Phase III

Assessing Prior Knowledge:

(a)After giving the lesson, I realized that the story and the graphic organizer didn't fit as well with the website as I orginally thought it would. I also changed the way we talked about the vocabulary. I added a handout with pictures that each student will recieve after we have gone over the vocabulary as a class. This will help to assist the students with language barriers when they in the process of writing their stories. I was able to find another graphic organizer and change the story to better suit the lesson objective.

(b)This helps me to realize that for my future teaching experiences I need to be more careful at making sure that the material all flows together.

Planning Instruction:

(a)After teaching the lesson I realized that the website and the graphic organizer didn't match up. Also, the objective wasn't being met by the way I was presenting the information. I changed the lesson by finding a better graphic organizer that goes better with the website.

(b)In the future when planning lessons, I will more aware to check the websites that will be used. I will also go on the website, practicing and playing on it to make sure that I understand how it works, and making sure it will work with my lesson in every aspect. I will also think about the way that it goes along with the objective of the lesson, making sure that it fits.

Designing Instruction:

(a)After reviewing the lesson, it seems like it would have worked better to have the students do their story on the website first, using their rubrics. Then the teacher will have each group verbally identify the parts of the story. The students will be required to fill in a checklist as they go through their story, making sure they have all the parts. To finish the lesson, the students will be required to fill in their own graphic organizers with the information that they used in their story.

(b)This modification helps me to realize that for the future, things don't always have to be in "order". By having the students do their organizers last, helps the lesson make more sense. By doing the lesson backward the objective still gets met, so it doesn't always matter if things are done "out of the box."

Planning Assessment:

(a)The planning for the assessment changed from having the students simply have 5 pages and 3 sentences to their story. I realized that this didn't help meet the objective at all. I then added to the assessment or rubric that the students will be required to identify the plot of the story along with the main characters and the setting. Although the sentence and page requirements were kept, by adding to the rubric I was able to meet the objective.

(b)This experience helped me to realize that I need to make sure that my lesson assessment meets with the objective. I can see how easy it is to stray from the objective, and this taught me an important lesson about staying with the objective.

Instructional Decisions/Teaching:

(a)After the lesson was taught I realized that by changing the way the vocabulary was presented would be more helpful to the students. In this case I added the vocabulary handout with a picture next to each word, in order to help the students with language barriers. I also changed the checklist to have more requirements, such as identifying the plot and characters. This helps to meet the objective. I also added the students rubric/checklist. They will use these while they are making their stories, in order to tell if they are including all the required materials.

(b)The helps me to realize that in the future I need to be certain that the needs of the students and the objective are being met. It also helped me to realize that a rubric is always good to have, for the students and for the teacher.

Assessment of Learning:

(a)The rubric/checklist was changed to add the amount of points that each student gets for adding the different parts to the story, and being able to identify them. This will help students to know what points are lost if they miss any part of the assignment.

(b)This taught me that the clarity of the rubric and the simple fact of having a rubric are important parts of the lesson and making sure that they fit to the objective and to the student needs.

Phase II

Instructional Decisions/Teaching:
Modifications made for individuals while teaching included allowing group to stray slightly from their graphic organizer when recreating the story on the website. This was done because we realized that the website characters/settings didn't always go with the story lines that had been created.

http://carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/

http://edhelper.com/teachers/Storytelling_graphic_organizers.htm

Assessment of Learning:
The students were able to achieve their lesson goals. The teacher walked around the room and used a checklist to determine if each group had met the requirements for their story. The requirements included at least 5 pages to the story and 2 sentences on each page. I feel that the lesson was very successful. The students were actively engaged and excited to write and create their stories. All the students passed by getting all the required points for the lesson.





http://carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/

Phase 1

Assessing Prior Knowledge:
Prior knowledge would be assessed by having a blank poster with character, setting, problem, event and solution. TTW go through the poster explaining to the students what each of these are.
TTW pause during the story to help the students identify each of the previous elements of the story.
http://www.amazon.com/Thanks-Thanksgiving-Julie-Markes/dp/006051096X

Plans Instruction:
TTW state the objective to the students before they begin. The lesson is aligned with the state standard that focuses on identifying the plot of a story. The plot will be identified from a story that has been read to them and from a story they will create.

http://www.edhelperclipart.com/clipart/teachers/org-char-problem-solution.pdf

http://www.ade.state.az.us/standards/language-arts/articulated.asp

Designing Instrucion:

It is organized to have the students watch the teach do it, have them work together to do it with the teacher, then have them do it on their own. TTW discuss what each element of the story is to refresh the students memory. TTW engage the students in helping identify the elements as the story is being read. TTW have the students work in groups to creat a graphic organizer that will be turned in to be assessed.

Varied instructional methods used include the graphic organizer, for students who do better with paper and pencil. The website is used to give higher order thinking to students, making them be creative and organized.

http://carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/

http://www.edhelperclipart.com/clipart/teachers/org-char-problem-solution.pdf

Planning Assessment:

The graphic organizer will be used as the assessment tool. We will be checking to see if it is complete. Also, we will have the students share their story with the class the following day. We will also walk around the class and use a checklist to make sure that students have followed requirements given.

The students will be required to work with a group to create a story and graphic organizer.

The students will be grouped to help those whose who are not as comfortable with using computers, or who are ELL.

http://carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/