|
|
|
EXAMPLES OF PORTFOLIOS 1. Artifacts: Just to clarify what I am looking for again, it is the A-Ha! moments during the course (in activities, readings or discussions), that illuminated some important idea about teaching reading for you. The artifact itself can be a symbol of this learning. For example, one student last year named a stuffed polar bear as her artifact. This represented the moment when she realized how important hooks were in engaging students’ interest. The moment came when during a Reading Lesson presentation someone had put the stuffed bear in one of the storage cupboards and started the lesson by telling the “children” that she heard a noise in the cupboard. The bear was in there and that was the springboard into reading a story about the bear and led into the rest of the reading lesson. Here are a couple more artifacts from student portfolios: “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak. -I chose this book because it was a connection that I had to my childhood. This book left a lasting impression on me, and during this 473 class, I now I realize why. In this story Max is able to get to where the wild things are through his imagination. I could relate to Max because I also had a big imagination when I was a child. I could create many adventures in my mind. I feel that it is important to allow a child to develop his imagination. Reading allows children to allow their imagination to fly. When I was reading about the importance of choosing books that appeal to children due to the illustrations or the unusual language, I realized that the emotional appeal will increase a child’s desire to read and read more than they might normally read. Furthermore, they might want to attempt to read on a higher level if they are interested enough. Also, when children are allowed to self-select books and not always be tied to targeted reading strategies, other parts of their minds are being developed, such as imagination. This increases the pleasure they feel in reading and again, it comes round to having a desire to do more reading. Pleasurable reading and targeted reading therefore reinforce each other; both are critically important for students. - A photograph of my grandmother and I: I chose this picture because it reminds me of the many years that I spent listening to my granny tell me stories she would make up on the spot. She would ask us to give her some characters or settings and she would create these marvelous stories. I would sit and listen and create all these wonderful images in my head, which were more colorful and vibrant than any illustration that I had ever seen in any book. This occurred to me early in the semester when we read about how important it is for children to be in a print rich environment and also to do lap reading. Again, this is the pleasurable side of reading for children. By recalling how my granny told stories, it also makes me think of how it is important to encourage children to develop their imaginations. I also think that even with small children that can’t yet read, we can still instill a love for reading by telling theme oral stories. After hearing so many stories they will want to learn how to read so that they too can travel to far away places, learn about people that lived long ago etc. She instilled in me a love for reading especially since I always saw her reading. In the classroom, it is vitally important for teachers to model reading, and if possible, making up stories for their classes. There is something magical about being apart of an imagination at work. - Planning Framework: I have chosen the
lesson planning framework from the comprehension chapter in CMCM because it provides a
framework that is supported by research. Each
section has prompts that stimulate thinking about all the theoretical elements that are
needed to maximize the benefits of a reading lesson.
I referred to this framework in all the lesson planning I have done for this
course and found it to be extremely helpful in organizing my thinking. It is exactly what I need to focus my lesson
planning in the future and make it more effective than it has been in my past teaching. - Thinking Processes: The illustration on
page nine of CMCM was a real eye-opener for me. I
am certain it will become an important reminder for my planning. It simply shows the eight thinking processes
needed for reading and writing. It reminds me
that if children need to use these processes in order to read and write effectively, then
teachers need to think about how they are helping to foster the growth of these processes
in their students when planning instruction. I
have an enlarged photocopy of this simple graphic organizer and I plan to keep it in my
day book to help me keep in mind the fundamental goal for instruction. I want to remember to make sure I have something
in each lesson plan I create that will help my students strengthen their ability to use
these eight thinking processes. * * * * * * * *
2. Choices from Part 2 of
the Portfolio: Ideally you will be able to find something from the list that will be of use to you. Think of this as a portfolio you might take to a job interview. Ask yourself, what would help me the most in my future teaching? A year long reading plan? A unit plan? A series of lessons on developing phonemic awareness? How to teach reading to LD students? And so on. If after some thought you come up with another idea, please talk to me and I’m sure we can work something out. The main thing is to find a way to link your idea to teaching reading. As long as you can provide a rationale that explores how you can use it to teach reading, you should be able to pursue your own topic. Here are a few portfolio items that tied in topics with teaching
reading: --Montessori Reading
Materials (Please note: this portfolio
item is much longer than required but the student wanted to cover the topic in depth
– we agreed in advance it would count double – as two portfolio entries.)
Montessori education
derives its method and philosophy from its founder, Maria Montessori. Maria Montessori opened her first school, the Casa
dei Bambini in Italy in 1907 (Hainstock, 1997). She
had studied paediatric medicine and spent many years closely observing children and how
they develop and learn. She was deeply
disturbed by the educational practices of her time. Consequently,
she applied her years of experience studying and observing children to formulate a system
of education focused on meeting the needs of developing children. Encouraged by her success with teaching children
formerly thought ‘unteachable’ in an insane asylum in Italy, her school was
based on her research into the nature of the child and how they learn and develop
(Hainstock, 1997). Montessori was a
woman ahead of her time. She was a strong
advocate of preschool education at a time when sending children to school before the age
of six was unheard of. In an era
characterized by the view that children should be seen and not heard, and educational
practices were authoritarian and wholly directed by adults, Montessori firmly believed
that education should be child centered (Hainstock, 1997).
In a radical departure from the predominant educational philosophy of
her day, she insisted that “in order to educate, it is essential to know those who
are to be educated” (quoted in Hainstock, 1997; p.1). A child-centered
approach to education designed to maximize cognitive development was an entirely new idea
in Montessori’s day. In her view,
children were innately motivated to learn and had a much greater cognitive capacity than
current educators gave them credit for. Montessori
believed children learned best through a series of formal exercises presented in stages
from simple to complex. There were three major principals that formed the foundation of
Montessori’s educational philosophy: observation, liberty, and preparation of the
environment. The teacher was to carefully
observe each child to note what his or her interests were and what stage of cognitive
development they were at. A new concept was
introduced to individual children when they appeared to ready and interested. During the presentation an important part of the
teacher’s role was to observe the child carefully to monitor understanding. The principle of liberty simply meant the children
needed to be free to learn in a way that acknowledged their unique abilities and styles of
learning. Montessori strongly believed a
positive, safe environment prepared with carefully designed materials and the right
guidance and support intrinsically motivated a child to learn (Lillard, 1972). There were two
important criteria for the materials used in Montessori’s classroom. They could not confuse a child by presenting more
than one concept at time; for example, a very young child would sort and stack a series of
blocks that only differed on one attribute (size) instead of several. They also had to have a ‘control of error’
built into their design, meaning that a child could discover and fix an error on his or
her own (Lillard, 1972). The control of
error built into the design of the materials went from the very concrete (the blocks would
only fit together in one way) for young children, to more complex ones for older children
that required them to check their work with a model or what they know should be correct by
connecting this new concept with their prior knowledge (Lillard, 1972). Montessori asserts “control of error guides
the child in his uses of the materials and permits him to find his own mistakes”
(quoted in Lillard, p.63). It is also
important to provide the child with lots of opportunities to use the same type of
materials many times. Montessori believed a
child’s understanding deepened with the repetitive use of the materials (Lillard,
1972). The main objective
Maria Montessori had for developing her early reading materials and lessons derived from
her belief that children needed to know how to communicate and function well as a member
of their culture. The language of one’s
culture was fundamental for communication, therefore it was essential for children to know
the sounds and symbols of their culture’s language well. Montessori developed sandpaper letter to teach
letter sounds and form using sound and touch. She
came up with the moveable alphabet so students could explore putting letters together to
form words they encountered in their cultural experience.
