(I put my original post under Emily R.'s blog so I am reposting it incase the other group members did not see it)
Emily Sponsler's Unit Plan Target Area
1. Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.
I am going to work on description writing with my students.
2. Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?
I have not discussed specifics with my mentor but I imagine 30-45 minutes.
3. Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward? (Quoted from Reading Street)
-
“Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events
using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event
sequences.”
- “Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue,
description, and pacing, to develop experiences and events or show the
responses of characters to situations.”
4. How will teaching in
this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important
content and/or skills that relate to their lives? In what ways does this
learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or
learning through literacy?
Many of the students do not know how to
add valuable descriptive details but instead just add words like “and on
and on”. This lesson will show them how to add meaningful details and
keep their sentences concise while still creating the image they want
for the readers. It will help them to express meaning that relates to
their life.
Being a good writer and being a good reader go hand
in hand. Overall, writing shows that students are so well rounded in
literacy that they can create their own sentences and paragraphs.
5.What
types of classroom talk take place within this target area? To what
extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level
thinking? What norms for interaction would you like to build within your
classroom as you teach in this target area (e.g., see ideas in Chapter 6
of Strategies that Work, the Berne & Clark 2008 article, or draw
from some of the readings done in TE 402 on classroom talk)?
For the
beginning lessons, the classroom talk will be mostly teacher-led. I
will slowly lead the students to handle themselves. I want most of the
unit to be higher level thinking but when I am modeling, I will give
them explicit instruction.
I would like students to be able to
write in multiple subjects. Social studies is the other subject I am
considering at the moment, since that can be a descriptive writing.
6.
Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as
you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for
Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on this core practice
contribute to your own professional learning?
I do not where this document is. I will fill out this question when I find it.
7.
What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district,
school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?
-My mentor teacher
-Other mentor teachers
-Parents
-Books from class
8. What additional resources do you need to obtain?
I
am going to use the special ed assistant to help me with differentiated
instruction for the 6 students who need it in my class.
9. How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?
I may have them write a paragraph about their morning and ask them to be as descriptive as possible.
10.
What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to
help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?
I will need to figure out where they are at now. I am going to ask my mentor teacher for her critique on their previous papers.
11. What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?
I do not where this document is. I will fill out this question when I find it.
12. What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?
I
am concerned about keeping classroom management high enough that the
students can handle what I am asking them to do. Many of their tasks
now are explicit and not high level thinking so this may be a struggle
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI think your target area for description writing is good. I know that students in the upper elementary grades need to be prepared to expand their writing for junior high, which is right around the corner.
I like how you mentioned that you wanted to extend your focus beyond language arts into other subjects (you stated social studies, but there are definitely opportunities in science, and even math too). You clearly state that it is important for students to be able to add details to their writing in order to make their ideas clear.
I am a little confused to your response to question number 4. You write about what you will do in "this lesson." I'm unclear if you meant "unit" or a specific lesson that you have planned out.
From a little bit of experience I have with some language arts lessons, it may be beneficial to express the importance of descriptive writing in a variety of different genres. Your pre-assessment with having the students describe their morning is a good example of encourage a descriptive personal narrative. You might want to consider adding other genres of writing as well. For example, in my placement, we really encouraged the students to be descriptive in their poetry. While making "I Am..." metaphors, instead of simply writing "I am pink," the students worked on expanding and adding to their ideas by extending it to "I am the pink sky as the sun sinks into Lake Michigan," for example.
You definitely have a good start, and your ambition for concentrating on descriptive writing is encouraging. I think you will do well if you keep an eye out for any opportunity to introduce the need for details, both in language arts and other subjects.