Course Reflection

I was a little apprehensive about this course at the beginning of the semester.  I wasn’t sure if I was technologically savvy enough to keep up with the requirements and I had never blogged before.  Fortunately, I found I enjoyed the assignments.  I love searching the internet.  Throughout the process, I discovered many websites that [...]

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Lesson Plan #2 – 8th Grade Science – April Kauffman

Lesson Plan #2 – 8th Grade Science – April Kauffman http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3546 The content for this lesson will be English Language Arts and Science.  I will be using this lesson for an 8th grade Science class.  This lesson addresses the cause and effect relationship between human interaction and a North Carolina endangered plant species. A role-playing [...]

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Lesson Plan #1 – 8th Grade Science – April Kauffman

Lesson Plan #1 – 8th Grade Science – April Kauffman http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/cello/ This will be an 8th grade Science lesson.  The extension will involve writing and science. This lesson plan has the students using fruits, vegetables and Jello to make models of an animal and plant cell.  I like this lesson plan because it is a [...]

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Article 3 – Professional Development – April Kauffman

Article 3 “A Professional Development Initiative for Developing Approaches to Vocabulary Instruction with Secondary Mathematics, Art, Science, and English Teachers” by Linda Kucan, Woodrow Trathen, William Straits, Donna Hash, Donna Link, Linda Miller, and Lucas Pasley The article brought to my attention several methods of effectively teaching vocabulary in the content areas.  I think it [...]

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Article 2: The multigenre paper – April Kauffman

Article 2:  “The multigenre paper: Increasing interest, motivation, and functionality in research” by Margaret R. “Cookie” Moulton The author of this article suggests a multigenre paper as creative alternative to the typical research paper.  She explains how she and her students created a multigenre paper project.  She also explains the components needed and the procedures [...]

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Article 1: “I” poems – April Kauffman

Article 1: “‘I’ poems: Invitations for students to deepen literary understanding” by Linda Kucan The authors of this article support the idea of inviting students to write “I” poems before and after reading texts.  They state that encouraging students to write about the text will deepen the meaning of the text.  Because the students have [...]

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Instructional Strategy #5 Middle Grade Science – April Kauffman

I know this is #5, but I missed counted and did the work so I thought I would post it anyway!  What a dweeb, right? Your Name:  April Kauffman Name of Strategy:  Content Area Vocabulary Source (Where did this come from?):  Omaha Public Schools – Secondary Content Reading Strategies Link to the Strategy:  http://www.ops.org/reading/contareavocsec.htm Give [...]

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Instructional Strategy #4 Middle Grade Science – April Kauffman

Your Name:  April Kauffman Name of Strategy:  Reading Road Map Source (Where did this come from?): NMSA, Strategies for Integrating Reading and Writing in Middle and High School Classrooms by Wood and Harmon.  Chapter 10, “Helping Students Gain More Information from Textbooks” Link to the Strategy:   http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/JK34.html Road Map example:   http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWdownld/Roadmap.pdf Give a thorough description [...]

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Instructional Strategy #3 Middle Grade Science – April Kauffman

Your Name:  April Kauffman Name of Strategy:  Inquiry Learning Source (Where did this come from?):  Saskatoon Public Schools Link to the Strategy:  http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/pd/instr/strats/inquiry/index.html http://www.exploratorium.edu/ifi/resources/classroom/connect/marrero.html Inquiry in the Middle School: Content Learning by Julia Marrero from the March/April 2000 issue (vol. 13, Issue 4) of Connect, a publication of Synergy Learning  Give a thorough description of [...]

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Instructional Strategy #2 Middle Grade Science – April Kauffman

Your Name:  April Kauffman Name of Strategy:  Experiential Learning, Experiment, Post-Reading Activity  Source (Where did this come from?):  Guide to Science Experiments ( http://www.abcteach.com/ ) Link to the Strategy:  http://www.abcteach.com/free/s/science_scientificmethod_upperelem.pdf Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original [...]

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