Note:  When I tried to turn my paper into a PDF document, something happened with my computer and it would not create the file.  I left it  as word document and added it to the blog.  Also, I was not sure which activity this final project needed to be added with so I created a new post for the final project.

To start the activity, I had the students help me brainstorm a list of events that happened in the book.  The students did well creating  the list.  They included the time the indians came to the house, the family traveling in the wagon, the story about Mr. Edwards and Santa Claus, and when the chimney caught on fire.  I then broke the class into groups of four or five and gave each group one of the events that we listed on the board.  I then explained that they needed to act out the event either verbally or nonverbally.  I gave them 10-15 minutes to work on the skit.  A couple of the groups had difficulties understanding what they were supposed to do.  I explained it to them again using a different approach which seemed to help.  Many of the groups asked how they should play a certain part or asked if they could use props. 

When it was time for the students to perform their skits, they did a great job!  The groups were very creative and I could tell they enjoyed putting the skit together.  Many of the students watching asked the students in the skit questions about their part and about their section of the story.  I really enjoyed this unit.  The students were engaged, used critical thinking skills to create the skit, and found creative ways to make the story interesting and come alive.  When I get my own classroom, I will defiantly use this technique.   It is fun, interesting, and something different that the students won’t expect.   It fosters creativity and gets the students to use higher levels of thinking.

1. Use the inquiry-based approach with opened questions- Inquiry-based approach allows for higher levels of thinking and is a great way to get the students engaged in what they are learning.  Bloom’s Taxonomy comes into play here and is great in helping the teacher form open-ended questions that require those higher level processes of thinking.

2.  Analyze other students work-  By looking at other students work from previous years or examples that are used in the book, this give the students the information they need to write for the assignment.  This way they can see correct and incorrect things in the paper and how to do it the right way.

3.  Use the “Questions, Comments, Connections” strategy- This strategy was used in the social studies video.  The teacher used this to give the students to ask a question, comment on the discussion, and make connections across texts and relate to prior knowledge. 

4.  Do whole group lessons to develop skills and introduce new skills or genres.  – Not all lessons should be taught in small groups.  When you do whole group instruction for the above reasons, children can discuss the content together and more questions can be asked.

5. Think, Pair, Share- With this activity, the students think about subject, get with a group to discuss the topic.  Then you get with another group of students and share what each group came up with.

6. Whole group, small group-  In this strategy, you discuss the topic together as a class, then split up in small groups to discuss some more and complete the project.

7. Teach in units- This is a great way to teach topics and to integrate from other subjects.  The students can be introduced a large variety of books and other topics that relate to the subject of the unit.

8. Incorperate logs and jounals- Logs and journals are a great way for students to express their thoughts and feelings.  This also gives the teacher a chance to see if the students are understanding the subject they are writing about.

9. Scaffolding- Scaffolding is when  the teacher posses questions that have the students continuely building on the knowledge they already have.

10. KWL Charts- I like using KWL charts in the classroom.  I am able to find out a students prior knowledge of the topic and what questions they still have.

11. “Hooks”- This is a strategy that I learned in college.  Hooks are posters that the teacher and the class make together when they learn a new skill.  You write the information on a large piece of chart paper and have the studnts help you create it.  You then hang it in the classroom for students to refer to in the future.

12. Interdisciplinary lessons and cross curricular activities-  This is a great way bring Language Arts into Social Studies and vise versa.  It provides a rich learning experience and provides connections across the standards.

13. Group projects- This give students a chance to work together and form a classroom community. 

14. Learning centers-  This is a fun and different way to get extra practice on skills you are currently learning.

15. Literature circles- By using this strategy, student are exposed to some great literature and learn to work in a cooperative group with other classmates.

16. Rubrics- Rubrics are great assessment tools because the teacher can check student understanding and if they understand the skill, content, or project.

17. Essential Questions-  These are questions the teacher and class make up together that tell exactyl what the students want to know about the topic.

18. Mini Lessons-  Mini lessons are great because they are short to the point lessons that grab the students attention.

19. Make connections between text and real life- Real life situations come up in stories all the time.  By connecting subjects to the real world, it helps students gain a better understanding of the real world and can lead to social justice integrations in the classroom.

