L5+Petroska,+Kirsten

UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT FARMINGTON COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, HEALTH AND REHABILITATION LESSON PLAN FORMAT

Teacher’s Name: Ms. Petroska Date of Lesson: Lesson 5 (Empathy) Grade Level: 9th grade Topic: Styles and Genres: fiction vs. nonfiction, personal narrative, reality-based, fantasy/sci-fi, mystery, historical, humor, etc.

Objectives Student will understand that a narrative can be told in different ways. Student will know about different styles and genres--fiction vs. nonfiction, personal narrative, reality-based, fantasy/sci-fi, mystery, historical, humor, etc. Student will be able to do to be more open to using narrative writing in different ways.

Maine Learning Results Alignment Maine Learning Result: English Language Arts- B. Writing B2 Narrative Grades 9 - Diploma Students embed narrative writing in a written text when appropriate to the audience and purpose. a. Use diction, syntax, imagery, and tone to create a distinctive voice

Rationale: In order for students to fully appreciate narrative writing and have a solid understanding of the craft they need to be able to understand the multitude of ways a story can be told and what kind of stories there are. This paired with a knowledge of literary terms and how the organization of a story works will allow students to more easily embed narrative writing in their work.

Assessment

Formative (Assessment for Learning) Students will be filling out a KWL chart (What I Know, Want to Know, and Have Learned) over what they already know about different genres. In the "K" column, they may list what genres they are already aware of, what qualities make up a particularly genre, or both. In the "W" column, students may ask question like what features does one look for when determining a book is part of certain genre or what kinds of categories or sub-categories are there. After the lesson students will list what they learned or the answers to the questions from the previous column in the "L" column. Through working with the KWL chart, I will be able to pre-assess and do an informal assessment at the end of the lesson of what my students know about different genres in writing. This will be important in determining what resources to make available in their final projects.

Summative (Assessment of Learning) Students will be geocaching (or a modified version of it, as there may be a lack of GPS tools to use with students), which is a virtual treasure hunt, to learn and work with different genres of writing. Students, in groups of three or four, will work together to find the locations of the "treasures" pertaining to a specific genre. Through the clues they discover (using coordinates they get off a wikispace with their geocaching logs on them), they will learn more about a specific genre (like the memoir, realistic fiction, fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, etc.). Students will present what they found during the geocache along with the activities they had to participate in to learn more about a genre the following class. Students will also be asked to do a short follow-up activity where they describe each genre covered in the geocache (as presented by other pairs/groups) on their blogs. Between their presentations, documentation of participation in activities on the geocache log on the wikispace, and blogs, I know how much my students understand about the many genres in literature and they have some sense of the characteristics of each.

Integration Technology: Students will be using wikispaces and possibly GPS equipment (again, depends on what I have access to) to participate in geocaching. They will be recording what they found and where on a wikispace available to the whole class so they can see what the other groups have found. Through this interaction with the wiki, students will gain a better understanding of literary genres.

Other Content Areas: Students will be participating in an activity similar to orienteering, where they must navigate through the school campus (outdoors and/or in, depending on whether). They will begin to learn about having a sense of direction and how to determine different routes and find their way to specifically marked locations.

Groupings Students will be paired/grouped based on being counted off. Students will be given roles of navigator, where he/she will have the main responsibility of determining how to get to each "treasure," and of recorder, where the student will record the information from the activities they participate in at each "treasure." There will either be two navigators or two recorders (in the event of a fourth group member, there will be two of each)--how many of each will be at the discretion of the group.

Differentiated Instruction

Strategies: Logical: Students will have to follow coordinates to find the caches. Verbal: Students will be doing a written follow-up activity Visual: The geocaching aspect of the class allows students with spacial proclivities to have an opportunity to use that sense of space to find the "treasures." Intrapersonal: Students will have to evaluate what they know, want to know, and learned using the KWL organizer. Interpersonal: Students will have to work as a team to discover the caches. Kinesthetic: Students will be out physically participating in order to gain more knowledge on narrative writing. Naturatlist: Students will be exploring outdoors as they explore narrative writing.

