MM900318069.GIFA Writing Lesson

Valerie Taylor

 

          The lesson plan I evaluated is a writing lesson for 4th grade students. It originated with a teacher in a small North Carolina town with a mixed economic profile and a mixed cultural orientation. I was fortunate enough to observe the lesson that preceded this particular lesson. The previous lesson consisted of a class choral reading of “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” and a lesson that compared and contrasted that with two different video representations of the same story. Students worked in small groups to find things that were the same and different between the different ways the story was presented.  The students then shared their findings with the class.

          As a part of this lesson series, the teacher read “The Night Before Christmas” to the class, and the students then wrote their own “Twas the Night Before….” These stories were edited in conference with the teacher. Once they went from “sloppy copy” to a “ready to publish” form they were allowed to take their work to the computer lab to complete a final copy with a print-out. These copies were then posted outside the classroom as examples of the class work.

          I identified several areas of the lesson plan that fit well with Piaget’s theories about age level development. According to Piaget, students at this age would most likely be in the transition from the concrete to the formal operation stage of development. These students should be able to adapt ideas through assimilation from their previous work and their environment. They should be able to mentally manipulate the story abstractly considering both the individual descriptive words and the story line itself. They should then be comfortable with accommodating these ideas with their previous knowledge. The students should be able to pretend and put themselves into a character’s or author’s frame of mind, and be able to classify objects and characters by their features.  They should be able to logically follow the story and the lesson and understand the symbols and language demonstrated. The students should be able to recall previous lessons about vocabulary use in writing projects and lessons about adjectives, adverbs, and other descriptive terms.

          The teacher describes in step 4b that the teacher will stop reading the story and ask the children to think about what the author is trying to accomplish by the words used. She is asking the children to put themselves in the author’s mind, a step that encourages the student to create relevance to self by using “private speech” to think of the author’s point of view, an application Vygotsky would encourage as a way to internalize complex ideas.

          As the lesson continues, we can see an example of Vygotsky’s theory of collaboration with an adult and the development of language as a social construct as used in the lesson. First the teacher writes a short version of the story on the white board. The students are then asked to “red pen” the words they think are too plain and ordinary. Then they have to suggest to the teacher words that would make the story more enjoyable for the reader. 

          The teacher is scaffolding the lesson by demonstrating a story and asking the students to make it better. They work together as a group, peers offering ideas and comments as changes are made to the original story. The students are in the zone of proximal development to tackle this type of creative writing on their own. The teacher demonstrates this by “I do…we do…you do”.  I show you what to do, then we do it together and then you do it on your own. This helps commit the new vocabulary to long term memory when the student visualizes the new words on the white board, when they hear others offer words that elaborate on the story and when students verbalize their own ideas.

          Following the group lesson students are not left to flounder on their own if they cannot accomplish the assignment. The teacher works one-on-one with each student to offer suggestions, ask questions and offer support. The teacher has modeled on the white board a “better” document. By collaborating with each student the teacher can encourage the student to connect to their previous writing projects and to reflect on the attributes of an exciting story. By doing so, she helps ensure that the process makes its way into the student’s long term memory. A relaxing environment in the classroom with music in the background helps defuse any stress the students may have during the writing process.

          Posting completed work outside the room offers students the positive reinforcement and peer recognition that Vygotsky would say was important at this stage of development.

          In our textbook the author cites the importance of considering the varied cultural and socioeconomic diversity of a classroom. The teacher’s choice of a Ukrainian folktale supports the idea that there are many different ways of looking at the world and how one’s home environment can influence how we think and process information. For example, the use of the term “Baba” for the boy’s grandmother would indicate to the students that other cultures use terms we are not familiar with but could identify and associate with their own.

          Did the teacher use a varied approach to the lesson that would encourage information processing in her students? Did she appeal to a variety of their senses, grab their attention and relate it to previous lessons? Were the students actively involved in the lesson as well as in creating the final product?

          By moving the class from their desks to the rug at the front of the room the teacher made the lesson more intimate and social. The students could have remained at their desks and watched her at the white board, but by moving around they actively moved their attention to the lesson board and then to the story book as they worked collaboratively to create an interesting story.

          Relating “The Mitten” to the previous lesson “Twas the Night Before…” the teacher was actively relating the new learning to previous knowledge. Students were reminded of the process they followed with their previous work and were encouraged to re-write the project with new more interesting words.

          The choice of a Jan Brett book with her elaborate illustrations activates the student’s imagery. Each page is filled with new and unusual illustrations that, when pointed out by the teacher, show the students that often the best understanding of a book can come from the smallest hidden information. When the students return to their desks to begin their own compositions, the teacher might suggest they use an outline to organize their thoughts before beginning to write. She could also suggest a graphic organizer that gives them the framework of “introductory paragraph, body and conclusion” and have the students summarize their ideas in the appropriate boxes.

