Throughout this online course, I was introduced to many resources and materials on the web. One of my favorite resources was the Middle School Portal search engine. This resource provided great lesson plans for middle grades math and science teachers. I will probably be teaching math when I enter the teaching field, and this will be a helpful search engine to use. I also enjoyed viewing the various classroom blogs. I haven’t thought about using blogs in my classroom before. If I teach social studies, I think blogs will be a great tool for the classroom. If I’m teaching mathematics, I’m not sure if I want to use them. I know it is possible to incorporate blogs into math classes, but I don’t know if I would be comfortable with it. Other sites I found useful through this online course was PBS teacher. I loved many of their lesson plan ideas. This site was also easily accessible. I plan on continuing finding resources throughout my career. The more resources I have available, the more ideas I can attempt to use in my classroom. I have often heard the phrase “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.” The web is a useful tool to help me find great lesson plan ideas without having to do everything on my own. I want to balance my creativity with the ideas of others. Honestly, I probably won’t continue my blog for this class. Facebook and my cell phone are as far as I want to pursue in technology communication devices. I don’t even like these technology devices very much. I enjoy personal interaction with people rather than online interaction. I like people listening to my stories in person, instead of reading them on the web. However, I know that times are changing and many students are attached to technology. Blogs are a great way for future students to express themselves.

NJAHS, . “Building Awareness of the Japanese American Wartime Experience.” Japanese American Internment Curriculum. 1992. National Japanese American Society, Web. 10 Nov 2009. <http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/6375/preview/>.

What I like about this lesson plan:

I like how this lesson plan allows students to gain the perspective of Japanese Americans during WWII. The poems mentioned in the article are a great way for students to feel the experiences of Japanese Americans during this time. Students are often taught about the Holocaust and Jewish concentration camps; however, they are rarely taught in depth about the Japanese American camps in America. All countries have a dirty past, including the United States of America. I also like the different texts used in this lesson plan including poems and videos. Students who have reading disabilities will benefit from this lesson plan format. The discussion questions are also a good mixture of critical thinking questions and fact-based knowledge questions.

How I would use this lesson plan:

This is a fairly simple lesson plan. I would use all of this lesson and expand on it. I would view all of the suggested videos, and decide on the film that most accurately portrays life for Japanese Americans during WWII.  I would also want to incorporate a writing piece in this lesson. For example, students could create “I” poems of a Japanese American during WWII. I would also search for a Japanese American who was alive during WWII and have them speak to my class. This would be a difficult task, but I think it would help students see that history is a compilation of real events that have affected real people.

Timmons, Greg. “Politics and the Olympics.” PBS Teachers. May 5, 2008. MacNeil- Lehrer Productions, Web. 10 Nov 2009. <http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/6375/preview/>.

What I like:

I like how this lesson plan addresses a controversial, current event. The Olympics is an international sport where diverse cultures come together. Students have the opportunity to explore human rights issues in China  and analyze them. Asia is also a main topic of the 7th grade social studies curriculum. Students will be addressing the standard course of study, Competency Goal 7: The learner will assess the connections between historical events and contemporary issues in Africa, Asia, and Australia, while being engaged in an interesting topic. I also like how students can use their creativity and express their opinions in the brochure to address the human rights issues in China.

How I would use this lesson plan:

I really like this lesson plan, so I wouldn’t modify much of it. However, I would modify the brochure assignment. Instead of having groups of students assigned to one of the options for how to address the China Olympic issue, I would require all students to individually create their own brochure. I would allow students to pick one of the options I provided them, or allow them to create their own strategy. Students should be allowed to make their own decisions. I wouldn’t do this in group work, because different students in a group may have different opinions. After students have created their brochures, I would require them to present their brochures to the class. After the presentations, students would debate each other on what action they choose to take as stated in their brochures.

Since the Olympics are over, I would also show my students what other people have done to express their opinions about this controversy. There are YouTube video clips, and other resources available to find this information.



Related sites:

Mr. Taylor’s class, Katie Blackburn’s 2nd grade class “I” poems were creative and interesting in incorporating poetry to content areas. I also loved the Great Depression wanted poster for Charles Floyd. It was informative, interesting, and creative.

Traditional research papers have been considered unoriginal, and are often hated by teachers and students. People have wanted to find new ways to do research papers. Multi-genre project is one alternative. In this project, different genres of writing are used to present student research such as birth certificates, letters, newspaper articles, etc. Students are highly engaged while still learning research, documentary, and computer skills. Multi- genre projects are more fun, creative, meaningful than traditional research paper. They interweave creativity and knowledge. Multiple writing styles, topics, and resources are using in multi-genre projects. The author of this article quoted students who stated they enjoyed these projects and dedicated a lot of effort into them. Multi-genre projects are personalized and allow students to have a deeper learning experience rather than state facts. Important components of multi-genre projects are the learning logs and end notes that exemplify the research and thoroughness that the students have put into their projects. In order to create these projects, students must  apply what they know about alternative writing forms to the research they have collected.

3 questions:

1) I know learning logs and end notes demonstrate the thoroughness of student research. However, how do you grade on the thoroughness of research? One student may have researched 5 short, awful sources and created a big project, while another student may have done extensive research on a few good sources.

 2) I agree that this multi-genre projects are more fun than traditional research projects. However, do some teachers make this a “fluffy” activity with more emphasis on artwork than research?

 3) How often are multi-genre projects seen in public schools?

“I” poems are a great tool to connect readers to their texts. They help readers to understand the perspectives of the characters, setting, or plot of their reading material. Students reflect on their reading, develop their thoughts, and expand their understanding through this activity. “I” poems are also useful for read-aloud texts. Not to mention, students have the chance to become authentic poets.

3 questions:

1) This article highlights all the positive aspects of “I” poems. Are there any drawbacks to writing them?

