I think this lesson aligns perfectly with the standard. In the lesson phonological awareness is incorporated by having students identify rhyming words and words that have the same beginning, ending, and vowel sounds. This is done by using a storybook.

I think the explanation of this activity is effective and simple: have students identify words that sound the same, or have the same ending, beginning, or vowel sounds by using a sound board. The sound board was attached to the lesson, so anyone could easily print it and use it in their classroom.

This activity includes simple instructions and materials. The only part I did not like was the use of the counters. I know they are being used to give children time to think, but I think it is unnecessary and can be confusing. I feel as if there was not enough explanation on the counters or how they were proven to be useful. The sound board on the other hand, is a great addition to the activity and is the only thing needed. Also, there were not accommodations listed in the lesson for materials or instructions.

This activity assessed all of the content performance expectations by having the students do the sound board, in which they worked on in class as a whole and individually. However, I do not think the assessment plan that was included in the lesson was able to show that students met the needed criteria of the lesson. I feel that the assessment plan also included questions that were not correlated with what students were instructed to do. For example, one question was "Did the children make any text to self or text to text connections after hearing the story?" The students were only asked to identify words with the same beginnings, endings, vowels, and rhyming words. Yes, some students may have made a connection to the text while reading it, but this was not the specific point of the lesson.

I liked the interactive features that were presented in this activity which included reading along with the teacher and participating in the sound board activity. However, I think by having students say aloud all together their answer for the sound board words discouraged individualized learning. This could result in students saying the answer their friend said because they did not know, or did not want to be wrong. I also think that students could disengage quite easily with the lesson because it is not super interactive.

There were not many exercises included in this activity. The lesson was very limited. There were not accommodations for the activities or students listed in the exercises. There were also no additional resources that correlated with the exercises. I think this lesson could have been much more useful if there were other incorporated skills, accommodations, and resources to refer to.

There were two extensions/opportunities for deeper learning listed in this lesson. This included having students sing "Seven Fat Cats" to a different tune and to have students act out the story. I think these activities are great suggestions, but there is no specific explanation on how this develops deeper learning on the subject or taps into a different subject.

I would add some type of pre-assessment to determine where each of the students are at before the learning process occurs. It is a good idea to see where each child is at developmentally and to know where the children are at, so you can cater your lesson individually to each student. This is the best way to make sure that children are learning what you are teaching them and see how they have developed after you teach your lesson.

Good materials that allow children to match and assess sounds (phonological awareness)

I see that there are questions that make the assessments informal assessments. This is the most useful when it comes to early childhood grades. I think that this lesson could be used to see where children are at and determine which level of phonological awareness they are at in order to create a plan to further develop their learning.