LP+Graphic+Organizer


 * Planning: Kim Henderson and Jandi Tyson **

· Reading Comprehension Strategy pg. 55 of CS4TRC -Using Sensory Images-Advanced Level-For Grades 4-6

v Which AASL indicators align with this reading comprehension strategy ? Note both the number and the actual language of the indicator.

1.1.2 Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning. 1.3.4 Contribute to the exchange of ideas within the learning community. 1.4.1 Monitor own information-seeking processes for effectiveness and progress, and adapt as necessary. 1.4.4 Seek appropriate help when it is needed. 2.1.2 Organize knowledge so that it is useful. 2.2.4 Demonstrate personal productivity by completing products to express learning. 2.4.3 Recognize new knowledge and understanding. 3.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use, and assess. 3.2.1 Demonstrate leadership and confidence by presenting ideas to others in both formal and informal situations. 3.3.4 Create products that apply to authentic, real-world contexts. 3.3.5 Contribute to the exchange of ideas within and beyond the learning community. 3.4.2 Assess the quality and effectiveness of the learning product. Some of these standards indicators are not closely aligned with the reading comprehension strategy. (Those that aren't can be indicated below.)

· Reading Development Level

Advanced: Grades 4-6

Note: The levels indicated on the CS4TRC lesson plans correspond roughly as follows: Emerging: Grades K-1 Advancing: Grades 2-3 However, these are approximations. Depending on the reading proficiency of the students with whom you work, these grades levels should be adjusted up or down. I have used some of the advanced lesson with 8th-grade students. LS 5443 students who are interested in serving at the high school level should choose an advanced lesson for this assignment.

· Instructional Strategies *Cues
 * Cooperative Learning
 * Metaphors (Similes) - Similarities and Differences
 * Notemaking (Quotes)
 * Summarizing

Review these strategies on page 13 in CS4TRC.

v Which of these research-based instructional strategies have you used in your teaching? Name them. I have used: *Identifying similarities and differences. I called it Compare and Contrast and I specifically used a VENN diagram.
 * Nonlinguistic representations. I would have the students draw as we read aloud, so that they could get the images in their minds down on paper.
 * Questions, cues, and advance organizers. I tried to teach middle school students to ask open-ended questions. We practiced a lot on asking questions, writing questions, and discussing questions with other classmates.
 * Setting objectives and providing feedback. My principal asked that teachers put the objective for the day's lesson on the board so that all students could see it, and then explain to them about what they were going to learn. After the lesson, teachers were to follow-up with the students to find out if the objective had been achieved.

*I use Venn diagrams, t-charts, and mind-maps that allow students to see similarities and differences when we are talking about parts of speech or literature genres. I find that by using these tools students gain a better understanding of the content we are learning.
 * Summarizing is a big strategy in my classroom. I use a "Who_Wanted_But_So_Then" lesson to help my students grasp summarization. We also incorporate BME (beginning, middle, and end).
 * Nonlinguistic representation, in my classroom, is used consistently with every lesson. They illustrate symbols in their summaries, illustrate figurative and literal meanings of similes, metaphors, hyperboles, personification, idioms, and oxymorons.
 * My students sit at tables instead of desks because we do some sort of partner or cooperative learning everyday. They do partner reading based on strategies I learned from TALA (Texas Adolescent Literacy Academy).
 * Setting objectives and providing feedback in my classroom looks like students setting their own learning goals. They will recieve their objective mastery and determine whether they have met their goals. They then set more goals for the next lesson.
 * I have been working with my 8th graders modeling how to write upper level questions. We are working on looking at informational cues that can help them identify a good passage that lends itself to level 3 questions.

v Which of these instructional strategies do you need to learn? Name them and describe them. I need to learn more about __cooperative learning__, with both students and in collaboration with teachers. I didn't focus a lot on __note taking and summarizi__ng with my middle school students. This is a weakness that I need to improve upon. Good self-assessment. It is interesting to note your overlap and your individual strengths or areas for growth. Questioning and notemaking-summarizing particularly important for resource-based lessons (research/inquiry). It is important to develop a range of options for engaging students in these strategies. I recommend Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock's book as a place to begin. Q Tasks by Koechlin and Zwaan is good for questioning. I, too, would love to find a great resource for notemaking and summarizing. These strategies are just plain difficult to teach and master!
 * The biggest weakness that I have is definitely teaching 8th graders to write and ask their won upper level questions. I need more help in developing effective strategies for teaching this skill as well as relaying the importance of this skill to my students.