Montessori saw the strong connection between reading and writing, so writing
with the words a child makes is a part of every lesson.
Long before educators acknowledged that children will experiment with
writing in all forms as a start to literacy, Montessori observed that children begin
making marks with all kinds of items in an effort to write and communicate. She acknowledged a three year old's marks on a
chalkboard as precursors of literacy. Consequently
she believed Montessori early childhood classrooms must be equipped with a variety of
tools for reading and writing as part of the prepared environment. Many of Montessori’s early reading
materials involved matching sounds to objects or pictures and later matching whole words
to objects or pictures. The pictures could
not be cartoons or symbolic, they must replicas of the real items as a child would
encounter them in the ‘real world’ (Hainstock, 1997; Lillard, 1972). The phonics materials used today were developed
later to continue with Montessori’s concern with language and its sounds. Montessori felt once children were familiar with
the sounds and forms of the alphabet they would spontaneously teach themselves to read and
write because they have an innate motivation to communicate. Today there are many
derivatives of the Montessori Method in practice but all of them are based on her three
general principals to different extents. Montessori
believed that classes should be organized in three grade groupings that match the
developmental period a child moves through during those ages. The older children are expected to act as mentors
and models for the younger students. She
organized her daily schedule so the children have a short time together in the morning and
then a solid block of time to work with materials. In
the public system our schedule is organized in much the same way with some basic
differences. Each classroom in a Montessori
private school has two adults, a teacher and an assistant.
In the public system Montessori classes have one teacher and must cope with
larger class sizes. As a result, it is not
possible to always present lessons one on one as Montessori intended in the public system. I schedule my class
time in much the same way as a Montessori private school.
I start my day with a class meeting but include a morning message which
consists of a mini-lesson for each grade that directly teaches a skill I believe is needed
because it is not taught through the use of materials or that more direct instruction is
needed to maximize the benefits of the materials they will use later. I use many of the materials designed by
Montessori. When two or three children are
ready, I present the next level by giving them a brief mini lesson on the concept involved
and how to use the materials. There are a
number of exercises within each level so the children thoroughly practice the next concept
before they move on. Although many of
Montessori’s ideas were progressive for her time and are still viable today, I feel
it is important to adjust our practice to fit new understandings about how children learn
and develop. The materials I have
developed fill in areas of literacy instruction that Montessori materials overlooks. There are already wonderful materials that exist
for teaching early phonemic awareness and basic phonics: the movable alphabet, sound
matching cards, object boxes, sandpaper letters. For
older, more fluent readers there is a wonderful set of language boxes that cover word
concepts such as compound words, plurals, contractions, suffixes, prefixes, homonyms and
synonyms and more. They also cover print
mechanics such as punctuation and capitalization. These
materials are very effective and the children love to use them. However, I believe the present list of materials
does not provide enough work with more in depth phonemic awareness, word identification,
sight word recognition, decoding skills, fluency, and comprehension. Some of these skills can be covered during morning
message lessons, story time, or be included in social and science instruction but I don’t
believe that this was providing enough time to really do a good job of each of these
aspects of literacy. Consequently, I created
materials that focus on rimes and word building because work in these areas can be
formatted to fit well with the current Montessori system and will fill in important gaps
in the Montessori reading program. After
reading about the theory behind early reading I realized I needed to provide more
exploration of onsets and rimes in order to strengthen my students’ phonemic
awareness. Rasinski & Padak (2001)
believe that research has conclusively shown phonemic awareness to be “a superb
predictor of early reading acquisition” (p. 32).
Presently, once the
children have an understanding of initial and ending consonant sounds, they work on a
series of materials called pink, blue, and green boxes that isolate a short then long
vowel sounds, consonant blends, and vowel diphthongs in three stages of complexity. All
levels require children to match words with pictures, read them to the teacher, and record
the words in their notebooks. They are then
asked to compose sentences using their new words. Each
child has a phonics workbook that reinforces traditional phonetic concepts they are
currently working on. Once they have mastered a concept I check if off his or her
personalized assessment record and present the next level. In addition to
teaching important reading skills, the objective of these materials are to give children
an activity that required a more active and creative process than matching pictures to
words. Cunningham, Cunningham, Moore, & Moore (2004) point out that having children
use onsets and rimes to create words in many different ways is “a critical component
of phonemic awareness” (p.89). Working with rimes and creating new words teaches
children a wider variety of sound patterns than just phonics instruction. Since the same vowels can combine to make many
different sounds and English words often do not follow traditional phonetic rules such as
the silent e rule, it is important that children are exposed to the many sounds a single
vowel combination can produce (Rasinski & Padak, 2001).
I felt giving the children opportunities to work through a series of twelve
boxes of onsets and rimes at three different levels of complexity were a good way to
accomplish this. Rasinski & Padak (2001) note while phonics instruction is one helpful
activity, early readers must have a good foundation of phonemic awareness before they can
truly understand and use phonics effectively. There are additional
benefits to working with onsets and rimes. It
helps with decoding skills as children become familiar with various word patterns
(Cunningham et al, 2004). Becoming familiar
with different word families helps break children from sounding out words letter by
letter, making decoding faster and consequently increasing fluency and comprehension
(Cunningham et al, 2004; Rasinkski & Padak, 2001).
Not only does recognizing a rime from a word you know and being able to
apply it to decode a word you don’t know make decoding faster, spelling ability is
improved when the same process is used to figure out how to spell unfamiliar word
(Cunningham et al, 2004). For this reason,
each of the boxes at each level will contain the tiles to make a word they should be
familiar with as a starting point for making the other words. The existing pink
box level requires the children to match three letter words with short vowel sounds. The initial presentation of the pink boxes
involves the teacher modeling how to sound out each letter and blend the sounds to make
the words. The child then matches each word
with its corresponding picture. Once the
children have practiced sounding out simple three letter words letter by letter using the
pink boxes, they will extend their understanding by working with the pink word family bags
(I decided to package them in sandwich size zip lock baggies to differentiate them from
the boxes). The bags will be
presented in the same manner as the boxes. Each
bag contains two rimes with the same vowel such as ‘at’ and ‘an’
printed on a cardboard tile. There are six
different onsets children will use to make six different words. For example, the ‘at’
and ‘an’ bag will yield the words ‘sat’, ‘cat’, ‘hat’;
‘fan’, ‘ man’, ‘ran’. The r could be used to make rat and
the c to make can, which is perfectly okay, as long as real words are produced and all the
tiles in their bag are used. I used two rimes
in each box to make it more interesting and to ensure the children were properly attending
to the rimes when they matched them with the onsets.
