Relationship Between Prior And Subsequent Learning Experiences

For my literacy lesson, I selected the article Why Do Animals Play? By Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld. The article focuses on animals and is an informational text exemplar aligned with NYS Grade 3 Common Core ELA test. I chose this article to help students recognize and comprehend informational text independently and proficiently. According to Fountas & Pinnell (2001), high-quality informational texts are key to students’ development of an important concept called “content literacy”, which involves the strategies required to read, comprehend, and write informational texts in a variety of subjects. Therefore, by participating in this literacy lesson, students will be able to enhance their comprehension skills by critically analyzing the story focusing on the text features.

Mrs. Lawrence: When planning a lesson, I start with the objective. What is it I am supposed to be cover. Once I know, I start with a hook. I access their prior knowledge then I move on with either an example or model. All along I ask questions to make sure the students

Scenario 2: Ms. Miller's sixth grade students are studying memoirs. How can Ms. Miller demonstrate or model tips for understanding memoirs after a unit covering narrative

Describe the central focus and the essential literacy strategy for comprehending OR composing text you will teach in the learning segment.

This learning activity has the students looking more deeply into their chosen book using a more critical mind rather than just enjoying the book for its basic story line. It has them taking note of what is happening at each stage of the book and why these events are taking place, then taking this information they have gathered and developing a written report to convey their thoughts and ideas in the book along with developing the skills necessary to produce a piece of writing that is easy to read and understand for the reader. This activity also has a lot of hidden features to the task, such as using the correct grammar, development of sentence structure and use of creative thinking to make the piece interesting to the reader.

I teach in an eighth grade classroom that is set in a Jr-Sr. High school. It is located in the Jr. High hallway, near the rear of our high school. I have thirty-two student desks situated in rows and two small tables at the front of my room used for paper pick up. I painted my room a turquoise beach blue and it is decorated with various beach themed paraphernalia. I also have many inspirational quote posters up around my room, hoping to engage my students into deeper thinking. The students all have their own Chromebooks and I have a desktop computer as well as a Samsung Tablet. Many computer applications suited for 1:1 schools are used in our building. We begin our day at 7:40am with a zero period for professional development and meetings. The students have seven, forty-five minute periods beginning at 8:20am and continuing until 3:15pm. My classes include four “regular” English classes, one “Honors” class, an Essential Skills class that rotates every week with two other teachers, and a prep period. My duties throughout the year consist of sponsoring the Jr. High Student Council as well as parking lot duty for two weeks during second semester. We adhere closely to the Indiana State Standards and use the ISTEP and NWEA mandated assessments. We, as teachers, are given free rein to teach how we see fit; however, we were asked to submit curriculum mapping outlining the content/topics, key terms, sources/resources, assessments

RI.3.2 Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.

The lesson should first be introduced to the class through the vocabulary. This gives the students the back ground on the words used to describe what the lesson is about, and allows them to use the words in context with what they are doing.

Students are groups based on their academic level, and have their desks are set in 4 groups of 6 with one group being in a set of 5. Two groups are in the front of the class while the other two groups are in the back of the class. 2 students are placed facing the window and 2 other students are facing the closets (making the students facing each other), and the last 2 students are facing the front of the classroom. I find that this positioning of the students is great for allowing students to turn and talk, and work as a group for certain assignments. The down side, however, is that students tend to talk excessively to one another, and get distracted more

In the Explanation column, explain how the evidence introduces, illustrates, individuals, events, and ideas. Also note any techniques the author uses in the example, such as simile, metaphor, descriptive language and sensory

Explanation of how the important details in the first piece of evidence convey the ideas that support the claim.

Students “blast off” by beginning with a writing activity. This writing activity allows for students to share what they know about the subject. This mimics a constructivist approach by allowing students to build on prior knowledge. The students then share their knowledge with the class. Through discussion the children learn

When I begin a class in fiction or poetry, I always talk for a few minutes about the various

The following data was gathered while fulfilling duties as a principal intern at Theresa Bunker Elementary School. The data was observed during five to seven minutes of classroom observation as part of a walk-through in the spring of the current school year. My cooperating supervisor for my internship was able to go on these walk-throughs with me in order to have a productive reflection meeting afterwards. This elementary school has two of each grade level from Kindergarten to sixth grade. Since it was more feasible in this small school setting, I actually was able to do a walkthrough in eight classes. Here I will report my observations from five of those walk-throughs. As I went in to each room I was looking for four

Learning vocabulary is an essential part of the second language (L2) learning process. Second language acquisition (SLA) theoreticians argue that learning vocabulary plays a major role in SL learning. Whipple (1925) attributes the development of reading skills to a rich reserve of reading vocabulary (as cited in Hiebert & Kamil, 2009). Likewise, Davis (1942) contends that comprehension is the outcome of vocabulary knowledge and reasoning. In addition, Chen & Li (2010) point out that SLA approaches, such as ‘the situational learning approach’, suggest that ‘context’ is one of the founding pillars of the language learning process. This study will review a number of studies on contextual cues and other learning strategies