Course Reflection

This course has given me several resources that will benefit me in my years to come as an educator.  I have familiarized myself with several tools that will be great for me to use in the classroom with my students.  Although some of the resources were not to my liking, a lot of them were very good.

One of the best things from this course was learning how to use a blog.  I had often read blogs, but I had never had my own.  This course showed me how to set up a blog and use it to communicate.  I think teachers having blogs is a great idea.  One of my favorite things was looking at examples of teachers’ blogs and seeing their thoughts and their students work.  Blogging is a great 21st Century technology that will enable teachers to better communicate with students and their families.

Another great resource I found during this course was all of the lesson plans that I viewed.  It’s great to know that there are lessons out there that are proven and will help teachers.  Before this course, I wasn’t sure that I would be able to come up with lesson plans for everything that I would have to teach one day.  It’s nice to know that there are thousands of resources out there to help me.

Overall, this course was a good experience.  Although it was often burdensome when added onto the other Block II work, I feel it was well worth it and will provide great resources for me as a teacher.,

Lesson Plan 2

Link to Lesson Plan: http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=417

This lesson plan calls for students to write a poem about the astronomy concepts taught to them during a science class.  To begin the lesson, students would read or listen to some examples of astronomy poems.  They would then construct their own poems.  It would be a great way to incorporate writing and poetry into the science curriculum.

I have actually experienced something very similar to this during my current internship.  Students had just finished a unit on the human skeleton, so they wrote a poem about the bones in the body.  It was also just shortly after Halloween, so several students opted to make their poems scary.  I think they enjoyed it and would enjoy doing something similar with another unit like astronomy.

Lesson Plan 1

Link to Lesson:  http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3907

This lesson plan will teach students about the process of mummifaction in ancient Egypt.  To do this activity, the teacher would slice up the apples and place them into baby food jars.   The apples would then be loaded down with salt and placed in a freezer bag.  The apples would be left over a period of a few days, and then they would be wrapped in toilet paper or some other type of wrap and buried on campus somewhere.   After a few months, the class would return to the site and dig the apples up, comparing them to how they were when they were buried. 

I think students would like this activity a lot.  It would be a great way to teach students about the process of mummification.  It could be used in both a social studies or science class.  Students would be very interested to see how the apples were preserved.  I’ve also heard of substituting a chicken for an apple and modifying the experiment accordingly.  This might even be a little better, since an apple does not have flesh.

A Professional Development Initiative

This article focuses on a study done in secondary schools to help students become more familiar with words and their meanings.  Vocabulary is an often overlooked facet of instruction, but it is extremely important.  It is not just limited to english/language arts; it plays a critical role in all content areas.  There were several different methods used in this study, and they all seem to have impacted student learning.

One of the strategies that I am most familiar with is literature circles.  Lit circles call for students to read a book or other text and discuss it in groups.  Students have different roles such as moderator and illustrator.  After reading the text, students will discuss the book with themselves.  This leads to great discussion.  It also allow students to see the text from other perspectives, ensuring that they will gain a better understanding of what was read.  Literature cirlces could be used in all content areas, not just language arts.

Another strategy I saw that seemed intersting was having students create skits in groups to better understand word roots.  For example, some students were given the root -syn-  and came up with the idea of marching together in a synchronized manner.  I think this is a great way to allow students a memorable and entertaining way to learn word roots that will stick with them for the rest of their lives.

There are several other strategies mentioned in this article that would be great ideas for any educator.  It is important that vocabulary and word meanings are not overlooked in schools.  These strategies will help ensure that students learn essential skills that will be with them for the rest of their lives.

The multigenre paper: Increasing interest, motivation, and functionality in research

“The multigenre paper: Increasing interest, motivation, and functionality in research,” is an article by Margaret R. Moulton details an emerging trend in schools: non-traditional research papers. The article claims that research papers are dreaded both by teachers and students and are not effective in educating students. The goal of the multigenre research paper is to create an article that is entertaining and educational for teachers and students alike.

