Ms. Stech's Lesson Plans
Lesson 1: Carving Out the Main Idea
This lesson includes Paragraph Shrinking.
All strategies are colored with blue text.
Supporting Documents
carving_steps.docx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | docx |
sample_6th_grade_articles.docx | |
File Size: | 14 kb |
File Type: | docx |
completed_student_samples.docx | |
File Size: | 1905 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Sources for Articles:
Extreme weather. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://www.k12reader.com/reading-comprehension/GR6_Extreme_Weather.pdf
Hide and seek. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://www.k12reader.com/reading-comprehension/GR6_Hide_And_Seek.pdf
One-page nonfiction readings: Grade 6. (2013). Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://teacher.depaul.edu/Reading_NONFICTION_Grade6.html
Extreme weather. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://www.k12reader.com/reading-comprehension/GR6_Extreme_Weather.pdf
Hide and seek. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://www.k12reader.com/reading-comprehension/GR6_Hide_And_Seek.pdf
One-page nonfiction readings: Grade 6. (2013). Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://teacher.depaul.edu/Reading_NONFICTION_Grade6.html
Explanation of Identified Instructional Strategies
Why was this strategy chosen?
Benefits of this strategy:
Possible barriers:
- This paragraph shrinking strategy was utilized in a reading skills class as a strategy lesson to give students a new approach to finding the main idea. I had step-by-step guidelines that students were able to keep to remember to help them remember the process.
- This strategy was chosen because it breaks down a paragraph really well and makes the main idea clear to struggling students.
- Being able to find the main idea will ultimately help students to learn summarization.
Benefits of this strategy:
- This strategy does not take long for students to complete.
- It can be helpful to students at different grade levels.
- This strategy could be used in other subjects to help students find the main idea in their textbooks. For instance, a science teacher could teach this strategy to students when reading about tectonic plates.
- This is a straightforward strategy that uses a step-by-step approach to teaching how to find the main idea.
- This strategy could also be modified to be used on a computer or other smart devices such as iPads.
Possible barriers:
- Students cannot circle and cross things out in their textbooks or other reading books owned by the school.
- This is mostly a paper-based strategy meaning that teachers will have to copy articles or paragraphs out of textbooks in order for students to complete this strategy, so that students do not mark up their textbooks.
- Depending on the grade-level of text students are reading, they may still struggle to understand what the main idea is even when using this strategy.
Lesson 2: Developing the Subject of the Memoir Through Questions
This lesson includes Word Web, Character Sketch, Cubing, & Campfire Metaphor for Cause and Effect.
This lesson is divided up into three days.
- Day 1 is highlighted in yellow.
- Day 2 is highlighted in green.
- Day 3 is highlighted in teal.
Supporting Documents
developing_the_subject_question_list.docx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | docx |
character_sketch_handout.docx | |
File Size: | 42 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Explanation of Identified Instructional Strategies
Why were these strategies chosen?
Benefits of these strategies:
Possible barriers:
Sources:
Gore, M. C. (2010). Inclusion strategies for secondary classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Gregory, G. H., & Chapman, C. (2007). Differentiated instructional strategies (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
- The word web strategy was chosen because it is a great way for students to brainstorm and classify their ideas. In this lesson, it was used during the anticipatory set to get students thinking about each subject and possible topics for what they could potentially write about in their memoirs.
- The character sketch strategy was chosen because it helps students to develop details about characters who are fiction or nonfiction in a collaborative setting. In the case of this lesson plan, students were developing general details about nonfiction people. As far as collaboration goes, I know from personal experience that working with other people helps to look at different perspectives and realize new ideas I may have never thought about.
- The campfire metaphor for cause and effect strategy was chosen because it is a creative activity to keep students focused on a particular subject (Gore, 2010). In this lesson, the strategy was used to help students think about a particular event in their life that was meaningful, and it helped to show them the possible causes and effects of the event in a very visible way.
- The cubing strategy was chosen because it gets students thinking on a higher level and has them answering questions in different ways. I specifically used this strategy for adding details to objects students may write about because the students need to really think about what makes the object so meaningful to them. Students cannot just say, "I have this thing because it is cool and I like it."
Benefits of these strategies:
- The word web helps students to organize their brainstorming ideas.
- The word web could be done on paper or on the computer using word web making software.
- The character sketch helps students to recognize characterization and details about a person.
- The campfire metaphor is considered a static graphic organizer, meaning it is not animated, but it has been proved to produce high academic gains in student learning as cited in a study done by ChanLin and Chan (1996, as cited in Gore, 2010).
- The cubing strategy has students look at the topic from many different angles, which ultimately helps students to learn critical thinking (Gregory & Chapman, 2007).
- The cubing strategy makes learning fun when used appropriately such as using the cubes during creative writing exercises (Gregory & Chapman, 2007).
- The cubing strategy can also be used to differentiate learning (Gregory & Chapman, 2007).
Possible barriers:
- The word web has the potential to be very unorganized on the student's part especially if there is a lot of information within each part of the web.
- Students may have trouble coming up with a generalized character to talk about in their groups especially if they want to just come up with details on their own.
- The campfire metaphor strategy seems be not very well known, so even if a teacher is successful in teaching students how to use this type of graphic organizer, there are still going to be students who do not know how this strategy works. Looking at an example of the graphic organizer without context can be really confusing for students because they would not know what the fire or the smoke represents.
- The cubing strategy could be problematic for students who do not understand the verbs or the directions for the tasks (Gregory & Chapman, 2007).
Sources:
Gore, M. C. (2010). Inclusion strategies for secondary classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Gregory, G. H., & Chapman, C. (2007). Differentiated instructional strategies (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.