· Lesson Length

v What are your questions about the lesson length? You must have at least one. On Day 2 of the lesson, how do you fit the modeling, writing, sharing,and assessing all into one class period? I feel like this is too much for one 50 minute class period, and may make it feel rushed, losing some of the creativity in the learning.

*This lesson length is described as being two sessions. How long is a standard session? Is it a 50 minute class period, or is it a class period that is on a block schedule? Is lesson extension recommended as time to reteach? I don't see where reteaching fits in this lesson for students who aren't catching the content. For me, the session length is dependent on students' attention spans and engagement and scheduling issues. In my libraries, a session equals a class period (45 minutes to an hour). Ideally, you would allow a bit more time just in case students were too engaged to stop! Scheduling decisions are a critical aspect of the negotiations that take place between instructional partners. Of course, the students' writing proficiency will dictate the length of time needed to meet the objectives for Day 2. You do not have to wait for the extension to reteach. Having two educators in the room during guided practice can facilitate reteaching the objectives to one or two small groups while the other educator is facilitating the more successful student partnerships. Also, two educators can better facilitate writing conferences on Day 2.


 * Note:** If you have worked within the constraints of a fixed schedule in which students come to the library just one time per week, there are many options for increasing the amount of time you spend with students. School librarians must think about the fact that NO other teachers in their buildings introduce and teach a concept on Tuesday morning at 10:00 and NEVER mention it again until the next Tuesday morning at 10:00. This is simply not an effective instructional practice. What are your strategies for getting out of the fixed schedule library box?

· Purpose

v How is the purpose of the lesson connected—or not connected—to your idea of the type of instruction that “should” take place in the school library? Pg. 55 CS4TRC-The purpose of this lesson is to read a fictional text, visualize, identify sensory imagery, and compose a persuasive paragraph.

Reading is more than just having a child recognize the words. This lesson helps a student begin to comprehend by having them close their eyes and try to see a picture of what the words are describing. The words are appealing to their five senses. As students go through this process of visualization, and then talk about it with other students, the writing should come easier due to the increased understanding of what the words are all about. A library is an excellent location for this type of activity, due to the availibility of resources. Having the teacher and the librarian work together in modeling an activity that can become a life skill is extremely valuable to the students. This same activity could take place in a classroom, as long as the teacher collaboration is a part of the lesson. Students will gain by having the expertise and attention from both.

*The connection of reading and writing is vitally important if we are to develop literacy skills in students. Not only should students learn the words on the page, but they must also learn to apply these same words in a way that expresses their understanding of what they have read. Students fail to see this connection when merely staying inside the classroom. By moving this lesson to the library, the teacher-librarian and the classroom teacher essentially "tag team" to help students see this relationship. Students have the ability to go to any section of the library and pull information that could serve as an example of rich language. Thoughtful responses. If we think about reading and information seeking as interrelated processes, there is very little if anything that we do in schools that is not appropriate for a classroom-library collaborative lesson.

· Objectives

Review Bloom’s Taxonomy: []

v List at least one verb that is used to name what students will do for every objective in this lesson; list the corresponding level on Bloom’s. Use this chart.


 * Example:**

2.2.4 3.1.4 3.2.1 3.3.5 3.4.2 1 2 3 4 5 || Appraise Compose Construct Defend Support Judge Utilize Identify Analyze Compose Assess || Analysis Synthesis Synthesis Evaluation Evaluation Evaluation Application Comprehension Analysis Synthesis Evaluation || I'm wondering about the verbs from the AASL indicators. These are different than I know. Example: 1.4.1. monitor and adapt. Am I misreading this table? Help!
 * Objective || Verb || Level on Bloom’s ||
 * 1.4.1

Lesson objectives: Even in strategy lessons such as this one, we should seek a balance between what we label lower-order and higher-order thinking.