If the bags only had one rime the children would know that all they had to
do was put an onset in front of any rime and they would make a word. It would be a simple matching exercise. With two rimes and carefully selected onsets it is
not possible to put any onset with a rime and make a word, students will have to use their
prior knowledge about words and sound/symbol relationships to complete the exercise
correctly. This is especially true as the bags increase in difficulty. The built in
control of error is that all tiles in the box must be used and the words must look right
to the students when they are finished, and of course, they are required to come and read
their new word list to me. The pink level includes three rimes sets for each vowel for a
total of twelve bags altogether so the children will be working with the same material
repeatedly as Maria Montessori suggested (Lillard, 1972). Montessori believed
children should be taught to use materials in an orderly fashion, setting them out, using
them, and putting them away in a structured routine (Lillard, 1972). The routine that will be shown to the students for
using the word family bags is as follows: Step 1:
Take out each letter tile and line the consonants vertically on the
left and the rimes vertically on the right, making sure all the matching rimes are
together. Step 2:
Take the first consonant in the row and place it in front of you. Find a rime that makes a word when combined with
the consonant in front of you. Continue doing
the same thing until all the consonants and rimes have been used and you have a horizontal
row of words in front of you. Step 3:
Record the words in your notebook. Choose
three words and make a sentence using those words. For
an extra challenge, see if you can add new rhyming words to the list. I have used all of the most productive rimes listed
on page 51 in Rasinkski and Padak (2001) so there will be plenty of possibilities to make
rhyming words. I used the extensive list of
rimes in the book Word Matters, by Pinnell
& Fountas (1998) as a source for the additional rimes in the bags. All levels work on
the same principal as the pink level except that the rimes and the words created with them
are increasing complex. After a student has
completed the pink word family bags, they will go on to the blue boxes that contain simple
four letter words, words with long vowel sounds, and consonant blends. In the same way as the pink boxes, the students
match the pictures with the words. They begin
working with the blue bags when they have finished all the blue boxes. The rimes in the blue boxes are either three
letters or contain a vowel sound other than a straight forward short or long sound such as
‘ew’. Some of the onsets are
consonant blends and the words are a little more sophisticated. Work with the green level follows the same
sequence as pink and blue: boxes, then bags. The
green level has mostly four letter rimes such as ‘ouch’ and ‘oast’ and
two letter consonants or blends as onsets. The
present Montessori blue and green levels contain more boxes and small ‘books’
and cloze exercises they read and write with so they take longer to complete. Students are often in grade two when
they begin work on this level. The word family bags
are multilevel activities. The students are
improving their phonemic awareness, word identification and decoding skills all at the
same time. Children work through the word family bags at their own pace. If children need more practice with phonemic
awareness, the number of bags in each level will provide plenty of opportunity. If they grasp the simpler concepts quickly, they
can move on to more complex concepts. It is
easy for children who need more challenge to extend the use of the bags by finding
additional rhyming words in the same family, or writing poems with the words they make
rather than sentences. The rime word family
bags are helpful for struggling readers in many ways.
It gives children struggling with phonemic awareness more practice. It helps them understand that words can be decoded
in ‘chunks’ rather than letter by letter. Once
they understand the sound of a rime in a word they know such as ‘eat’, it is
easy to decode meat, seat, treat, or wheat when they encounter them. Montessori herself said that teachers should
observe how the children are using the materials to assess their understanding so they
only work on material as long as it is helpful for them (Lillard, 1972). A child does not have to complete every box and
bag in each level if their ability has progressed past the need for them. However, the fact that there are twelve at each
level of difficulty provides the possibility for the struggling reader to get lots of
practice with one concept before practicing another.
I think the word family bags will be so much fun and have so much more scope
for being multilevel that all children will want to work with all of they bags. A struggling reader can even redo bags with the
incentive of improving on the number of rhyming words he or she comes up with the second
time. After the children
have finished working with the pink, blue, and green boxes and bags I thought work making
words would be a good transitional step between the pink, blue, and green material and the
more complex language cards mentioned earlier. Rasinski
and Padak (2001) note that making words activities help children improve their spelling
and decoding skills and increases interest and engagement in thinking about words. As children make words they will see that the same
vowel combinations can make different sounds as in tea and fear. They will see how words
that are spelled differently still rhyme as in fear and here derived from feather. All of this will serve to strengthen their
phonemic awareness and understanding of spelling, decoding, and word patterns. The
activity as described in the text was too teacher directed so I adapted it to fit in a
Montessori setting. Once the first
presentation lesson has been given, it is important that children are able to work at
making words independently. To accomplish
this I created an activity that uses the same concept of making smaller words from cut up
letter tiles that spell a ‘key’ word when all the tiles are used. To help students get started, I will include two
or three smaller words made from the key word in each box.
I have chosen key words that would be recognizable so the children will not
need a series of clues to figure it out. However
thinking about what word it could be will still be a challenge, but one they can do on
their own. Again, the making words boxes are
in three levels of complexity. The first level
words will be four or five letters with one vowel. The
second level will contain words with five to six letters with and two vowels. The third and final level will be made up of words
with seven letters and two vowels. In each
level I have tried to choose key words that contain one or more rime families and would be
fairly familiar to a child working at that level. The
control of error will be the fact that they have to use each letter in the box at least
once when making their words. There will be
exactly the right amount of letters to construct the key word, the short model words, and
the additional words they spell with the tiles on their own. There are only
enough letter tiles in a box to make a set number of words for each key word but that is
strictly for control of error so students won’t stop before they have made the
minimum number of words. This activity is
multilevel because more capable students can continue creating as many words as they can
think of in their note book. I am confident
that many of my students will enjoy the challenge of discovering how many words they can
make! This material will support the
struggling student in much the same way as the word family boxes. In addition the struggling reader will become
familiar with a greater number of words as they work through the boxes. In the second and third levels they will have the
choice of making more small words instead of using their tiles to make longer words. If extra support is needed I can have the key
words on cards ready to give them or have them work with a buddy who is near their level,
after all two heads can be better than one for this type of activity. Making sure partners are close in ability will
help ensure that one person doesn’t take over. The routine that will be shown to the
children for using the making words boxes will be as follows: Step 1: Sort all your letter tiles into a
vertical row of consonants on the left, and a row of vowels on the right. Step 2:
Place the key word cards in front of you and choose the letter tiles from
the two rows that you need to make these words. Place
the words you just made with the individual tiles underneath the key word card they match. Step 3:
Make new words with the remaining letter tiles until you have used up all
the tiles. See if you can figure out the key
word that uses all the letters at least once. Step 4:
Record your list of words in your notebook.
