#sol17 Day 25 The

We had re-read familiar books and practiced this week's "featured" sounds (c,g,d,a) when my administrator pulled up a chair for my "unannounced" observation  "Hi," one of my readers, waved cheerfully, announcing her arrival
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Inside, I sighed. Images of those third graders, earlier, who had spurred each other's thinking about words with multiple meanings ran through my head.  A glimpse of those second graders who had determined the central message in The Ugly Duckling tied to our building motto about "Kindness" flew across my mind. "Why not stop by for the story of Lizzy," I thought, "to see my first graders challenge whether or not chameleons really eat strawberries in real life"  

But, in real life, my lesson plan for this group, this day, was the word, the.  You can't make slices of real life up.  It was the.  For a moment, I did think about scrapping that plan and going with next week's story; however, the word the had been a stumbling block for these kindergarten students.

So I went on with the real life lesson of a high-frequency word you just need to remember.  We wrote the big.  We wrote the small.  We said the letters as we wrote it.  We found the in books.  We wrote the cat and the dog, the pig and we illustrated our writing.

At the end, My students might have been empowered to find the word again!  I'll follow up with some assessing, reteaching as needed, more writing to strengthen memory, and more word finding, and if need be, some sandpaper writing  to solidify the word the.

At the end, I realized I had to reflect deeply on my teaching of the word the!

Let me begin:  The is an essential building block of early reading and writing.  For most children, many exposures of shared reading at home and in kindergarten contribute to this word becoming an image, almost like an icon.  However, for a handful of children, there is a need for more direct teaching, and perhaps repeated direct teaching, using a multisensory approach ....................