For my second practicum I wanted to create a routine that students could interact with that let me learn more about them as well as to get them writing about their opinions. This was the students first time writing about their opinion so we began with what you needed to have an opinion; first they needed a decision and second they needed a reason, so with that we practiced the word because to create our opinion writing.
Out of all my lessons I did for question of the day my favourite and most successful was based on the question “Do you like spiders?” This lesson was intended to challenge students with the idea that opinions can change over time and with new information. This lesson was very interactive as students were randomly called up to come slap the book when the story called for squishing a spider; this was very beneficial for the grade 1 students as they were able to physically interact with the story it helped every single student to be excited during this reading.
This lesson series was tailored to grade 1 with simple yes or no questions or a decision between two options. Throughout this unit students had to have two parts to be successful, first students had to make a decision and second they had to have a reason for this decision. Sometimes students struggled with making a decision if they really enjoyed both options like during our fun Friday questions such as dinosaurs or space. For these students that struggled with their decision sometimes I would allow them to write about both, but they had to have a sentence for each, or they would have to make a decision for that specific moment.