One of the biggest problems with traditional research papers is that students cite other research and don’t really learn a great deal on their own. The multigenre paper does not get bogged down with citations and sources and allows students the opportunity to get to the core of their subject. Examples of multigenre papers are letters, newspapers, articles, memos, and flyers. The main idea is to have students learning while creating practical writings. Students are required to support their facts with endnotes, but they are not the primary focus like they tend to become in traditional research papers.

Thinking Questions:

1) What are some other examples of multigenre papers that students could use?

2) How can I be sure students truly learn through this activity?

3) What should I do if a student would prefer a traditional research paper?

“I” Poems: Invitations for students to deepen literacy understanding

“‘I’ Poems: Invitations for students to deepen literacy understanding,” is an article by Linda Kucan explaining the utilization and reasoning behind “I” poems.  These poems are written through the first person persepective and allowing students to speak from the perspective of the narrator.  The article then goes on to tell how teachers can use these poems to enhance their students’ learning.  

Teachers can use these poems to help students learn more about a specific book they read during class.  By writing about something they recently read, students will be actively engaged in the story.  The author gives two time-frames in which “I” poems can be utilized: before reading and after reading. 

Before reading a certain selection, the teacher could introduce the setting of the book and have students compose a poem about that.  They could tell it from the perspective of the environment or of people in that time period.  The example the author gives, while discussing Sarah, Plain & Tall, is: 

I am the Kansas Prairie
Open and free
Land running as far as one can see

 Doing an activity like this before reading a selection is a great way to engage students. 

After reading a selection would also be a great time to use “I” poems.  Teachers could use these to expand on students’ learning or even to assess what has been taught.  An example the author gives is: 

As the strong March winds
began to give way
to the showers of April,
I was born to a beautiful, loving mother.
Father waiting patiently
to embrace his long, lanky, brown baby.
Unstoppable from the start, I must have
driven them wild with ceaseless
movement,
running
jumping
twirling
long brown hair flying wildly 
until I fell exhausted.
But only for a moment… And then gone again  

Three Questions 1) Could students use this tool during the reading, not just before or after? 2) Could students be able to use second and third person perspectives while writing poems? 3) Could this be expanded to allow students to write in prose?   

 

Instructional Strategy 4

Name: Justin Friel

Name of Strategy: Carousel Brainstorm

Source: Reading Quest

Link to Source: http://www.readingquest.org/strat/carousel.html

This activity would occur after students have read a text.  Students would be grouped into groups of 3 or 4.   Each group would receive a different colored marker and a piece of paper with a subtopic written on it.  One student would serve as a recorder for 30 seconds while the rest of the group calls out concepts dealing with the subtopic that were learned from the reading.  After the thirty seconds are up, each group would pass to another group with a different colored marker.  Students will repeat the exercise, only this time it is for a different topic.  Students are not allowed to repeat the words written down by other groups.  It may be a good idea to allow for more time after a few passes.

NC Standard Course of Study: 8th Grade Science:
1.08 Use oral and written language to:

• Communicate findings.
• Defend conclusions of scientific investigations.

This strategy would help students learn in an effective way.  Grouping students allows for them to learn from their peers and receive new ideas they normally would not have gotten.  It also allows for students to be creative.  It is very similar to Wordle, so students would be interested in seeing the designs they ended up creating.  It would be a good idea to display the finished products in front of the class and have a class discussion.  This could also serve as a way to increase vocabulary.  All-in-all, I think the Carousel Brainstorm would serve as a great way to enhance learning in a classroom.

Instructional Strategy 3

Name: Justin Friel

Name of Strategy: KWL Chart

Source: North Central Regional Education Library

Link to Source: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr2kwl.htm

KWL charts serve as great ways to assess students learning.  They feature three columns: What students Know; what students Want to know; and what students Learned through the lesson.  This chart could be filled out individually by each student, or it could filled out by the entire class on the board.  After students fill out the first to columns, they would read a text.  After reading the text, students would fill in the Learned column.  They would also go back and review the Know column, making sure their knowledge was correct.  They would also check off any of the entries in the Want to Know category that they did not learn.  These could be brought up in class discussion.