· Resources, Materials, and Equipment Children’s Literature Websites Graphic Organizers Materials Equipment

v Which are the different formats or genres used to support learners? Fiction and Non-fiction, Website information, Graphic Organizers, Listening, Literary Elements, Writing, Reading Aloud

v Which technology tools are used? If technology is not used in this lesson, do you think there are appropriate tools to help students meet the lesson objectives? Name those tools and how you would use them.

Use a computer with the Internet to access subject related website. Speakers on the Computer for students to hear sounds from related website. Interactive Whiteboard or Overhead with a Data Projector to project computer images from related website. Technology tools used within this lesson are minimal. The technologies utilized include an overhead projector, data projector, or an interactive whiteboard. One area of technology I can see working with this lesson is allowing students to utilize computers to compose their persuasive paragraphs. Students could use their creativity to incorporate images within their persuasive paragraphs that add to the persuasive element. Of course, students can keyboard their paragraphs! Yes, adding images or using Web 2.0 tools could increase student motivation. But the question should always be, will these tools help students better achieve the learning objectives?

· Collaboration

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How does this lesson maximize the benefits of two (or more) educators coteaching? Be specific.

This lesson allows for one educator to be reading/presenting, and the other educator to be modeling the learning behavior. In this lesson, the focus is on visualization to help the students understand how sensory images are used in literature. The teacher doing the modeling is demonstrating to the students the procedure that is to be used during the lesson. After the lesson and demonstration, both teachers can monitor the students' work, answer questions, and provide guidance as necessary. "When two or more adults facilitating student learning, educators can align standards and develop a shared vocabulary that supports students' learning. Using a coteaching approach creates opportunities for reciprocal mentoring and improvement in instructional practices. The opportunity to learn alongside a colleague fosters a win-win situation; it's good for students, and it's good for educators." // Moreillen, Judi "position yourself at the center: coteaching reading comprehension strategies." Teacher Librarian 35.5 (2008): 27-34. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 9 Nov. 2009. //

This lesson maximizes the benefits of two educators coteaching by allowing teachers to model the behaviors and skills they want students to acquire by the end of this lesson. In Day 1 it states, "One educator reads while the other closes her eyes to visualize." This modeling is very important, especially for those students who are visual learners rather than auditory learners. This lesson also allows for both teachers to "monitor students' reading, visualizeing, and record keeping. They also facilitate cooperative learning." One advandage to having a coteaching atmosphere is that students never feel alone. Students will have less wait time to have their questions answered. Having two teachers to model and then to monitor their processes allows students a more conducive environment to ask questions and then move straight in to their next task.

Brava - and for including benefits to students and to educators. There are also planning benefits. Even with published lesson plans, prior planning - although shorter - is needed and the lesson is strengthened in the process. ·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Assessment

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Are there multiple methods/tools for assessing student outcomes? If there’s one, name it. If there are multiple, name them.

*The student and teacher/librarian will use a Rubric to evaluate the student work of writing a persuasive paragraph. The rubric is specific as to content, organization, word choice, editing, and grammar,punctuation,capitalization rules.

In this lesson students are asked to self-assess their persuasive paragraphs. This self assessment using a rubric allows students to objectively look at their work to make sure that they have the appropriate components.
 * The students can orally share their paragraphs in their small groups.

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Are there opportunities for learners to self assess? (AASL Strand #4: Self-Assessment Strategies) What are they?

Indicator 4.1.6 Grade 8 Benchmarks states "organize personal knowledge in a way that can be called upon easily." Students can easily evaluate their own learning in this "Using Sensory Images" lesson by:


 * developing visual pictures of the main ideas and design concept maps, webs, or graphics to capture the ideas
 * identifying their own learning styles and organize ideas accordingly
 * using different forms of note-taking to capture personal connections to information

Each of these benchmarks allows a learner to self-assess by allowing them to understand their own comprehension through the visual interpretation of the words. It also allows a student to work with various graphic organizers, letting them find out for themselves what works best for their own learning and understanding of a concept. This is a step toward creating life-long learning skills.

In 4.4.5 Self-Assessment Strategies, students will "develop personal criteria for gauging how effectively own ideas are expressed." In this lesson students are listening for words that trigger sensory images, and then the students will write a persuasive paragraph using similes and metaphors to strengthen their opinions. This exercise is an excellent opportunity for the learners to self-assess in their writing based on the type and quality of paragraph that they produce. As they work in their small discussion groups and read their paragraphs to each other, they can ask questions and discuss the paragraphs. A list of questions can be provided by the teachers in guiding this conversation in order to improve students' work.