Modifications/Accommodations I will review student's IEP, 504 or ELL/DEP and make appropriate modifications and accomodations.

Absent Students: If a student is absent for the first day of class, I will send him a sort of impromptu webquest of links and activities he can check out and do that sort of simulates what the students would have been doing that day. If a student is absent for the second day, I will have her check out the wiki page to see what sort of information the other groups received and the activities they participated in. She will then do the follow-up activity of describing each genre presented by the class. If a student is absent for both class days then he/she will simply do both activities suggested above.

Extensions Students will be using a wikispace to gather points to navigate to on the schools campus and then to record what the found and list links to sites they may have been asked to visit after the geocaching was done. The wiki page (there will be one for each genre) will be acessed by other groups so they may have a reference point for the genres they did not geocache for.

Materials, Resources and Technology Laptops Wikispaces (specific pages made for the navigation points, a geocache log, a working definition of a genre, then for helpful links students visit, and then for the activities the students completed) Cannisters to contain the "treasures" students find Slips of paper describing either an activity, link, or working definition KWL chart A hardcopy of the geocache log for the recorder Checklist for wikispaces (include link to blog for the follow activity) Rulers Compasses

Source for Lesson Plan and Research This site, this site, and this site gave me an idea of what genres I should include in the geocache. Genres I am using:


 * biography/memoir (Persepolis) Activity: Students will describe an event in their life that they feel they could focus a memoir on.
 * realistic fiction (The Last Part First) Activity: Students will discuss why some may or may not be turned off to realistic fiction.
 * science fiction (The Hunger Games) Activity: Students will find a bin of books (one of the "treasures") and will read the blurbs on the back and/or a description provided by me and discuss the differences between the novels and the genre as a whole.
 * fantasy (The Golden Compass) Activity: Students will do the same as the science fiction students.
 * drama (Angels in America) Activity: Students will read aloud from a play and then discuss the benefits/disadvantages of reading a play aloud versus reading it silently.
 * poetry (William Blake) Activity: Students will do the same as the drama students.
 * short story (I'll find a short story online) Activity: Students will discuss the power in a short story versus a long one.
 * historical fiction (The Other Boleyn Girl or Outlander) Activity: Students will discuss how they feel the current time period will be portrayed in the future.
 * horror (World War Z) Activity: Students will discuss how horror stories can be perceived differently depending on what makes someone scared.

The book titles listed will be the source for excerpts that will be "treasures." Students will type out their book excerpt (it will be pretty short) and then identify what parts of the excerpt make it a specific genre on the google site. I will create short working definitions for the students on each genre; these will be one of the "treasures" they find. Before they can read the definition, students will have to guess what genre they've been looking at and write it down on slips of paper with their name on it. This will provide me with a sense of who has picked up one what we're talking about. On their google site, students will use their own words to define the genre. The activities will be one of the "treasures" students find. The recorder will be expected to record the information exchanged during the discussions. Students will find a newspaper article and discuss how it could be transformed and retold using the genre they've been "discovering."

Maine Standards for Initial Teacher Certification and Rationale

Standard 3 - Demonstrates a knowledge of the diverse ways in which students learn and develop by providing learning opportunities that support their intellectual, physical, emotional, social, and cultural development. Rationale: This lesson works with multiple learning styles. Beach ball learners, for example, will benefit from the adaptive environment, where students will be visiting various locations on the school's campus and drawing information from various resources. A clipboard learner will be able to access the information because there will be a clear sequence in learning. Each "treasure" students discover has to be put together in order to form a full picture of what each genre means. Microscope learners will be able to gain a deep understanding of the genre they're looking at by the deep discussion and using the information in various ways. Puppy learners will have the benefit of having a role that is important to the working of the group and creating a support system in that way. They will also have chances to reflect on the genre and have discussions over how they feel it works.