NC Standard Course of Study: 6th, 7th, 8th Grade Science:

1.08 Use oral and written language to:

• Communicate findings.
• Defend conclusions of scientific investigations.

I think this strategy will work because it allows students to set goals for themselves.  It is important for young adolescents to play a part in their education, and KWL charts do this.  Students will be able to assess their prior knowledge and set their own goals.  After reading a text, they will then be able to see if their prior knowledge was correct and whether or not they learned what they wanted to learn.  A class discussion would ensue, further facilitating student learning.  This would be a great way for students to learn.

Instructional Strategy 2

Name: Justin Friel

Name of Strategy:  Writing about the Civil War

Source:  Small Plant Communications: Lesson Plan – the Civil War

Link to Source:  http://www.smplanet.com/civilwar/civilwar.html#Integrating%20Reading%20and%20Writing

This strategy calls for students to write a speech about slavery.  The teacher could have half of the class write as abolitionists and have the rest of the class write as people who want to preserve slavery.   Students would plan their speeches using research of slavery and the antebellum/Civil War era.  Students would be split into groups of five or six and present their speeches to each other.  If some students would like, they could present their speeches to the entire class.  This would be a great way for students to learn about slavery and abolition from both perspectives.

NC Standard Course of Study: 8th Grade Social Studies
4.01 Identify and analyze the significance of the causes of secession from the Union, and compare reactions in North Carolina to reactions in other regions of the nation.

4.02 Describe the political and military developments of the Civil War and analyze their effect on the outcome of the war.

4.03 Assess North Carolina’s role in the Civil War and analyze the social and economic impact of the war on the state.

This strategy will work because it allows students the opportunity to role play as someone living in the time of the Civil War.  It will be a great way to engage students and have them learn more about why slavery was such a hot-button issue.  This activity allows students a much more interactive and enjoyable way to learn about history than lecturing.  Students will also be able to learn from their peers about slavery.  This would be a great way to teach about one of the darkest periods in the time of our country.

Instructional Strategy 1

Name: Justin Friel

Name of Strategy: Reading and Writing About Continental Drift

Sources: Enchanted Learning: Earth’s Continental Plates
The Educator’s Reference Desk: Earth’s Interior and Plate Tectonics

Link to Sources:  http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Continents.shtml
http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Science/Earth_Science/EAR0203.html

This strategy calls for students to read and write about continental drift.  This would occur after a lesson on continental drift, Pangaea, Alfred Wegener, and plate tectonics.  After the lesson, students could visit the enchanted learning site and read about these subjects.  This site features diagrams and pictures of all of the different facets of the continental drift theory mentioned above.
After the students have read and explored the web page, they would then write a one page paper about what they learned.  The paper would address the following questions:
What is Pangaea?
How do we know it existed?
Who was Alfred Wegener?
Explain the continental drift theory.
Describe convergent, divergent, and transform plate boundaries.
Students would complete this assignment as an evaluation piece about what they learned.

NC Standard Course of Study: 8th Grade Science
5.01 Interpret ways in which rocks, fossils, and ice cores record Earth’s geologic history and the evolution of life including: Geologic Time Scale; Law of Superposition; Unconformity
5.02 Correlate evolutionary theories
5.03 Examine evidence that the geologic evolution has had a significat global impact including: distribution of living things

This strategy seems like it would be effective for several reasons.  The website that students view is colorful and interesting.  It does not just list the text.  It has several diagrams to help the students visualize concepts.  This is especially important when learning about convergent, divergent, and transform plate boundaries.  It allows students to see what each type of boundary does and how it acts.  The writing exercise would also be a very efficient tool.  It would allow students to state what they have learned, thus helping them learn even more.   It is always helpful to write down what you learn because you seem to remember it better.  Writing about plate tectonics and continental drift would really help students gain a better understanding of what can be a very difficult concept.