Mini Lessons
Definition and Purpose
Teachers use short, specific lessons called minilessons to teach literacy strategies and skills. Minilessons can be taught to small groups of children or to the whole class. Many topics can be covered within a minilesson. Teachers can teach literacy strategies and skills as a part of literature focus units, reading and writing workshop and other instructional approaches. Other minilessons can focus on how to use a dictionary, or concepts such as inflectional endings, homophones or adjectives.
Minilessons typically last 15 to 30 minutes in duration and can extend over several days as the children apply the topic they are learning in reading and writing activities. Minilessons can be an effective way to teach strategies and skills to children in an effective manner.
Steps
1. Teachers introduce the strategy or skill by naming it and making a connection between the topic and activities that are currently occuring within the classroom.
2. Teachers will demonstrate how to use the topic using examples from books that the children are reading or writing activities they are currently working on.
3. Teachers will provide the students with information about the topic and demonstrate how to effectively use the particular strategy or skill they are teaching.
4. Teachers will allow the students to practice the strategy or skill with teacher supervision.
5. Teachers will continually monitor student progress and evaluate how they are using the newly learned strategy or skill.
Application and Examples
Minilesson
Topic: Teaching High Frequency Words
Grade: First Grade
Time: One- 15 minute period
Miss Lee has a goal for her first grade class to learn at least 75 of the 100 high-frequency words. She has a large word wall that is divided into sections for each letter. Each week she introduces three new words and then adds them to the word wall. On Monday she introduces the new words and for the rest of the week she focuses on them and reviews words she has previously introduced. She often had the children hunt for the words in books that they are viewing in class and has the children create sentences using the words.
Steps to the mini lesson:
1. Introduce the topic. Miss Lee points to the words on the word wall, the class reads them aloud as she points to them. She reviews the D, H and M words on the word wall.
2. Share Examples. Miss Lee calls up a student volunteer to point to the three new words of the week. As the student points to each word (do, here and my) she writes it on the whiteboard, pronounces it and spells it aloud. She and the student volunteer chant and clap the words together.
3. Provide Information. Miss Lee suggests that the students look for the words do, my and here in a familiar big book that the children have been reading in class. The children point out the words whenever they occur in the book. The teacher circulates, checking that the children notice the words.
4. Guide Practice. Miss Lee asks a student volunteer to choose three classmates to come up to the whiteboard and spell the words with large magnetic letters. The students read the word cards with their new words and spell the three words at their desks using the magnetic letters.
5. Assess Learning. On Friday, Miss Lee separates her first graders into small groups, asking them to locate the words in sentences they’ve written and to read the words individually on word cards.
Teachers use short, specific lessons called minilessons to teach literacy strategies and skills. Minilessons can be taught to small groups of children or to the whole class. Many topics can be covered within a minilesson. Teachers can teach literacy strategies and skills as a part of literature focus units, reading and writing workshop and other instructional approaches. Other minilessons can focus on how to use a dictionary, or concepts such as inflectional endings, homophones or adjectives.
Minilessons typically last 15 to 30 minutes in duration and can extend over several days as the children apply the topic they are learning in reading and writing activities. Minilessons can be an effective way to teach strategies and skills to children in an effective manner.
Steps
1. Teachers introduce the strategy or skill by naming it and making a connection between the topic and activities that are currently occuring within the classroom.
2. Teachers will demonstrate how to use the topic using examples from books that the children are reading or writing activities they are currently working on.
3. Teachers will provide the students with information about the topic and demonstrate how to effectively use the particular strategy or skill they are teaching.
4. Teachers will allow the students to practice the strategy or skill with teacher supervision.
5. Teachers will continually monitor student progress and evaluate how they are using the newly learned strategy or skill.
Application and Examples
Minilesson
Topic: Teaching High Frequency Words
Grade: First Grade
Time: One- 15 minute period
Miss Lee has a goal for her first grade class to learn at least 75 of the 100 high-frequency words. She has a large word wall that is divided into sections for each letter. Each week she introduces three new words and then adds them to the word wall. On Monday she introduces the new words and for the rest of the week she focuses on them and reviews words she has previously introduced. She often had the children hunt for the words in books that they are viewing in class and has the children create sentences using the words.
Steps to the mini lesson:
1. Introduce the topic. Miss Lee points to the words on the word wall, the class reads them aloud as she points to them. She reviews the D, H and M words on the word wall.
2. Share Examples. Miss Lee calls up a student volunteer to point to the three new words of the week. As the student points to each word (do, here and my) she writes it on the whiteboard, pronounces it and spells it aloud. She and the student volunteer chant and clap the words together.
3. Provide Information. Miss Lee suggests that the students look for the words do, my and here in a familiar big book that the children have been reading in class. The children point out the words whenever they occur in the book. The teacher circulates, checking that the children notice the words.
4. Guide Practice. Miss Lee asks a student volunteer to choose three classmates to come up to the whiteboard and spell the words with large magnetic letters. The students read the word cards with their new words and spell the three words at their desks using the magnetic letters.
5. Assess Learning. On Friday, Miss Lee separates her first graders into small groups, asking them to locate the words in sentences they’ve written and to read the words individually on word cards.