Read your list to the teacher A key word in the
first level would be ‘trip’. From
the word trip the student can come up with tip, rip, it, pit. Etc. There are two rimes, ‘it’ and ‘ip’.
This box will have the words ‘it’ and ‘rip’ for the children to spell
out with the letters. They will choose the
letter tiles needed to spell these words. Next
they will work with the tiles to find small words that rhyme with it and rip and record
them in a list in the book. At this level
they will have four words plus the key words to make. An example of a key
word in a making words box for the second level would be ‘cheats’. Cheats will yield the rimes ‘at’ and
‘eat’. The model words would be
chat and heat. At this level the students
will have to make five words plus the key word. However,
with the word cheat there is more possibilities to add their own. I have a master list for each word but if the
children make other words with their tiles that is fine.
A sample of a key word in level three would be ‘problem’. The smallest rimes problem will yield is ‘ob’
and ‘op’. The model words that will
be given are rope and robe. At level two and
three there will be words that don’t contain one of the rimes as in the word more
from problem. This will encourage children to
use more sophisticated thinking about words.
I am excited about
the possibilities of these two materials and can hardly wait to test them out in my
classroom. Of course I will be
observing closely as the children use these materials in the classroom so I can make any
adjustments needed to make them work better for the students. I believe this material will be enjoyable and
involve more of the thought processes we want to develop in readers. I can now concentrate
my work with sight words during morning message time.
In the past I was trying to include all the things I felt the Montessori
program was missing during morning message and was not able to really do a thorough job of
any of them as a result. Now I will be able
to concentrate on working with sight words, fluency, vocabulary building, and
comprehension during morning message time and still provide my students with the practice
they need for developing phonemic awareness, good decoding skills, and the word pattern
experience needed for spelling. I am hopeful
that these changes will provide my students with all the supports they need to become
fluent, engaged readers. References
Cunningham, P.,
Cunningham, J., Moore, D & Moore, S.A. (2004)
Reading and Writing in Elementary Classrooms 5th Ed. New York: Pearson
Education Inc. Hainstock, E. G.,
(1997) The
Essential Montessori. New York: Penguin
Publishing. Lillard, P. (1974) Montessori:
A Modern Approach. New York: Schocken Books. Pinnell, G.S., &
Fountas, I.C. (1998) Word Matters.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann -- Reading Unit Plan Theme: The
Books by Author Laura Numeroff and Illustrator Felica Bond The primary goal of this unit
plan is to introduce students in grades one to three to thinking and comprehension skills
using high quality children’s literature. Good
literature fosters children’s’ use of thinking processes as the author connects
events in the story to events children are familiar with and stretches their imagination
as they think about the events and ideas presented in the story (Cunningham et al, 2004). Teaching comprehension strategies to children is
much more effective when they are learning with enjoyable literature rather than short
passages of text followed by a series of comprehension exercises. It demonstrates to them that they can learn and
enjoy reading at the same time. These
positive reading experiences will energize efforts to learn to read well (Cunningham et
al, 2004)... The instructional setting for this unit is story
time after recess most days that involves the whole class listening to the teacher read
books out loud. Since it is already a time
the students and teacher both enjoy, it is a good opportunity to make better use of this
time by planning to incorporate some comprehension strategy instruction into the lesson. Cunningham et al (2004) believe “listening
to written language read encourages students to read, promotes thinking, builds language
and promotes a positive attitude toward books (p. 158).
Moreover, according to Cunningham et al (2004), children can learn reading
comprehension skills when they are applied to listening. I chose books by Laura
Numeroff primarily because my students are already familiar with one of her books, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and really enjoy it. Numeroff’s books appeal to a wide age range
as well. Choosing books that will fit a three
grade age spread can be challenging but Numeroff’s books contain a hilarious series
of events that children from six to eight can enjoy.
The lively chain of events that characterize her books make them an
ideal candidate for developing the skill of retelling events in the correct sequence. Felica Bond’s detailed and hilarious
illustrations add to the hilarity of the events in the story and help make them stand out
in the minds of the listeners. The events of
all of Numeroff’s books we will be reading during this unit unfold in a circular
pattern. It is one connection between the
books the students can make that goes beyond simple connections such as all the books have
an animal for a main character, or all the books are about an animal that comes to visit
and causes a lot of funny things to happen. I
believe it will help them understand a little more about how an author can plan a story in
different ways for different effects. The prescribed learning
outcomes for this unit are making predictions, using elaboration and relevant details when
retelling, and sequencing the main events of a story in the correct order. Additional outcomes we will be working on during
this unit are using various methods visually represent information and sharing personal
responses to works read or heard. These
outcomes come from the BC Ministry of Education prescribed learning outcomes for language
arts for grades one, two, and three (Integrated Resource Package, Language Arts K-7,
1996). This unit offers multilevel
instruction in many ways. The reading out
loud instructional format exposes children who cannot yet read these books on their own to
a higher level of vocabulary and ideas. As
older children hear them they will be able to get more out of the text, especially when
given a specific purpose for listening beforehand. Each
child will listen with varying degrees of sophistication.
