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The Curriculum Roadmap
A Tool for Our Teachers…A Journey for Our Students…A Guide for Our Parents
Mission: Academic Success For All Students
Mini-lessons
Students at all grade levels should have rigorous, engaging lessons that challenge them while providing a structure that allows them to develop their own understanding of concepts. That is what the six-step academic vocabulary process is about. It is the goal of instruction.
Teachers add to the instructional strategies they use throughout the years they teach. One such strategy is the mini-lesson. It is a short lesson that provides the framework students need to develop their understanding while reinforcing concepts previously taught or serving as an introduction for what is to come. It is a focused, concentrated, instructional tool based on paring instruction by evaluating what is taught through manageable, conceptual chunks.
As literacy instruction focuses on writing this year, there is an opportunity for teachers to try out mini-lessons as another tool for engaging their students.
The following videos are of U-46 teachers working with ELL students in a summer school class using mini-lessons – the interesting part is they are NOT ELL teachers and it isn’t their class. Yet, with a well planned mini-lesson the students are engaged, attentive and working. Teachers are able to build on the familiar while expanding students’ understanding and connections. One video works with students on expository writing while the other guides them in compare and contrast. No matter what grade level you teach, it is well worth the time to watch these teachers build their lessons, taking the students with them.
Videos from U-46 Classrooms
The Curriculum Roadmap has been developed
as part of the District Improvement Plan.
Please click the District Improvement Plan image to learn more.
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