Lesson Plan-First Day Jitters

Lesson Plan/Icebreaker- Teachers have "Jitters" too!

Lesson Plan Topic: Design a lesson plan for the book First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg. I read this book to my class at the beginning of the school year as an icebreaker. However, I did not make a lesson out of it. (In retrospect I should have!) I teach high school students with low functioning Autism. Because the students in my classroom have social and intellectual deficits I wanted to design a full lesson out of this wonderful book. My lesson plan will use literacy strategies to organizes reading instruction using the P.A.R. framework.

 

Grade level for the lesson: High school students with low functioning Autism accessing the general education curriculum.

Detailed Objectives:

· 9.The student will be able to extend general and specialized vocabulary through speaking, reading, and writing while reading The First Day Jitters by completing a word inventory to indicate unfamiliar words and use these unfamiliar words to complete an assortment of vocabulary assessments.


3f) · 9.4b) The student will be able to summarize text and understand chronological organization and sequence while reading The First Day Jitters by writing about what happened in the book using a graphic organizer.

 

· 9.4l) The student will be able to make predictions, inferences, draw conclusions, and connect prior knowledge to support reading comprehension when reading The First Day Jitters by relating to the experiences and feelings attached to the characters in the book using a pre-readng graphic organizer, answering teacher promoted questions, and completing a KWL chart to asses their prior knowledge.

· 9.4m) The student will be able to use reading strategies to monitor comprehension throughout the reading process while reading The First Day Jitters  by the completion of a guided reading assignment, Facebook page, Venn diagram, the 5 W's, and a comprehensive comprehension quiz/vocabulary quiz.

Written purpose:The student will be able to read and analysis written material while extending their vocabulary through the use of different instructional strategies in the P.A.R framework while reading The First Day Jitters.

Strategies/Activities:
2Preparation: The teacher will asses the student’s prior knowledge and prepare students for the reading assignment by using the following strategies:  Rereading organizer and Know, What to know, Learned (K-W-L) chart. The teacher will assess the student's prior knowledge by asking the students to predict what the story is about based on the pictures and the title to activate their critical thinking skills. The  teacher will ask students how they felt on the first day of school.  The teacher will work with the student's to develop a vocabulary inventory for unfamiliar words. 

Word Wall Words gathered from a word inventory based on student's unfamiliarity with the words.

1.       Jitters: nervousness; a feeling of fright or uneasiness.

2.       Stumbled: to stagger or fall; trip; to walk or go unsteadily:

3.       Fumble: to feel or grope about clumsily.

4.      Moan: a prolonged, low, inarticulate sound uttered from or as if from physical or mental suffering

5.      Clammy: covered with a cold, sticky moisture; cold and damp:

6.      Principal: the head or director of a school

7.      Gush: to express oneself extravagantly or emotionally;

8.      Peek: to look or glance quickly or furtively, especially through a small opening or from a concealed location; peep; peer.

9.      Crowded: filled to excess; packed.
10.      Chuckled: laugh

2Assistance: The teacher will maintain purpose for the reading and build comprehension by assisting the students with the following strategies: Structure of text-compare and contrast the similarities and differences between teacher's feelings about the first day of school and student's feelings using a Venn diagram and a Character Map as a learning aid to assist them indicate key concepts and expand their critical thinking skills.The teacher will teach the important of context clues to look at the words around the unfamiliar identified words to determine the meaning. The students will draw pictures for the meaning of each word to familiarize themselves with the meaning.

2Reflection: The teacher will evaluate and extend the reading experience while activating he student's retention by using the following strategies: Facebook Assignment using word wall words, vocabulary assessment. The big question research map 5w's, comprehension quiz,  final update of KWL chart.

 2Evaluation: The teacher will evaluate the students based on participation and completion of all tasks assigned during the duration of the lesson.

*****Please see my notebook for an example of the Preereading Organizer, KWL Chart, What Happened Organizer, Venn Diagram, Getting into Character Map, The Big Question Research Map, Facebook Assignment, Vocabulary Quiz, and Comprehension Quiz. *****

Websites:

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/english/2010/stds_english9.pdf

Chapter4- Assistance in Learning



Flower-word wall



Chapter 4- Assistance in Learning

The “A” in the P.A.R framework is the teacher’s time to shine! J

The P.A.R. lesson plan framework stands for “Preparation,” “Assistance,” “Reflection,” and Chapter 4 discussed the “A.” Providing Assistance in learning is essential. After teachers have accessed the student’s prior knowledge and prepared them for the reading it is time to help them improve their comprehension through the use of instructional strategies. As educators, we cannot assume that once a student reads the content that they fully comprehend what they have read. In my opinion, this is the part of P.A.R where teachers are given the chance to be creative in their lessons and do what they do best- help the students learn to the best of their capability.

 Some examples of providing assistance in learning are the use of word walls, pictures, graphic organizers, and guided readings, segments of text, mapping, bubble maps, pattern guides, DR-TA, Mystery Clue Games, and collaborative reading.

