Class 7 Resources
Kevin Kicking Woman - High School
Contents
Building Sentences
Kevin Kicking Woman (2024 Montana Teacher of the Year) explains the importance of building sentences and describes the steps he takes with students to get there.
Learning Activities
In this clip from class, Mr. Kicking Woman demonstrates how he helps students build language skills.
- repetition of language from the word walls all around the classroom
- description of images, using short sentences. Watch how Mr. Kicking Woman cues the students when they get stuck.
- review and practice of sentence structure (syntax)
In reviewing and practicing syntax, note how Mr. Kicking Woman starts off with all the supports in place, and then follows the steps below to review, reinforce, and then challenge students.
- He indicates word function and order using color coded markers.
- He builds in wait time and guidance to look at the right place on the boards.
- As he progresses through the lesson, he stops using the color coding.
- Then he asks students to contrast word parts: “What does the end of this word mean? What if we change it to this ending instead, what does that mean?”
- He asks students to talk through the different kinds of pronouns (we exclusive vs. we inclusive) and how they show up in a single word or phrase.
Key here is that Mr. Kicking Woman uses the same base word and changes the suffixes or other parts of the words, so students can compare/contrast them. This reinforces their understanding of the base word as well as the suffixes and other parts, while being challenged to apply what they know in new ways.