20.  KDB method (Know, Do, Be)-  This gets the students to know what the need to do, do what needs to be completed, and be able to be able to solve the issue.

The transitions in both videos were consistant and had the students us prior knowledge to start their writing or activity.  They used concepts they learned in earlier grades and expanded on the idea the a new level and higher level of thinking.   In the social studies video, instead of using a standard KWL chart and writing what the students know, the wrote what they thought they knew about North American Explorers and made a list on the board.  Then , the students researched to find the answers and see if they were right or how close they were.  In the writing lesson, the students used what they knew about narrative writings to help them write the beginning of a story that would hook the reader and give the reader just enough information to want to read more of the story.

I thought that both videos had many great instructional strategies.  I loved the activity from the writing video where the teacher used books like Chasing Vermeer to introduce the concept of writing an intresting and attention grabbing beginning of a story and personal narrative.  I really liked the way the teacher in the social studies video presented the lesson.  It reminded me of how I teach by using many different strategies to get the students attention and keep their attention.  I loved the idea of using the “golf clap”  after a student or group finished their presentation.

As for social and emotional development, the students all seemed very intrested and into the lessons.  If the students started to argue and disagree with each other, instead of starting a fight in the middle of class they agreed to disagree, came to a conclusion, and continued with the project.  Many times if two students disagree they fight and can’s move on because they won’t compromise.  I liked how he set up the classroom so that this type of behavior doesn’t happen.  All of the students were very social and talked and contributed to their groups.  From what I could see, all of the students worked well together and created some great final projects

One strategy is to use literature circles, as the teacher in the video did.   I have used this technique.    I like using literature circles because I can have students read books that are at their level and work with other students in the class.  They also get to do activities they normally don’t get to do during large group reading instruction.  The students also get to work in small groups with students.  By using the small groups, you are also helping to create a classroom community in which the students are working together and learning from each other.  Another thing the  video did that I do in the classroom is ask the students lots of questions.  When I ask students questions, I always come back with questions that require a little bit of higher level thinking so the students build on their answers and what they learned.  I also have the students explain to me exactly how they got their answer and the steps they followed. 

One thing that was different from what I have done with literature circles is starting them at the beginning of the year.  In the past when I have done literature circles, I always started them in the middle of the year so the students can get used to reading longer chapter books and more comfortable with working with a group of students.  By waiting till later in the year to start the literature circles, most of the students would hopefully be reading chapter books and I would be able to use some wonderful chapter books with my students.  A change I would make would be to start literature circles at the beginning of the school year instead of waiting till the middle of the school year.  This way I can start where the child is at the beginning of the school year and be able to watch and monitor the child’s progress all year.  The students can also use this time to get to know each other, learn from each other, and begin to create a classroom community.  I can also start the students at books that are right for them and continue to give them slightly harders books to read as their reading level increases.

To implement these changes, I would talk to other teachers and get advice from them on how to handle the groups at the beginning of the year.  Where I work, there is a teacher that does literature circles all the time.  I would talk to her and get some help and suggestions to try with my students.  I would also find books that have good lessons and activities to use  and look for activities so I could do an author study during their literature circle.  The Internet also contains many wonderful resources for literature circles to use.

Strategy: KWL Chart

- What appeals to you about this strategy?

I always want to know my students prior knowledge about a subject and want to know exactly how much they know about the subject we are studying.  This strategy also appeals to me because it also tells me what each student knows about the subject and their level knowledge on the subject.  This way, I know where to start and what needs to be covered.  KWL charts are interactive and get the class involved in their own learning.  It also allows for class discussion and a great introduction for the lesson. 

- How might you adapt this strategy for this poem?

I would ask the students what knowledge they have of poetry and the different types of poetry.   I want to know if they know how to create poetry, do they know any poets, do they have a favorite poem, and any other information about poetry they have.  I would post a KWL chart on the board.  Then I would have the students write down what they know about the subject on post-it notes and have the children place them in the K column of the chart.  We would then generate questions they have about the subject and what they want to know.  These would go in the W column of the chart.

- What resources (fiction, nonfiction, media, historical documents, experts, community members) could you use to provide context for the poem?

