Thursday, October 8, 2009

Sample Lesson Plans for 5th Grade

Inquiry

What Taught

Alliteration is the repetition of beginning consonant sounds.

How Taught- Inquiry

  1. Examples/Non-Examples: Give students a tongue twister “Sally shelled sea shells by the sea shore.” Have them say it five times fast.
  2. Question to direct Inquiry - Go back to the tongue twister. Why was the tongue twister so hard to say fast many times? [there were a lot of ‘s’ sounds]
    1. Say these tongue twisters- “Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”.
    2. “Friendly Frank flips fine flapjacks.”
  3. Hypothesis: What do all of these tongue twisters have in common? [The beginning letter is a consonant, The starting sound is the same]
  4. Verification: This is called Alliteration. It is when the beginning consonant sound is repeated. It is most commonly used in poetry.
  5. Practice- Pick a topic together, and have each person add one word to create an alliterated phrase. (topic- Pink, Pink panthers prance in pretty poses)

How Demonstrated

Each student will write a sentence using alliteration with 100% accuracy.

Rate:

  1. Time: 10-15 minutes
  2. Space: Desks
  3. People: Teacher- gives tongue twisters, guides topic choice.

Student- share ideas to figure out similarities in patterns

  1. Materials: Paper with tongue twisters on them. Pencil and paper for students to write on.

Direct Instruction

What taught

Internet Etiquette.

  1. Etiquette means ‘good manners’. Internet Etiquette (or netiquette) is using good manners on the internet.
    1. Avoid shouting- Shouting is when you type in all CAPS. If you want to emphasize something put it in italics, or surround it with *asterisks* or other _punctuation_ marks.
    2. Be polite- Be careful not to upset people with your words. If you are unsure that someone will understand that you mean well, make sure you either state it or put a smiley face.
    3. Be forgiving- Decoding things on the internet is hard, if something upsets you or you think it is rude make sure to ask questions before getting upset. Usually the person did not mean harm.
    4. Be careful- Never give out your full name, address, phone number or e-mail out on the Internet (not even to friends!) unless you ask your parents first.

How Taught

  1. Anticipatory Set- How many of you use the internet regularly? What do you use it for?
  2. Telling- By the end of this lesson the students will know four rules to Internet Etiquette.
  3. Instruction- See above. List them, let students give examples if they wish.
  4. Modeling- “I enjoy reading blogs online, and sometimes what they say is different then what I think is right. Bloggers like to get feedback, so when I reply I will make sure to avoid shouting (using all caps), make sure to not accuse them or degrade them, and always wrap up with a clarifying question. And I never use my real name, but make up a pen name.”
  5. Guided Practice- Together write a reply to someone on the internet who said something bad about the principal of your school.
  6. Check for Understanding- Once the blog post is written have students say how they kept the rules of etiquette.
  7. Independent Practice: You are writing in a class blog about a book you really did not like. Write the post without breaking Internet Etiquette. (Keep this to 3-5 sentences at most)
  8. Closure: Encourage students to only go online with parent permission, and make sure they know what websites you are going to.

How Demonstrated

Students will write a blog post about a book they do not like that follows all rules of Internet Etiquette.

Rate

  1. Time: 15-20 min.
  2. Space: At desks
  3. People: Students giving feedback and insights into their own internet experiences.
  4. Materials: Paper to write blog posts on.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

A Case in Contrasts

I would like to present you with two cases.

A) Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (aka, Texas State Standards)
(See: Scroll to Bottom, Open 4th Grade, find Social Studies Core 4th Grade p. 18)

B) Utah State Core Curriculum
(See: Social Studies Core 4th Grade p. 13)

Now, your assignment. Look at both cores. Tell me how they are the same. Tell me how they are different. Now, tell me which one you would like to use to plan your curriculum. (Hint, the answer isn't Texas.)

Why do they have such a ridiculous core? Seriously? It makes NO sense.



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