2) Is it better to give student a fill- in- the- black set up for an I-poem or to all students to set up their “I” poems in any way they choose?

3) I am a social studies and math major. These poems are easily applicable to social studies, but how can “I” poems be used in math?

Your Name: Jessica Placke

Name of Strategy: Comparison and Contrast charts

Source (Where did this come from?): Reading Quest.org

Link to the Strategy: http://www.readingquest.org/strat/compare.html

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

Comparison and contrast charts are used after students read text to compare two or three quantities and evaluate their similarities and differences. The Venn diagram is a commonly known comparison and contrast chart. The students determine what is similar and different between two or three ideas, people, places, or concepts. In a Venn diagram, two circles are drawn partially overlapping each other. The similarities are placed in the overlapping section of the two circles . The differences are places in the corresponding sections of the circles outside of the overlapping section

For example, after my students read text on ancient Egyptian women, they could create a Venn diagram with Ancient Egyptian women represented by one circle and modern, American women represented by another circle. My students would then find the similarities and differences of women’s roles in these two societies.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity.

This activity can be useful to all social studies standards. In my particular example, it would correspond to the following standard:

11.04 Identify examples of economic, political, and social changes, such as agrarian to industrial economies, monarchical to democratic governments, and the roles of women and minorities, and analyze their impact on culture

It can also useful for comparing the history of various countries to the United States, and particularly North Carolina. This is seen in the North Carolina standard course of study, competency goal 13 of 6^th and 7^th grade.

6^th grade- Competency goal 13:  The learner will describe the historic, economic, and cultural connections among North Carolina, the United States, South America, and Europe

7^th grade- Competency goal 13: The learner will describe the historic, economic, and cultural connections among North Carolina, the United States, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help the student learn?

I think this is a great strategy for students to analyze how different societies compare to each other. Comparison and contrast charts allow students to make connections about what they have learned in the past and present. The more connections students make in social studies, the more information they will store in their long term

Your Name: Jessica Placke

Name of Strategy: Annolighting a Text

Source (Where did this come from?): Reading Strategies: Scaffolding Students’ Interaction with Texts by Greece Central School District 

Link to the Strategy: http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/Reading/Reading%20Strategies/annolighting%20a%20text.htm

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

Students think about what they are looking for in their reading- such as what is the main concept? Students will then read through the material once. They skim through the material a second time highlighting only the important concepts of the reading text. Students can use different highlighting colors to separate the main ideas from supportive examples, etc. This can be applied and useful to any text.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity.

 This activity can be useful to all social studies standard, because it allows students to pick out the important ideas of texts that can be used to explore all of the standards. In particular, this activity addresses the 6th grade language arts standard 6.01 Demonstrate an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression by:  demonstrating the different roles of the parts of speech in sentence construction. Students must be able to pick out the subject and supporting details of the text to highlight the correct sections of the text.

 Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help the student learn?

Highlighting will help students increase their reading comprehension, because they will be focusing on finding the main ideas out of texts. Many students don’t know how to highlight effectively, and end up highlighting the whole text. By using this teaching strategy correctly, students will learn to focus on the main ideas and skim the unimportant parts of texts.

 Your Name: Jessica Placke

 Name of Strategy: Visual Aids

 Source (Where did this come from?): Study Guides and Strategies

 Link to the Strategy: http://www.studygs.net/preread.htm

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

Show students a picture or other visual aid about the reading topic. This way, students can get a picture about what they are reading about. If I had my students read about Egyptian women roles, I could show them a picture of an Egyptian woman political leader such as the famous Cleopatra. I could then provide a variety of pictures of women throughout history and compare how women are valued based on these pictures.

 Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity

This could be used for any social studies reading content. For my specific example, it would be as followed:

 11.04 Identify examples of economic, political, and social changes, such as agrarian to industrial economies, monarchical to democratic governments, and the roles of women and minorities, and analyze their impact on culture.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

A lot of students are visual learners, so providing pictures will help students better understand the topic of their reading assignment. A picture can say a lot. If students struggle with reading comprehension, visual aids will help them grasp the main concepts of the reading text. For example, by showing pictures of ancient Egyptian women and a 50′s advertisement of a woman product in America, students can see the comparison of women in ancient Egypt to women of past America.

 Your Name: Jessica Placke

 Name of Strategy: Purpose for Reading (and Prediction)

 Source: Study Guides and Strategies

 Link to the Strategy: http://www.studygs.net/preread.htm

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

Before reading a text, students would construct a purpose for their reading to capture their interest and form a goal for their reading. A purpose can come from the individual students, teacher questions, or classroom discussion questions. Students will also form predictions about the outcomes of the text before they read it. I would have my students write out their predictions of the text based on their prior knowledge. For example, before my students would read an article about women’s roles in ancient Egypt, I would have them write down their predictions about what they think women’s roles would have been. They would explain why they picked those predictions, which would give me insight on their prior knowledge on this topic. I can see how my students view the role of women throughout history.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity.

This activity could be used in reading for any of the standard topics. For my specific Egyptian women example it would be as followed:

11.04 Identify examples of economic, political, and social changes, such as agrarian to industrial economies, monarchical to democratic governments, and the roles of women and minorities, and analyze their impact on culture.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

This pre reading assignment will get students interested in the text, because they will want to find out if their predictions on the role of women in ancient Egypt were correct. This provides them a purpose to read. If students have a desire to read, they will focus on the text and get more out of it. Also, students will get practice writing, because they are writing down their predictions. This writing could be made into a formal essay, or an informal journal entry. Either way, students have the opportunity to share their opinions and express their prior knowledge. As a teacher, I will have an idea about what they already know about the role of women in ancient Egypt and what they have been taught about the role of women in general.