The follow up activities in each lesson are multilevel as well. There are some shared reading activities conducted
with whole group and small groups of different configurations. As Cunningham et al (2004) found, shared reading
is a multilevel activity in many ways. Older
children can learn all the words in the passages read together. Less fluent readers will get the practice and
support they need to decode better and read more fluently, and struggling readers will use
their memory to ‘read’ parts of the passage too difficult while still getting
practice recognizing high frequency words and will end up feeling like successful readers. While the language and plots of the stories are
simple enough for younger children to apply the comprehension strategies successfully,
these activities provide lots of scope for increasingly elaborate retelling and responses
according to each individual’s ability. These
activities are designed to engage all learners. Supports for struggling
readers are built into each activity in many ways. Some
activities are completed in small groups so extra supports such as pictures, prompts and
adjusted requirements for the finished tasks can be added easily where needed. At times the groups will be formed so struggling
readers will work with slightly more capable readers and provide scaffolding as they work
on the task together. In the lesson plans the
groupings are referred to as grade ones, twos, etc. This
is simply for clarity in my explanations, in the actual class setting; I organize the
groups according to their individual level. For
example, an advanced grade one student would work with the grade twos. Group configurations are fluid and change
depending on the activity so no student gets the idea that they are grouped strictly
according to ability. Each lesson plan follows the
suggested lesson plan format described by Cunningham et al (2004) for teaching
comprehension strategies. They begin with
some sort of hook that gets the students thinking about what is coming. I made an effort to ensure that all children have
the vocabulary and the prior knowledge required to get the maximum benefit from the books
before I begin reading. These segments of the
lessons are flexible, if more vocabulary and prior knowledge background is needed for the
particular group of children I am reading to. Cunningham
et al (2004) point out that if children are
given a reason to think they are going to enjoy reading a book and are helped to activate
the required prior knowledge and vocabulary for reading before hand, they are going to me
more engaged and comprehend the text better. Before I begin reading I will give the
students a purpose for listening that is broad enough to motivate them to listen carefully
to the whole passage. This is a vital step
that helps engage students and alert them to what to listen for to increase comprehension
(Cunningham et al, 2004). As I am
reading I will stop and model the desired strategies by thinking out loud about the events
in the story. The follow up for each lesson
is closely related to the stated purpose. In
this way the students will have a clear idea about what to listen for, have the use of the
strategies modeled, and will understand how to apply it when completing the follow up
activity. A closely related follow up
activity will help students see how listening with a purpose improved their thinking and
their ability to complete the follow up task. If
the follow up task has no relationship to the originally stated purpose, they don’t
have the chance to see how listening for a purpose applies to how well they comprehend a
story. They will not see the importance of
listening or reading carefully with purpose when they read on their own (Cunningham et al,
2004). There will be a number of
methods of assessment for this unit. I will
be assessing verbal responses during discussions, written or drawn responses in students’
literature response journal and their ability to organize relevant events in correct
sequence using graphic organizers. I will
check for understanding by having them explain reasons for their responses, either
verbally for the younger students or in written form for older students. I will consider the number and type of
connections students can make between the books, as well as their reasoning for them. I have planned this unit so that each activity
will build on the skills they need to meet the prescribed learning outcomes successfully. Of course this unit plan will be followed up with
activities that require students to use these comprehension strategies with texts that
they read on their own or in small groups. Lesson #1: If
You Give a Mouse a Cookie Before: I
will tell the class that I am very excited because I have some wonderful new books for the
classroom. They are all by an author that
wrote a book that is one of our favourites. I
will explain what authors and illustrators do to be sure everyone has the required
vocabulary. We will brainstorm some of our
favourite books, what we liked about them, how they are different, how they are the same. Titles will be written on the board. I am pretty sure If You Give a Mouse a Cookie will come up. If it doesn’t I will remind them about it. I will write the author and illustrator’s
names on the board and tell the children we will be celebrating their books for the next
two weeks. At this point I will bring out If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and we will discuss what
we liked about it. I will do a pre-reading
picture walk through the story, reminding them about the character, setting, and events. This will give new students or students who did
not read the book the prior knowledge they need.
I want to emphasize how the events of the book lead the human
character on a merry chase as he tries to be a good host.
The purpose for listening I will set with the students is to think about
what they enjoy the most about this book and think about how the author made it so funny. During: During
reading, I will stop at places I have predetermined and ask them to think about what comes
next. Thinking out loud, I will talk about
each event, point out the illustrations and focus on enjoying the book. My intention for this reading is to just enjoy
revisiting an old story and set up their anticipation for what other books by this author
might be like. After: For
this lesson the follow up will simply be to respond to what they thought made this story
enjoyable and what they predict these new books will be like. We will imagine what kinds of characters and wacky
events the author might write about in her other books. I will write down some of the
responses on the board with frames such as “I enjoyed this book because….”
And “I predict the new books will be….because….” The children can choose a response they agree
with. As the older children are writing I
will work with my grade ones as a group (about 6 kids) to print simpler responses such as
“This book was…. because…and “I think the new books will be…” The frames will be printed on sentence strips to
set at their tables and they will be asked to fill in the blank using phonetic spelling. Giving the children a frame for their responses
helps them learn how to make better responses than “I thought it was funny”, and
“I think the new books will be funny” (Cunningham et al, 2004). Lesson #2: If
You Give a Pig a Pancake Before: I will
announce that today I will read one of new stories by Laura Numeroff. I will show them the book and establish the
characters and setting. We will briefly
discuss how this book is the same/ different from the first Laura Numeroff book we read. I will ask them to think about the first book we
read and try and predict the things that might happen in this book. After recording some of the students’
predictions on the board, I will tell them
they need to listen carefully while I am reading so they can recall what happens in the
correct order. During: As
I read I will stop and discuss the events, using terms likes first the pig… and now
the pig is….in order to help students see cause and effect relationships and keep the
order events in their mind. To help
struggling readers be successful with the follow up activity, during reading I could
review what just happened out loud. For
example, I might say something like “This little pig is quite a nuisance, first he
got sticky with syrup, next he wants a bath with bubbles and toys, and now he is homesick
and wants to be taken home!” “I
wonder what this pig will do next!” as I come to the appropriate places in the story. I will encourage them to see how author used the
idea of a pig coming to someone’s house for breakfast and the crazy string of events
as a device to make it funny and unexpected.
Follow Up: Passages
from the story that describe the main events will be written on sentence strips before
hand. For example, one strip will have “The
duck will remind her of the farm where she was born.
She might feel homesick and want to visit her family”. There will be six of the funniest events on the
strips. The students will be divided into
groups of three of mixed ages and each group will be given one strip. The groups will be given some time to whisper read
their sentence strip together. This will
support readers who would not be able to read the selection themselves and allow them to
participate in the sequencing activity to follow. I
will ask what happened first in the story and tell the children to reread their strips
quietly and put their hands up it they think they have the strip describing the first
event. Next we will reread the strip together
and if we all agree we will put it first in the pocket chart. Once all the events are sequenced in the pocket
chart we will reread them from first to last. As
we read about each event we will discuss our responses to it and why we find it unusual or
funny. I will point out how the characters
end up back at the beginning, with the pig wanting more pancakes. The twos and threes will be asked to pick their
favourite events and write about them in their journals.
I will give the grade ones a sentence frame that says: It was funny when… and ask them to choose an
event and illustrate it. They can then write
or orally explain their reasons for their thinking. In
this way the children will be helped to learn how to respond to their reading/listening
experiences more thoughtfully (Cunningham et al, 2004).
Depending on the group, this lesson may have to be divided into reading and
sequencing one day and responding the next. Lesson # 3: If You Give a Moose a Muffin Before: It
would be great to find a huge stuffed moose or at least a large picture of a moose that
gives children the idea of how big an animal a moose is.
I would ask them to imagine a moose inside a house! We would talk about where a moose really lives and
what it would eat. Then I would tell them
that Laura Numeroff’s moose likes to make himself at home indoors and eats muffins! To get them thinking about how the setting adds a
humorous element I will comment that it must be difficult for a moose to be inside a
house. The students could predict all
the crazy and chaotic things that may happen as a result.
