Grade 4
Teaching Subject: English Language Arts, Computers, Social Studies
PSI Professional Goals and attainments
Goal 1: Publishing
"Language Arts: Content and Teaching Strategies" outlines the final stage of the writing process as “publishing.” In the Language in Education class on campus, we explored ways students may share their writing, including making submissions to writing contests, hosting read-aloud parties and posting online. One of the questions I aim to explore during my five weeks in a Grade 4 classroom for PSI is: How do teachers incorporate the publishing stage of writing in their classrooms? I want my students to believe in their ability to write; I want them to see themselves as great writers because it bothered me to hear my university classmates say that they never thought of themselves as writers because no one ever took the time to recognize their ability. I think when students share their writing with an audience that it boosts their confidence and they start to see themselves as authors.
Attainment
The final task in our newspaper project was to create a front page. Students spent two lessons creating a rough draft of their front page that included the name of the newspaper, the date, price, a colourful picture complete with a headline and caption, a “teaser” to a story inside the newspaper, weather forecast, and index. Before moving on to working on the final, good copy of their front page, I had students do a gallery walk of their rough drafts on Dec. 6 (pictured at left). Students noted elements they liked about others’ pages and we talked about them during a class discussion following the gallery walk. (They had some really great ideas such as weather forecasts that spanned seven days instead of one and including their name as the editor.) Many students incorporated ideas they gathered during the gallery walk into the final copy of their front page. In this instance, students learned from each other and it resulted in better work than if they’d done the assignment on their own and never shared their draft copies with their classmates.
Goal 1B: Book talk
Another PSI goal is to incorporate at least one book talk into every subject I teach during my five weeks in the classroom. Because this goal is linked to literacy, I consider it an extension of my first goal.
Attainment
Teaching English Language Arts presented several opportunities to open a lesson with a book talk. On Nov. 20, I read “My First Best Friend” from “Read a Rhyme, Write a Rhyme” by Jack Prelutsky to introduce alliteration. Before put our new knowledge of alliteration and onomatopoeia into action on Nov. 22 by creating comics, I read “Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman” by Marc Tyler Nobleman. The book also showed how voice bubbles of different shapes communicate meaning and enhance effect (ELA 2.2). On Nov. 25, I read “Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut” by Margaret Atwood to show how alliteration can be used (A LOT) within a sentence.
Goal 2: Technology
I want to explore how laptops can enhance a lesson.
Attainment
Bam! Beep! Zoom! While working on our newspaper project, students studied onomatopoeia and alliteration through the use of comic strips. After an introduction to onomatopoeia, which describes words that imitate the natural sound associated with an action or object, and alliteration, which is the repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of each or most of the words in a sentence, students viewed as a class several comic strips to identify examples of onomatopoeia. The group then discussed the purpose of onomatopoeia and its effect in a story. In subsequent lessons, students did the same thing with alliteration — identify examples in poetry, and then discuss the purpose and its effect. Finally, students worked individually to create their own comic strips that include onomatopoeia and alliteration.
There are plenty of free online comic-strip templates available that I could have printed but Learn Alberta offers an online resource that shows students how to design effect posters, newspapers and comic strips (http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/elci/). The resource covered two learning outcomes:
• Explain how language and visuals work together to communicate meaning and enhance effect, and
• Recognize how words and word combinations, such as word play, repetition and rhyme, influence or convey meaning.
Any time you bring the laptop cart into the classroom, the students can’t contain their enthusiasm. The students were eager to complete the assignment that stated they must include one instance of alliteration in the title and at least one example of onomatopoeia in their comic. The laptops also provided a chance to explore some ITC outcomes, including digital etiquette. I do not believe it is enough to create rules and policy; we must show students how to become responsible digital citizens. The lesson included a discussion about why their comics should be of a non-violent nature and not hurtful toward other students.
Onomatopoeia and Alliteration in Comic Strips Lesson that incorporates Goals 1, 1A, and 2
Goal 2B: SMARTBoard
I feel comfortable using computers but the SMARTBoard is a classroom tool that is new to me. I aim to use it not solely as a glorified projector, but have students interact with at least one lesson on the interactive whiteboard.
Attainment
The SMARTBoard is invaluable in the classroom. I incorporated Prezi and PowerPoint presentations, and videos in several of my lessons — all of them were shown on the SMARTBoard. Creating an interactive lesson in language arts that complemented my newspaper unit was a challenge. On Dec. 4, in the final week of my practicum, I helped our science teacher run a Jeopardy-style interactive game with the students as a form of formative assessment for their unit on light and shadows. The students enjoyed coming up to the board and selecting their category and point value. I believe the student involvement held their attention during what could have been an otherwise boring review class.
"Language Arts: Content and Teaching Strategies" outlines the final stage of the writing process as “publishing.” In the Language in Education class on campus, we explored ways students may share their writing, including making submissions to writing contests, hosting read-aloud parties and posting online. One of the questions I aim to explore during my five weeks in a Grade 4 classroom for PSI is: How do teachers incorporate the publishing stage of writing in their classrooms? I want my students to believe in their ability to write; I want them to see themselves as great writers because it bothered me to hear my university classmates say that they never thought of themselves as writers because no one ever took the time to recognize their ability. I think when students share their writing with an audience that it boosts their confidence and they start to see themselves as authors.
