Sunday, February 22, 2009
Home Is Where The Heart Is
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I created a google map for 3rd grade students who live in the Detroit area. This google map focuses on social studies content, specifically about Michigan's history and culture. I think it is important for students to learn about the important places of their hometown, as well as the surrounding areas, in order to grasp a better understanding of the history and culture of Michigan. In order to meet a variety of students' interests and needs, I decided to incorporate Comerica Park, the Detroit Zoo, Museum of African American History, Fox Theater, Henry Ford Museum, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. That way, students learn how to open their minds to new places and things by accepting diversity through leisure activities, popular culture, people of different races, ethnicities, and backgrounds, animals and the different environments they live in, as well seeing how and why Detroit is known as the automotive industry. In a social studies lesson, I would ask the students to explore the places on the map, and then ask them to write a short personal narrative on how at least 2 of those places have affected their lives in some way. I think I could also take field trips to these places, and then have the students write responses afterwards, explaining what they learned how it is an aspect of Michigan's history or culture.
Delicious
I created a language arts unit for a second grade classroom. Since my major is language arts and my field placement is currently in a second grade classroom, I thought that I could really benefit from using the social network del.icio.us. My unit specifically deals with writing in the language arts curriculum, focusing on personal narratives. Here are the standards and GLCES that I thought would be most appropriate for my unit. Here are the GLCES specifically for writing: one from the Writing Genre section, W.GN.02.01 write a narrative piece such as realistic fiction, fantasy, or personal narrative depicting major story events, using illustrations to match mood, and containing setting, problem/solution, and sequenced events, another from Grammar & Usage W.GR.02.01 in the context of writing, correctly use more complex complete sentences, nouns and verbs, commas (in a series, in a letter, and with dates), contractions, colons to denote time, and capitalization of proper nouns, and lastly, Spelling W.SP.02.01 in the context of writing, correctly spell frequently encountered words (e.g., two-syllable words including common prefixes and suffixes); for less frequently encountered words use structural cues (e.g., letter/sound, rimes) and environmental sources (e.g., word walls, word lists). From the METS, I expect second graders to: proofread and edit their writing using appropriate resources including dictionaries and a class developed checklist both individually and as a group, as well as use various age-appropriate technologies for gathering information (e.g., dictionaries, encyclopedias, audio/video players,phones, web resources.
The tag I used to identify the 6 websites I bookmarked on my delicious account was writing, since all of the sites deal with writing in some way.
Here is the weekly agenda for the personal narrative unit:
Monday: We will start the unit by developing the students' stories through writing workshop and they will write their first personal narrative drafts. Students will use their writer’s notebooks to think and write about their favorite moment so far as a second grader. The writer's workshop website I found is a very useful website for both teachers and parents. It gives you an idea about how the writer's workshop works. Students will be encouraged to think back to their moments and have a vision about how this experience was for them using their senses. Tell them to use their senses, such as their emotions and how they felt, what they saw, heard, felt, etc. Their ideas can be in a list form, and then they should make a draft of their story with pictures.
On Tuesday, students will be revising their work. Revising is the process of working to clarify meaning and add details to a piece of writing. Students will reread their drafts to see if their stories make sense, and then share it with a partner and have them help them with their mistakes or add other ideas.
On Wednesday, students will be editing their stories and finishing the final draft. Editing is the process of attending to the conventions of writing, such as, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. They will use a checklist and guideline to help them. Students should also use dictionaries and thesauruses as sources to improve their writing. The 2nd grade writing rubic/narrative writing that is posted on my delicious account, offers some great guidelines for teachers, students, and parents alike to use throughout the writing process to help with the personal narrative stories.