They will be asked to listen to not only what happens in this story but
where it happens too. In this way the
students will pay attention to the role setting plays in Numeroff’s books. During: During
reading I will stop to point out setting details that make the story funny. I will point out aspects from the illustration
that are related to the setting of the events that increase the humour of the situation,
like how the big the moose is in relationship to the kitchen refrigerator, or how funny
his antlers look sticking up behind the living room couch as he is trying to hide his huge
body. I will tell the students that as I read
they need to think about the events and make a mental image in their mind about what is
happening and where it is happening. I will
explain to them that this is one way Laura Numeroff makes her books so funny; she puts
characters in places that would be very strange or unusual in real life. Follow Up: My objective for this activity is to help children
elaborate more when retelling events from a story. For
this activity the students will be working in larger groups by grade. I will write the prompts, what happened? And where did it happen? on
the board. The older students will sit
together in small groups and write down the events they remember from the story in strips
of paper with the prompts printed on them. After
they are finished, the will work together to figure out if they have all the events, cut
them up, number them in the correct order, and glue them in the correct places on a simple
map of the places in the story they create out of poster paper. At this point in the year
the children will have learned about mapping and will know how to create symbols to
represent the features in each room. This
will be an option for students to add to their poster once the events are ordered and
glued in the correct places. As supports for
the younger students, I will photocopy pictures from the story for them to sequence and
label as they work in small groups on a pre-made map.
They will label the places on their maps on their own. This activity requires students to do more of
their own thinking as they sequence the story. They will be using mental imagery and
creating a visual representation of the events the story using a graphic organizer. According to Cunningham et al (2004), these are
strategies that have been proven by research to improve children’s ability to
comprehend. After every one is finished each
group will present their map to the whole class (probably the next day). Lesson #4: If You Take a Mouse to School Before: The
hook will be telling the children that the next book we are reading by Laura Numeroff will
be about a character we have already met in one of her other books. The children will
predict who it could be and explain why they think the author would want to write about
this character again. This is a good chance
to review some of the characters and events and talk about our favourites. Then I will ask
them to predict where the where the story might take place, giving them clues that will
gradually lead them to predict at school. I
will show them the cover and see if they can predict the ending (by now it will be
interesting to see how many kids have picked up on the circular pattern of events and will
apply that to their prediction about the ending of this book. I will ask many students and be sure to convey the
idea that everyone’s guess is interesting and worth making. In this way every student
will speak up and not be intimidated by the predictions of the kids that have it all
figured out. The purpose for reading will be
to think about what happens before school, at school, and after school. During: As I am reading I will ask them to think about how
they get ready for school, we will discuss what the boy and mouse are doing at each stage
of the day and make connections between these events and the events in the story. I will point out all the little details in the
illustrations and ask questions that will help the kids think about when the event is
happening. For example, on one page, as the
boy is getting ready for school, on the counter you see the mouse filling the lunch kit
with cookies. I could point out that the
mouse is packing chocolate chip cookies in the lunch before they go to school. It will also be interesting if any students make
the connection that the mouse was eating those same cookies in the first book. My intention is to help children create more
distinct images and draw from their knowledge about the kinds of things they do before,
at, and after school and integrate into their thinking about the events in the story as
they are listening. These are all thinking
strategies to develop for good comprehension (Cunningham et al, 2004). Follow Up: This
will be a whole class activity. First we will brainstorm the events of the story and I
will write them down on sentence strips and put them in the pocket chart. I will have pre-made category labels titled before
school, at school, and after school. We will
reread each event together before I ask a student to come up and decide which time
category it belongs in. After we have sorted
all the events into the correct category, we will choral read the events one category at a
time. Next I will ask a student to come up
and choose which event happened first, another student will come up and choose the second
event and so on until all the events in a category have been sequenced. This procedure will be repeated until all the
categories have been sequenced in the order they happened.
As a follow up, either the
same day or the next day, the students will divide a page in their response journals into
three sections and label them with the same categories as the sort we just completed. They
will imagine what other mischief the mouse could get up to before, at, and after school
and list their ideas under the appropriate categories.
Struggling students could draw the events under the appropriate headings. Lesson #5: Extension
activities For this activity each grade
will have a project to work on that celebrates the books of Laura Numeroff and Felica Bond
and extends their responses to include their own reading, writing, and thinking. Laura Numeroff’s publisher, Harper Collins,
has a great web site with information about the author, the illustrator, and their books. Laura Numeroff and Felica Bond both have their
own web sites as well. The grade threes can
choose to use these web sites to research Laura Numeroff or Felica Bond. All the students interested in finding out about
Laura Numeroff will work together and all the students interested in finding out about
Felica bond will work together. Each group
can choose a format to display their findings, it can be a biography, a web, a poster, or
a written report, as long as they can present the information in a clear and organized way
to the class and it includes the presenter’s favourite stories. The grade twos will choose groups of two or three
according to which book they liked the best and create a book poster that is meant to be
an advertisement for their favourite book. Illustrations
that depict the main characters and give the viewer some idea about what to expect in the
content of the book will be included, along with some text meant to convince a reader to
try this book. Students working on this
project will have samples of actual sell sheets publishers use to sell their books to give
them ideas. The grade ones will create their
own humorous books in the style of Laura Numeroff. This
will be a great opportunity to include some extra practice with phonemic awareness. First I will point out the alliteration in the
title of two of her books, and then we will come up with some sample titles using
alliterations such as If You Give an Anteater an Apple and think about the funny things
that could happen. From a list of animal/food
alliterations as a group the grade ones can think of four of their own, or use the ones we
brainstormed together to write their books. They
will print a title on each page and illustrate it to show what happens. When they are finished the pages will be put
together like a book. Once these projects have been
finished, we will devote an entire morning to a book celebration. All the Numeroff books will be on display. The class will present their projects to the class
and for recess snack we will each cookies and muffins.
We may invite parents and the principal to join us as well. This will be a positive time to talk about our
positive experiences of reading the books by Laura Numeroff and Felica Bond and honour the
creativity of the student projects inspired by them.
Cunningham et al (2004) assert that these kinds of celebrations are
important to enliven and energize students’ experience with books and reading. It confirms that reading is more than just a skill
we need to learn, it is a positive and entertaining pastime. It is also my hope that celebrating an author in
this way will inspire my students to be authors as well as readers. References B.C. Ministry
of Education (1996). Language Arts K to 7
Integrated Resource Package.
