How to engage students in a lesson

I think that teachers need to think about one question when they make a lesson plan, "So what?"  The teacher needs to make the lesson relevant to student's lives or else they won't care to learn it.  They need to be able to see why you are teaching this lesson to them and draw connections with real life situations; otherwise what you are teaching them would be useless.  I am sure we've all thought this before.

Communication

I found it interesting how descriptions of a drawing could change all because of lack of communication.  If one person doesn't get enough information to give the next person, the next person is the one who will have to communicate these descriptions to the next.  The problem with this is that the next descriptor may provide less information or interpret what the previous person said differently.  I think this assignment taught us how different people interpret things differently.  Even things that seem simple enough, like describing a ice cream cone, can have percise details.  We should think about this when we are designing assignments, we want to be as clear as possible for the person we are communicating too. 

The traveling story

I like the idea of a traveling story.  I think this is a fun way for students to be creative.  What I like is that the notes card get mixed around the class, and at the end nobody knows where their note card is.  When everyone reads their card out loud that they wound up with, the whole class can be exposed to different styles of  writing.  The class can assess how and where mistakes are made when writing.  If enough clarity is not provied by the first student to begin the card, as the card moves to someone else they may see that subject as something else and begin changing the subject that the initial writer intended.  A student can also assess their story and what others think about it, without worrying that someone is going to know who wrote it.  I know many students fear that. Since I am going to be teaching Math 4-8, I could see myself using this in my 4th or 5th classes, where I will have writing assisgnments involved.  In grades 6-8, it might be harder for me to come up with a mathimatical way to use this sort of writing assignment.  Off the top of my head right now I can't think of any.  If you can, let me know your ideas.

My four week plans

My four week plan will involve four contents: Physical Education (PE), Math, ELA, and Health. In PE, I will have students write down the amount of time each student in their PE class takes to finish their mile run every day for a whole week.  Student's can also be instructed to figure out their heart rate after their run; which would involve health class and math.  In health, the human heart can be a subject discussed and how to maintain it.  In math students can work on average, mean, median, mode for the mile lap times; as well they can analyze information. Student's can also analyze the progress of their hearts health by recording their individual heart rate after they run daily.  For ELA, my TEK will be for the 6th grade, TEK 15B, which involves writing a poem. Generally under TEK 15, students should write a literary text to express their ideas or feelings about real or imagined people, events, or ideas.  With this in mind I will expect them to express how their hearts feel before their mile run and after, through a poem.  They can use poetic techniques such as alliterations, onomatopoeias, similes, or metaphors.  I still have more thinking to put into this, so this is where I am starting.  Hopefully it will work out well. 

Assessment

Assessment is a way to get to know a student better.  There are different kinds of assessments like informal assessments or formal assessments.  An example of a formal assessment would be the TAKS test (a standardized test), where students levels of progress in certain subjects are evaluated by the state, school, or teacher.  Students are evaluated individually or in groups, and formal assessment lacks a one-on-one connection between the students and teachers.  Informal assessments are often done by teachers to observe student reading on a range of reading tasks and multiple contexts.  A teacher could assess a student informally by having a student read aloud in private.  Informal assessments are also known as authentic assessments.  An example of a math content authentic assessment would be to have students’ calculate a basketball game's averages.  You can have them think about how they would calculate the average of individual players and for the team.  They can even figure out shooting percentages of the players.  This gives them a relevance to real life situations.  A second example of an authentic assessment would be to have students’ manage a check book and bank account.  They can be given a certain salary on a weekly basis.  Then the teacher could randomly note an expense or expenses on the board for students to figure into their checking account.  (Example: Today your house rent of $500 is due and groceries $45.31)  A third example of an authentic assessment in the math content area would be to have students measure random items in their home like a kitchen table, soda can, or refrigerator door.  Students’ should determine what unit of measurement would be best for the object, like feet or meters would be appropriate when measuring a kitchen table.  A rubric could be made by the teacher in anyone of these examples as a means for the teacher to evaluate the student level of thinking process.  With a rubric the teacher can assess students’ range of knowledge, depth of engagement, use of strategies, metacognitive skills, and more.  Click this link for a Authentic Assessment Toolbox

The writing process

Writing is a process that involves 5 different stages. The first stage is the prewriting stage.  Brainstorming, research, outlines, or thinking maps are some examples of what is done during this stage. The second step is the drafting stage in which the writer puts his/her ideas on paper.  During this time the writer does not need to worry about punctuation or spelling. Then the third stage is revising.  During this stage the writer can move text around, read the paper out loud, draw up questions, or delete items where deemed necessary. A good idea would be to have peers read the draft and provide their input, it may be possible that the writer needs to strengthen an argument or add details and examples.  The fourth stage is the editing stage, where the writer can correct errors like run on and fragment sentences, correct spelling, or correct punctuation and grammar errors.  The last stage is to publish the writing by turning it in to which it was written for.  Some examples of which writers turn their writing into are teachers, principles, newspapers, or magazines.  Then end result is a well written and thought out paper.

Persuasive and informative writing

An author uses persuasive writing to persuade someone to do something which agrees with his/her point of view.  A student could write to his/her teacher to persuade the teacher that homework is not needed.   The student should think about what kind of words of persuasion to use that might appeal to his/her teacher.  The student could aim his/her writing towards the teachers emotions.  Perhaps the student could conduct a survey to get the teachers’ opinion on the way he/she felt about homework when he/she was in the same grade level.  Questions like “Did you find homework useful in elementary, middle, and high school?  Did you feel like when you came out of school you didn’t want to work, you wanted to play or rest from a hard day of work?”   The student could also appeal to what the teacher values.  Maybe the student could look up different teacher websites that lists different teacher’s opinions on homework to get an idea of what teachers may value.  From here the student can see why some teachers may or may not value homework.  Also statistics, studies, and surveys that contain information supporting that homework is not needed. 

Informative writing is used to inform an audience of something or teach something.  A teacher could have the student look up a web page for example on bats.  From there the teacher can give them a worksheet shows students questions to consider when they are trying to see if what they are reading is informative.  Questions like “What is the subject? What new information is being taught? Where facts and data used?  Where you taught something by the end of their reading?” are good ways to identify informative writing.