I noticed during this class that school districts around the country have websites that are valuable resources to teachers.  We need to share with each other whenever we can, especially new exciting ideas as well as those that don’t quite work the way we had hoped.  By sharing with others in the class, I have found additional websites from their research.  One in particular that I like from someone else’s blog is http://www.readwritethink.org/.  Reading about others’ findings, ideas and thoughts has given me even more information to use in my own classroom.

I feel the internet is a great one stop shopping tool which will point you to books, articles and other resources to help bring your lessons alive to the students.  I intend to use the internet as a tool and continue to research for a variety of resources.  I am also glad I got to experience blogging.  It was easy and it is fun.  I definitely see it as a useful tool to use in the classroom.  I will try to incorporate its use some way when I have my own class.  I feel I learned a great deal in this class and loved your hands on, reflective style of teaching. – 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 8^th grade Science class.  This lesson addresses the cause and effect relationship between human interaction and a North Carolina endangered plant species. A role-playing scenario allows students to view the situation from a variety of positions and to collectively arrive at a solution to the problem.

Students will develop an understanding of the plight of endangered carnivorous plants and discover that contaminants inadvertently introduced into an ecosystem can have detrimental effects.  I really like this lesson because it involves role-playing.  Not only do the students learn about the endangered plants, but they learn about the positions different people have on the subject and then they determine the best way to improve the situation.  This lesson can incorporate a field trip to the NC Zoological Park which is a wonderful extension to the classroom. 

The students are arranged in cooperative learning groups for this lesson.  If it is not possible to go on the field trip then we will have to rely more heavily on the internet and other printed sources for our information.

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/cello/

This will be an 8^th 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 very inventive, visual activity that will show the students the parts of both animal and plant cells.  I also like this lesson because it is easily adaptable for greater difficulty and you can extend the lesson without difficulty into a research project involving writing as well as science.   I would use this lesson as a conclusion to the unit on animal and plant cells.  This lesson will be helpful to reinforce the terms and knowledge learned in this unit in preparation for the unit test.  I would not have to make modifications as most students will be able to complete the task appropriately.

“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 is really important to bring an understanding to the students of more than just the definition of the words.  I really like the use of poems and comparing and contrasting to define the words.  When students take the time to do an exercise like that, the word is likely to stay with them longer and actually be usable by them in the future.  It is also beneficial for students to know the root word and prefixes and suffixes that belong with that word family.  Actually thinking about the forms of words is a great activity too.  Students may be familiar with a word in a certain form and not have thought of it in other forms.  This will help them associate the words in different contexts.  I enjoyed reading this article and feel that the professional workshop the article is based on is beneficial to teachers who are willing to put in the extra work involved in making these connections for their students.

Mr. Pasley’s website is amazingly detailed.  I was surprised when I saw all that he includes on his website.  His multigenre project has a clear definition and a detailed rubric.  Mr. Pasley definitely incorporates technology into his teaching strategies. 

I found Donna Link’s website full of information too, however, it seemed very busy and it was hard for me to follow.  I didn’t find it helpful to me; she did appear to put in a tremendous amount of work on the website and I am sure it aided her students in her art classes.

I think using the internet in my classes is a great idea.  I hope that I will be willing to work hard to put up a website and then to follow through and update it throughout the year.

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 her students used to complete the project.  She includes her reflections and the students’ reflections on the project as a whole.  Moulton concludes, “It is a refreshing alternative that incorporates practical skills and creative thinking, allowing students not only to enjoy the process of research but also to take ownership of the products they create.”

Questions:

1. Depending on the genres chosen, the information included may not be very detailed.  How will the students know how much detail to put into the endnotes?  And how is the paper assessed? Is it assessed on endnotes as well as the information included in the different genres?
2. Wouldn’t the students find they have to do the same amount of work researching and also put in more work designing the “creative” multigenre aspect?
3. Some students, when given a choice, may think this option is too difficult while still others may think it is an easy way out.  How do you as a teacher make sure the students know what they are getting into without discouraging them from trying the new approach?

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 to think about the text differently to write, they will pick up on things they may have overlooked the first time.  This will work to improve comprehension as the students need to have a deeper understanding in order to write about what they have read.

I think the example in the article pertaining to the locations of Maine and Kansas in the book Sarah, Plain and Tall, was extremely interesting.  The students wrote “I” poems about both locations.  This enabled them to have a deeper understanding of how Sarah is motivated in the book.  This exercise allowed the students to enhance their prior knowledge and therefore they could make connections better as they read the book.  This is an awesome learning tool for increasing comprehension, encouraging deeper understanding and analytical thinking.

Questions:

1. Can this technique be overused?  If other content areas besides Language Arts use this often, can the students who are uncomfortable using their imagination and writing to express themselves begin to rebel against these types of assignments?
2. Does the benefit to the student in increased comprehension and understanding of the text justify the additional time required for “I” poem assignments when there is such a push on teaching the curriculum and teaching to the tests?
3. Some students do not enjoy writing, would these assignments in other content classes ruin their interest in those classes?

-April Kauffman

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 a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

This activity will be conducted at the beginning of a new chapter in the textbook.  This strategy enables students to comprehend both fiction and nonfiction by building the ability to determine the main idea of a passage.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity. 

This instructional strategy can be used for any unit of study in the 8^th grade Science curriculum as well as the following 8^th Grade Language Arts Objectives:

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn? 

