Oral Language Teaching Strategy:
Model Eye Contact When Listening Model powerful listening by making eye contact with the person who is speaking to you.
Time: one 30-minute lesson or two 15-minute lessons
Materials: I-Spy Card #18
Grouping: whole class or small group
Assessment: Kindergarten Oral Language Assessment Scale
FOCUSING ON THE PICTURE
Teaching Tip: Remind students of the game ‘I Spy’ by asking them to find something that is a specific colour in the class.
- Show students the card and give them some time to really look closely at it.
Today I want all of us to practise good listening. When I’m listening to someone I’m looking at them. When you talk to your partners today I want you to look at them when they are talking to you.
To deepen their observations ask: - What do you see in the picture?
- What do you think is happening?
- What kind of day is it? How can you tell?
- What time of year do you think it is? What clues from the picture tell you that?
- After the students have had an opportunity to really look at the picture have them turn to the person they are sitting beside and invite students to share their ideas with a partner. Remind students to look at their partner when they are speaking. Model how you should sit and look at your partner with a student in the class (eye to eye, knee to knee).
- Provide time for partner discussion and then invite a few partners to share their thinking with the group.
- Offer prompts to stimulate discussion:
- Who do you think the people in this picture are?
- What are they doing?
- Where do you think they are?
- What clues can we use to figure out what is happening in these pictures?
- Can you see any signs in the picture? How many? What do they tell us?
GOING DEEPER
[Inferring/evaluating]- Discuss with students the features of an ‘I Spy’ text.
- Who can tell me about an ‘I Spy’ book that they have seen before? What was it like?
- This is an ‘I Spy’ Card. If we look at the side of the picture, it asks us if we can find these smaller pictures in the larger picture. As we look for these things, it is important we give everyone a chance to find the picture. When you find what you are looking for, put your hands on top of your head and then I will know that you have found the picture.
- Once students have had adequate time to find the boy holding the hot dog, invite one student to come up to point to the boy on the card. Ask students to explain the strategies that they used to find the boy, e.g., “The boy was eating a hot dog so I looked at the snack bar first.”
There’s a question inside the blue oval and it says, “How many hats can you count?” I want you to turn to your partner and count the number of hats together. I’ll know you are listening to your partner when I see you looking at them. When you have an answer, put your finger on your nose.
After finding all four pictures with students, draw the students’ attention to the blue oval with the question inside it.
- Allow students adequate time to count the hats with their partners. Then count the hats together as a group. (There should be 21 hats.)
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]- Have students draw on their personal experiences to make connections to this picture. Prompts to deepen discussion might include:
- What kinds of things do you do in the winter?
- Which activities in the picture have you done before? (tobogganing, skating, building a snowman)
- What activities in the picture do you enjoy?
- How do you feel when it snows? Who do you usually play with?
I like to skate in the winter. I skate at the outdoor arena close to my house. Maggie, I can tell you are listening because you are looking at me. Thank you.
Offer specific prompts that fit the discussion you have had with the group. Share things that you love to do when it snows as well.
PREDICTING
[Predicting]What do you think these people will do when they go home? After you spend time outside in the winter, what do you do?
Ask students to think about what might happen when these people leave the festival.
- Brainstorm possible scenarios with students making sure that students are building on the picture and the discussions that have taken place.
LESSON EXTENSIONS
- Model for students an imaginary walk around the picture. Start by saying, “If I went to this festival I would walk forward a few steps toward the snack bar. On my left I would see a dragon ice sculpture. What would be directly in front of me?” Then invite students to share their own imaginary walks. Listen for their use of directional words.
- Brainstorm with students how to dress when it’s cold. Use their ideas to create a picture on chart paper to show what someone would wear outside in the cold. Together, label the parts of clothing.
- Create a shared reading text on how to make a snowman.
FOLLOW-UP IN CENTRES
- Invite students to the sand centre and have them pretend that the sand is snow and encourage them to create their own winter scene. Have them explain their scene to you or another student.
- Invite students to create a winter snack bar at the house centre. Have students create a menu and invite them to sell their food to the class.
- Supply the drama centre with jackets, scarves, hats, and mittens and have students dress up for playing outside in the cold. This could be done early in the year so students can practise how to dress and undress during the winter months.
