Evanne Zainea
Unit Plan- Vowel Review
Miss Betancourt’s Kindergarten Class/ Cesar Chavez Elementary School
November, 2013
For my pre- assessment I took my lower level students and worked with them on flashcards. I also tried mixing things up to see if there were better ways to help them learn. I tried using magnet blocks, motions, and writing to help them. My most successful lesson was when I employed a “different teacher,” my oruga (caterpillar) puppet. This puppet engaged the kids and made them want to perform well to impress him. Basically I learned that three of my five lower students are still struggling to know many of the vowels. Although, all of them did better when I tried to find ways to engage them more, two of them got nearly all of their letters right. I also had all students go over the vowel names and sounds. Many of students were very successful; they were even more successful when they paired the vowels with consonants to make syllables. I had them put the vowels in order and write them in their notebooks. My students also have been working with various syllables, pairing vowels with consonants and making words out of them. To assess them I read off particular words and they made them out of alphabet magnets. Through this, I saw that although many of them have grasped this concept, they still need a lot of help fortifying this knowledge. I plan on helping them by teaching several more word/syllable lessons.
And where do I go from here? At I feel that the best approach would be to split kids into groups of higher, middle, and lower learners in order for my lower learners to have a voice without being drowned out by their more knowledgeable classmates. I know that I run the risk

Evanne Zainea
Unit Plan- Vowel Review
Miss Betancourt’s Kindergarten Class/ Cesar Chavez Elementary School
November, 2013 of lowering my expectations of each group; however, I plan on using the same lesson and goal set for each group.
I also plan to include a simple formative assessment before each class period. This will include students interacting with a vowel guest- an animal puppet whose name begins with a vowel sound students have already learned. This puppet will interact with students and ask them if they can guess what letter its name starts with. This will help me see where students are at with their knowledge of vowel sounds. I also have several assessments that correlate with each lesson. They normally involve me asking them questions about the content such as,
“Can you find the vowels in the word ‘elephant?’” and, “What syllables are you wearing on your signs?” I have a brief outline of what this looks like for each individual lesson, included in the plan.
For my formative assessments as learning I have many tasks that involve rewarding the students for doing the correct job. As students work in their table groups, they will receive a sticker to reward them for doing a neat and dedicated job on their projects. In my group students will be able to do things like participate in the next activity, eat the snack, be encouraged to come up with more answers. I also plan on incorporating assessment as learning into games, helping kids strive to assess themselves in order to play the game. Kids will compare their answers to those of their partners around them as they play. Their classmates will also be encouraged be keeping a careful watch to see if their friends are saying the right answer. Hopefully, these games will help students connect vowels to the real world and help

Evanne Zainea
Unit Plan- Vowel Review
Miss Betancourt’s Kindergarten Class/ Cesar Chavez Elementary School
November, 2013 them see that not only do we use vowels every day, these vowels are everywhere as well. I have two main games that specifically tie students work to the real world. For one game, students must write out Animal names and find the vowels and syllables that they know in them. They are then challenged to look for words in their home, write down these words and circle the vowels and syllables that they know. The other game is the Wordle activity. This allows students to see that syllables are found anywhere, even in technology. Using the Wordle technology may be especially helpful for them because I have seen many other teachers use this program.
The major part of my summative assessment will be found in the making of vowel booklets. Many aspects of making the vowel booklets involve my students writing out vowels and syllables. Even though some of my students will work on these before they come to me for their lesson, it will still be able to help me see where they are at in the overall process of comprehension. In fact, as the wrap up to their vowel books, students will be making their own hand-written Wordle document full of the words that they have learned. This will allow me to see if they have learned how to put together and write syllables as well as the vowels that can be found in the words. I also plan on having my students check their own work with a rubric to allow them to participate in formative assessment as well. I want them to track how well they are at following directions and understand that this is an important skill for their everyday lives.
As an individual part of each lesson, I plan on often quizzing my students at the end of each lesson by having them write out, answer questions about, and identify flashcards for the

Evanne Zainea
Unit Plan- Vowel Review
Miss Betancourt’s Kindergarten Class/ Cesar Chavez Elementary School
November, 2013 different concepts that they have learned. This way I can get a separate analysis of each lesson as well as an overall analysis of the unit that will be found in the vowel booklets. With this info the teacher and I will be able to see which concepts still need reinforcing and which concepts are strong for the students.