Language Experience Approach (LEA) with Pre-Kindergarten
Classroom setting and environment:
I decided to complete this project with the children that I work with at a learning center. The children are in the Pre-Kindergarten class, so they are four and five year olds. It was towards the end of the day when we did not have any other scheduled activities, so I took the time to complete the project. We started with eight children, but two of them left pretty close to when we started. The project was completed with six children. The children were sitting together on a rug, and I sat in a chair in front of them next to a white board.
Strategy:
I chose to use the Language Experience Approach (LEA) strategy. This strategy stood out to me ever since we read and learned about it. The purpose of this strategy was to demonstrate to the students how to glean information from a text and how to write. This supported student learning by focusing on spacing, capitalization, and punctuation. I also used this strategy to help students recognize the first letter of some of the words.
Materials/Text used:
The theme for the week at the learning center was Dinosaurs, and the children were really enjoying it. I decided to use that to my advantage. I found one of the dinosaur books that we had in the classroom that we could read and that the students could learn from. I chose the book Dinosaur’s Day by Ruth Thomson. I used the text to help the students learn more about dinosaurs so they could right a paragraph about them. To prepare to do this strategy I found the book and reviewed the LAE so that I would remember to do all of the parts.
Step-by-Step Procedure:
I started off by gathering the students on a rug and telling them we were going to read about dinosaurs and write about what we learned after. The students were extremely excited about the idea of writing about dinosaurs and using their own ideas and sentences. We read Dinosaur’s Day. The students thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was similar to some of the other dinosaur books that they had been reading and looking at throughout the week. Next, I had the students talk to me about what they had learned about dinosaurs. Once they had a few thoughts about what they learned and what they wanted to write about, I asked them to raise their hands and give me sentences that they would like to include in our paragraph. Many students were raising their hands with a sentence that they wanted to include. The first sentence they gave me was “Dinosaurs roar.” I demonstrated to the students that we make an indent when we first start a paragraph. Then I asked them to tell me what letter dinosaurs starts with. They correctly told me that dinosaurs starts with “d.” As I wrote the sentence I sounded out the words, pointed out the space between the words, and made sure to include punctuation. This is how every sentence was written. The paragraph that the students came up with really impressed me.
“Dinosaurs roar. Some dinosaurs eat plants. Dinosaurs stomp. Some dinosaurs have long necks. Some dinosaurs are big and tall. Some are small, and some can fly. Some dinosaurs have big feet. We like learning about dinosaurs.”
This clearly is not the best paragraph that could be written about dinosaurs, but I think it shows that the students really learned a lot about dinosaurs. They were so excited when we wrote the last sentence that they asked me to read it all to them. Of course, I was already planning on doing this because it is part of the LAE strategy. I read the paragraph to them three times; while I read, I pointed to each word as I said it. I also made sure to pause at the end of each sentence. Last, I had the students do their best to read the paragraph along with me. We did this a few times, and by the last time they did fairly well. We ran out of time, so I could not have the students try to read it by themselves, but considering these students are only in pre-kindergarten I do not think they would have been able to read it very well without any help. After everything was done, the students were begging me to let them draw and color pictures of dinosaurs at the bottom of the page to make it look more like a story that would be in a book. I thought this was a great idea, and I loved that the students were thinking so much. They also told me they wanted to take the story home to show their parents; they were so proud of the work they had done.
Outcomes/Adaptions:
I was very impressed with how well the strategy went. I wasn’t sure how well pre-kindergarten children would be able to make sentences about a specific topic, but they did not have any problems with it at all. This strategy can be used in so many different ways! You could find a book that worked with any of the subject or content areas. I used an informational text to complete the strategy, but I think any genre would work with this strategy. This can be used for any students whether they are below, at, or above grade level or English Language Learners. For students that are below level or ELLs, you might have to give more encouragement and do more of the writing. For students that are above grade level, you can let them tell you how to write and spell everything.
What went well:
Honestly, I thought everything went well. The students were very engaged the whole time. They answered my questions correctly and came up with good sentences on their own. The students really enjoyed it and wanted to show off their hard work.
What would you have done differently:
I had not even considered the possibility that the students would want to further the lesson by drawing and coloring their own pictures, so next time I will make sure to have a coloring page that relates to the story so the students can color it. Also, I did not think about the students wanting to show off the work that they did, so I would need to leave time to make copies of their work so they could show it to their parents. I should also try to use this strategy to connect to an actual experience students have had rather than just what they have learned about. In my opinion, the strategy still worked, but some might think that I did not really use the strategy since there was no connection to an experience.
Other reflections: (1-2 paragraphs)
I realize that the students did not write a paragraph that had to do with their own experience in that they had some sort of interaction with dinosaurs. However, I still think the strategy worked quite well because it used the knowledge and opinions students had about dinosaurs. I also don’t think I gave the children enough credit as I was planning this lesson. I was really surprised that they did as well as they did. I thought I was going to have to encourage more sentences out of them, but they would have just kept going and going if I had not stopped them. Overall, I thought the strategy went very well, and I will definitely use it again.