Yes, a rubric is used for the paragraph, but educators can also set expectations for the completion of the category matrix graphic organizer. Students can self-assess the completeness of their work and reflect on whether or not it was easy or difficult for them to accomplish the learning tasks. These are all self-assessments.

·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Standards Reading and/or writing Listening and speaking Other content areas Information literacy Educational technology

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> What content-area standards are integrated into this lesson? List them. Use specific standards from state standards in Texas or the state you and your partner have negotiated.

For this assignment we chose to look at the 6th grade Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. The following TEKS are integrated into this lesson: 6.Fig 19C - Reflect on understanding to monitor comprehension (e.g., summarizing and synthesizing; making textual, personal, and world connections; creating sensory images). 6.4 - Explain how figurative language (e.g., personification, metaphors, similes, hyperbole) contributes to the meaning of a poem. 6.8 - Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Sensory Language. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about how an author's sensory language creates imagery in literary text and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. 6.12A - Follow multi-tasked instructions to complete a task, solve a problem, or perform procedures. 6.13.B - Reading/Media Literacy. Students use comprehension skills to analyze how words, images, graphics, and sounds work together in various forms to impact meaning. Students will continue to apply earlier standards with greater depth in increasingly more complex texts. Students are expected to recognize how various techniques influence viewers' emotions. 6.15Bii - Figurative language (e.g., similes, metaphors). 6.18 - Write persuasive essays for appropriate audiences that establish a position and include sound reasoning, detailed and relevant evidence and consideration of alternatives. 6.28 - Participate in student-led discussions by eliciting and considering suggestions from other group members and by identifying points of agreement and disagreement.

6.8- Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Sensory Language. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about how an author's sensory language creates imagery in literary text and provide evidence from text to support their understanding.

Which of the TEKS does this lesson actually ASSESS?

Note: These lesson plans were published before AASL’s Standards for the 21st Century Learner were available.

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Which AASL indicators align with this lesson? Give both the number and the description for each. 1.1.2 Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning. 1.1.6 Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format in order to make inferences and gather meaning. 1.1.9 Collaborate with others to broaden and deepen understanding. 1.3.4 Contribute to the exchange of ideas within the learning community. 1.4.2 Use interaction with and feedback from teachers and peers to guide own inquiry process. 1.4.4 Seek appropriate help when it is needed. 2.1.2 Organize knowledge so that it is useful. 2.1.5 Collaborate with others to exchange ideas, develop new understandings, make decisions, and solve problems. 2.1.6 Use the writing process, media and visual literacy and technology skills to create products that express new understandings. 3.1.2 Participate and collaborate as members of a social and intellectual network of learners. 3.3.4 Create products that apply to authentic, real-world contexts. 4.1.3 Respond to literature and creative expressions of ideas in various formats and genres. 4.1.6 Organize personal knowledge in a way that can be called upon easily.

All of these standards indicators work to a greater or lesser extent. When you design your own lesson, you will want to select three or four that you will actually **assess**.


 * Implementation **

·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Process Motivation

Motivation is also known as “anticipatory set” in the Madeline Hunter, EEI lesson plan design. Will this invitation to learn be effective in capturing students’ interest? Why or why not? Do you think listening to an owl's call and approaching this fictional text with information in the form of an admit slip will motivate students?

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> What are your ideas to increase student buy-in to this lesson? Give at least one.

One idea that I had for this lesson is an anticipation activity. Students could be divided into groups of three or four. Each group is given four small brown paper bags. Each bag contains different textured items (ex. sandpaper, cotton balls, feathers, a rock, etc.). Students are then asked to, one at a time, reach into the bag and then write a description of what they feel. Students then compare their descriptions to try and determine what is inside each bag. This will allow students to see the importance of incoporating their five senses into their writings. I would create anticipation for this activity by using pictures of artwork, some abstract, but all of it interesting and thought provoking. I would initiate conversation in the classroom about what the artist is demonstrating in the artwork and how it effects our emotions and senses. I would follow this with a powerpoint presentation about familiar and "fun" similes and metaphors in everyday speech and continue the discussion about these literary elements. This will lay the foundational groundwork for the students, and stimulate their senses when viewing, reading, and listening.

