Lesson

Lesson Plan:
Audidence: 3rd grade

MS Social Studies Framework
2. Acquire the characterisitics to be a responsible citizen in the United States.
Recognize responsibilities of the indicidual as they relate to the student's community.

Big Idea: Conserving resources.

Objective: The students will infer the feelings of nonhuman lifeforms after reading the book The Tree to determine how the environment is effected by resource extraction.

Preparation:
1.) Read The Tree by Dana Lyons to the students.
2.) Ask the students open ended questions such as:
a. If there were no trees how would our environment change?
b. Could we survive without trees?
c. How would you feel if something you treasured was taken away?
3.) Ask the students to describe the emotions of the tree in various stages of the book?
How did the author personify the tree's feeling about being cut down?

Based on the author's words describe the tree's feelings throughout the story?

4.)Introduce the idea of conserving resources.
5.) Ask the students why they believe conservation is important?
What happens if we do not conserve resources?
6.) Students will personify a resource such as oil, salt, gold, or copper and describe how the land around it is affected by extracting resources.

Guidance
1. ) Teacher models her example personification.
I am flowing down the mountain tops into the deep blue ocean. On the way down, there is nothing but pollution. They fill me up with chemical waste and even worse they dump their trash on my banks. I wonder if people will ever drink me again or while more chemicals have to be dumped into me to clean me up.
2.) Teacher helps students engage in the task by asking higher order thinking questions that have no right or wrong answers. Such as, if you were a lump of coal and all the land around you was being destroyed just so people could get you how you react? Would you be selfish or concerned about the environment?

Application
1.) Students will share with the class their personification of their resource orally.
2.) Students will compose a short paragraph about how their resource can be conserved.

Assessment
1.) Use I learned statements to discuss what the students learned during the other students presentations.

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Chapter 5

Chapter 5 reiterates the importance of selecting the appropriate text in the classroom. I agree with the author that before the technology revolution most text in the classroom came from text books and basal readers. However, in today's technology savy society, teachers need to be looking for other forms of text to interest their students such as digital text. Just in the first month of this class we have been exposed to a few different types of digital texting such as Blogger, Twitter, and Goggledocs. These applications can be enjoyable. In my clinical class the teacher has set up a yahoo class account and the students write letters back and forth to the afternoon class. The teacher overseas what is talked about, but she looks for all the letter parts for instructional purposes. The students really seemed to enjoy writing and recieving emails from one another. I don't think the students really see the frameworks behind what they are doing. I thought it was a clever idea.

With different types of texts teachers need to be aware of the readability of the text. If the text is extremely hard for the student frustration occurs, and the student just gives up. But if the text is too easy for the student, the student will become bored. I also believe students' interests in texts also play a huge role in student comprehension. I experience this tonight as I overheard a student complain about a story she had to read in a basal reader, so I decided I would read a page or two to get the idea. And yes I completely agreed with the student. It was like torture for her to have to read this story. What I don't understand is: we are taught that we need to get our students interested in the topic, but practicing teachers just use basal readers for their lessons. How do we get around school implemented reading programs? As long as teachers are dictated what they need to teach and how they need to teach it, how can we practice all these wonderful scientifically-based teaching strategies?

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 dicussses the importance of assessment and various types of assessment. Assessments need to be ongoing and evaluated to help guide instruction to determine if students are learning or if reteaching is needed. The different forms of assessment discussed include informal assessments such as conversations and observations and formal assessments such as classroom, state, and standardized tests. A good assessment of overall performance is a portfolio. Portfolios show things that tests and conversations don't. Portfolios can show student growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. When portfolios are used students can see their growth and development. I think that portfolios are a good motivational skill for students because when students think they can't do something they can see just how far they have came.

Another topic dicussed in this chapter was the reading interest inventory and attitude survey. I believe that teachers need to know how their students feel about a particular content area as well as what they are interested in. When teachers use this information effectively they can make the learning environment student friendly. I am looking forward to using a student interest inventory to get to know my student and help my student learn during my tutoring sessions. I also see why we had to write a literacy autobiography for this class. It was your way of seeing how we felt about literature and our past experiences. You will probably use this information to help plan your lessons and understand your student betters.

The last part of chapter four discussed how to interpret standardized test. Standardized test results are the foundation of No Child Left Behind regulations. Schools, teachers, and students have to reach their Adequate Yearly Progress goal or funding is lost, teachers are fired, or schools are closed. I honesty think standardized testing is a double edge sword. If a poor school has low scores they lose more funding when they do not make the grade. Why wouldn't they give more money to help improve the learning environment to schools that are functioning poorly. Closing schools and firing teachers is not going to solve the problems the our education system faces.

13 Principles

Principle number 3 discusses how motivation and self-directed learning can make learning more authentic.Scaffolding seems like the underlying principle of motivating and self-directing student learning. Prior knowledge lays the foundation which can motivate the students when connections are made. Intriguing facts may make the students want to learn more about a particular subject matter which would self-direct them to their own learning. The teacher's job is to keep students motivated and interested in what they are learning. If students do not see the purpose or reason for what they are learning the less likely they will learn the material.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 taught me the difference between textbook based big ideas and standards based big ideas. It seems that the standards based big ideas require a higher depth of knowledge than text based. When assessing these big ideas teachers need to ask what do students know and care about when it come to the Big Ideas. This goes back to connecting ideas, building on prior knowledge, and using students' interests when planning. Standards based big ideas give teachers the chance to get out the text book and use other resources available to them. This will enable the teacher to personalize the students' learning. Teachers also need to teach students good learning strategies so they can succeed.

Two questions:
1.) Are the students really going to care about the Big Ideas? How as teachers can we make students understand why learning is important?
2.) Why is it college professors use the worst practice of teacher lecture, reading from and responding to texts, quizzes, and tests that ask students to recall what they know? If we should not do these things, then why do they model bad practices?