Final Synthesis Project

Final Synthesis Project

Target Audience: 

My audience are 3^rd grade students at a Title I school.  Our students come from low-income families in which some have technology access at home and others do not.  My particular class includes four learning disabled students.  All four qualify based on their reading and/or writing abilities.  All are at least a grade level below where they need to be in reading.  In addition, I have eight students who are average, at level students and five who read well above grade level.  My students have a variety of interests and learning styles.  It is also worth noting that I have 12 boys and seven girls, which tends to make my classroom a bit more active.  We try to get up and move several times throughout the day in order to get some energy out.

Context:

This lesson is designed for my 3^rd grade students who are in the transition of becoming 4^th graders.  As third graders, they are learning to “read to learn versus learn to read.” According to the GLCEs (Grade Level Content Expectations) and Common Core, 3^rd and 4^th grade students are required to discuss and respond to literature discussing character motivation, create their own point of view from that of a character or the author, make connections, ask questions and more.  In this lesson students will be expected to read deeply and respond to what they read.  Doing so will help prepare them for the MEAP which they will take the following October as well as their future career as a student. 

Learning Objectives:

Ø    Students will be able to ask and answer questions about a poem and will refer to the poem as a basis for their answer. (3.RL.1 – common core)

Ø    Students will be able to describe characters in the poetry and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events. (3.RL.3 – common core)

Ø    Students will be able to determine the meaning of words or phrases and distinguish literal from non-literal language. (3.RL.4 – common core)

Ø    Students will be able to refer to poetry using the term stanza and be able to describe how the stanzas build on each other or connect. (3.RL.5 – common core)

Ø    Students will be able to compare and contrast different themes, settings, plots in poems written by the same author and different authors. (3.RL.9 – common core)

Ø    Students will use digital communication tools and online resources for a group learning project. (3-5.CC.1 – GLCE)

Ø    Students will use a variety of media and formats to create and edit products to communicate information and ideas to various audiences. (3-5.CC.3 – GLCE)

Lesson Description:

We would begin this project in March because there is some preliminary teaching that would need to take place in order for 3^rd grade students to understand and use the technology properly as well as to respond to literature in a thoughtful and meaningful way.  As I mentioned before, in 3^rd grade students are making the transition from learning to read to reading to learn.  Therefore, reading a poem and responding thoughtfully about the overall theme, discussing character motivations, author’s purpose, writing their own point of view, or making meaningful connections are lessons that are necessary prior to a project such as this.  Even with this knowledge in place, it will still be necessary to model how to write to a prompt using references to the poem.

In order to prepare students for using the technology, it would be wise to have them visit the class wikispace multiple times throughout the fall to simply become familiar with how to find their group folder, how to post in their folder, and how to use the links on the homepage.  Then, in the spring (early March) after students are familiar with the technology and with ways to thoughtfully respond to literature, they will be expected to visit our class wikispace twice a week.  The homepage of the wikispace contains a few links for reading poetry and a few for writing poetry.  When visiting the site, students will go to the “Weekly Tasks” folder and click on their group’s page (they will be in one of three groups based on their reading level).  Each folder has a task for students to complete.  Some weeks they will be asked to go to one of the reading links on the homepage and other weeks they may be asked to complete a writing task.  If the task is a reading task, there will also be a prompt or question for the students to respond to in their group folder.  The second time students visit will be to read their groupmates’ responses or their poetry if the week’s task was to write a piece of poetry. 

Incorporated Web 2.0 Applications/Justification:

Wikispace – I included a class wikispace so that everything my students need will be at their fingertips.  Students are able to visit websites that share poetry, have poetry read to them, and use tools to aid them in creating different forms of poetry.  Furthermore, it allows the opportunity for students to respond to literature and to their classmates, both of which are MEAP type experiences.  On the MEAP, my students are expected to respond to literature, this is the perfect practice for that.  It has also been discussed to have students type their 4^th grade writing MEAP.  If this is to happen soon, having students respond to literature while practicing their typing skills will be the perfect preparation.