Good ideas. With time considerations, motivational/background building learning experiences can be done in the classroom ahead of the scheduled library time. The decision about how and where to conduct this lesson component **should** be based on what's best for student motivation and achievement (rather than scheduling matters).

Student-friendly Objectives

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Are these objectives at the instructional level of the targeted students? Give an example.

These objectives are written on the level of the targeted students. The target audience for this lesson is 4th - 6th grade students. These students will be able to understand, for example, the first objective in Day 2, "Compose a persuasive paragraph that uses evidence from the text and quoted or original figurative language." These objectives for this advanced lesson are at an appropriate level for middle school students and can easily be adapted for the differing needs of the students.

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Are there terms in these objectives that may need to be taught to students? Give an example.

In the above mentioned objective, students may need to be taught the meanings of the words "compose" and "persuasive". Teaching these meanings would greatly depend upon the time withing the school year and the curriculum that this lesson was presented. Students need to understand that the word compose means create. They also need to have a very strong understanding of what persuasive means in order to not only incorporate the figurative language component, but to also incorporate the important persuasive elements into their paragraphs.

"Synthesize" will be a word that needs to be further defined with middle school students. The students will need to be told that they need to carefully listen and read all of the information that is provided, and then using this new information and also their background knowledge, they will then be prepared to use all of these pieces to create their original paragraph. Yes. Educators need to ensure that students know all the terms even in student-friendly objectives. (This can be especially important for ELLs and students with special needs.) Of course with repeated use through co-teaching and collaboration, students will comprehend more terms - especially because educators will use the terms in both the classroom and library settings.

Presentation

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Describe the modeling aspect of this lesson.

Teachers model every component that students are asked to do. In Day 1, "One educator reads while the other closes her eyes to visualize. The adult reader begins by blowing a train whistle and reading the first page. The adult listener tells the reader what she visualized." This allows students to see an example of the exchange they are expected to have with their partner. In Day 2, "The educators role-play a discussion of the predominant sense used in owling." This allows students to see what an appropriate dialogue concerning the content would look like. Students can't just be told to discuss something. They need to be shown what this discussion would need to look like.

//"//Research indicates that reading comprehension strategies should be explicitly taught and **modeled** at all grade levels. These strategies can be effectively taught through modeling in which adults and more proficient peers share the metacognitive processes involved in comprehending text. Specific strategies can be taught one at a time, over time, so that readers can begin to self-regulate their use and apply these strategies in their independent reading." Yes! Demonstrating the cooperative learning procedures is really important - and the model can be referred to when students have questions about it - or go off course...

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How are the benefits of two or more educators maximized in the presentation component?

The presentation component of this lesson allows for both educators to intervene if one educator, perhaps, misses an important aspect of the content being presented. If one of the educators notices a group or several groups of students do not understand, then the lesson can be presented again by the other educator. This allows students to see two different teaching styles and allows for more students to grasp the concepts being taught. Teachers and librarians can learn from each other as they teach. Sharing expertise expands your knowledge base. Also with the teachers working together, there are two pairs of eyes to observe and monitor the class for learning and comprehension. They can also work individually with more students and small groups, providing a more effective learning experience.

Brava for your attention to benefits to educators as well as to students. Student participation is sooooo important. Research does not consistently bear out the benefits of smaller class size, but anyone who has worked with a group of 15 students as compared with a group of 30 KNOWS the difference.

Student Participation Procedures or Student Practice Procedures

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Are the directions clear? Give an example.

The directions within this lesson are clear for students. For example, the //Student Practice Procedures// in Day 1 reads, "1. Take turns reading one page at a time and listening/visualizing the story." Because of the previous modeling and teaching of terminology presented at the beginning of the lesson, 4th through 6th grade students are going to be able to follow these directions. Middle school students should find the directions fairly simple to follow, however the "rubric" will need further discussion and explanation for this level of student. Day 2 states, " Review your category matrix and discuss the senses used in owling with your partner. Compose an individual persuasive paragraph that uses evidence from the text and similes or metaphors to convince the reader that one sense is predominantly used in owling. Self-assess the paragraph using the rubric."