As an additional way to grab visual interest, the teacher could have used an actual knitted mitten and demonstrated how it might “grow” with each new item that was added. This visual cue would make it easier for the students to remember the process by recalling the image of the mitten. Because a knitted mitten is unusual in their environment, the students would be more likely to remember the example when they began their own written work.

          Did the teacher manage to spark the student’s use of metacognition?  Did she ask them,”who, what, when, where and why”? That perhaps was the only real weakness in the lesson plan. Perhaps those questions were asked by the teacher during the discussion process, but were not addressed by the written plan. The teacher could have taken the lesson to a deeper level of understanding by asking these types of questions about the story, the author, and the written work each student was doing.

An essential part of every lesson plan is a clear delineation of the Lesson Objective(s). This lesson plan includes specific North Carolina state education goals. Once the project is completed the teacher will be able to assess whether the students fulfilled the objectives.  As this is a continuous lesson, the final product may not be completed for several class sessions. With each additional example the teacher provides, and each one-on-one meeting with the teacher, the student will continue to adapt and revise their written work to align with the objectives.

One last suggestion for the teacher would be to assign peer editors to read and edit (with the writer’s approval) changes or additions to the written work. This type of peer editing would encourage social interaction and provide modeling of exceptional writing. If supervised and supported by the teacher, this type of editing would offer a social interaction and modeling that Vygotsky would approve of and give the students in this classroom a fun social experience they would be sure to remember.

          In conclusion, by knowing the ability and developmental level of her classroom, the teacher chose an appropriate lesson that followed the North Carolina learning objectives for writing. She clearly established an activity that showed an understanding of both Paiget and Vygotsky’s theories of child development. By relating this lesson to previous lessons, using imagery, and by using an interesting and unusual book as an example, she encouraged the development of metacognition in her students. With the addition of peer editing and additional visual examples, this lesson plan would be considered exceptional!

 

Lesson Plan:

Teacher:  Jennifer Sabdo                                               

 

1.  Learning Context: (Relationship to unit, area of study, program goals)

 

          This lesson is in relation to the area of writing.  Our goal is to learn how an author uses words to create an image in a readers mind.

 

2. Learner Characteristics: (What students are like, students with special needs or characteristics)

 

The students in my classroom range from very high functioning (exceptionally gifted) students to one child who has been classified as OHI (Other Health Impaired). I have two behavior problems within the classroom, both males and two young ladies that are repeating 4th grade this year.

 

 

3.  Lesson Objective (s):

~ Goal 1: The learner will apply enabling strategies and skills to read and write

1.03 Identify key words and discover their meanings and relationships through a variety of strategies.
1.04 Increase reading and writing vocabulary through:

~ Goal 4:  The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written and visual texts.

4.07 Compose fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using self-selected and
assigned topics and forms (e.g., personal and imaginative narratives, research
reports, diaries, journals, logs, rules, instructions

4.09 Produce work that follows the conventions of particular genres (e.g.,
personal and imaginative narrative, research reports, learning logs, letters of
request, letters of complaint).

~ Goal 5: The learner will apply grammar and language conventions to communicate effectively.

5.04 Compose multiple paragraphs with:

5.09 Create readable documents through legible handwriting (cursive) and/or word processing.

4.  Lesson Components:

 

This lesson includes a picture book entitled The Mitten.  The writing easel, blue and red pens. Children will need their writing workshop books, pencils, and highlighters.

 

a. Focus and Review: Students will make their way to the carpet when called by the teacher. Only groups with their heads down and quiet will be called to the carpet. Once at the carpet, teacher will discuss with children what they think is important to put into a story. Teacher will prompt with talking about using words as good description. We will review the stories we are working on called, “T’Was the Night Before…….”

 

 

b. Teacher Input and Materials/equipment: Teacher will read the story “The Mitten.” Teacher will read each page and explain the use of language.  Teacher will stop reading and ask children to think about what the author is trying to accomplish by the words used on the page.  Materials needed by the teacher are the book, The Mitten and the writing easel.

 

c. Guided Practice:  Teacher will write her version of the story the students are working on called, “T’Was the Night Before.” Teacher will ask children for input on her story and use the red marker to change words that might be too plain or boring.

 

 

d. Independent Practice: Children will return to their seats with their writing workshop notebooks and continue to write their own stories. Teacher will conference with those that have turned in their conference “popcorns” to the teachers desk. Music will be turned low for children to listen to while working.  Students do not have to finish their stories but they must show progress on their work.

 

e. Closure: Since the students do not need to finish their stories, there will not be a true closer to the lesson. When writing time is complete, students will be given the “High 5” signal. Girls will put their writing workshop books away and then the boys will put their writing workshop books away.

 

 

5. Assessment:

 

Pre-Assessment: There is no assessment for this writing lesson

 

 

Post- Assessment:  Post assessment would be reading the students writing and assessing where they are in their story.

 

Jennifer Sabdo, Havelock, North Carolina

Mrs. Sabdo’s Class Website: http://teacherweb.craven.k12.nc.us/WJG/jsabdo/home.html