Students need knowledge of the vocabulary they are reading in the text in order to comprehend what they are reading.  Many students just read the words without knowing what the words mean.  They cannot use them in a sentence independently and they cannot define them in their own words.  In order to read and understand content textbooks, teachers must encourage the active learning of the vocabulary these students will be exposed to.  This activity is fun and all students will be able to complete and learn from the process.

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 of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source: 

One way to use questions during the reading of a selection is to develop study guides to accompany difficult chapters in textbooks. Study guides enable teachers to reduce the amount of print students must deal with at a given time by using questions interspersed throughout the text. These guides can be developed to help students vary their reading rate, monitor their comprehension, and focus on the most important information in the text.

While good readers subconsciously know when to skim over material that is not significant, less proficient readers tend to read all textual material at the same rate — either too laboriously or too quickly and carelessly. By the use of ‘road signs’ to depict reading speed, the Reading Road Map can help students learn to adjust their reading rates based on the different purposes for reading a particular passage.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn? 

The Reading Road Map has three parts (before, during and after reading.    First we will ask a couple of questions to assess what the students know and introduce them to the topic.  The next step will follow a road map with stops at various key concepts in the text, indicated by page numbers.  There will be questions pertaining to these key concepts which will help the students recognize important facts in the text.  The responses to these questions need to be written down as part of the students’ assessments.  After completing the assigned reading, the students are directed to questions that sum up the important information in the text passage.

I think this will aid the students in discovering that there are key points to be learned in the texts.  They will gradually develop the skills to determine these points themselves.  This will be a helpful strategy at the beginning of the school year especially as the students are learning what they are expected to gain from their reading assignments.

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 the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

Inquiry learning provides opportunities for students to experience and acquire processes through which they can gather information about the world.

Questioning is the heart of inquiry learning. Students must ask relevant questions and develop ways to search for answers and generate explanations. Emphasis is placed upon the process of thinking as this applies to student interaction with issues, data, topics, concepts, materials, and problems.

Divergent thinking is encouraged as students recognize that questions often have more than one “good” answer. Such thinking leads in many instances to elaboration of further questions. In this way students come to the realization that knowledge may not be fixed and permanent but may be tentative, emergent, and open to questioning and alternative hypotheses.

I plan on using this instructional strategy often to enhance the students’ learning during the assigned reading.  Students will be instructed to develop questions pertaining to their reading assignments.  These questions can be as simple as what they do not understand in the text or questions of interest that go beyond the text.  Many times we will use these questions to develop research assignments on the internet to dive deeper into our topic.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity. 

This instructional strategy can be used for any unit of study in the 8^th grade Science curriculum as well as the following 8^th Grade Language Arts Objectives:

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn? 

I think that students learn more when they actively ask questions.  They develop interest in the topic with the more knowledge they gain.  Encouraging them to inquire about what they are reading and then go a step further with additional research will definitely have a positive effect on their comprehension of the text and ultimately on their success.

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 source:

This guide will be used as a post-reading activity relating to the Scientific Method.  Students will write up an experiment along with the students described in these activities.  Students then compare each step in the process with the vocabulary words to see how to use the scientific method to perform an experiment in a real-life situation. Students will go through each step and arrive at a conclusion, and then write a written report.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity. 

8^th grade Science

COMPETENCY GOAL 1: The learner will design and conduct investigations to demonstrate an understanding of scientific inquiry.

Objectives

1.01 Identify and create questions and hypotheses that can be answered through scientific investigations.

1.02 Develop appropriate experimental procedures for:

• Given questions.
• Student generated questions.

1.03 Apply safety procedures in the laboratory and in field studies:

• Recognize potential hazards.
• Safely manipulate materials and equipment.
• Conduct appropriate procedures.

1.04 Analyze variables in scientific investigations:

• Identify dependent and independent.
• Use of a control.
• Manipulate.
• Describe relationships between.
• Define operationally.

1.05 Analyze evidence to:

• explain observations.
• make inferences and predictions.
• develop the relationship between evidence and explanation.

1.06 Use mathematics to gather, organize, and present quantitative data resulting from scientific investigations:

• Measurement.
• Analysis of data.
• Graphing.
• Prediction models.

1.07 Prepare models and/or computer simulations to:

• Test hypotheses.
• Evaluate how data fit.
• Make predictions.

1.08 Use oral and written language to:

• Communicate findings.
• Defend conclusions of scientific investigations.
• Describe strengths and weaknesses of claims, arguments, and/or data

1.09 Use technologies and information systems to:

• Research.  
• Gather and analyze data.
• Visualize data.
• Disseminate findings to others.

1.10 Analyze and evaluate information from a scientifically literate viewpoint by reading, hearing, and/or viewing:

• Scientific text.
• Articles.
• Events in the popular press.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn? 

After completing the reading assigned in the text for scientific method, this guide will allow the students to conduct several additional experiments.  They will have the opportunity to practice writing a complete lab report using the appropriate vocabulary and procedures.

There are numerous experiments in this guide to be used as needed to reinforce the scientific method procedures.  I would begin with a whole class experiment.  We would conduct the experiment and use the smart board to write our appropriate lab report as a group.  The students would be asked guided questions based on their reading and the experiment as other students write the responses on the board.  We will discuss which ideas are appropriate and work together to get the best answers.  After completing this experiment as a class, the students, working in lab partner groups, will be assigned further experiments working with greater independence.

I think this guide is very useful.  Not only does it provide multiple step by step experiments to practice becoming familiar with the scientific method, but it also gives teachers several ideas on games to help keep students familiar with vocabulary terms used in the discussion of the scientific method.