THE CLAFLIN IMPERATIVE PREPARING STDUENTS FOR LEADERSHIP AND SERVICE IN A MULTICULTURAL, GLOBAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Claflin University School of Education - - - EDUC 450 Reflective Lesson Plan Model Name: Marquetta Strait PART I: PLANNING Date: February 18, 2014

Title of Lesson

Authors Craft
Is this lesson an original idea? If not, from what source did I borrow this lesson?

Source Subject Area (s) Grade Level

I created this lesson to introduce authors craft to my students. English Language Arts 4th Grade Reading:

Curriculum Standard(s) 4-1.6: Analyze the effect of the authors craft (for example, word choice
and sentence structure) on the meaning of a given literary text).
Writing:

4-4.4 Use grammatical conventions of written Standard American English, including subject-verb agreement; past, present, and future verb tenses; conjunctions. (Grade level conventions).
What will students experience during the lesson? What is the agenda for the lesson? What is the content to be taught?

Description and Background Information

Reading: The students will be able to investigate different authors styles and their incorporation of adjectives. Agenda: The agenda for the lesson is to define authors craft, discuss a variety of ways authors craft their work, discuss word choice, provide examples of word choice, compare two passages and their use of vivid words, use a T-Chart to revise one of the passages, read The Market Bowl, and the students will respond to questions about the story. Content: The students will be learning about authors craft, in regards to their word choice. The students will investigate texts and observe how authors incorporate descriptive words to make their text more vivid to their readers.

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Materials

What will I need to teach this lesson? participate?

What do students need to

I will have a PowerPoint presentation for the content, two reading passages (Shrek and The Gingerbread Man), a dry erase board, and dry erase markers, a poster board, and sticky notes. The students will need a pencil, their Language Arts journal, and their writing folders to complete their bell ringer. What will students be able to do at the conclusion of this lesson? Write measurable objective(s).

Lesson Objectives
Reading: Students will be able to examine a variety of literature to inspect the authors use of descriptive words. Writing: Students will be able to incorporate more vivid words into their writings. This in turn, will allow students work to become livelier. Purpose: Authors craft is very important because it allows students to incorporate voice and creativity into their writings. It also allows students to pinpoint what makes the authors work unique.

At least 95% of my students will be able to identify and explain the authors craft.
How will I vary these objectives for students who do not understand the material?

Varying Objectives for Individuals Needs

For students that do not comprehend the lesson, I will provide examples of word choice, such as using the word guffawed instead of laughed. The students will read the two passages, Shrek and The Gingerbread Man, and find words that could be more descriptive. If someone says an incorrect response, I will question the students reasoning and clear any misconceptions that may be presented. How will I vary these objectives for students who have already mastered the concept? I will have the students search through The Gingerbread Man to find words that need uplifting. The students will go through each sentence and choose these words, which in turn will be added to a t-chart. On the left side of the t-chart, the students will place words that are lacking description from the story. On the right side of the t-chart, the students will place more descriptive words to bring the story to life. For example, instead of using the word old, the write could have used mature or elderly. As the students give me their responses, I will add them to the TChart that is on the board. How will I vary these objectives for students who are presently learning English? For students that are learning English, I will explain the purpose of examining the authors craft, ways that their craft differs from other

M. Strait 3 texts, and provide examples of authors craft through the story The Market Bowl by Jim Averleck.

Part II: IMPLEMENTATION

How will I find out what students already know about this topic?

Pre-assessment

I will question the students on what is their definition of authors craft. What will I do to make a connection between students and this lesson?

Motivation(Hook)

I will explain that authors craft is similar to a persons style or fashion trend. It is what makes the authors work unique. What will I say to explain the importance of learning this lesson? The purpose of this lesson is to get students to understand that writers incorporate word choice to make their text come alive. What will I do to show students what is expected?

Statement of Purpose

Teacher Modeling or Demonstration

I will read to the students the story The Market Bowl by Jim Averleck. While reading the story, I will use think alouds in order to demonstrate how students should be thinking while they are reading. I will show that students should question how the authors word choice, sentence structure, dialogue, and incorporation of culture. What will we do together as they learn how to succeed at the new task? To show my students what is expected, I will read Shrek to my students. The story Shrek is filled with descriptive words. Afterwards, I will read The Gingerbread Man, which lacks descriptions and lessens the readers visuals of the story. I will then compare the two stories and question which story was more vivid and how. What will I ask to know if students understand so far? List questions. What will I do throughout the lesson to determine if students understand the information? List activities/techniques or describe the strategies that you plan to use. Questions: 1. 2. If the answer is ______, how were you able to come to that answer? After reading the question, what made you omit these answer choices?