Standard 4 - Plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, curriculum goals, and learning and development theory. Rationale: Students will be accessing empathy in this lesson by looking at a number of genres and realizing that there is more than one way to write a story and that there are a multitude of ways to interpret something. They will empathize with the writers of these genres by pulling the genre apart and discussing specific aspects of it (from why it may or may not work for some to how future authors may approach it). Students will also be spending a great deal of time listening to each others opinions on genres and how the function in literature.

Standard 5 - Understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies and appropriate technology to meet students’ needs. Rationale: Students will be using wikispaces and possibly GPS equipment (again, depends on what I have access to) to participate in geocaching. They will be recording what they found and where on a wikispace available to the whole class so they can see what the other groups have found. Through this interaction with the wiki, students will gain a better understanding of literary genres.


 * Verbal: Students will be participating in quick writes.
 * Logical: Students will have to follow coordinates to find the caches.
 * Interpersonal: Students will have to work as a team to discover the caches.
 * Intrapersonal: Students will have to evaluate what they know, want to know, and learned using the KWL organizer.
 * Naturalist: Students will be exploring outdoors as they explore narrative writing.
 * Bodily/Kinesthetic: Students will be out physically participating in order to gain more knowledge on narrative writing.
 * Visual: The geocaching aspect of the class allows students with spacial proclivities to have an opportunity to use that sense of space to find the "treasures."

Standard 8 - Understands and uses a variety of formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and support the development of the learner. Rationale: Formative (Assessment for Learning) Students will be filling out a KWL chart (What I Know, Want to Know, and Have Learned) over what they already know about different genres. In the "K" column, they may list what genres they are already aware of, what qualities make up a particularly genre, or both. In the "W" column, students may ask question like what features does one look for when determining a book is part of certain genre or what kinds of categories or sub-categories are there. After the lesson students will list what they learned or the answers to the questions from the previous column in the "L" column. Through working with the KWL chart, I will be able to pre-assess and do an informal assessment at the end of the lesson of what my students know about different genres in writing. This will be important in determining what resources to make available in their final projects.

Summative (Assessment of Learning) Students will be geocaching (or a modified version of it, as there may be a lack of GPS tools to use with students), which is a virtual treasure hunt, to learn and work with different genres of writing. Students, in groups of three or four, will work together to find the locations of the "treasures" pertaining to a specific genre. Through the clues they discover (using coordinates they get off a wikispace with their geocaching logs on them), they will learn more about a specific genre (like the memoir, realistic fiction, fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, etc.). Students will present what they found during the geocache along with the activities they had to participate in to learn more about a genre the following class. Students will also be asked to do a short follow-up activity where they describe each genre covered in the geocache (as presented by other pairs/groups) on their blogs. Between their presentations, documentation of participation in activities on the geocache log on the wikispace, and blogs, I know how much my students understand about the many genres in literature and they have some sense of the characteristics of each.

Teaching and Learning Sequence:

Students will not be in the classroom for the first day of class. The second day we will be in a "U" shape for presentiontations.

Day One:


 * Students will meet outside (or in the front entrance, depending on the weather/where I plan the geocache) and will fill out the KWL chart. (10 mins.)
 * Students will start geocaching. I will visit with each group during the class period to be sure things are moving along. A note about supervision during the geocache: While I cannot 100% know what sort of students I’ll have each time I do this activity, this is my plan of action if I find I cannot trust my students to geocache all over campus—they will go from site to site as I’ve set up in an athletic field or something similar. Also, if laptops cannot be brought outside or something of that nature, I will have the next coordinates at each site students navigate to. (50 mins.)
 * Students will meet in the school library and record the information into the group's google site. If they have spare time, students will be asked to look around the library and begin to compile a short list of titles for their genre to share with the class. (20 mins.)

Day Two:


 * Students will present their findings to the class. (45 mins.)
 * Students will spend the remainder of the class working on the follow up activity, completing the KWL chart and silent reading or finishing google site. (35 mins.)