On Thursday, we will be publishing the students work by showing off everyone's personal stories. This will be a day to celebrate all of the students hard work by sharing every story with the rest of the class. The article, "Inviting Personal Narratives Into the Classroom," is a great article for students, teachers, and parents to use. It helps all of them understand the importance of personal narratives in their lives by: 1. Connect their home lives to their school lives, blurring the distinction between home and school, and affirm the value and importance that the individual child had in the classroom, 2. Find ways of getting to know each other and build their community, and 3. Offer ideas for the reading and writing they did in the classroom. Since personal narratives are more like personal storytelling, this will help children see their own experiences and stories as valuable work, and can help build students' confidence and competence. Not only in writing, but also in reading and thinking as well, and these are all needed in order to be successful with the higher level literacy skills.
On Friday, students will be reflecting about the stories they've created. "A Students Perspective" is a great article for students to help them understand how they can reflect on what they learned throughout the writing process, as well as what they learned about themselves as learners. This websites gives real life examples that students gave about how to become better organizers as writers. One of the students used a hamburger as an example of how to organize information that is going into the writing: the topping on the hamburger is the introduction, topic sentence, or introductory paragraph, the filling of the hamburger represents the details and supportive ideas, and the bottom bun represents the ending or the conclusion or summary in a story. I think students really need to think critically about the work they've created, and look at their accomplished, but also find ways in which they can improve on as well.
Lastly, I used a sixth article called "Help Your Child With Writing," that can provide parents some great suggestion on how to engage their child in the writing process. Even though this is not part of my lesson plan, I want to make sure that students are still getting the necessary education outside of school and into their homes.
The tag I used to identify the 6 websites I bookmarked on my delicious account was writing, since all of the sites deal with writing in some way.
Here is the weekly agenda for the personal narrative unit:
Monday: We will start the unit by developing the students' stories through writing workshop and they will write their first personal narrative drafts. Students will use their writer’s notebooks to think and write about their favorite moment so far as a second grader. The writer's workshop website I found is a very useful website for both teachers and parents. It gives you an idea about how the writer's workshop works. Students will be encouraged to think back to their moments and have a vision about how this experience was for them using their senses. Tell them to use their senses, such as their emotions and how they felt, what they saw, heard, felt, etc. Their ideas can be in a list form, and then they should make a draft of their story with pictures.
On Tuesday, students will be revising their work. Revising is the process of working to clarify meaning and add details to a piece of writing. Students will reread their drafts to see if their stories make sense, and then share it with a partner and have them help them with their mistakes or add other ideas.
On Wednesday, students will be editing their stories and finishing the final draft. Editing is the process of attending to the conventions of writing, such as, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. They will use a checklist and guideline to help them. Students should also use dictionaries and thesauruses as sources to improve their writing. The 2nd grade writing rubic/narrative writing that is posted on my delicious account, offers some great guidelines for teachers, students, and parents alike to use throughout the writing process to help with the personal narrative stories.
On Thursday, we will be publishing the students work by showing off everyone's personal stories. This will be a day to celebrate all of the students hard work by sharing every story with the rest of the class. The article, "Inviting Personal Narratives Into the Classroom," is a great article for students, teachers, and parents to use. It helps all of them understand the importance of personal narratives in their lives by: 1. Connect their home lives to their school lives, blurring the distinction between home and school, and affirm the value and importance that the individual child had in the classroom, 2. Find ways of getting to know each other and build their community, and 3. Offer ideas for the reading and writing they did in the classroom. Since personal narratives are more like personal storytelling, this will help children see their own experiences and stories as valuable work, and can help build students' confidence and competence. Not only in writing, but also in reading and thinking as well, and these are all needed in order to be successful with the higher level literacy skills.
On Friday, students will be reflecting about the stories they've created. "A Students Perspective" is a great article for students to help them understand how they can reflect on what they learned throughout the writing process, as well as what they learned about themselves as learners. This websites gives real life examples that students gave about how to become better organizers as writers. One of the students used a hamburger as an example of how to organize information that is going into the writing: the topping on the hamburger is the introduction, topic sentence, or introductory paragraph, the filling of the hamburger represents the details and supportive ideas, and the bottom bun represents the ending or the conclusion or summary in a story. I think students really need to think critically about the work they've created, and look at their accomplished, but also find ways in which they can improve on as well.
