Title III Learning Experience

Learning Context | Procedure | Instructional/Environmental Modifications | Time Required | Resources | Assessment Plan | Student Work | Reflection

LEARNING CONTEXT

Purpose or Focus of Experience

The purpose of this learning experience is to have students learn about the United States using a creative writing technique. This will be done by having students write a book about an individual state using the ABC format.

Overview

This learning experience is an activity that begins with a presentation by Mrs. Kay Skjellerup, a remedial reading teacher at the West Leyden Elementary School of the Adirondack Central School District. Mrs. Skjellerup presents a two part program that introduces students to ABC books. She share her personal collection of books with the students and then allows them about a week to work with the books to gain an understanding of what an ABC book is all about. On her second visit, she introduces how to go about actually writing a book sharing with them books that have been written by former students. The following learning experience is a follow up to her presentation.

Connection to Standards

ELA Standard #1.1

• Select information appropriate to the purpose of their investigation and relate ideas from one text to another.
• Select and use strategies they have been taught for note taking, organizing, and categorizing information.
• Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information and between fact and opinion.
• Relate new information to prior knowledge and experience.

ELA Standard # 1.2

• Organize information according to an identifiable structure, such as facts, details, illustrative examples or anecdotes, and exclude extraneous material.
• Observe basic writing conventions, such as correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, as well as sentence and paragraph structures appropriate to written forms.

The Arts

Standard 2: Knowing and Using Arts Materials and Resources Students will be knowledgeable about and make use of the materials and resources available for participation in the arts in various roles.

Social Studies

Standard 1: History of the United States and New York Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

Essential Question

What information can you give about a specific state?

What is an ABC book?

Who is an ABC book written for?

Content Knowledge: Declarative, Procedural

Students will:

• Identify important places within a specific state.
• Identify important people within a specific state.
• Understand what resources to use to gain the knowledge they are seeking.
• Identify important historical events for a specific state.
• Construct a picture book using a ABC format.
• Create for their book the following: a cover, a title page, a copyright page, a dedication page, a page for every letter of the alphabet, a bibliography page, an about the author page.

Pre - Requisite Skills

Basic research skills

Writing skills

COMPUTERS:

Basic computer knowledge of word processing program

Computer graphics program

Searching the Internet for information

PROCEDURE
(Chronologically ordered description of all teacher & student activities and interactions.)

 As an anticipatory set the teacher will begin the lesson dressed as a travel agent. She will have various brochures and materials that have been obtained from a local travel agency. She will then ask the students where they would like to travel and why. A discussion will be held as to how information about traveling may be obtained. These means would include actual travel, television watching, the Internet, family, and any other mans they already have of their prior knowledge of states. Based on this anticipatory set the following experience will be introduced.

Learning Experience:

1. Tell students that they have been hired by a travel agency to give highlights of a particular state.
2. The student is asked to write these highlights in book form. The book format must be alphabetical order.
3. Distribute the graphic organizer that the students will use.
4. Have students brainstorm a list of possible resources to find the information that they need for their book.
5. Instruct students that they must find some piece of information for the state they are researching for every letter of the alphabet.
6. Once students have completed their graphic organizers, go over with them the format of the pages of their book. The format is as follows:

_________ is for _______________ (i.e. A is for apple.)

Define the word.

Write two or more detail sentences for each word.

Include a picture for each page.

• Each book also must contain:

1. a cover
2. a title page
3. a copyright page
4. a dedication page
5. a page for every letter of the alphabet
6. a bibliography page
7. an about the author page.

8. Each book will be evaluated using a rubric. 

MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES:

1. graphic organizers
2. reference books
3. computer
4. crayons, colored pencils, etc.
5. paper
6. binding combs
7. laminator

INSTRUCTIONAL/ENVIRONMENTAL MODIFICATIONS

Each student will be working on a different state. Students will be assisted by their remedial reading teacher as well as the resource teacher as needed.

TIME REQUIRED

The time required for this learning experience is 3-4 weeks.

RESOURCES

Various research materials ( i.e. encyclopedias, almanacs, non fiction books, internet, etc.)

ASSESSMENT PLAN
(Include samples of rubrics, checklists, etc.)

Books will be assessed using the following rubric:

 Rubric

REFLECTION

This learning experience is a good activity to help students learn about different states. It allows them to skim through lots of materials about a particular state as they are looking for specific information. It also allows them creativity in how they are going to present the information. They must make their own decisions as to what they want to put into their book instead of the teacher asking for certain things. I feel that this gives them more ownership to what they have done.