Language Experience Approach Reading Lesson Plan
Make Popcorn With Kids to Teach Them How to Read Their Writing
Oct 5, 2009
If You Take a Mouse to the Movies [HarperCollins, 2000] is a popular children’s book by Laura Numeroff about the holiday adventures of a mouse and a little boy that begin with a trip to the movies. Teachers can use the story as the introduction to a reading lesson featuring the Language Experience Approach reading strategy.
Language Experience Approach Reading Lesson Introduction
The teacher introduces the reading lesson by reading If You Take a Mouse to the Movies to the class. The students talk about what the mouse and the little boy in the story did after they went to the movies.
The teacher asks if the students have been to the movies before. The teacher then asks the class who likes popcorn and if anyone has ever had popcorn at the movie theater. The teacher tells the class that at the movie theater they make popcorn differently than families do at home.
Elementary Popcorn LEA Reading Lesson
The teacher shows the students a hot air popcorn machine. She explains to the students that it is similar to the machine they use to make movie theater popcorn. The class follows the popcorn maker’s directions to pop their own popcorn.
After the students have made and eaten the popcorn, the teacher places clean chart paper on the easel and tells the students that they are going to be writing a story about making popcorn. The teacher has the students recount what they did to make the popcorn and records their sentences word for word on the chart paper. The teacher verbally prompts the students if necessary, but does not change the wording of their sentences.
The class titles their story and the teacher reads the story to the students. She explains to the kids that what they have just done is called the Language Experience Approach or an LEA and it is a strategy that helps them learn to be better readers. The students then join the teacher in reading the story aloud.
How the Language Experience Approach Teaches Kids to Read
When students read their own writing about a shared experience they are more able to experience reading success. Students are motivated to read their own work and already have the necessary background information to comprehend the text. Teachers are able to use the LEA strategy to assist students in building fluency skills, teaching phonics, vocabulary words, and grammar skills.
For more information on using the Language Experience Approach with students primary teachers can read Language Experience Approach. The Reciprocal Teaching Primary Reading Strategy and Writer’s Workshop for Elementary Kids are also useful teaching strategies for teaching kids to read and write.
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