I would provide  the students with a wide variety of poetry to read and explore.  The students would be exposed to traditional poetry to funny and silly poetry.   We would research and study different poets and compare and contrast different types of poetry and poets. 

Poem In Response to Order 9066 by Dwight Okita

Connecting History and Poetry

- What appeals to you about this strategy?

I like the fact that we can use poetry to discuss the issue of race and discrimination and how it affects everyone, even children.  We can use different poems about this subject to discuss this issue and compare and contrast the content of the poems. 

- How might you adapt this strategy for this poem?

I would provide the students with multiple research resources about the Civil Rights movement and how prejudice can affect everyone.  To adapt this strategy, I would provide the students with multiple resources about racism and civil rights.  We would go to the computer lab and research the subject.  I would then show the students movies or videos about the subject and provide them with even more poems to compare and contrast with the one we are studying.

- What resources (fiction, nonfiction, media, historical documents, experts, community members) could you use to provide context for the poem?

The students would be provided with a wide range of nonfiction books and research materials on the subject.  I would also give the students access to many materials about this subject that are on the Internet and suitable for use at school.  We would watch videos about this topic and try to have a guest speaker come to the classroom to talk to the children.

As I read this students letter, I noticed several things that the student did well in his persuasive writing letter.  He had a good introduction and was very clear about why he was writing his letter.  He gave specific reasons about his view-point and reasons to support is opinion.  After he gave his introduction and he followed with three paragraphs, each one describing one of his three points in detail and backing up his argument.  He also did a very good job of summing up everything.  He included an introduction and formal salutation.  He used pretty good grammar, other than a few fixable issures.  He varied his language and did not say I too much.  He also stated his views, trying to get the person to see his point of view.  He did not push or force the person to agree with him.  I also liked how he incorprated personal experiences into his letter.

• What questions might you ask this student about his or her work?

As I read the letter, I have some questions I would ask the child.  Were you able to find any research that stated statistics about how many bilnigual children are in schools in the United States?  Could you get more information from your family members to add into  the letter?  What opinions do promonate political leaders have on this issue?  Who else could you send your letter to?  Have you proof read your letter and had a friend and the teacher read it?

For this activity, we were given copies of persuasive letters that students were writing to the editors of a reference book.  We needed to go through the letter and assess the students writing by using the criteria stated on the rubric for the lesson.  I watched the video to gain an understanding of what we were talking about and being asked to do.  Then I was able to do the activity and give it the attention it needed and I was able to look for specific details.

- What did you learn from assessing the letters?

By assessing these letters, I was able to tell that both students defiantly needed to go back through their and do some major revisions.  In the first letter, the student made many spelling and grammatical errors.  This is showing me that the student has issues with spelling and the student does not how to use proper grammar in certain sections of the letter.  The student is also starting sentence with and, but, and because.  The student is displaying poor sentence structure and it is causing parts of the letter to not make sense.  I thought the tone of the letter was too demanding and was not trying to persuade the publisher to see their point of view.  The writer wanted to publisher the make the changes now.  The structure of the letter was weird, in my opinion.  There was a beginning, middle, and end, but all they parts needed more.  It had just the bare basics.  The letter was not set up in the format of a persuasive letter and did not end with a formal salutation.  In the second letter, it starts of with a very good introduction, but goes a little down hill from there.  The writer give three reasons but does not defend them.  The writer didn’t do any persuasion, listed the reasons, and ended the letter.  It had a formal salutation, but no ending to summarize the letter.  This students also has spelling, grammar, and sentence structure issues. 

- What advice would you give each student for next steps?

The next step for these students is to revise, revise, revise!!  Clearly, these students need more help because they did not completely understand the assignment.  I would put these two students into a group and have them work with me in a small group.  I would go back through their letters with them and show them why their spelling or grammar is wrong and how to fix the section.  We would review the assignment and review persuasive letters, what they are, and their purpose.  I would show them my example of a persuasive letter and also show them an example of another students persuasive letter that shows correct usage of spelling,grammar, letter setup.  We would then brainstorm ideas and go through the writing process to write the letters.  We would really focus on the revising step since both students struggled with that in their first letter.

