Week 12 Assignment #2

Here is the link to my Prezi:
http://prezi.com/fhrfv2idi_q4/present/?auth_key=27ti973&follow=ma-kozwwb_fo

Week 12- Assignment #1

Week 12 Assignment #1

There is  a new type of storytelling that has surfaced: digital storytelling.  To engage readers more into the story- elements of sound, video, and photo images are added.  The articles provided some great ideas to integrate technology into literacy instruction. There are some great electronic publishing software tools available. These include: computer and word processing software, photo-editing programs like iPhoto, Picasa. and Picaboo, drawing programs like KidPix, TuxPaint, and ArtRage, and the use of digital cameras and a printer.  Prior to constructing digital stories, students should be given an opportunity to write their ideas on paper. Ideas can also be sparked through writing prompts. Scholastic has great online writing activities.  To differentiate instruction with students who have difficulty seeing, hearing, or fine motor skills, Mac OS X has VoiceOver which reads everything aloud.  Both Mac and PC computers can increase the font size so print is easier to read.

                When self-reflecting on lesson planning, teachers should consider the following guided questions:

·         How will I teach with technology?

·         What technology centers will I have this week?

·         How will I manage the centers?

·         What will my students write about this week?

·         How will my students illustrate their stories?

·         What stage of writing are my students at this week?

In order to better manage technology, teachers should think about some classroom management options such as: whole group instruction, computer buddies, volunteers, computer center, and computer lab. Stories can be created using multimedia format: hardware (video camera), microphone to record, and software (iMovie, MovieMaker, GarageBand, and Audacity).  To assess authentic student learning, assessments are important.  Rubrics can be created on scholastic.com. Rubistar has some ready-made rubrics, and rubrics are available for creating a movie or podcast.  Cooperative student group projects can be challenging to assess.  However, using online writing tools can allow students to simultaneously contribute to the same document.  GoogleDocs and Wikis accomplish this.  Digital books can be created across the curriculum areas: writing, reading, math, art, science, social studies, and physical education.

                I would definitely like to incorporate technology tools such as ComicLife, iPhoto, Kidspiration and KidPix into my instruction.

 

                                                                        Lesson Plan

Candidate’s Name: Renee Bacchus

Grade Level: K-5

Title of the lesson: Generating Questions

Length of the lesson: 30-60 minutes depending on the length of the text

 

Central focus Active readers ask questions before, during and after reading text.

Prerequisites Experience using Kidspiration Prior knowledge of asking questions Classroom setting includes ELL students.

Common Core State Standards ELA Reading Standards Foundational Skills K-5: 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. 4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

Support literacy development through language (academic language)   Question the author’s purpose Monitor comprehension by asking and answering questions Demonstrate written questions through Kidspiration software Vocabulary General academic terms: author’s viewpoint, explain, record, construct Content specific: generate, active readers Sentence Level Sentence structure, transitions/connectives, complex verb tenses Discourse Text structure, message, conversation

Learning objective   Will ask and record questions during the reading process and determine how the questions were answered.

Formal and informal assessment: Confirm students are asking authentic questions before, during, and after reading. Confirm codes are appropriate to the questions and text read. Confirm that the students’ thinking/reasoning shared in the “Writing View” portion of the activity makes sense and is accurate.

Instructional procedure Open Generating Questions from Kidspiration Activities>Starter>Reading and Writing Explain that active readers ask questions before, during, and after reading.  When readers ask questions, they monitor their comprehension and set a purpose for reading. Share that during this lesson students will ask and record questions, search for answers for the questions, and determine how the questions were answered. Model completing the activity using a preselected text (that’s great for asking questions before, during, and after reading).  Record questions in the yellow symbols. (An completed exemplar can be shown to the students). After reading the text selection, determine how the questions were answered. If the question was answered using information within the text, code the question line with a T.  If answered by making an inference or drawing a conclusion, code it “I”.  Discuss as a class why the given code was assigned to the question.  It’s possible that some questions may not be able to be coded.  Explain that readers’ questions may not be answered. After modeling the lesson, the teacher may chose to provide students with text at their independent reading levels and have them complete the activity independently or provide more guided practice.   Theory/research: Technology is used to enhance and develop writing.   Accommodations and modifications: ELLs/struggling readers: Visual and technology, paraphrasing, and prompting.  Allow more opportunities to use oral language.

Instructional resources and materials: Technology- Kidspiration software, computers, pre-selected text, pencils and writing journals.

Reflection I think my instruction supported learning for the whole class and the students who needed great support or challenge.  The prompts and paraphrasing served as instructional support.

