After the lesson, we had a post-conference with our PRT who helped us analyze and code our student data. Once we felt confident, Melanie and I were able to repeat the process with the rest of our student data to see if our students met the objectives.
My best friend (and colleague) Melanie and I co-taught a lesson on theme with our literacy content coach, Brian. Melanie and I have been struggling with teaching literacy in 5th grade because it is a whole new world compared to our primary experiences! Brian introduced a fun, engaging way to teach ELA that he used in his first grade class. It is called tableau, have you heard of it? Tableau is a performance based artistic approach to teaching theme in a classroom. It is a group of motionless figures (students) representing a scene in a story. We combined our 5th grade classes for this tow day lesson, and created anchor charts describing the performance task. On day one we read the Journey's text: Elsa's Diary where we introduced our theme objectives, and on day two we modeled a tableau performance and had our students plan and perform a tableau in groups of 4 to visually represent theme. This lesson was created using the catch and release model, supported by Hillsborough County School Districts for ELA. We had our CT's collect formative assessment data and anecdotal notes to find evidence that we met our objectives for the lesson. Below is the lesson plan. We believe the lesson was outstanding! Our students were able to use text evidence to identify the theme of the story and justify how their text evidence supported their inferred theme. Our 5th graders really enjoyed this hands-on, performance based approach to learning. We successfully planned and implemented a creative lesson while still staying within the HCPS curriculum guidelines. I would definitely do something like this again in my future classroom! Feel free to look through a few pictures below. The stickers were placed to retain student privacy. After the lesson, we had a post-conference with our PRT who helped us analyze and code our student data. Once we felt confident, Melanie and I were able to repeat the process with the rest of our student data to see if our students met the objectives. Below are the anchor charts we created for our lesson.
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This past week in 5th grade I taught my first lesson on estimating adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. It was not easy. I prepared my lesson by writing on notecards what questions I will ask my students, answers to the problems, and H.O.T. (higher order thinking) questions. I have worked through all of the problems and jotted down possible student misconceptions. I am very lucky to be interning in a classroom that has a Smartboard. On my Macbook I have added the ActivInspire software to create Smartboard lessons. This is my favorite way of teaching math. I can erase, write/type, and skip to pre-made slides depending on student progress. I started the lesson by reviewing the essential question and asking students for what strategies they use when they estimate. Next, I introduced their problem of the day. Then they were given 5-10 minutes to try to solve indecently. This is where I gather formative data. I circulate the classroom checking who mastered it, who is very struggling, and what misconceptions students may have. If students were getting it I would of had them share with their table teams, but from my anecdotal notes I knew I had to break down the problem. So I went to the Smartboard and asked my class what they know and what they need to find out. I asked them to point out key words in the word problem. Then I had them write down a plan to solve and chat about it with their table teams to see if they are on the right track. Next, we solved it as a class by using student's different plans and strategies. I continued by challenging my students with practice problems to make sure they have grasped the objectives and could answer the essential question. Posted below are screen shots of my lesson! During the 8th week of school we have started our Reading RTI groups, called "Bulls Learning Club", BLC. Last year when I was a resident in 2nd grade, I worked with a high reading level group to go above and beyond. We spent the year by having a literature circle, readers theatre, and researching autobiographies. So far in 5th grade my BLC experience is just beginning. It is a different journey because this year I get to be apart of my teams Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings. Every other Wednesday from 7:15-8:00 we meet to discuss what is occurring in our school, new district standards, and student data. In our last meeting we organized our BLC groups. For the beginning of the year I will be working with four 4th grade students who's RTI plan for reading is reading comprehension. I plan on teaching strategies for comprehension and giving formative assessments ever 2 weeks. In November I will be receiving four more 4th grade students whose focus is also reading comprehension because their teacher will be leaving to have a baby. So far I have had a great experience with Reading RTI. I wish we had a 30 minute block for Math RTI! That would be just as powerful.
-Miss Honey October 1, 2014 is the day I taught my first writing lesson on 5th grade. It was an exciting day! I lesson planned for about an hour on this 20 minute lesson. As a level III resident we our school gives us access to all of the districts resources by giving us our own email and log in. I used a detailed writing lesson plan given by the district to guide my lesson. I started off my lesson by introducing the essential question, "How can we add elaborations to our writing," then I read aloud from a chapter book where the author had great thought shot examples. As I read the text was shown on the Elmo so my class could see the writing and follow along. Then I asked my students where did you see elaboration? After having a class discussion I introduced the term thought shots and why they are important. Our discussion included the thought shots but students did not know that was what the type of elaboration was called. Next I read from the text and his time had my students put their hands in the sir when they see a thought shot (like a score for a shot in the goal!). This caught my students attention from a few who were getting distracted from the lesson and just wanted to write their story. After reviewing the thought shot examples, the purpose of the thought shots, and the essential question I released students to their writing and had 2 writing conferences.
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