I interviewed two girls for this activity.  Grace is five years old and in Kindergarten and Julia is nine years old  and in the fourth grade.  Both girls were very willing to talk to me about their friends and I could tell they really enjoy playing and being with them. 

Julia is a fourth grader and is nine years old.  She is new to the school system this year but seems to be adjusting very well.  She has lived in the area her whole life and knew many of the students from this school even when she was at her old school.  Julia is a very happy child and she seems to try to get along with everyone.  She can be shy at times but once you get to know her and talk to her, she opens up and is a very nice young girl to be around.  Like any other typical nine-year old, she is very active and loves to play.  She is involved in many extra curricular activities and is a good student.

When I interviewed Julia, she told me she has LOTS of friends.  She has many friends from her old school, has made friends at her new school, and has other friends she has met through cheerleading and dance.  Even though she has many friends, Julia told me she has two best friends, Alaina and Mckenna.  Julia has been friends with Alaina the longest.  They have been friends since they were babies.  She even had the picture to prove it.  It was a very cute picture to the two of them at six months old sitting on a couch.  The reason Julia and Alania have been friends so long is because their moms are best friends.  You see this a lot where the parents are friends and their children become friends.  This happens because they are around them a lot and like Julia and Alaina, have grown up together.  Julia told me there are many things she likes to do with all of her friends.  They love to spend the night at each others houses.  It’s one of their favorite things to do.  The other thing they like to do is play and jump on the trampoline at her house.  She told me that anytime she has friends over and the weather is nice, they are always outside on the trampoline for a very long time.  Julia then told me her favorite activity to do with Alaina and Mckenna is to make up music videos and sing along to them.  They like to come up with a concept for the video, learn the words to the song, dance, and sing together.  They even have favorite songs and singers they like to do videos of.  They love to sing-a-long and do videos for Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus songs, High School Musical, The Jonas Brothers, and Taylor Swift.  Once they are completely ready, they premiere their videos to their parents and make them pay to see their video.  Julia laughed at that comment.  She enjoys making the parents pay to see them perform.  I asked Julia why she likes having Mckenna and Alaina as friends.  She said she likes having them as friends because they are funny, easy to talk to, and like the same things.   I also asked Julia what qualities she looks for when choosing a friend.  She said she looks for someone who is nice and funny. 

The next little girl I interviewed was Grace.  She is five years old and started Kindergarten this year.  Grace is an adorable little girl.  She is very out going and she says whats on her mind.  Some of the things she says are very funny.  She is very talkative and if you ask her a question, she always has some sort of answer for you.  She really enjoys Kindergarten and loves to share her adventures from her day at school.  She is a typical five-year old, very active, full of energy, and very inquisitive.  She is also very helpful and likes to help people. 

When I interviewed Grace, she told me she has four friends.  Isiah, Austin, Lexi, and Katie are her friends.  She also named Paige and another Austin as her friends, so I guess she has six friends!  Grace also told me that most of these children are in her class at school.  Grace also told me the friend she has been friends with the longest is Lexi, who happens to be her cousin.  As I mention earlier about children becoming friends with their parents friends child, it is as common as cousins becoming best friends.  They are close in age and spend lots of time with each other to develop a close friendship.  I asked Grace what she liked to do with her friends.  The stopped, thought for a minute, and said they like to play at her house, and they like to play with toys together.  She said there are things that they also do at school that are fun.  Grace and her friends like to play on the playground together.  They love to play tag.  She said it is their favorite game to play at recess.  The next question I asked Grace was what she liked about her friends and why she liked them.  Again, she stopped and thought for a moment.  Judging by the answers she gave my I thought she might have been confused by my question.  She said she likes that they make things, like puppets and make pumpkins out of paper.  So, I rephrased my question and I think she had a better understanding about what I was asking.  She was able to tell me she liked her friends because they were nice, fun to play with, and they liked the same things she did. 