Guided Practice

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How are the benefits of two or more educators maximized in the guided practice component?

Both educators, in the Guided Practice sections of this lesson (in both Day 1 and Day 2) are actively monitoring student performance. In Day 1 educators are, "monitoring students' reading, visualizing, and record keeping", but they are also "facilitating cooperative learning." In Day 2, eduators "monitor students' paragraph composition and conduct writing conferences as needed", and "they support students in completing their individual assessment rubric."

The benefits of having two or more educators involved in teaching a comprehension lesson is that both teachers can observe the students and facilitate learning as the students are reading, listening, visualizing, working on their graphic organizers, and working in small groups sharing their work. During the paragraph writing portion of the lesson, the teachers can work individually with students on the mechanics of writing and following the requirements of the rubric. Two or more teachers create a more varied learning experience for the students and also allows for more individual attention. Two (or more) teachers made writing conferences simply possible! Many classroom teachers have given up on providing conferences during the regular class period because it is so difficult to give students the necessary one-on-one attention. There can be a role for library adult volunteers, classroom or library aides in supporting this work as well.

Closure

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Are students active in the closure component? What are students doing for closure?

In the closure conponent of Day 1 the students are asked to count their marks from the activity and then they are asked to share some of the figurative language that they identified within the reading. In the closure component of Day 2 students are asked to share their persuasive paragraphs with members in their group. Yes, students are active in the closure component. In Day 1 they are reviewing how many senses they noted on their graphic organizers for the various similes and metaphors. They are also told that on the next day they will be writing paragraphs based on the Day 1 activity. On Day 2 they are working in small groups and sharing their paragraphs with each other, and then conducting a reflection of the entire learning activity. A closure activity helps to sum up the learning activities for the students and lets them decide if the objectives of the lesson were achieved.

Reflection

v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How is the reflection component related to the learning objectives?

The reflection component of this lesson is directly related to the learning objectives of the lesson. They are asked to put in their own words how closing their eyes helped with the visualizing of the reading (this is directly tied to objectives 1 and 2). Students are asked to share some techniques that writers use to help readers visualize (this is directly tied to objective 3). Finally, students are asked to discuss how figurative language increases effectiveness of text (this is directly related to writing their persuasive paragraphs which ties to objective 4).

The learning objectives were for the students to utilize their senses to experience an unfamiliar event, to record the the senses used in the reading, to analyze for the use of figurative language, and to synthesize the information in order to compose a persuasive paragraph according to the directions. By having the students ponder the objectives and the activities used to reach those objectives, they will be able to decide if visualization helped them to be more aware of sensory use in literature and some of the techniques that authors use to stimulate those senses. They then can decide if visualization helped them in their comprehension of the reading and to what degree.

Yes, students (and educators) must reflect on their learning. This is a critical aspect of metacognition and learning how to learn, which is truly what we are teaching when we teach strategies.

·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Extensions v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> What are your other ideas for extensions to this lesson? Describe at least one.

One extension idea that I had for this lesson was to have students compose their own short story using similes, metaphors, and other figurative language components related to sensory images. Students are then to illustrate what they intended for their readers to picture in their minds. Teachers put students in parners and have partner 1 read his/her story while partner 2 draws an illustration of the picture they have in their mind. Partners then switch roles. At the end of the activity, partners compare their illustrations. Have students reread their original short story and reflect on why their parnter's illustration matched their original, or why it didn't. If there wasn't a match, what are some things that could be added to the story to align the two illustrations better?

I think that it would now be interesting for students to find their own picture book or piece of poetry, and to illustrate some of the similes and metaphors contained in it. They could create a small booklet with their colorful images and the liteary elements being depicted. This project would allow for students to focus on the initial objectives of identifying and analyzing how authors use figurative language in literature and how it affects the senses. Excellent ideas.

P.S. Never let a published lesson plan compromise your creativity. You and your collaborator will know the abilities and interests of your students and should adapt all lessons and extensions to the students in your care.


 * Remember: ** Extensions are further invitations to classroom-library collaboration. They are worth thinking about during the planning stage!


 * Project Due: November 13th at 9:00 p.m. – 30 Possible Points for the Graphic Organizer. **
 * <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Individual Reflection – 20 Possible Points – See the Assignment Sheet: A. 3.3 for details. **