I, personally, like using pattern guides to assistance students with the structure of the written material. This particular strategy is helpful when discussing cause and effect and when comparing and contrasting different viewpoints. I enjoyed learning more about the Directed Reading-Theory Activity (DR-TA). This activity helps the students to understand that each segment of the text can help them figure out the next segment. As a result, it can improve comprehension. I also enjoyed learning about the Mystery Clue Game. I love this strategy because it teaches sequence by using a fun game. As we learned in Chapter one, affect goes a long way with learning.  Why not make learning fun?

 I believe that guided reading one of the best ways to assistance a student when they are reading. One way to use guided reading is to break large reading material into small parts (5 sentences) and develop 5 or 6 written questions that go along with the reading. This will require the student to actively read and will increase their understanding of the material and the structure of the text. After all, writing is reading!  

Richardson, J. S., Morgan, R. F., & Fleener, C. 2012. Reading to learn in the content areas. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.

KWL:Lesson

What strategy would you use to asses student's prior knowledge and why?

I would use the K-W-L three column theory. The K stands for what students know, or think they know, before they begin to read. The W stands for what students want to know or think they will learn. The L stands for what the students have learned (after reading). This approach is a great tool for assessing prior knowledge and as a refection strategy after the reading as occurred.
Because writing is reading and reading is writing, this tool is very effective!

Preparing Students to read is similar to ...a good pair of heals? Driving?

Trying to find perfect heals that won't hurt your feet everyday:
*Stressful
* Takes time 
*If you don't you will regret it... 
* When it's all said and done.. it feels great and is totally worth it! :)


Driving:
You practice and study what you want to learn about driving just like you would prior to reading.  Prior knowledge is important to driving. You can not drive a vehicle without knowing what it is, how to do it, and what is it for. Just like you can not read written material if you do not have any idea of what the text means. When you practice reading you are better at reading! Makes sense.

Blog2-Chapter3

"P" is for Preparation- Time to put on your thinking caps!

The P.A.R. lesson plan framework stands for “Preparation,” “Assistance,” “Reflection,” and Chapter 3 discussed the “P.”  Preparation is very important in any classroom. In my opinion, this is the most important step in the framework because all students, regardless if they are in the same grade, are on different academic levels. What might be one student’s strength could be another student’s weakness.  It is important to determine the student’s prior knowledge of the content material before direct reading instruction.  If the student has no prior knowledge, direct reading instruction will be pointless.  They will be lost for the majority of the lesson.  

According to the text, “No matter how well-written a material is; if readers do not possess background knowledge or interest in the reading material, they will find it hard to read.” As a teacher, I find this to be absolutely correct.  I try to use this approach before my students are to read any piece of written material. The only downfall to this preparation is when a student has incorrect prior knowledge or limited prior knowledge; this can lead to gaps in their understanding.

The book had 10 preparation activities that were extremely useful. I like the KWL activity because it requires the student to focus on what they know, what they want to know, and (after the lesson) what they learned. It allows the student to see their own learning grow from the beginning of the reading to the end.  

Another activity I found useful was the use of analogies.  Analogies are also useful because it connects new knowledge to existing knowledge. Too often students forget what they have already learned because they are focusing on what they are currently learning. This approach allows the students to recall their prior knowledge and then connect it to a new concept.

In my opinion, the preparation phase of P.A.R is when students get to use their imagination to develop critical thinking skills. In my classroom before a reading, I ask the class, “By looking at the pictures, what do you think we will be learning about?” and “What questions do you have before we begin?” The students love using their imagination to predict what the reading will be about. 

Richardson, J. S., Morgan, R. F., & Fleener, C. (2011). Reading to learn in the content areas. (8th ed. ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub Co.





Affect & Learning-Blog1

 

Richardson, J. S., Morgan, R. F., & Fleener, C. 2012. Reading to learn in the content areas. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.

Affect& Learning

This is such a great topic! Because emotions are connected to students who love reading and also for those who dislike reading, how does a student’s feelings and attitude play an active role in education?  How do educators foster the love of reading to their students?  From experience at the high school level, I have noticed that children often do not have a desire to read and have a negative connotation of reading for various reasons: they think it is boring, they do not know to read well, and they do not think it is important.  Teachers should determine the reasoning behind their negative feelings towards reading.  Is the student unable to read or does the student just not like to read?  Because cognitive deficits and negative feelings towards reading are completely different reasons for an undesirability to read, educators should not assume a student will read on his/her own to study/learn the content material. The Preparation Assistance Reflection (PAR) technique is very useful because it allows the student to read actively. I agree with the text that previewing textbooks before issuing them to students is important for students to improve comprehension, build anticipation, and to encourage metacognition.   It is the responsibility of teachers to help foster the habit of reading. Teachers should also determine what the student’s motivation to learn is. Are they intrinsically motivated or extrinsically motivated?  They should use this information to develop new strategies to use in the classroom to encourage students to read. Gain Acceptance Towards Reading (GATOR) is a very useful technique because it encourages a deeper level of comprehension by requiring students to connect their emotions and feelings to the reading. Using the GATOR technique, students generalize the content in the reading by applying to their lives. I love this technique and use it often. This technique is beneficial for all students of all age groups. Because students are required to read independently in all content areas, it will be hard to give students reading inventories and provide students with reading that they would enjoy. However, to foster the love of reading, I believe teachers should encourage students to read, any written material, and offer incentives to do so.