I decided to complete this project with the children that I work with at a learning center. The children are in the Pre-Kindergarten class, so they are four and five year olds. It was towards the end of the day when we did not have any other scheduled activities, so I took the time to complete the project. We started with eight children, but two of them left pretty close to when we started. The project was completed with six children. The children were sitting together on a rug, and I sat in a chair in front of them next to a white board.
Strategy:
I chose to use the Language Experience Approach (LEA) strategy. This strategy stood out to me ever since we read and learned about it. The purpose of this strategy was to demonstrate to the students how to glean information from a text and how to write. This supported student learning by focusing on spacing, capitalization, and punctuation. I also used this strategy to help students recognize the first letter of some of the words.
Materials/Text used:
The theme for the week at the learning center was Dinosaurs, and the children were really enjoying it. I decided to use that to my advantage. I found one of the dinosaur books that we had in the classroom that we could read and that the students could learn from. I chose the book Dinosaur’s Day by Ruth Thomson. I used the text to help the students learn more about dinosaurs so they could right a paragraph about them. To prepare to do this strategy I found the book and reviewed the LAE so that I would remember to do all of the parts.
Step-by-Step Procedure:
I started off by gathering the students on a rug and telling them we were going to read about dinosaurs and write about what we learned after. The students were extremely excited about the idea of writing about dinosaurs and using their own ideas and sentences. We read Dinosaur’s Day. The students thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was similar to some of the other dinosaur books that they had been reading and looking at throughout the week. Next, I had the students talk to me about what they had learned about dinosaurs. Once they had a few thoughts about what they learned and what they wanted to write about, I asked them to raise their hands and give me sentences that they would like to include in our paragraph. Many students were raising their hands with a sentence that they wanted to include. The first sentence they gave me was “Dinosaurs roar.” I demonstrated to the students that we make an indent when we first start a paragraph. Then I asked them to tell me what letter dinosaurs starts with. They correctly told me that dinosaurs starts with “d.” As I wrote the sentence I sounded out the words, pointed out the space between the words, and made sure to include punctuation. This is how every sentence was written. The paragraph that the students came up with really impressed me.
“Dinosaurs roar. Some dinosaurs eat plants. Dinosaurs stomp. Some dinosaurs have long necks. Some dinosaurs are big and tall. Some are small, and some can fly. Some dinosaurs have big feet. We like learning about dinosaurs.”
This clearly is not the best paragraph that could be written about dinosaurs, but I think it shows that the students really learned a lot about dinosaurs. They were so excited when we wrote the last sentence that they asked me to read it all to them. Of course, I was already planning on doing this because it is part of the LAE strategy. I read the paragraph to them three times; while I read, I pointed to each word as I said it. I also made sure to pause at the end of each sentence. Last, I had the students do their best to read the paragraph along with me. We did this a few times, and by the last time they did fairly well. We ran out of time, so I could not have the students try to read it by themselves, but considering these students are only in pre-kindergarten I do not think they would have been able to read it very well without any help. After everything was done, the students were begging me to let them draw and color pictures of dinosaurs at the bottom of the page to make it look more like a story that would be in a book. I thought this was a great idea, and I loved that the students were thinking so much. They also told me they wanted to take the story home to show their parents; they were so proud of the work they had done.
Outcomes/Adaptions:
I was very impressed with how well the strategy went. I wasn’t sure how well pre-kindergarten children would be able to make sentences about a specific topic, but they did not have any problems with it at all. This strategy can be used in so many different ways! You could find a book that worked with any of the subject or content areas. I used an informational text to complete the strategy, but I think any genre would work with this strategy. This can be used for any students whether they are below, at, or above grade level or English Language Learners. For students that are below level or ELLs, you might have to give more encouragement and do more of the writing. For students that are above grade level, you can let them tell you how to write and spell everything.
What went well:
Honestly, I thought everything went well. The students were very engaged the whole time. They answered my questions correctly and came up with good sentences on their own. The students really enjoyed it and wanted to show off their hard work.
What would you have done differently:
I had not even considered the possibility that the students would want to further the lesson by drawing and coloring their own pictures, so next time I will make sure to have a coloring page that relates to the story so the students can color it. Also, I did not think about the students wanting to show off the work that they did, so I would need to leave time to make copies of their work so they could show it to their parents. I should also try to use this strategy to connect to an actual experience students have had rather than just what they have learned about. In my opinion, the strategy still worked, but some might think that I did not really use the strategy since there was no connection to an experience.
Other reflections: (1-2 paragraphs)
I realize that the students did not write a paragraph that had to do with their own experience in that they had some sort of interaction with dinosaurs. However, I still think the strategy worked quite well because it used the knowledge and opinions students had about dinosaurs. I also don’t think I gave the children enough credit as I was planning this lesson. I was really surprised that they did as well as they did. I thought I was going to have to encourage more sentences out of them, but they would have just kept going and going if I had not stopped them. Overall, I thought the strategy went very well, and I will definitely use it again.