WE HAVE A NEW ADDITION TO OUR BLOG; TEACHER'S CORNER, for BASES Teaching Staff to share the MAGIC and the MOMENTS that we experience, on a daily 'basis'.

Reflections of a Lesson Taught

An ongoing theme in our classroom is a focus on words and language and communication, both written and verbal. I have a background in linguistics and a personal love and almost a sense of wonder for words.  Therefore, “Words are Wonderful” is a common phrase in the BASES classroom, as we focus on rhyming words, synonyms, antonyms and homophones.  We have created lists and students are continually adding to them as they make their own discoveries, particularly homophones. 

      One particular day, we began the morning by brainstorming all the homophones that we could think of.  Before long, we had filled the white board.  With such an array of verbal and cognitive abilities in our class, it isn’t always evident or easy to assess whether or not a lesson has been learned and absorbed by every student.  Nevertheless, we had compiled a list and students wrote the words on our homophone list on the wall.

      After lunch, long after our homophone brainstorm, one of our SEAs, Joanne Smith, hurried from the other classroom.

      “You have to see this”, she said excitedly. 

She was holding Brandon’s response journal. 

      “Remember that lesson you were teaching this morning on homophones?” she asked.

      She put Brandon’s duotang down in front of me.  He and another student had been working on their ‘Chocolate Fever’ novel study.  She points to the 2 circles at the bottom of the page where students are to compare 2 of the novel’s characters.  Brandon had written I - Eye.

      “He got it!”  Joanne exclaimed.

Indeed he had.  Brandon is autistic, with very limited verbal skills.  In his own time, he processed that lesson and came up with a homophone that had not been written on the white board that morning.

Joanne and I were filled with pride as we asked Brandon to add his 2 words to our class homophone list. 

The MAGIC of learning- it is at our own pace, in our own time. 

Brandon reminded me of that!

Every time I look at our list, I-Eye makes me SMILE!

Written by:  Sue Fuller