This was the second lesson that my partner and I delivered to our group of students. Our class consisted of a warm-up activity, a reading, a discussion, and an “exit ticket” activity. We used an exercise known as a word ladder as our warmup activity. For the word ladder, we put students into groups and gave each group a starting word and an ending word; then we asked them to change the starting word repeatedly, replacing one letter at a time while ensuring the new word created was a real word, until they reached the ending word. We then asked students to tell the class which words they created while working toward the ending word. Students seemed moderately engaged by the activity, and I enjoyed it as well.
Next my partner and I read a short story aloud to the class, switching back and forth between paragraph breaks. We also used this time to ask students if they had questions about any unknown vocabulary words, of which we took note for later classes, and discussed aspects of the characterization and plot as they emerged during the reading
After completing the story, my teaching partner and I led a class discussion surrounding characterization within the story. Students participated in the discussion, and it was noted that putting students into breakout rooms may have encouraged more student-led discussion.