Guided Practice

Checking for Understanding

Techniques: 1. 2. 3. Raise your hand if you agree with that answer? Thumbs up if you agree/ thumbs down if you disagree Would you like to phone a friend for help with this answer?

Strategies: 1. 2. I will use think alouds to demonstrate how I would like for students to think while they are reading. Authors Craft board

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What will students do to internalize the knowledge?

Independent Practice

In addition to the discussion, I distributed four different colored sticky notes to the students. For each color, I asked the students to respond to their question. I purposed to give more students the yellow sticky note in order to show the variations of students responses.

Standard: 4-1.6: Analyze the effect of the authors craft (for example, word choice and sentence structure) on the meaning of a given literary text).

Key: Why is the culture important to the story? What is the moral of the story? What do you believe is the mood of the story? Why do you believe the characters are important to the story?
What will students do to demonstrate what they learned during the lesson? If an assessment is used, attach a copy. If using an authentic assessment, attach a copy of the scoring rubric.

Assessment

The students responses were assessed. The main target of the lesson was to comprehend what makes an authors work unique. In addition to the reading lesson, the students had to write on the following writing prompt:

M. Strait 5 Think about a time when you ignored directions and your results did not turn out well. What did you learn from this situation, and how could you use this moment as a stepping stone?
How will I conclude the lesson and relate it to future experiences?

Closure

At the end of the reading activity, I called on each students color to share their responses. I also used this time to acknowledge that I questioned more students about the moral of the story. This was in effort to show how readers can learn many lessons from a story. For writing, I was striving to get more students to write, so I had some students come to the document reader and share their writings. I stated that I wanted the students to inspire their classmates and give them ideas to mold their writing craft. What can students do at home or in the classroom to apply the knowledge or skills? What will you do to connect the lesson with the home, community and community agencies?

Extension Activities

Homework: The students were given a worksheet that focused on authors craft. The students will continue their writings from the writing lesson. How is technology meaningful to this lesson? How do you plan to use implement student used technology during the lesson? The technology allowed students to connect content with visuals. They were able to see the information in a variety of ways. The following are technological aids that I incorporated into the lesson: a PowerPoint presentation, Star Board, and a document camera. What activities do you plan to implement to connect your lesson across the curriculum to all 7 content areas? English: The students used reading strategies to increase their comprehension of passages. The students will use a pronunciation guide to correctly pronounce the African terms. Math: The story includes recipe procedures that are important to making the soup delicious. Social Studies: By reading the story The Market Bowl, the students learned about some of the African culture. Science: The students will read about another country that has customs and philosophies, such as the Brother Coin. P.E.: The students will do a clapping exercise to get students motivated for the lesson. Art: The students will examine the front cover of the book, The Market Bowl, to predict what will occur in the story. The students will use the illustrations to determine the books setting. Music: Music will be played as a timekeeper to keep proper time management.

Technology

Connections Across the Curriculum

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Describe the strengths of your instructional techniques, strategies and classroom management. Describe the strengths of student engagement. Strengths
In both classes, the students did well on making The Gingerbread Man more descriptive. By providing the students with examples of selecting more descriptive words for their text, the students were more motivated to uplift the weaker words in the story. However, my assessments did not turn out well. The first class did very well and stayed on task. They made many educational guesses.

Weaknesses

Describe the weaknesses of your instructional techniques, strategies and classroom management. Describe the weaknesses of student engagement.
The second class did not do well with their assessment. Many of their responses were not clear and some were off topic. I believe the problem is that many of the students get fidgety and distracted at the end of the day, especially with the restroom and school store requests.

Suggestions for Improvement

What would you change when teaching this lesson again?

To avoid these pitfalls, I may have the students complete assessments earlier, in the class period. That way, the students will stay focused and provide more educational guesses to their questions. The last five minutes, before the announcements come on, should be spent distributing homework and making final announcements.