also a lesson that the students would enjoy too.

Mrs. Dibble my classroom teacher has had the students writing fictional stories about snowmen. the students had been working on these for weeks, editing and revising them to perfection. They have also typed them up onto the computer into a book style, with about a paragraph oif writing on each page. The only thing that was missing from their stories was illustrations. This is where my lesson came in. Mrs. Dibble suggested that I do a lesson on how illustartion can be very impotant in writing. When I was told this I thought that it would be a very creative lesson, but I thought that it wasn't your typical languages arts type of lesson. Even though I had aprehensions I went along with what she was suggesting, and soon enough I realized that it was a great lesson. After writing up my lesson and rehearsing it the day before I was going to teach it, I discovered something impotant. For students to be able to draw picture to texts they have had to be able to comprehend what they were reading or writing!

For my lesson I started with guiding the class through a story called "My Best Friend Is Out Of This World." This is a story were illustartions are very important and guide the reader through the story. If the reader were to read this book without seeing the illustrations then they would have a completely differnt outlook on the story. So, I decided to read this story twice to the class; the first time I read it I wouldn't show them the illustrations and then the second time I would read it to them and show them the illustrations. Before beginning to read the book to the class for the first time I asked them to make predictions based on the title of the book. I got a big response from the class, they all wanted to give me their predictions. I decide that it would be a good idea to write the predictions on the board in the front of the class so we could go back to it late. I learned from our text and in class that it is important for students to make predictions, becasue then they are using their higher-level thinking skills and they are activily thinking about the book. Once the students predictions were on the board I began reading the story. I heard whispers throughout the first time I read the book, student were woundering why I wasnt showing them the pictures, I even had a few ask me, but I ignored their request to show them the illustraions. When I finished I went back to the predictions that were written on the board. I have read in the book that it is always good to go back to the predictions; it is a good connection. then I asked the students if they noticed anything about the way I was reading to them. They answered right away, "You didn't show us the picture Ms. Aston!!" The class and myslef had a brief discussion about illustrations at this point, I asked them some questions and they would respond. An important question I asked was if they tought if I showed them the picture if they would have a differnt outlook or opinion of the book. I recieved alot of mixed responses from the class and this was the perfect time to read the story again, this time with pictures. While reading I stopped frequently to check for understanding and student responses, I have learned from the book to do this often, becasue it is a good way to see which students understand and which don't, and to check to see if the studetns are paying attention. At the end of the book the students were shocked, and I could tell they all noticed that the illustrations made a big difference when reading the story. They understood the story better, and enjoyed it more. From here we talked about illustrations a little more and then they did the actitity, which was illustrating their snowman stories.

Overall I was very pleased with how my lesson went. For the most part it went smoothly. I was able to sit down with my teacher after and talk with her about the things I did well and the things that I need to improve on. I was happy to get feed back becasue that is going to help me to improve and grow as a teacher.