Podcast – I included poetry podcasts on our wiki and as a part of this project because I have several students who do not read at grade level.  Therefore, the podcast allows for the perfect balance in which my students can gain practice reading by looking at the words but have it read to them to eliminate frustration and misunderstanding of the poem.  Plus, 3^rd grade students are still learning how to read poetry with the proper intonation, phrasing and expression.  The podcast provides students with exposure to hearing it read properly beyond what is done in the classroom.

Concept Mapping – Students will use concept mapping as a tool to organize their ideas.  When writing poetry much thought and attention to wording is necessary, thus, using a tool like concept mapping will allow students to get their ideas out and to play with different words.  Plus, 3^rd graders tend to lose paper when they have put their ideas on it.  Saving their ideas on a concept-mapping site will help to eliminate this issue.

Teacher Created Materials and Student Outcomes:

I have created the wikispace for my students.  When my students get to the website, they will go to their page within the “Weekly Tasks” folder.  Each student is assigned to one of the three pages based on their reading ability.  I have updated each of the pages to indicate the students’ task for the week.  Each student is expected to visit the website twice a week, check their page and complete the task provided to them.  The tasks include reading poetry and responding to it and writing poetry.  In their second visit students will need to respond to a classmates response to the poetry or to their poetry.  I have provided links to several poetry websites on the class homepage that I will expect students to use and that will be useful to students.  Included in those links are two links to poetry podcasts.  Several of my students read below grade level, these podcasts are helpful in that they read the poetry to my students while they look at the words.  This helps me to eliminate issues of students not being able to read the poetry.  In addition, under the writing section, I have included a link to a concept mapping website.  Some tasks will ask students to write poetry and in order to organize their thoughts, I have included this concept-mapping tool. 

Artifact:

I created a wikispace page for my students to visit.  At this page, they can access different resources for reading and writing poetry.  In addition, the page has a folder on the side that says “Weekly Tasks”.  Students will click on that folder and then on their group page (cardinals, tigers, Spartans).  I have separated my students based on their reading ability.  The tasks I created reflect the students’ varying ability levels.  The tasks for this week include listening to a podcast and reflecting on the poetry, comparing/contrasting two poems using an interactive tool and writing their own diamante poem using an interactive tool. 

http://krachtclass.pbworks.com/w/page/52897090/Kracht%27s%20Class%20Wiki - I have created this wiki with different log-ins for each of my students.

Week 14 Reflection - Favorite Web 2.0 Applications

Bookmarking and Screencasts were two of my favorite Web 2.0 applications that we worked with this semester.  I think both tools are very applicable to teaching.  I have tons of bookmarks on my computer but when I’m not on my computer I can’t use them, thus, having the bookmarking website allows me much more access.  As for Screencasts, they allow me to share information in a more visual way.  Simply reading directions is not always helpful, but seeing it done on a Screencast makes it much easier to understand. 

In addition to my personal enthusiasm for the use of these tools, there are several more reasons that others find these Web 2.0 tools to be useful.  “…a common genre of Web 2.0 applications are tools that allow for creating collections of websites and resources.”  This is exactly what bookmarking is.  It allows you to compile a list websites that are useful to you.  Plus, bookmarks are available anytime, anywhere, which is another common theme of Web 2.0 applications.  Not only are bookmarks available anytime, anywhere, but so to are Screencasts.  Screencasts on many different topics can be found from anywhere.  Furthermore, they allow the “…opportunity and a need to develop in students and teachers a capacity and willingness to share their intellectual contributions.”  Providing this opportunity and opening this avenue also then “…opens learning beyond the closed doors of the classroom or walled gardens of registered student,…”  Schools can begin to work together and experts can share their expertise.  Hopefully this will provide more opportunities to all students everywhere.  Screencasts can also provide an opportunity for communication between parents and teachers, students and students, and teachers and students.  Parents can see how things are done in class to better aid their students at home.  Students can be reminded of how things are done from classmates or teachers as another form of assistance.  It’s almost like having a teacher at home.  Finally, I feel that “All of these applications resonate with constructivist learning philosophies and pedagogies that focus on authentic task and audience, multiple perspectives, collaboration, and the production of artifacts.”  I find the term “authentic task” to be very important here because especially with Screencasts, the task is authentic.  The Screencast demonstrates exactly what a student needs to do and how to carry out a task.