Nikesha Jefferson
Fifth Grade
Expository Lesson Plan
Grimes, N. (2002). Talkin' About Bessie The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman. New York: Orchard Books.
Curriculum Standards:
3. The student will express, communicate, evaluate, or exchange ideas effectively.
d. The student will compose informational text clearly expressing a main idea with supporting details, including but not limited to the following: texts containing chronological order; procedural; cause and effect; comparison and contrast; order of importance; problem/solution. (DOK 3)
1) Reports
2) Letters
Big Idea: Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman was the first African American female pilot. Bessie’s story teaches us that the sky really is the limit and that if we dream it we can achieve it. Bessie made history not only for African Americans but for women everywhere.
Preparation:
1. Show the students the front cover of the book and make predictions about the book and who Bessie Coleman is.
2. Tell the students what times were like in 1980 when Bessie was growing up and what an people thought could have accomplished at that time being an African American.
3. Read the book to learn more about Bessie Coleman.
4. Check to see if our predictions were right. Make changes if necessary.
5. Have students write a letter to friend telling them about Bessie Coleman based upon what they learned from the book.
Guidance:
1. Allow students to work in groups of two to brainstorm for the timeline.
2. Have students make a timeline of Bessie Coleman’s life. (this will be used to write the letter)
3. Review the letter writing process.
Application:
1. Have students write about a letter about Bessie’s determination to fly an airplane and how it applies to their life.
Assessment:
1. The students will hand in their letter to be grade. The students will have a rubric to ensure that they have covered all the requirements for the letter.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Many of the classrooms today still look like the traditional classrooms; straight rows and the teacher lecturing while students follow along in the textbooks or take notes. In my grade school years I remember my teacher giving a short lecture and then having us read in the textbooks just to answer the comprehension questions at the end. The text was not interesting or it was hard to read, so I can agree with the author when he says that there is an image of students encountering complicated text and stopping cold. As a teacher I believe that we should assess the textbooks that our students are going to read and see if they match up with the student’s reading levels, interest (student interest surveys) and/or prior knowledge. In the lab class we were practicing with finding the grade levels for different texts (expository and narrative, using the FRY readability graph), in many of the books we found that the text was too high for the grade that it was assigned to. For example, a 4th grade text was found to be on a 7th grade level.
In the previous chapter it takes about reading interest surveys and it states “interest is often responsible for students’ motivation to read specific kinds of materials” There have been many times that I have had to read something that was not of interest to me; I have found that after reading the text I couldn’t remember what it was about. This happens too often in our classrooms. I believe that we would be able to reach about 95% of our students if teachers are willing to go that “extra mile” to find other text (that is interesting to the students) that supplements the textbook. “If a text contains knowledge that students really want to gain, they might be persistent enough to overcome a text’s problems.” I believe that if the students have some prior knowledge on the text or it is something of interest to them that if they cannot understand the text they will find other ways to gain knowledge (i.e., other books or the internet). From my experience narrative text seems to be the easiest and most interesting text for students to read, again I believe that if we use this text as a supplement for the textbooks we would see some improvement in our students reading.
Selecting the right text for a group of students can sometimes be difficult because not all readers are on the same reading level. The FLIP readability assessment appears to be more user friendly and student centered. It asks for the students input on the books or websites selected. In doing this the teacher is able to wean out the sites or books that do not relate to the students. The readability chart should still be used to check the complexity of the text. The readability graph seems like a good tool to use when selecting books because it assesses the books on the sentence length, number of words and a number of syllables. The notion that that “the shorter the words and sentences, the easier the reading, and the longer the words and sentences the more difficult the reading” isn’t always true. I believe that what matters most is the students’ ability to understand and relate to the book. I believe that if a book has something that is interesting to a student that they will be able to draw on prior knowledge to help them understand the book, when they come across something that they cannot understand.
In the previous chapter it takes about reading interest surveys and it states “interest is often responsible for students’ motivation to read specific kinds of materials” There have been many times that I have had to read something that was not of interest to me; I have found that after reading the text I couldn’t remember what it was about. This happens too often in our classrooms. I believe that we would be able to reach about 95% of our students if teachers are willing to go that “extra mile” to find other text (that is interesting to the students) that supplements the textbook. “If a text contains knowledge that students really want to gain, they might be persistent enough to overcome a text’s problems.” I believe that if the students have some prior knowledge on the text or it is something of interest to them that if they cannot understand the text they will find other ways to gain knowledge (i.e., other books or the internet). From my experience narrative text seems to be the easiest and most interesting text for students to read, again I believe that if we use this text as a supplement for the textbooks we would see some improvement in our students reading.
Selecting the right text for a group of students can sometimes be difficult because not all readers are on the same reading level. The FLIP readability assessment appears to be more user friendly and student centered. It asks for the students input on the books or websites selected. In doing this the teacher is able to wean out the sites or books that do not relate to the students. The readability chart should still be used to check the complexity of the text. The readability graph seems like a good tool to use when selecting books because it assesses the books on the sentence length, number of words and a number of syllables. The notion that that “the shorter the words and sentences, the easier the reading, and the longer the words and sentences the more difficult the reading” isn’t always true. I believe that what matters most is the students’ ability to understand and relate to the book. I believe that if a book has something that is interesting to a student that they will be able to draw on prior knowledge to help them understand the book, when they come across something that they cannot understand.
Monday, February 9, 2009
http://woodlandrm3.blogspot.com/ This blog is for Mrs. Tool and Mrs. Wagner's kindergarten class. I chose this blog because Kindergarten is one of the grades that I really want to teach. On the blog the teacher posts pictures of the class trips and also keeps the parents up to date on what is going on in the classroom.
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