Lessons, Strategies and Students

Andrea Koppen:  Blog #5:  Chapters 6 &7


CREATIVE CONNECTOR


1)  I was able to connect to the section on "The Art of Lesson Planning" on pages 108-115.  Currently in another class,  I am learning how to generate a lesson plan using "backward design".  Generating objectives using the verbs, "list, compare, describe, analyze and create" as mentioned in this book have also been introduced in my new lessons for my new unit plan.  I like the lesson layout in this book and also how it gives examples at different age levels. I will use this as a resource for my other class.


2).  I was also able to connect to the terms of "Buddy Reading" (p.120).  In my daughter's 1st grade class last year, her teacher introduced buddy reading.  The children were able to pick a partner to read with and had individual cards to "read aloud", "check for accuracy","check for fluency", and "check for understanding".  I remember coming into the class and thinking that they were too young to understand the vocabulary of fluency, accuracy and  comprehension.  I was wrong.  They all understood the words because their teacher took the time to "teach" the language of the tasks.  My daughter carries these words along with her daily in second grade and is able to self-monitor her reading and implement new strategies as she is taught.  They have been using "the daily 5" program by Boushey and Moser.  I have been very impressed with their methods.


3).  In speaking in Chapter 7 (p.  162) about "Teaching to the Test", I find there to be conflict.  Of course, any teacher would not want to guide their lessons toward the state tests.  However, there is so much pressure on the teacher and the students to perform at test time.  Modifications are made for these tests for students with IEP or 504 if needed but really what it comes down to is how they all score.  We consistently talk (in this chapter and in schools) about using authenic assessment, portfolios, journals, writing pieces etc to assess the student's academic performance, yet we still come back to the "TEST".  It is frustrating as a teacher and as a parent to see students anxiety over one assessment. 


VOCABULARY VITALIZER: ( Many of the terms in these chapters are found in many other books that I have read.  I have included information from these other books to elaborate on the terminology.  These new resources are cited under references on the right side of the blog.)


Norm-Referenced Test (p.  159):  Turnbull defines this type of test as, " an achievement test compares a student with his or her age- or grade-level peers in terms of performance.  Valle and Connor say that it is worth stating that these tests are," constructed in a way which requires that a certain percentage of students to fail. However, Criterion-Referenced Testing (p.159)  is intended to measure how well a person has and has not learned a specific body of knowledge and skills.


Anticipation Guides (p. 123):  Tomkins states in her book, Literacy for the 21st Century (2010), "These guides are used to activate students' background knowledge before they read content area textbooks and informational books.  Teachers prepare a list of statements about the topic for students to discuss.  Some of the statements are true and others are incorrect" (p.  428).  They need to decide whether they agree with it or not.  After they read the reading, they can discuss their opinions to see if they have changed.

 Ticket to Leave (p.  129):  This is a comprehension strategy used for assessing a students knowlege of content.  "Everyone must write a response to the teacher's prompt and hand it in before leaving class.  The ticket may have academic, social or behavioral objectives.  We used this strategy at the end of our last class when we were asked to write down 3 highlighted aspects of the current lecture.




QAR (p. 119) :  Refers to Question Answer Relationships.  In QAR Now (2006), this has been described as a "comprehension strategy or a metacognitive strategy, but first and foremost it is a language for use in the classroom.  It provides a common way of thinking about and talking about sources of information for answering questions " (Raphael, Highfield & AU, p.  18).  Using "in the book" and "in my head" strategies, students are able to recall, interpret and evaluate information within reading.


Think-Pair-Share (p.  120):  Valle and Connor (2011) state this as "a multistep, yet simple, approach to encourage the participation of all students in responding to a question posed by the teacher.  First, each student is asked to compose his or her thoughts and /or briefly write them down.  Second, each student is paired with a peer to share their thoughts with each other.  Third, once everyone has shared in pairs, they are encouraged to share with the whole group" (p. 120).




IDEA ILLUSTRATOR:


Readers Theater:  This is an example of a readers theater;

 Reader Theatre Scripts Resources:

Fredricks, A.D. (2007) Nonfiction readers theatre for beginning readers.  Portsmouth, NH:  Teacher Ideas Press.

Worthym, J. (2005).  Readers theatre for building fluency:  Strategies and scripts for making the most of this highly effective, motivating, and research-based approach to oral reading. New York:  Scholastic.

 

This book introduced the strategy of using graffiti for free writing about a topic.  My thoughts connected using art graffiti in the classroom with the oral explanation.  I looked up some images and thought this one to be interesting using the topic of peace, love and the environment.  The students were able to use graffiti to express what they had learned on walls, t-shirts and other objects.  This could be used as part of an informal assessment of knowledge on a topic.    http://www.haringkids.com/lesson_plans/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/wall4.jpg



 USING A GRAPHIC ORGANIZER (p. 118)  ON 7 GOOD READING HABITS (p.121-122)