After I finished my interview with the girls, I sat down and thought about how the interviews went and went over the questions the girls gave me.  As I went over the information I had received, I found some similarities in the answers both girls gave me.  Both girls had one friend that they had been friends with since they were babies.  Both girls enjoy playing with their friends at both home and school and like their friends because they are nice, fun, and like they same things they do.  There were also some differences that I noticed about the interviews.  When Julia gave me her answers, she was very specific about the different activities she liked to do with her friends.  Grace was a little vague with some of her answers.  She said they liked to play with toys, but didn’t tell me specific toys they liked to play with.  When I asked Julia questions, I didn’t have to rephrase my questions and understood everything I asked of her.  With Grace, I have to reword my questions so she was able to understand them.  I could also see differences the things they like doing .  Julia is more active with her friends because they like to jump on the trampoline and make up music videos to their current favorite music artist.  Grace just likes to play with her friends, whether it’s with toys or chasing each other on the play ground.  They are both displaying play, but depending on the age of the child is what type of play  are showing.  Grace’s is more toy centered with Julia’s is centered around movement and singing.  She mentioned nothing about toys.  This is most likely because she is getting to the age where she doesn’t play with toys much and relies on others to keep her and her friends entertained. 

This information can aid teachers in the classroom to develop an educational setting because it provides in site into a student’s life and gives us information about that child we can use in the classroom.  This is an advantage because if we are having issues with the child in class, we can fall back on this knowledge and see if it can help solve the problem.  We can also use this information to create friendship lessons that focus on how to be a good friend, what is a good friend, and it is also a great way to talk about diversity and accepting friends and others that are different.  This information can also aid in the social development of a classroom because the children can learn about differences, cultural or physical, and how to accept the person and not judge their appearance.  Culture can be celebrated and brought into the classroom and children can see that our differences make us who we are and that those are great things to like about our friends.

Episode Discription:  Maddie (Ashley Tisdale) and London (Brenda Song) have their Sweet 16 parties on the same day.  London tries to out do Maddie’t party by throwing an extremely lavish Monte Carlo style party at the hotel her father owns, The Tipton.  She has elephants, lavish desorations, and Sheryl Crow is supposed to perform.  The only problem is Maddie invites Zack and Cody to her party first and London steals all of Maddie’s guests by promising flat screen tvs as her party favors.  Maddie get very up set at London and things only go from bad to worse when Maddie’s party is ruined because her brother needs braces and her parents use her party money to pay for the braces.  So, Maddie ends up having her party at the Duck Lodge and plays Bingo with several old people during Swinging Senior Singles Night.  Mean while at London’s party, she is having a terrrible time because her divorced parents can’t get along and are driving her crazy.  She finally realizes how selfish whe was and put herself before her best friend and she realized she was pretty mean to Maddie as well.  London and the guests at her party go to Maddie’t party and have a fun time.

Reality:

This show displays many aspects of reality that fourth and fifth graders can identify with.  Zack and Cody are identical twins.  The show focuses on the differences between the two brothers.  One is very out going, active, athletic, does not like school, and has a huge crush on Maddie.  The other twin is a mother pleaser, loves school, very smart, more sophicistated than the other brother, freaks out easily, and could be looked at as a sissy.  The show also focuses on the strife between siblings and how they can argue and fight.  The show talks about how children at this age can form crushes on each other and what they will do to capture the affections of the other person.  Friendship problems  and learning  a life lesson are in every episode of the series.  The show focuses a great amount of attention on the family and the different types of families.  Zack and Cody’s parents are divorced.  They live in  The Tipton with their mom who works there as a singer.  London’s parents are also divorced  but fight like cats and dogs.  Her dad is also on his fifth or sixth wife.  Maddie’s parents are still married but they fight quite a bit.  Many children can identify with this because their family is going through the same problems or their parents are divorced or fight all the time. 

Fiction:

While the show has many aspects in reality, it has just as many that are fiction and would not happen in real life.  For one thing, London is way to bossy, annoying, and prissy.  I have never seen anyone that annoying.  There is a lot of sillieness and slap stick comedy.  When someone falls, it is this huge dramatic thing and when the person stands up, they are covered in food, pie filling, or some other sort of item.  The party that London has is too extravagent and over the top.  The Elephants and even the guys that cary London for her entrance would most likelty never happen.  The other charaters in the show are just as wacky, wierd, and over the top. 

I can see why children enjoy this show.  It is funny and provides lots of laughs, jokes, and funny moments.  With its over the top storylines, children can laugh and enjoy age apprpriate comedy and parents don’t need to worry they they are watching an inappropriate comedy show.