Promote Piggy-Backing Encourage the expansion of conversation through ‘piggy-backing’ (adding to another person’s ideas).
Time: one 30-minute lesson or two 15-minute lessons
Materials: Emotions/Interactions Card #2
Grouping: whole class or small group
Assessment: Kindergarten Oral Language Assessment Scale
FOCUSING ON THE PICTURE
[Analyzing/inferring]-
What do you think is happening in this picture?
Show students the picture and ask them to think about what they see and what they think is happening.
- Allow students time to analyze the picture and then have them share their ideas about the picture with a partner.
- Provide time for partner discussion and then invite a few partners to share their thinking with the group.
[Analyzing/inferring]
- Offer prompts to stimulate discussion:
- Who are the people in this picture?
- Where do you think they are?
- What type of day is it? (sunny, windy, rainy) How do you know?
-
When I look at this picture I wonder who the children are. When you said you thought the children in the picture were brother and sister it made me think that the sister is older. I’m adding to your ideas!
What do you think is happening? Why do you think that? - We don’t know exactly what is happening, but it is okay to suggest different things that make sense and fit the picture.
GOING DEEPER
[Inferring/evaluating]- Offer prompts to stimulate discussion and draw attention to the emotions and interaction in the picture:
- How do the children feel? How do you know?
- Why do you think they are laughing?
- Who do you think the children are with? Why do you think this?
- Would the interaction between the two children be different in a different setting? How so?
-
Jim when you said that you thought the children were at the pool I noticed that Ramie added that she thought they might be at a wave pool. I liked the way Ramie was able to add onto Jim’s ideas.
As the students are answering these questions demonstrate how to ‘piggy-back’ on one another’s ideas by modelling it yourself or by acknowledging when students do it during your discussion.
You may conclude the lesson at this point and do the second part on the next day, or you may decide to continue and do Connecting and Predicting as part of the first lesson.
CONNECTING
Teaching Tip: If you decide to do Connecting and Predicting on the second day, begin your lesson by reviewing the picture with the students.
[Making connections]
- Ask students to connect their personal experiences with the emotions and interactions in the picture. Prompts might include:
- Have you ever felt the same way these children feel in the photograph? What was it that made you feel like that?
-
When I look at this picture it makes me think of the times I went swimming on hot days with my brother when I was younger. What does this picture make you think of?
What do you usually feel like when you are out and having fun with someone? Why do you feel this way? - How do you let someone know how you are feeling in a situation like the one in this photograph?
PREDICTING
[Predicting]- Ask students to think about what may have happened just before this scene in the photograph or what might happen after this scene in the photograph. As students share their ideas, be sure to encourage them to ‘piggy-back’ on one another’s ideas.
Josephine: I think that the two kids are playing at the wave pool.
Karl: I think that they are at an outdoor wave pool and it’s a very warm day.
Teacher: Great idea. I liked how you added to Josephine’s idea of a wave pool.
LESSON EXTENSIONS
- Use the picture to begin a shared writing lesson that uses piggy-backing, building on the student’s ideas, in one of the following ways:
- Collect one idea from a student and as a group create two to three sentences that build on the selected idea.
- Create a brief story by asking students to create sentences to explain what happened before the scene, during the scene, and after the scene in the photograph.
- You can return to the shared writing and read it as a shared reading text the next day or provide a copy of the shared writing text in the reading centre so students can return to it at a later time.
FOLLOW-UP IN CENTRES
- Suggest that students re-enact the scene in the photograph, or their predictions for what happened before or after the photographs with a partner during centre time. They may wish to use puppets or just pretend to be the characters.
- Place a beach bag, or a drawing of a beach bag, at the art centre and invite students to draw one item that they would like to pack in the bag to bring to the pool with them. Encourage students to try not to repeat an item that has already been ‘packed.’
