Lesson Commentary
Lesson Commentary
Introduction
The teacher explains the morning’s activities. The children are excited to be told that they will be using Padlet (later in activity 2) and an audible “Yes” echoes around the room from the children.
Listening into the story scene
The teacher plays music from the digital resource without sharing the screen. She asks children to write what they know about magical forests, and what they might find there. The children chatter in pairs while listening to the music, with their hands poised to write. The children list vocabulary on scraps of paper (dark, windy, mysterious, trees, ghosts, twisted, bluebells). The teacher reads what children are writing aloud, as she moves around the room.
Children listening to music and listing ideas
Exploring The Bewitched Forest scene
The teacher instructs the children to open The Bewitched Forest on their Chromebooks and navigate to the interactive scene. The children are super-excited and talking to each other. They are asked to add vocabulary (words to describe what they can see in the scene) to their scraps of paper, using a different colour pen.
The teacher asks children for new words and reinforces the idea of “noun phrase”. The children are excited –
Shared ebook story reading
The teacher asks children to select the ebook story reading activity. She talks through some story vocabulary which is also presented on the IWB, e.g. ogre, potion, strayed, gaze, sorcerer, Children join in and call out. They are very excited.
The teacher orientates the children to open the ebook. She explains how to move through the story, turning pages. She struggles to keep the children’s attention, as they begin to read independently.
The teacher asks everyone to join in with teacher-led shared choral reading.
Children are asked to recount what has happened - children reread silently to be able to answer the question – the teacher re-reads aloud to confirm their suggestions.
The teacher leads the class with echo reading from the IWB – “My turn/ your turn”.
Children start to offer comments about the story to the teacher. Children are told that they will get to finish the story as their project for the next two weeks. They are very excited.
Shared and individual ebook comprehension
The teacher leads a quick-fire Q and A to check understanding . She uses recall questions to ensure children understand the plot and events so far. Then children are asked to answer questions in the digital resource – and choose their level – beginner/ intermediate/ advanced. These questions are written conventionally on a screen that looks like a text book. The children express frustration with this activity, as some of the questions do not match the text read. The teacher works hard to hold children’s attention.
Observations about enjoyment and engagement
The children enjoy the warm-up listening activity.They respond with excitement to the promise of using Padlet, later, which appears to engage them further. The listening activity really engages the children and they readily make notes about what they imagine.
The children engage with the familiar pattern of choral reading. They can answer questions in the whole class setting. They appear to enjoy using their Chromebooks for comprehension work, but become a little frustrated when the resource falls short of their expectations, and loses logic.