Direct Instruction
The learning intention for this lesson was:
Identify and discuss the author’s main message
The video shows the group playing an initial game to get 'buy in' before looking at tips to identify the author's main message. It then shows the children engaging in a discussion about the text before showing some of the finished CREAT tasks.
Reflection
This lesson took much longer than initially anticipated and is probably better done over a number of reading sessions. This took two weeks to complete. If you wanted to shorten it, you could take the ‘Create’ task of ‘Ruthless’ and use it for ‘A Dish of Ice Cream' instead. This may be better suited particularly if Ruthless is too advanced for your children (It's quite a complex text). The discussion part was also challenging because children struggled to connect with the prompt of, ‘What does this story teach us about generosity?'. It may be worth changing the prompt to something more simple like, ‘The waitress didn’t deserve the tip’.
Despite the length and challenging discussion provocation, the children engaged well and completed the tasks. They enjoyed creating the video, particularly those that have a flare for the dramatic.