Lastly, I used a sixth article called "Help Your Child With Writing," that can provide parents some great suggestion on how to engage their child in the writing process. Even though this is not part of my lesson plan, I want to make sure that students are still getting the necessary education outside of school and into their homes.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
RSS & Language Arts
Since I am an elementary education and language arts major, I decided to search for RSS pages dealing specifically in those departments, focusing on literature and writing materials. I found 3 very interesting pages that benefit teachers, students, and parents, in order to have the most successful learning experience with technology inside and outside the classroom. I decided to focus on Language Arts because I think it is important for students to use their reading and writing skills with technology both inside and outside the classroom because it is a different learning strategy that will benefit their education. However, it is not only important for students, but it is also important for teachers to use RSS sources that offer different curriculums. I also think that the parents can utilize RSS in Language Arts when they are having a difficult time finding books for their children to read at home. Even though I am focusing on one subject alone, I plan to use RSS pages in my future classroom for all subjects because it allows students to not only become better reader and writers, but they will learn how to search websites more easily and proficiently.
I first found a website that could be used inside and outside the classroom where students can play educational games. There are different games, puzzles, etc. for different criterias in the classroom, such as social studies, science, math, and language arts. Since I am focusing on language arts, I found a game called "word cube" where students click on letters to form their own words, and then they can create their own word list. I think this type of site could be used in the classroom during center time with language arts, where students can search games on their own that are fun but also educational.
Children's literature is also important to every students' education, so both parents and teachers alike need to make it meaningful for their children or students. It is also important for students to read a diverse set of books, as well as different genres in order to challenge their reading and comprehensive skills. This site is a great tool for teachers and students to use when searching for the perfect book for their children. Instead of being overwhelmed at a public or school library, this site makes it easier for you to search by author, key words, title, etc. and also offers you great recommendations for books, as well as the most popular authors used.
The last important aspect of the language arts curriculum is writing, so I found a page that gives great tips using a writing workshop. There are endless examples of lessons and curriculums for the elementary level, which is a great tool for teachers, especially for new ones like me. There are unit ideas in the lower elementary level that mention the different seasons, and other writing projects that will benefit all learners, regardless of their abilities. This page also has a section titled "Helping Children Lean to Read" and "Developing Oral Language in Primary Classrooms." These type of activities can help teachers with their students because they encourage listening and speaking, as well as reading. This is my favorite page that I found because it has such a variety of things in the language arts curriculum, and my favorite one would be publishing my students books in order to show my students that their work is valued and shared.
I first found a website that could be used inside and outside the classroom where students can play educational games. There are different games, puzzles, etc. for different criterias in the classroom, such as social studies, science, math, and language arts. Since I am focusing on language arts, I found a game called "word cube" where students click on letters to form their own words, and then they can create their own word list. I think this type of site could be used in the classroom during center time with language arts, where students can search games on their own that are fun but also educational.
Children's literature is also important to every students' education, so both parents and teachers alike need to make it meaningful for their children or students. It is also important for students to read a diverse set of books, as well as different genres in order to challenge their reading and comprehensive skills. This site is a great tool for teachers and students to use when searching for the perfect book for their children. Instead of being overwhelmed at a public or school library, this site makes it easier for you to search by author, key words, title, etc. and also offers you great recommendations for books, as well as the most popular authors used.
The last important aspect of the language arts curriculum is writing, so I found a page that gives great tips using a writing workshop. There are endless examples of lessons and curriculums for the elementary level, which is a great tool for teachers, especially for new ones like me. There are unit ideas in the lower elementary level that mention the different seasons, and other writing projects that will benefit all learners, regardless of their abilities. This page also has a section titled "Helping Children Lean to Read" and "Developing Oral Language in Primary Classrooms." These type of activities can help teachers with their students because they encourage listening and speaking, as well as reading. This is my favorite page that I found because it has such a variety of things in the language arts curriculum, and my favorite one would be publishing my students books in order to show my students that their work is valued and shared.
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