 

Week 11 Assignment 3- Lesson Plan

View my Lesson Plan at the following link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iAIPpIteZXTq9oPjeeC4oHgY8vS_s2OdB1JOVSqv6eQ/edit?usp=sharing

Week 11 Assignment #3

The article, How to Teach Expository Text Structure to Facilitate Reading Comprehension focuses on how important it is to train students on text structure knowledge.  This in turn will improve reading achievement overall.  Also, focusing more on text features will help readers to locate and organize information in the text, connect to background knowledge, and finally store it in long term memory.  The main expository text structures are: description, sequence, compare/contrast, cause/effect, and problem/solution.  According to Tompkins (1998), the text structures should be taught in a certain manner: 1) Introduce the organizational pattern 2) Give students opportunities to work on text, and 3)Have students write paragraphs using each text structure pattern.  It is imperative for readers to use signal words and phrases as a clue to recognize the structure of the text.

Week 11 Assignments 1 and 2

Assignment #1

What do good readers do?

Good readers think aloud during reading

·        Make connections to own experiences- use prior knowledge

·        Ask questions about the text

·        Preview the text

·        Look at text structure

·        Use multiple strategies to coordinate the text

·        Decoding using context clues

What can teachers do to develop comprehension?

·        Build students’ vocabulary

·        Engage students in discussion and writing about the text

·        Build background knowledge for students

·        Ensure authenticity

·        Ask open-ended questions

·        Model and think-aloud

·        Coach strategies in small groups

·        Give time for independent reading comprehension practice

 What can teachers do to help struggling readers?

·        Giving more intense instruction

·        Monitor comprehension

·        Reread the text

·        Focus and preview the text features

 

Assignment #2

 Which ideas from the video struck you as most relevant to your teaching of comprehension?

 

 What new instructional practices will you implement in your classroom?

 How will you use the ideas presented in this video to improve the comprehension of your struggling readers (students you are observing)?

 

The idea of thinking  aloud during the reading for students gives them a clearer picture about what type of thinking should be taking place. It is also a great idea to explicitly teach comprehension strategies to a small group. However, the challenge arises with time management.  The new instructional practices I’ll implement in my classroom are think-aloud, and coaching students to ask questions about the text that was read. Coaching students to use these two strategies independently can empower students as readers.  In order to improve the comprehension of my struggling readers, I will teach more explicitly to them by scaffolding instruction.  Paying more attention to text structure has been proven to help my past struggling readers.  They tend to monitor comprehension more carefully. 

ELL Project Lesson Plan

Candidate’s Name: Renee Bacchus

Grade Level: 2

Title of the lesson: Summarizing a Text               

Length of the lesson: 45 minutes

 

Central focus Write about a complex text by using evidence to support thoughts.   Sequencing and summarizing (Grades 1-2)

Knowledge of Students to inform teaching ·         Alphabetic Principle, main idea, and retelling

Common Core State Standards ELA S.L.2.2- Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.    W.2.3-Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

Support literacy development through language (academic language)   Summarize the reading passage Determine the most important ideas Retell and then write the sequence of events Vocabulary General academic terms: categorize, retell, and summarize Content specific: proper, behavior, trainer, punished, manners Sentence Level Sentence structure, transitions/connectives, past tense verb tense Discourse Text structure, message, conversation, discussion with reading partners. Retell and use sequence words to write.

Learning objectives   Will respond to a text by retelling. Will respond to the text by summarizing in sequence the most important ideas.

Formal and informal assessment: collaborative, text-based discussions are observed. Listen for transitional words while students retell the story. Look for accuracy in the summarization and sequence of the writing piece.

Instructional procedure 1)    We did a shared reading on the story, “A Horse Lesson in Good Manners”. 2)    Student orally retold the story in sequence 3)    Student task was to write a summary about the most important parts of the story in sequence. 4)    Give instructional support by rereading the story if necessary. 5)     Determine what parts were important enough to underline them.  This was done to support her as to what she should write in her summary. 6)    Write the most important parts of the story (summarize). 7)    Students share their summary with a partner.   Theory/research: Oral language to develop writing development.   Accommodations and modifications: ELLs/struggling readers: Rereading, paraphrasing, and prompting.  Allow more opportunities to use oral language.

Instructional resources and materials: use starfall.com to bring a story to life, hilighters, the reading passage “A Horse Lesson in Good Manners”, and writing journals.

Reflection I think my instruction supported learning for the whole class. However, finding a shorter passage to start off with might have been more helpful. The prompts and paraphrasing served as instructional support. Using a graphic organizer would have been helpful in organizing student ideas. These changes would improve student learning. According to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, students have different ways of learning.  Constructing a visible thinking map would be helpful for visual learners.

 

Dr. Hui-Yin Hsu Spring 2014

Week 10- Assignment #4

The Lesson Plan can be viewed at the following address:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uN78T43G9O_NYz-3ACLjdCs_5ovch19VPt1ftwXFib0/edit?usp=sharing