Jacari lesson plan I teach a 7-year old girl called Ayesha. Her 6-year old brother Azarhul sits in on the lessons but they are at different levels so he doesn’t join in with everything. Lesson aims and objectives To consolidate knowledge of the alphabet To consolidate knowledge of basic words To teach a few new words To do all this in a fun way! Necessary preparation Prepare word cards of different levels (level 1 has 1 and 2 letter words, level 2 has 3 letter words) where the levels are distinguished by the colour of the writing Materials required word cards stopwatch chocolate coins gold star stickers smiley face stickers book playing cards Activities Introduction Talk to Ayesha, ask her how her day/week has been, what she has learnt at school etc. Explain what will be happening in the lesson and my aims for the lesson Review of alphabet Get her to read the alphabet aloud. Get her to write the alphabet. Award gold stars for good efforts (and then wait for her to count how many she has, which she does every time I give her one!). Get her to re-read or re-write any letters she has problems with (she commonly gets b and d mixed up for example). Main learning activities I divide the main learning activities in my lessons into what I call a formal activity, and then an informal activity, which is more fun. I try to structure the lesson so that the informal activity consolidates what has been learnt in the formal activity in a fun way. This particular lesson plan does this. Formal activity Get Ayesha to read the level 1 and level 2 word cards aloud. For any she has problems with get her to say the individual sounds (if the word is phonetic, which most are) and then try to put them together. For any she can’t do after this attempt, tell her the word and make her repeat it. Get her to re-read any she had problems with. Award gold stars for good efforts. Informal activity Line up the level 1 word cards on the floor. Place chocolate coins on every 5th word card. Give Azarhul 1 minute to read as many as he can in order. If he comes to one he can’t read he has to stop. Every time he reads a word card which has a chocolate coin on it he can take the coin. Line up the level 1 and level 2 word cards on the floor. Repeat the procedure above for Ayesha. Go over any words she had problems with. Repeat the procedure (with or without chocolate coins depending on how many she gets the first time and how many I have – when I did this lesson she exceeded my expectations and I ran out of coins!). Record the number of words read or time taken to read all the words (because she exceeded my expectations she managed to read all the words) in her folder. Book reading Get Ayesha to read a book, using the same principles as for reading the word cards. Write down any words she has problems with and go over them afterwards. Rewards If she has done well award her a smiley face. Game Play Snap, trying very hard to lose quickly so that the lesson doesn’t overrun! When I did this lesson Ayesha (and Azarhul) seemed to be really enthusiastic and really enjoy it. There are several reasons why I think this lesson was successful. Some of the reasons are based on things I try to do in all my lessons. I start off by talking to her, settling her down and explaining what is going to happen in the lesson, and the aims, so she knows what to work for. At the end I always read a book with her. This routine is a good way of measuring progress and is a nice calm way to finish the academic work for the lesson. After that I always play a game so that she has something to look forward to during the lesson and a good memory of it at the end. I emphasise both long-term and short-term repetition as I think this is a really good way of getting knowledge to stick. At the beginning of every lesson I go over the alphabet (again a good way of measuring progress), and during each task I always get her to repeat things she has problems with. I also think both long-term and short-term rewards are important. Short-term rewards are important so that she is rewarded frequently and this encourages her. Long-term rewards are also important as they give a bigger sense of achievement. During the lesson I award gold stars for small tasks, and at the end of the lesson if she has done well I award a smiley face. I have also promised her 10 gold stars if she manages to write the alphabet perfectly without my help, which is my aim for this term. She is nearly there! The chocolate coins in this lesson are a very good reward, because they are something different and are actually something she can use a tangible (and edible) reward. I also think the competition in this lesson helps make it a success. She was competing against her brother, and then against herself, which seemed to be a big motivation to do well. Recording her achievements means she can compete against herself again in a future lesson, and also means that long-term progress can be measured. The chocolate coin race was also very fun (for me as well), which was probably the main reason for the success of the lesson.