Attainment
The final task in our newspaper project was to create a front page. Students spent two lessons creating a rough draft of their front page that included the name of the newspaper, the date, price, a colourful picture complete with a headline and caption, a “teaser” to a story inside the newspaper, weather forecast, and index. Before moving on to working on the final, good copy of their front page, I had students do a gallery walk of their rough drafts on Dec. 6 (pictured at left). Students noted elements they liked about others’ pages and we talked about them during a class discussion following the gallery walk. (They had some really great ideas such as weather forecasts that spanned seven days instead of one and including their name as the editor.) Many students incorporated ideas they gathered during the gallery walk into the final copy of their front page. In this instance, students learned from each other and it resulted in better work than if they’d done the assignment on their own and never shared their draft copies with their classmates.
Goal 1B: Book talk
Another PSI goal is to incorporate at least one book talk into every subject I teach during my five weeks in the classroom. Because this goal is linked to literacy, I consider it an extension of my first goal.
Attainment
Teaching English Language Arts presented several opportunities to open a lesson with a book talk. On Nov. 20, I read “My First Best Friend” from “Read a Rhyme, Write a Rhyme” by Jack Prelutsky to introduce alliteration. Before put our new knowledge of alliteration and onomatopoeia into action on Nov. 22 by creating comics, I read “Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman” by Marc Tyler Nobleman. The book also showed how voice bubbles of different shapes communicate meaning and enhance effect (ELA 2.2). On Nov. 25, I read “Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut” by Margaret Atwood to show how alliteration can be used (A LOT) within a sentence.
Goal 2: Technology
I want to explore how laptops can enhance a lesson.
Attainment
Bam! Beep! Zoom! While working on our newspaper project, students studied onomatopoeia and alliteration through the use of comic strips. After an introduction to onomatopoeia, which describes words that imitate the natural sound associated with an action or object, and alliteration, which is the repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of each or most of the words in a sentence, students viewed as a class several comic strips to identify examples of onomatopoeia. The group then discussed the purpose of onomatopoeia and its effect in a story. In subsequent lessons, students did the same thing with alliteration — identify examples in poetry, and then discuss the purpose and its effect. Finally, students worked individually to create their own comic strips that include onomatopoeia and alliteration.
There are plenty of free online comic-strip templates available that I could have printed but Learn Alberta offers an online resource that shows students how to design effect posters, newspapers and comic strips (http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/elci/). The resource covered two learning outcomes:
• Explain how language and visuals work together to communicate meaning and enhance effect, and
• Recognize how words and word combinations, such as word play, repetition and rhyme, influence or convey meaning.
Any time you bring the laptop cart into the classroom, the students can’t contain their enthusiasm. The students were eager to complete the assignment that stated they must include one instance of alliteration in the title and at least one example of onomatopoeia in their comic. The laptops also provided a chance to explore some ITC outcomes, including digital etiquette. I do not believe it is enough to create rules and policy; we must show students how to become responsible digital citizens. The lesson included a discussion about why their comics should be of a non-violent nature and not hurtful toward other students.
Onomatopoeia and Alliteration in Comic Strips Lesson that incorporates Goals 1, 1A, and 2
Goal 2B: SMARTBoard
I feel comfortable using computers but the SMARTBoard is a classroom tool that is new to me. I aim to use it not solely as a glorified projector, but have students interact with at least one lesson on the interactive whiteboard.
Attainment
The SMARTBoard is invaluable in the classroom. I incorporated Prezi and PowerPoint presentations, and videos in several of my lessons — all of them were shown on the SMARTBoard. Creating an interactive lesson in language arts that complemented my newspaper unit was a challenge. On Dec. 4, in the final week of my practicum, I helped our science teacher run a Jeopardy-style interactive game with the students as a form of formative assessment for their unit on light and shadows. The students enjoyed coming up to the board and selecting their category and point value. I believe the student involvement held their attention during what could have been an otherwise boring review class.
Other activities
• I chaperoned the Dr. Probe Senior Choir during the 14th annual LSO Kids Choir on November 27 in Southminster United Church.
on-campus artifacts
The Hockey Sweater
I’ve wanted to use “The Hockey Sweater” by Roch Carrier in a lesson for as long as I can remember. It's the first book I bought my daughter and remains one of my favourites. I think it’s a great book for boys, who may not be avid readers. In this lesson, I don’t read the entire story to the class, either, so hopefully it serves as a book talk and the boys pick it up on their own time. This is a lesson plan I created for my Curriculum & Instruction class in October 2013.
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type
This is another one of my all-time favourite picture books is "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type" by Doreen Cronin. This lesson is one I put together as part of a book talk in my Language in Education class in October 2013. It can be adapted for Kindergarten to Grade 4. For younger students, I'd break up the lesson into two with the first one ending after "Development" and the second lesson beginning at "Discussion." Older students may keep the story going with their own originally written story instead of a three-panel comic. Another change I'd make is giving the students more choice for their comic and make one-, two- and three-panel comics available.
A third lesson could incorporate digital citizenship. Because students imagine what happens if the animals get a computer with Internet access, there is an opportunity to discuss appropriate and responsible online communication skills.
A third lesson could incorporate digital citizenship. Because students imagine what happens if the animals get a computer with Internet access, there is an opportunity to discuss appropriate and responsible online communication skills.