Creating a Model Classroom
In Lee County, teacher leaders spend 60% of our work day providing instructional support for other teachers and the other 40% teaching our own classes. My classroom is expected to exemplify the highest standards for teaching. The teacher leaders at my school have an "open door" policy for other teachers or administrators who want to observe best practices in action at any time.
Classroom Environment
Two features of my classroom that I am most proud to share with others is my classroom library and the word wall. I spent most of my teacher lead money this year on purchasing current titles of young adult novels and magazine subscriptions. The school has a designated 5 minutes of sustained silent reading during 3rd or 4th block each day, but I expanded that to fifteen minutes in each class period in order to give students adequate time to read independently. The word wall is a visual reminder of vocabulary that students have learned. Students create posters for past vocabulary that include the word, its definition and a picture that represents it.
Classroom Environment
Two features of my classroom that I am most proud to share with others is my classroom library and the word wall. I spent most of my teacher lead money this year on purchasing current titles of young adult novels and magazine subscriptions. The school has a designated 5 minutes of sustained silent reading during 3rd or 4th block each day, but I expanded that to fifteen minutes in each class period in order to give students adequate time to read independently. The word wall is a visual reminder of vocabulary that students have learned. Students create posters for past vocabulary that include the word, its definition and a picture that represents it.
Strategies that Work
In order to ensure that the lessons I conduct reflect research-based, best practices, I implement many strategies from Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis's book Strategies that Work. I used strategies from this book in some of the model lessons that I already shared, including the Freshmen Success lesson on Facebook drama (making connections and considering how reading changes thinking) and the "Pit and the Pendulum" lesson (sharing questions from my own reading). Below are a few other lessons that I designed for my own classes that utilize strategies from that book.
Beowulf Unit
In order to ensure that the lessons I conduct reflect research-based, best practices, I implement many strategies from Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis's book Strategies that Work. I used strategies from this book in some of the model lessons that I already shared, including the Freshmen Success lesson on Facebook drama (making connections and considering how reading changes thinking) and the "Pit and the Pendulum" lesson (sharing questions from my own reading). Below are a few other lessons that I designed for my own classes that utilize strategies from that book.
Beowulf Unit
Beowulf unit from aprilme74 |
This is a unit that I designed for my English IV class. Beowulf is a required text for this course, but reading and comprehending this text can be challenging for the below grade-level readers in this class. I incorporated many of Harvey and Goudvis's strategies throughout this unit. I begin the unit with an article from Time magazine that helps to build background knowledge before reading. Students also use the strategy of chunking the text and paraphrasing the information in the margins as they read this article. After reading they organize the information on a two-column chart labeled "What's Interesting/What's Important" to help them focus on the information that is important to understanding the time period in which Beowulf is set. After reading students are asked a "beyond the line" question that requires them to move beyond the literal level to take a deeper look into the text.
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
This unit is also designed for my English IV class to bring a challenging text (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) to a level that my students can understand. Once again I began the lesson with an activity to build background knowledge. This time students read a short passage about the legend of King Arthur, then watch a video about medieval castles to learn more about the story's setting. After reading students answer another "beyond the line" question to encourage deep thinking about the story's protagonist.
Because I spent so much time providing students with the background knowledge that I knew they needed to understand Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, I have noticed a significant improvement in students' reading comprehension. They are able to write about the texts using specific details and their writing reflects true understanding of the passages' events and themes. |
Reading Textbooks
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As Harvey and Goudvis discussed in Chapter 14, textbooks can be extremely challenging for students to read and acquire information from. Before assigning textbook reading, it is important to teach students how to navigate textbooks and use the text features to locate information. That is exactly what I had in mind when I designed this textbook analysis activity for my English IV class. This activity took place at the beginning of the school year so that students know about the unique features of the Elements of Literature textbook. After implementing this lesson this year I noticed a significant improvement in students' abilities to find information in their textbooks independently.
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GoAnimate and Storybird Retellings
Harvey and Goudvis explain that retelling helps students to discern and remember important information from a reading. Last year I developed an end-of-year project utilizing the Web 2.0 resources Storybird and Goanimate. Storybird allows users to create a storybook using artwork from professional children's illustrators; Goanimate allows users to create short animated videos using a variety of stock characters, backgrounds and prompts. My students were enthusiastic about going back to the literature that we had read throughout the year select details for their retellings. After the positive response that I received from students regarding this activity and the knowledge I now have about the value of retellings, I will certainly repeat this engaging and innovative project at the end of this year. One of my student's videos can be viewed from the link below.
The Wife of Bath's Tale - Goanimate Retelling
Harvey and Goudvis explain that retelling helps students to discern and remember important information from a reading. Last year I developed an end-of-year project utilizing the Web 2.0 resources Storybird and Goanimate. Storybird allows users to create a storybook using artwork from professional children's illustrators; Goanimate allows users to create short animated videos using a variety of stock characters, backgrounds and prompts. My students were enthusiastic about going back to the literature that we had read throughout the year select details for their retellings. After the positive response that I received from students regarding this activity and the knowledge I now have about the value of retellings, I will certainly repeat this engaging and innovative project at the end of this year. One of my student's videos can be viewed from the link below.
The Wife of Bath's Tale - Goanimate Retelling