All About Me Lesson

The College of New Jersey

Kendall McCarthy and Toni DAmato
All About Me Lesson, Mrs. Aylings Second Grade Classroom
Ms. Ayling asked us to incorporate a writing assignment into our All About Me lesson
so the students could practice their writing skills, especially practicing making complete
sentences and using proper punctuation.
Lesson Essential Question(s):
What desires and dreams do you have for your future?
Standards:
Learning Objectives

Assessments

SWBAT define the vocabulary words

presented during the read-aloud presentation

While presenting the book, the teacher will

ask the students if they know the vocabulary
word, if they can figure it out from context
clues, or they are unsure of the meaning of the
word. The teacher will call on students during
the read-aloud and will clarify any
misconceptions about the vocabulary words to
ensure that the students have a clear, definite
understanding of the vocabulary words.

SWBAT develop and determine their various

plans for the future

After the read-aloud, the students will write

individually about their plans for the future.

N/A
Materials:
All About Me Books created by both Miss McCarthy and Miss DAmato
Lined paper

Pre-lesson assignments and/or prior knowledge:

The students have an understanding of what an All About Me book is because they previously
have created their own
Students have the ability to infer the definitions of vocabulary words by using context clues
Students have experience with writing about their personal lives
Students are aware of how to answer a writing prompt in complete sentences with the proper
punctuation.

Lesson Beginning:
Students will be gathered on the carpet in order to start the beginning of the lesson.

 After the students are seated at the carpet, the teachers will ask the students to raise their hands if
they have ever created an All About Me book before.
After the students raise their hands, the teachers will call on one student to describe what an All
About Me book is.
The teachers will instruct the students to listen to both of the stories by both Ms. McCarthy and
Ms. DAmato.
Students will be reminded to think of what they want to do in the future when they listen to both
of the teachers stories.

Instructional Plan:
Students will be brought to the carpet in groups at the beginning of the lesson.
The teachers will introduce the lesson to the students by engaging them with basic questions
regarding the All About Me lessons.
Both Miss McCarthy and Miss DAmato will read their stories out loud to the students with
student participation included.
When Miss McCarthy and Miss DAmato are reading their stories we want the students to act
as detectives and search for the different colors in the text. Please try to define the various
vocabulary words that are found in our stories. Try to use your context clues.
Who knows what the word (serene, delectable, hobby, etc.) means?
The teachers will ask the students various questions regarding the visuals included in the stories
Can a student please raise their hand and point to London, England on the map?
Who has a hobby, such as dance, like I do?
After the reading of both of the stories are completed the teachers will introduce the writing
prompt to the students, Now that you have heard about Miss McCarthy and Miss DAmatos All
About Me stories, can you please take a minute to think about what you want to do in the future?
It can be anything, from wanting to work, going to college, starting a family, traveling on
vacation, etc.
For example, as we heard in the All About Me books, Miss McCarthy goes to college because
she wants to become a teacher to help students like you! Miss DAmato volunteers and helps
victims who were affected by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The teachers will ask for two or three students to share a quick example of what they want to do
in the future.
After the student produced examples at the carpet, the teachers will ask the students to go back to
their desks by groups.
Before the writing prompt begins, the teachers want to remind the students that they need to
capitalize their letters, especially at the beginning of a sentence. The students also need to
remember to include the appropriate punctuation, especially periods.
What do you need to include in all of your writing pieces?
Paper will be passed out to each student and they will individually write about what they want to
do in the future and why.
The teachers will actively walk around the room to help students with individual questions that
need extra attention.

Differentiation:
The All About Me books include both text and visuals, which allows for a range of students to
connect to and understand the material that is presented to them.
As the students are individually working on their writing assignment, the two teachers will walk
around the room and give one on one support to students who may be struggling more than
others and need extra help.
If there are early finishers, they will be instructed to create a visual representation of their writing
assignment
The teachers will enforce to the students that the classroom is an open and welcoming
environment, so the students feel comfortable reaching out for help.
Classroom Management:
The students will be in groups of four or five at their own individual desks, as assigned by Mrs.
Ayling.
Before the beginning of the lesson, the classroom rules will be reinforced by both of the student
teachers, as well as Mrs. Ayling.
On the carpet, the students will be sitting freely, so the teachers will ensure that students are
behaving and keeping to themselves.
If there are potential behavioral problems on the carpet or elsewhere, the teachers will give the
student a warning.
If there is a second occurrence on the carpet, the student will be sent off the carpet and back to
their desk.
If there is a second occurrence while the student is at their desk, the student will not be able to
participate in indoor recess.
The teachers will each hand out lined pieces of paper after the students go back to their desk.
Transitions:
First, the students will be called to the carpet one table at a table to eliminate the rush and chaos
to the carpet
The teachers will introduce the topic to the students on the carpet
After the teachers finishing presenting their books, the teachers will address the students as a
class to ask basic questions regarding their future plans.
After the students give examples of what they want to do in the future, the teachers will call the
students back to their seats, table by table.
The paper will be passed out to the students, which is when the students begin to write what their
future plans are.
The teachers will walk around the classroom helping out students individually during the writing
period
When the writing period is up, the teachers will go up to each student individually, read their
writing piece, and collect it.
Closure:

