Recently, I had the pleasure of watching Karen Bebelaar's mini-lesson. While, I was in there, I was so wishing I had that new flip cam, Mr. Martin just bought, because I wanted to capture the brilliance of her mini-lesson. In 15 short minutes her mini-lesson was the perfect example of gradual release. I can not possibly do her lesson justice, but I did manage to capture in writing, the many things I saw her do so that I can share with you. She began by setting her purpose by saying, "Today we will learn how questions help us understand. What do you think that means?" Then she gave the students time to have dialogue and then moved into the relevance of the lesson by stating, "Questions can give us clues... get you to think about... " From there she moved to her teaching point: "Questions are when we are wondering... When you ask questions you get clues...." Next, she moved into teacher modeling, "Today I am going to read the picture and I want you to watch what I do.(She then models quetioning and inferring to make meaning.) After she has modeled, she then turns it over to the kids and asks them to engage in some guided practice by asking them to tell a friend a question that they have. Finally, she asks the students to try it themselves with a new picture: independent practice. She ends her mini-lesson by giving the students their task for reading that day: Today, when you read, I want you to find a picture that you can ask questions..." Then the students were off to read and read for 30 minutes!!!
The 15 minute mini-lesson is a very short time, but can have a powerful punch when we focus our instruction around some key elements.