Students will be learning that narrative writing can be done in many ways and can fall into multiple genres. They will see by looking at newspaper articles and discussing how it can be retold using a specific genre that the narrative can apply to real life. I'd also like to make the connection that things like college essays can be spiced up by employing narrative writing and that these genres may apply in those situations. This, of course, is a very good example of how students can embed narrative writing when appropriate for audience purpose. (What, Where, Why)

Through the geocaching and following presentations, students will be equipped with the knowledge of genres--what kinds are out there, what they're characteristics are, etc. Students will be able to deeply emerse themselves in one particular genre, and while they may not have the same amount of emersion in the other genres, they will have access to the other groups presentations and their wikis, creating a more well-rounded idea of what sort of writing is out in the world. I will be interacting with students as they complete the geocache, making sure they are staying on target and truly interacting with the material. I feel that by putting students in groups, those who might have lagged behind or not fully understood if working on the information alone will have the benefit of peers and myself to help work through the information. I also think that by seeing the resulting wikispace, I will have an idea of how much my students took from the lesson and the amount of understanding. For further information pertaining to content, please look at my content notes. (Equip, Tailors: Interpersonal)

Students will begin to explore information by filling out the KWL chart. It will get them thinking about the subject and what they know and then need/want to know. Students will experience this information by going on the geocache (taking navigation points and following them, navigating the geography of campus and locating themselves and the "treasures" on a map) and working the information on the wikispace, along with listening to presentations the following day and doing the follow-up activity. I feel that by discussing the genres and writing about them, as well as presenting to the class, students will feel more comfortable with the different genres and perhaps be more willing to write in them. Students will do this in-depth exploration of genres in groups of three and four and will be assigned the roles of navigator and recorder. Students may choose which role they would like, but there must be one of each. As students realize there are many different ways to approach narrative writing (for example, narrative writing doesn't have to be fictitious), their ideas of how they can approach their own narrative writing will change. Students will explore the items and activities they found while geocaching while employing the point of view that narrative writing might be different than they thought. Students will present what they discovered about different genres and styles of writing within narrative writing to the class. (Explore, Experience, Rethink, Revise, Refine, Tailors: Intrapersonal, Verbal, Logical, Spacial, Naturalist, Bodily/Kinesthetic)

Students will self-assess using their KWL chart. The "L" column provides them with the opportunity to discuss what they've learned. I will provide timely feed back by working with students as they geocache, participate in discussions, and complete their wikispaces. This lesson works directly with their final lesson of the unit and final project, where they are writing five seperate newspaper articles using narrative writing. They will be able to employ a variety of genres in this newspaper.

Content Notes This site, this site, and this site gave me an idea of what genres I should include in the geocache. Genres I am using:


 * biography/memoir (Persepolis) Activity: Students will describe an event in their life that they feel they could focus a memoir on.
 * realistic fiction (The Last Part First) Activity: Students will discuss why some may or may not be turned off to realistic fiction.
 * science fiction (The Hunger Games) Activity: Students will find a bin of books (one of the "treasures") and will read the blurbs on the back and discuss the differences between the novels and the genre as a whole.
 * fantasy (The Golden Compass) Activity: Students will do the same as the science fiction students.
 * drama (Angels in America) Activity: Students will read aloud from a play and then discuss the benefits/disadvantages of reading a play aloud versus reading it silently.
 * poetry (William Blake) Activity: Students will do the same as the drama students.
 * short story (I'll find a short story online) Activity: Students will discuss the power in a short story versus a long one.
 * historical fiction (The Other Boleyn Girl or Outlander) Activity: Students will discuss how they feel the current time period will be portrayed in the future.
 * horror (World War Z) Activity: Students will discuss how horror stories can be perceived differently depending on what makes someone scared.

Note to sub: The book titles listed will be the source for excerpts that will be "treasures." I will create short working definitions for the students on each genre; these will be one of the "treasures" they find. The activities will be one of the "treasures" students find. The recorder will be expected to record the information exchanged during the discussions. Students will find a newspaper article and discuss how it could be transformed and retold using the genre they've been "discovering."

Handouts KWL chart A hardcopy of the geocache log for the recorder Checklist for wikispaces (include link for the follow-up activity) Description of follow-up activity Group Rating Sheet