 The students will be instructed to complete a writing assignment about what they want to do in
the future after hearing about what the teachers have done
The students will be encouraged to write about going to college, earning a job position, or
traveling to a new place, etc.
After the writing pieces are completed, the teachers will collect the work to assess how the
students completed the task.

All About Me Lesson Reflection

As an educator, I learned that I can relate to the students while teaching them. This really
gets them into the topic and engaged in learning. When they really care about something they are
more interested in it and willing to do the work for it. I learned that I can keep the students
engaged while doing a read aloud by asking questions and seeing what they feel is important.
Before we started reading we told the students that they had to be little detectives for the colored
vocabulary words and that they must figure out what they mean. This really got them into it and
excited about finding or learning new words. Also, I learned that team teaching really helps us
keep the class under control and organized. While one is teaching we can watch out for the

distracting students and keep them on task. We will need to be able to do this alone in the future
but I think it really helps us work as a team which is a good thing to learn and be prepared for.
Furthermore, when the students are doing independent work, they have to respect you as
an educator to keep them on task and not disruptive. Some students would start talking when we
walked away, but for the most part the class was very well behaved and listened to all of our
instructions. As an educator I know that I have to give clear and precise instructions to my
students. If I do this I will know which students do not pay attention and that it was not my fault
for not giving clear instructions.
I love being active and excited when I read aloud to the class. I learned that at this young
of an age I have to remind the students of proper writing skills and things that we would take for
granted. Before the students went back to their seats to do the writing prompt of the lesson, we
made sure to remind them of proper punctuation and gave volunteers for examples of how to
start this writing prompt.
Additionally, the individual students are at different levels so there definitely
needs to be a lot of differentiation throughout our future lessons. When teaching this one, we
made sure to have visuals for some students to look at and make connections with the pictures
along with the words. We walked around while the students were completing the individual
writing prompt to give one on one support to any student who needed it. On the other side of
that, if students finished early and wrote as much as they could to answer the prompt, then they
were able to draw a representation of their explanation.
The students knew that the teachers would not disregard or make fun of any question they
asked. We made the classroom feel like a community to keep the discussion open. For example, I
noticed one student was struggling to start her writing response. When I asked her if she knew
what she was supposed to write about she said yes, but still would not start. I asked her if she
knew how she should begin and she told me the exact correct response. Then I told her to just tell
me what she was thinking of writing about and this is when she told me and said she thought
some students would make fun of her response She wanted to say that she wants to be a first
lady, but thought some students might not respect that. I told her everyone in the class should
respect her work and that we will take care of it if anyone gives her a problem about it. I also told
her that only the teachers will be reading these responses and would be very happy with the

answer that she chose. She went on to write a great response about being a first lady and I hope
that she feels more secure in the classroom.
These students love participating in discussion in the classroom. There is only one
student that I can see doesnt raise his hand much and actively participates all the time, but he
does his work and is usually on task. He is the newest student so I think he is slowly getting
acclimated.
For the future I will definitely explain the directions while the students are still on the
carpet like we did. We could tell if they were paying attention and actually understood what we
were talking about. Also, it was great that we had a few examples before going ahead and doing
independent work. I will definitely do this in the future. When the students are doing independent
work we will need to make sure the students are not getting too loud, but this will hopefully
come with time.
Moreover, I might make my vocabulary words in my book a little more difficult next
time. I thought I had gained enough prior knowledge of their background and experience, but I
could have used more. Not all of the students were challenged with my new words. A lot of
them were thought provoking and it took them a few tries to get it right, but the higher-level
students knew all of the words already without my help at all. This is difficult, but for
differentiation I could have had a few more challenging words along with my on level or lower
words. This will make the upper lever students think and really challenge the lower levels, but it
can all be in reach. Overall, I think our all about me lesson went well. We engaged the students,
taught them about ourselves, and had them write a great response about their futures.