Rhonda+U

- this is an updated plan for my unit on //To Kill a Mockingbird. This first picture is my front board - where I started with a story board at the beginning of the book in March. Later, after we had our class, I went back to this and after acting out the scene where Bob Ewell attacks the kids - we looked at where we were as readers. See my reflection below on this. 4/18/09 The second pic below shows two students thinking aloud with classmates' guidance on where they are as readers during this scene and why their "sight" is limited because of their location.// April 18, 2009 Reflection on teaching using Jeff's concepts I use a steno notebook for student writing. This was an invaluable tool for this unit. They kept their Think Alouds in it, Rules of Notice for the book, Warrant Workouts and special activities like “inner voice” where I had students choose a character and write about the public voice that everyone knows about that person vs the inner voice that the character has. Students had to create and infer to do this activity. I found with the Warrant Workouts as well as this “inner voice” activity, students were more willing to respond – to put down what they thought was going on. Our discussion was richer and best of all, I enjoyed grading the work because it was individualized and authentic. They had real opinions and wanted to express them. Rules of Notice gave me a great focus in this way as well. I have noticed other English teachers asking kids to take notes on their reading – but by being specific and teaching them what to notice and how to do a general think aloud (which were specifically looking at Rules of Notice) – they have been able to predict, ask questions and be aware of their thoughts while reading. This has benefited my basic classes as much as the students that needed a challenge. I liked the structure that my group helped me organize with “Say Something”. The students are asked to look at 5 areas and “say something”. I took oral grades for it – which put some at an advantage over others, but others usually came out ahead in the steno notebook reflections (democratic classroom). I also found that I needed to give points for being a breathing being paying attention during the discussion (rather than zero points). I always had a handful of students that were “with us” but couldn’t bring themselves to join. I liked the discussion though because there are some important points that they discovered as a class and they shared in that together. How rewarding! When I first put up my “story board,” my basic students jeered saying, “You do too much; you’ve gone too far; you think we’re stupid.” They thought that my creating a map of Maycomb was insulting their abilities. I explained that all students needed to picture this, and that all of my classes were doing this. Reluctantly, they conceded to try. This was a good foundation for practicing the Symbolic Story Representation. I had it up on the front board and after physically acting out the scene where Bob Ewell attacks the children, I had them put those magnets up to represent the scene on the white board – in our created neighborhood. They all agreed that knowing what was going on in this scene was difficult. So, they were with me in this process. I had a red marker and asked everyone, “Where are you right now?” “I’m there, at the scene.” “I’m watching.” “Why can’t you see?” “OH! because I’m with Scout in her costume!” This was such a great moment! To discuss this as a class, and have this realization that our sight is limited because Scout is limited. I asked why the author would do this, and they brainstormed ideas on the effect of this action.

I really appreciated using the Story Representation to make reading visible.

__Group Inquiry Project Feb 09__ Our group met today 2/14/09 (that is dedication!). We hammered out a lot of ideas. It's interesting to work through our understanding as we plan toward our goal. The process is the important part, but along the way we share ideas and exchange plans for other lessons we are teaching that reinforce the concepts taught. I think we all felt accomplishe and positive in parting with our assignments.

I'm putting the Inquiry Plan here for our group project. I wasn't sure how to start another new page (the new page option has left the Home Page). So, unless we make our own WIKI page, I'm not sure how we'd do that. The Graphic Map I've inserted is directions on what I think we were talking about today. I've used this with "The Scarlet Ibis" teaching symbolism - maybe we can do something similar for the elements of tragedy?

__Individual Inquiry Project Feb 09__ My Inquiry Unit is centered around the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. I have quite a few of the pieces needed to compile the unit from meeting with Jan Meeks a couple of years ago. Also Gregory Taylor and Vickie Godfrey (such smart amazing teachers!). Here is my Inquiry Unit Template so far. I also have put some opinionnaires into electronic format__.__ I have used these in the past with success, but didn't understand - or wasn't able to name why they worked for my and engaged the students so well. Now I see that, can name it and therefore repeat it! I'm grateful!

__Dec 08- Jan 12, 09__ Trying to sequence: I've introduced this planning organizer below (originally from Rachel Bear via Jeff Wilhelm) to help organize thoughts utilizing the Toulmin Model of Argumentation. I took some time to do "Slip or Trip" and some warrant work outs during //Odyssey// in December asking the leading question: Is Odysseus a hero? Students were asked to Claim/Data/Warrant using a modified document similar to the one below. Then, when watching the movie, //O Brother Where Art Thou//, they were either asked to address the claim: is Ulysus is a hero or not? or to warrant the claim: Is O Brother Where Art Thou is indeed the Odyssey? with examples from the movie that showed supporting data - but the important part was the warrant. They were also asked to take notice and document the setting of O Brother - the setting is in the 1930's - which is the setting of our spring novel: //To Kill a Mockingbird// - we started research papers last week on the 1930s and the Civil Rights movement - they will be using the claim/data/ warrant format to organize their thoughts and answer the leading questions of how their chosen topic addressed the culture of the US in the decade they are researching. This serves as a background building excersize for __To Kill a Mockingbird.__ __Jan 5, 09__These are the choices my students had after reading //Odyssey.// I really had to focus on keeping my focus on the process and their conversations rather that the actual outcome of their projects. But, they were able to go back to the text and visual parts of it or just create a visualization of their own. One group (of boys!) created a comic book that had Hitler as the Cyclops and the sheep were the emprisoned Jewish people. They depicted Odysseus as the American Hero coming to save the day. . . . they felt like they were going to be in trouble and that they were doing the whole thing in a way that would be inappropriate. I showed them how much brains it takes to make parallels and showed them how well they'd planned it - they even made a little chart to be sure that their characters' traits matched up - their project was really more in depth and showed more creative thought than most other groups.

These are just some blank documents that might be helpful to use when planning; I am going to use them to plan lessons. I wanted some of Jeff's notes in electronic form. I also needed to put them into a template for my own understanding.

__October 2008__ Working with think alouds - I was able to apply this to my last short story before moving into some expository essay focus. I was able to model and introduce the concept of the general think aloud with "The Birds". I often struggle with holding student interest in this short story and because I like the genre of suspense stories so much, I have been baffled. This time, I spent a lot more time developing a background for understanding the elements of suspense. I found an article and had the students play around with setting and creating suspense. Then we looked at why "The Birds" shows us so much about the people and their community. The end of the story I made into half pages to do the think aloud. I didn't retype it - I copied the pages in the book because the book is set up in two columns. This worked out great. We had class on Sat that week, and Monday I went in to try the think aloud as it was modeled for me on the weekend. I discovered that the kids were missing the inferences at the end. They were frustrated with the ending of the story too because it doesn't come out and tell what happens to the people. So, we were able to predict and discuss. We even held a Socratic Circle to discuss. They liked that. The next week in __November,__ I assigned independent reading. I had students respond on Fridays, in class, while reading their books. They did think alouds independently. It made them slow down and consider their imagery and thoughts. They had more to relate to in their own reading. On questioning - I had students get into their writing groups and write 3 questions for another writing group in another class. They had to write a "text" question ( the answer is found directly in the text); a text and you questions (using your own understanding, give the answer); and a text and world question (relate the text to the world - theme). They liked having questions for other classes (a lot!). They also really liked thinking of the three levels. They were more able to address theme in this short story - I noticed on the final. Probably because they had been led down this short path of questioning - imagine if I'd done more!