Cunningham,
J., Cunningham, P., Moore, D., & Moore, S. (2004)
Reading and Writing in Elementary Classrooms, 5th
Ed. New York: Pearson Educational. Children’s Books Cited If You Give a
Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff , Harper Collins, 1985 If You Give a
Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff, Harper Collins, 1998 If You Give a
Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff, Harper Collins, 1991 If You Take a
Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff, Harper Collins, 2002 -- Literature Analysis of Childrens’ books What makes one book better than another? What are the different criteria that we should use when choosing a book? As a teacher, it is a natural feeling to want to chose a book that is meaningful to him or herself or that has some type of message or moral in the end. However, not only should a teacher take into account his or her feelings on the book but also those of the students. Teachers must ask themselves whether or not a book will be appealing to the students by catering to the different intelligences and skills of the students. The books that I have chosen to analyze or all by different authors (except for two) and have different messages but I consider them to be very worthwhile, positive and engaging for their own reasons. The first two books by John Muth are called The Three question and Zen Shorts. Both books are beautiful illustrated and very captivating simply with the colors chosen by the author (who also illustrated the books). The Three questions is based on the story written by Leo Tolstoy but John Muth wanted to keep the same idea while making it a story that could be read to children. The book is meaningful to me as I have once asked myself some of the same questions that the little boy does in the story: when is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do? The boy asks his three friends including a bid, a monkey and a dog and receives different answers. The book is one about compassion for others and being able to live in the moment. I also think that these are questions that students ask themselves at some point in their lives and the end of the book delivers a very powerful message in that the right time is now, the most important one is the one we are with and the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at our side. I think that the imagination of the boy would appeal to the students because he is asking these questions to his friends who are animals. There is also a sort of mystery to the book as the reader is unsure as to how the little boy Nikolai will find the right answer when everyone is telling him something different. The suspense in the book occurs as the boy saves a panda and goes back to save her baby the next day. Nikolai helps other characters in the story including the wise turtle without even thinking twice about it. This offers a positive message to students about helping others in the moment and not thinking about any compensation. The next book by John Muth called Zen Shorts also deals with the topic of compassion for others and helping those who are in need. A giant panda moves into the neighborhood and tells three unique and powerful stories to three different kids whom he visits with each day. To me, this book is meaningful because of the powerful messages and the complexity and substance of the book (there is a story told by the Panda within a story). The first tale is about a poor bear who gives a raccoon who is about to rob him, the only thing he has which is a robe off his back. The second tale is about a farmer who knew that luck can never be predicted or judged while the third story is about a monk who helped someone else even though she was not grateful. These three stories come from Zen literature which has been passed along for centuries. The students would enjoy this book because of the imagination, creativity and the humor (the panda is quite humorous and shows up with something different each day in the backyard such as an umbrella, a tent or a tree). Both of these stories address the same type of skills for students connecting with personal experiences of compassion, predicting (when the boy asks the turtle for help), evaluation and even developing background knowledge about other cultures (such as the Japanese culture or the Buddhist religion in Zen Shorts). There are many activities that students could do with both of these texts and of course, the older students will get the moral of the story more easily than younger students and could think of their own unanswered questions. Both of these books promote critical thinking of students on many different levels. The third story I chose is called The Recess Queen by Alexis O’Neill. This book has beautiful pictures as well and deals with the important message of school bullying. All of the students are petrified of Mean Jean and always let her play first on the playground. When a new girl comes to school named Katie Sue, she is not afraid of Mean Jean and takes over the playground. Katie Sue invites Mean Jean to skip and rhyme with her after she tries to tell scare her away. From this day on, Mean Jean does not bully the other kids on the playground. To me, this book is meaningful because it deals with a topic that is very common in schools today however, the book is written in a light hearted manner using rhyme and invented words. I think that it would appeal to students because almost everyone has been in a situation like that of the book (either being bullied or being the new kid). I also think that students would enjoy the repetition and the sounds of the story and invented words (“push em, smoosh’em, lollapaloosh, hammer, slammer, kajammer…”) The book also addresses different skills including choral or echo reading, rhymes, onsets, alliteration, fluency, developing phonemic awareness, making words and letter-sound connections and even connecting to their own experiences of bullying. There are many activities that could follow from this book including discussions, anti bullying posters and role-play. The fourth book that I chose to analyze is called “What do you make” by Tom Hierck and is a book for and about teachers. It is about a group of people sitting around a table talking about public education and this one cynical man asks the teacher what a kid is going to learn from her and what she makes. The teacher responds with a lengthy list of all of her accomplishments such as students working harder than they think, feeling successful, making them wonder, question and criticize etc. I feel very compassionate about the book because this is what I want to do with my life and believe that you should not judge other people because of their career choice as everyone makes a difference in some way or another. I think the students would enjoy the book because of the illustrations, the simplicity of the language and the fact that they can relate to a time where the teacher made them do something that is mentioned in the book. The skills that the students could practice include connecting, evaluation and fluency as students practice high frequency words such as I, read, write, etc. Students could also get a chance to talk about different careers that exist (in CAPP) or the things in which they would like the teacher to help them accomplish. The last book that I read is a French book called Un secret pour grandir or translated into A secret for growing. The book is about a boy in a Muslim country who is so small and light that others mock him by saying that he will not grow any taller and to be careful as the wind might take him away. Salam (the little boy) takes a journey and puts everything into a bag that he thinks will help him grow. The wind ends up carrying him away and he manages to put some leaves, a rock, a feather and some snow as he tries to hang on to different objects. Eventually, he ends up using all of the objects when he is dropped by the wind on a deserted island. I find this book to be very meaningful and worthwhile due to it’s influential message in that you can overcome obstacles in life no matter who you are. This book is similar to the book The Recess Queen in that there is a anti bullying message and that each person has qualities that make them different from others. In this case, the others mock Salam by saying the wind will take him away but in the end, the wind ends up carrying a message to the person that saves him and he considers himself to be grown up. The book would be appealing to students because of the pictures, the humor (as the little boy is being blown through the sky and trying to grab hold of anything) and the fact that each person has a quality that makes them different from others. This book would be a good book for beginning French for paired reading as some of the words are more difficult than others. Students would be able to practice word wall activities, taped reading in order to practice French pronunciation and even writing their own story in French about overcoming an obstacle in life. Although I chose these books as worthwhile to read to students, they were for different reasons, one being no better than the other. It is always important to keep in mind the reasons behind choosing a particular book and personally, I always enjoy having some sort of message at the end because of the great discussion that can be created. There are so many different aspects to take into account when evaluating literature and it is not always possible to capture all of the students’ interests however, a wide selection must be provided to all students in hopes that they will find something they love to read. -- Reading
