Emily James 

1. Describe the central focus and purpose for the content you will teach in the lesson (Planning Commentary 1a).

By doing this lesson, I want my students to have a basic understanding of environmental science and the effect of humans on the environment. I want them to be able to see how the way people act now could impact the future of the planet. I also hope to enhance their compare/contrast skills, by comparing events from The Lorax with real world situations, which they will do on their Prezi and by comparing and contrasting their home environment to those that are more affected by human activity. Additionally, I want them to learn how to work in groups and contribute, in an orderly and mannerly fashion, to class discussion

 

2. For each of the prompts below (2a-b), describe what you know about your students with respect to the central focus of the learning segment. Be sure to consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different strategies/support.

2a. What do your students know, what can they do, and what are they still learning to do? Be sure to answer this prompt with respect to your central focus.

3rd graders are very busy and active. They have already developed the skills to process more abstract concepts, like connections between a fictional world such as The Lorax and the real world. They can think for themselves and developed their own opinions, which also helps them to make their own connections. They also want to know the reason for things, which they will want to know the reason why there is things like pollution and acid rain when I start to teach them about environmental science. They also have a better attention span, which when dealing with such a serious topic is very important. 3rd graders start to think about the past, present, and future. My lesson plan will help to develop this concept further by having them think about how the ways humans are treating the earth might affect the future. Lastly, the have fewer fears, which is helpful because this is also a frightening topic, and the last thing I want to do is scare my students.

http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/lkennedy/index.cfm?subpage=866091

 

2b. What do you know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices, and interests as it relates to your central focus?

I know one of my students, Sonya, has parents that are getting divorces and has to get used to a nanny being around. She has been raised as an Atheists, and is shunned by some of the girls who pray during lunch. Nadia is a girl adopted from Russia, and while she has a beautiful singing voice, her music teacher says that her cold and detached delivery. Most likely, these girls are shy and quite because Sonya is being shunned and Nadia is new to the country and definitely has had a more trying past. This is important to remember because my lesson involves group activity; however, kids have to learn how to work well with others and contribute to the group. I will have to find a balance between helping them grow out of their shells, but also not pushing them too far out of their confront zones. I will do this by assigning them to groups with other students who I know have caring and warm dispositions.

 

3. Justify your modification/rewriting of your original lesson plan by using principles from research and/or theory (Sources should be, at a minimum, your text. You may also include other sources as appropriate to your experience/education within the teacher education program.) to support your decisions. 

The original lesson plan had class discussion, and the option to work on activities as a class, I wanted to work in a group activity or project. Breaking into smaller groups allows students to participate more, because sometimes the size of a classroom intimidates students into not wanting to answer for fear of being wrong. Collaborations has lots of benefits such as “… socially and cognitively. Learners depend on one another to reach their goals, and, in the process, practice their social interaction skills” (67). In a big classroom discussion, this is not seen as much. Most likely only a couple students dominate the discussion, and some students don’t get to participate. Also, working in a work teaches the students who might usually dominate the discussion that they need to share ideas and not control everything.

 

3a. Justify how your understanding of your students’ prior academic learning and personal/cultural/community assets guided your choice or adaptation of learning tasks and materials. Be sure to be explicit about the connections between the learning tasks and students’ prior academic learning, assets, and research/theory.

After looking at my ciphers, I noticed a commonality between them, both of them need friendship and support. Sonya is having to deal with a divorce at home, and being bullied at school. Nadia is an orphan from a different country, with a cold and distant disposition. In order to help her adjust to her new life and country, she will need some caring friends to help support her through difficult times. Sonya will too, because it’s hard enough dealing with divorce or getting bullied, and she is having to deal with both. I decided to make the Prezi project a group project in the hopes that these two girls will be able to find support in their peers. I also made it a group project, because I think having 3rd graders use Prezi by themselves might be too difficult for them. Friendship is not only helpful for psychological reasons, according to the book, “Student’s attitudes towards technology can be influenced by social factors, such as friends, the media, and what they do in the classroom” (277). It’s important that these girls have a positive mindset towards technology, as it is constantly growing in prevalence. They can associate this fun an positive memories of working with friends with technology as well.

 

3b. Describe & justify why your instructional strategies and planned supports are appropriate for your whole class, individuals, and/or groups of students with specific learning needs.

Working in groups and class discussion is something that every child can do. Some might be more shy than others, but that’s why I also have a worksheet planned, so if they don’t talk I can still assess their learning by looking at their worksheet. It also is beneficial to their learning because they can see what other students come up with, so if someone is confused they can listen to their peers, who usually seem less intimidating than the teacher.

 

4. Describe how your planned formal and informal assessments will provide direct evidence that students are able to demonstrate their learning. This description should provide clear links to specific learning objectives from within your lesson.

My informal assessment will be the worksheet I create over the PowerPoint demonstration. Based on how well they are able to finish the worksheet without my help, I’ll be able to see how well the students have learned the material. By pairing them up, they will be able to discuss with each other the questions from the worksheets, getting them to be more collaborative. My formal assessment will be the Prezi, which I will evaluate them on how accurate their connections are. I will judge how well their connection are by how well the students applied the knowledge of how humans can affect the environment in the real world, and not just The Lorax world. I will also evaluate the Prezi on how original the connections are, though it will have less weight, because the focus is to get the students to see how the environment is getting damaged.  

 

5. Explain how the design or adaptation of your planned assessments allows students with specific needs to demonstrate their learning.

The very first principle of the UDL guidelines is to “provide multiple means of representation, such as presenting information and content in different ways with different media” (145).  In my lesson, I use a PowerPoint, a worksheet, and a Prezi, all in which help different types of learners. The PowerPoint helps visual learners, since pictures can be included, and auditory learners, because they will have to listen to me talking. It also benefits the solitary learners, because there is no interaction with others so they can learn the information by themselves The worksheet and class discussion helps with students who are better at working in groups, and verbal learners. The two test, the worksheet and the Prezi, also allow me to use the Response to Intervention triangle found on page 150 of the textbook. I can place the student in groups based on which stage of the triangle the are at. Primary learning, not really needing my help, Secondary learning, needing a little assistance, and Individual, needing a lot of assistance. It also allows them to work with people similar to them, because it might be frustrating for a Primary learning and an individual learning to work together.