Activity – French Immersion Grade 7 ALBUM
MOVIE (DVD or VHS)
MUSIC
(DVD) Topic:
Ancient Civilisations - THE INCAS · Informational text about Incas for Gr. 7 early F.I. students, taken (and adapted) from Website: http://www.perou.org/peru/incas.php?lg=fr · Informational text about Incas for Gr. 7 late F.I. students, taken (and adapted) from website:http://alecole.vienneinfo.org/sites/bonneuil/page6.html · Album: Les Aventures de Tintin - Le Temple du Soleil · DVD or VHS: Tintin et le Temple du Soleil (90 min.) · DVD or audiotape: « Flûte des Andes » · Map of Peru (in French) · White plain paper 11x17 · Ruler, pencils and colour pencils Rationale This reading activity about The Incas consists of five
lessons of seventy-five minutes each. Students are invited to read fiction (Les Aventures de Tintin – Le Temple du Soleil)
and non-fiction texts taken from websites about The Incas. These activities involve: reading aloud: students
read aloud in small groups: (a) informational texts about the Incas, and (b) their script
of an album written and illustrated by them; guided reading: students
read with specific purposes in small groups (they describe and locate examples of literary
elements, including plot, climax, conflict, tone, theme, setting, and pace) to achieve
comprehension and fluency; shared reading:
students read the album in small groups (each group reads a different part of the album); independent
silent reading: students read their part of the album by themselves in silence. This mini-unit serves as an introduction to a global unit
on Ancient Civizations. Students will be introduced later on Ancient Egypt, Ancient
Greece, and Ancient China. Also, to respond to different learning styles, these
reading activities include many types of intelligence (based on Multiple Intelligence theory, Gardner, 1989): Verbal
intelligence: students discuss about the topic and demonstrate active listening skills
by maintaining eye contact and listening to their peers without interrupting; they sort
new information about the Incas and record it on the board; they write their opinion and
feelings in their response journal after reading the album and watching the movie; a group
of students create a small album that they will read aloud to the class. Visual
intelligence: students observe the music DVD cover (they read the title and look at
the picture) to get information about the topic; they watch the album’s pictures and
read the script; they watch an animated movie. Logical
intelligence: students make a chronological line of the events in the story. Spatial
intelligence: students mark specific locations on the map of Peru to show the route
followed by Tintin and his friends. Kinesthetic
intelligence: a group of students create a Danse
du Soleil and perform in front of the class. Musical
intelligence: a group of students compose a song or a poem and perform/recite it in
front of the class. Interpersonal
intelligence: students work in small groups on their projects. Intrapersonal
intelligence: students write individually in their response journal. Prescribed Learning Outcomes This reading activity integrates three areas of the
curriculum: Language Arts, Fine Arts, and Social Studies. You will find below the
prescribed learning outcomes: Language Arts – Grade 7 · demonstrate understanding of the main ideas
or events in novels, stories, poetry, other print material, and electronic media · use information they have read, heard, or
viewed in a variety of written or graphic forms, including written notes and charts · locate and interpret details in print and
non-print media to gather information and build understanding · describe and locate examples of literary
elements, including plot, climax, conflict, tone, theme, setting, and pace · develop personal responses and offer reasons
for and examples of their judgments, feelings, or opinions · create a variety of personal and
informational communications, including fiction and non-fiction; written summaries,
instructions, and reports; oral and visual presentations; oral and written opinions;
poems; or lyrics Fine Arts – Grade 7 · identify distinctive characteristics of
images from a variety of historical and cultural contexts · evaluate preferences for selected works of
art · demonstrate respect for music from various
historical and cultural contexts · create movement in response to the expressive
elements of music and sound perform dance, communicating the sense of feeling and mood
in the choreography Social Studies – Grade
7 · demonstrate understanding of events as part
of a chronological series · demonstrate understanding of the concept of
civilization · identify connections between current cultures
and ancient cultures Lessons’ Objectives Students
are expected to be able to: · present orally and write basic information
orally about the Incas · locate Peru and the Andes on a map · trace the route covered by the characters
during their travel in Peru · identify orally the places visited by Tintin
and his friends · relate the sequence of events in the album · express their opinion orally and on paper
about the album and the movie · demonstrate active listening and respect for
their classmates Reading Activities on the Incas Day 1
Students are invited to
look at the cover of the DVD “Flûte des Andes” (on transparency), read the
title and look at the picture. At the same time, they listen to a piece of music from the
DVD. They share with the rest of the class how they feel, what they “see”, and
what they know about this type of music. Using the class map,
students identify where Peru is located and where the Andes are located. Students now share
what they know about the Incas, and
write their answers on the board. Following this activity, students read aloud, in small
groups, a one-page informational text about the Incas, and write their new knowledge on
the board, and new vocabulary on the word wall. Day 2-3 Students are divided in small groups (different level of abilities in reading French) for the next guided reading activity of the album « Les Aventures de Tintin – Le Temple du Soleil ». Each group reads a few pages of the album, first in silence, and aloud, and writes down a short summary of what they have read, taken into considerations the literary elements including plot, climax, conflict, tone, theme, setting, and pace. Each group shares their summary of what they have read in « Les Aventures de Tintin – Le Temple du Soleil ». Then they make a chronological line of events (they work in small groups and then combine their results as a class-group). Day
4 Students watch the animated movie Tintin et le Temple du soleil. They are asked to jot down a few notes comparing the album and the movie: they identify elements that are shown in the movie (for example: scenes, characters, locations, etc.) but not seen in the album. After viewing the movie, they write their response in their journal and discuss about their results as a group-class. Day 5 Students work in groups to complete different tasks: · A
group of students students mark
specific locations on the map of Peru to show the route followed by Tintin and his
friends. · A group of students create their own part of
the story by adding or changing one scene in the story « Tintin... ».
They write the text and draw the illustrations with bubbles (like in the album). Their
work will be presented to their classmates. · A group of students compose a song (they
choose the background music or make up their own melody, and write the lyrics), that they
will perform in front of the class. · A group of students create a « Danse du Soleil », that they will perform in
front of the class.
http://www.americas-fr.com/voyages/photos/chemin-inca.gif
Les Incas
furent les dirigeants du plus grand empire de l’Amérique. Vers la fin du XIVe
siècle, l'empire commença à s'étendre de sa région initiale dans la région de Cuzco,
région sud des Andes. Elle se termina brutalement avec l'invasion espagnole dirigée par
Francisco Pizarro en 1532. Au moment de sa rédition, l'empire contrôlait une population
estimée à 12 millions d'habitants. L’empire Inca
L'architecture
La religion
http://www.perou.org/peru/incas.php?lg=fr
L’Empire
Inca
(1200 – 1532)
L'Empire
Inca s'étendait sur la partie Ouest de l'Amérique du Sud. Vers 1530, avec moins de deux
cents hommes armés, Pizarro, un marin espagnol, s'empara de l'Empire au nom du roi
d'Espagne. Au XIIème
siècle, Cuzco en était la capitale. Elle se trouvait dans le Pérou actuel à proximité
de la célèbre cité inca du Macchu Picchu, qui n'a jamais été découverte par les
conquérants espagnols.
L'empereur,
appelé l'Inca, était à la fois le chef religieux et politique. Son peuple (comptant 6
à 8 millions d'individus) connaissait bien la culture du maïs et de la pomme de terre;
c'est d'eux que nous viennent ces deux aliments. Ils ont aussi inventé des instruments de
musique tels que le charango et la flûte de pan. Leur système routier était bien
développé. Excellents
bâtisseurs, ils nous ont laissé de nombreux vestiges de leur civilisation (cités en
ruines dont le Macchu Picchu ci-contre, sculptures et objets rituels... ). Douze ou treize
souverains se sont succédé à la tête de l'empire jusqu'à l'arrivée des conquistadors
espagnols.
C'est ainsi que
l'Empire Inca fut dévasté et que, depuis, une grande majorité de ces pays parlent
aujourd'hui encore l'espagnol. http://alecole.vienneinfo.org/sites/bonneuil/page6.html |
