1. Altogether, students at Liberty High scored below the county and state average in reading proficiency. However, 24.59% were reading at mastery level compared to 23.78% at state level. Only 8.89% scored above master and 1.40% scored at the distinguished level.
2. Students need to engage in more individual reading in which they are responsible for the material they have read on their own. Students in my class read as a group, which allows the students who are comfortable with reading to participate and those who are not to sit back and simply listen.
3. Jennifer Howerton, 9th grade English X Marks the Spot strategy
4. Cues, questions and advance organizers. Students can be specific about what they're trying to understand.
Providing feedback. Students give feedback throughout the reading process that the teacher can give feedback about after the process.
Reinforcing effort. Students generate their own learning process throughout the activity.
5. How can students better comprehend information they have read?
6. --an interest survey style questionairre asking students about their attitudes about reading, their strategies for reading and their interests and needs in reading.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Action Research Reading
1. Getting Smarter at School
2. Students are having difficulty participating in an organized, strategized discussion.
3. The teacher gave the students a rubric to score themselves on their performance in discussion. They were able to see the changes they needed to make on their own.
4. Setting objectives, Providing feedback
5. Students wrote about specific changes they have made and what they have learned throughout the process. Students were also taking initiative to improve their performance.
6. Student surveys
7. Collaboratively as a group
8. Students were conducting organized discussions entirely on their own without intervention or prompts from the teacher.
2. Students are having difficulty participating in an organized, strategized discussion.
3. The teacher gave the students a rubric to score themselves on their performance in discussion. They were able to see the changes they needed to make on their own.
4. Setting objectives, Providing feedback
5. Students wrote about specific changes they have made and what they have learned throughout the process. Students were also taking initiative to improve their performance.
6. Student surveys
7. Collaboratively as a group
8. Students were conducting organized discussions entirely on their own without intervention or prompts from the teacher.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Lesson Plan 2
Teacher: Ivy Bartlett
Course: English 12
Date: 4/15/11
21st Century Tools: 21C.O.9-12.3.TT2 Student works collaboratively to acquire information from electronic resources, conducts online research, and evaluates information as to validity, appropriateness, usefulness, comprehensiveness and bias.
21C.O.9-12.2.LS4 Student visualizes connections and independently produces solutions; show originality, concentration, commitment to completion, and persistence to develop unique and cogent products.
WV CSOs
RLA.O.12.1.05 author's intended audience, purpose, style, voice and technique
RLA.O.12.1.12 analyze and evaluate persuasive language and techniques for intent, purpose, audience, type and effectiveness
RLA.O.12.2.03 identify, evaluate and analyze information (e.g. primary and secondary sources, print and electronic media, personal interview)
Question: What is a more persuasive and culturally relevant way to sell a particular candy bar?
Procedure:
Students will separate into groups and be assigned a particular candy bar.
Students will research ad campaigns for their candy bar.
Students will create a poster, jingle and pitch for their redesigned candy bar ads.
Students will present projects orally.
Materials needed: markers, posterboard, paper, computers
Assessment: final presentation of project
Course: English 12
Date: 4/15/11
21st Century Tools: 21C.O.9-12.3.TT2 Student works collaboratively to acquire information from electronic resources, conducts online research, and evaluates information as to validity, appropriateness, usefulness, comprehensiveness and bias.
21C.O.9-12.2.LS4 Student visualizes connections and independently produces solutions; show originality, concentration, commitment to completion, and persistence to develop unique and cogent products.
WV CSOs
RLA.O.12.1.05 author's intended audience, purpose, style, voice and technique
RLA.O.12.1.12 analyze and evaluate persuasive language and techniques for intent, purpose, audience, type and effectiveness
RLA.O.12.2.03 identify, evaluate and analyze information (e.g. primary and secondary sources, print and electronic media, personal interview)
Question: What is a more persuasive and culturally relevant way to sell a particular candy bar?
Procedure:
Students will separate into groups and be assigned a particular candy bar.
Students will research ad campaigns for their candy bar.
Students will create a poster, jingle and pitch for their redesigned candy bar ads.
Students will present projects orally.
Materials needed: markers, posterboard, paper, computers
Assessment: final presentation of project
Lesson Plan 1
Teacher: Ivy Bartlett
Course: English 12
Date: 4/14/11
21st Century Tools: 21C.O.9-12.1.TT10 Student implements various Internet search techniques to gather information; student evaluates the information for validity, appropriateness, content, bias, currency and usefulness
21st Century Learning Skills: 21C.O.9-12.2.LS2 Student draws conclusions from a variety of data sources to analyze and interpret systems.
WV CSOs:
RLA.O.11.1.04 apply appropriate reading strategies for a successful literary experience, to gain information and perform an assigned task.
RLA.O.12.2.03 identify, evaluate, and analyze information (e.g. primary and secondary sources, print and electronic media, personal interview)
RLA.O.12.1.10 elaborate on the meaning of texts to expand vocabulary and to draw connections to self and the real world.
Question: What does a particular news story mean to you poetically?
Procedure:
Students will use the internet and newspapers to select one news story that captures their interest.
Students will write a poem based on the news story they have selected. Poems can be written in any style.
Students will exchange poems in groups and use peer editing to provide feedback.
Students will revise poems and produce a final copy.
Students will orally recite their poems to the class.
Materials needed: newspapers, computers, paper
Assessment: final copy of poem stapled to original news story
Course: English 12
Date: 4/14/11
21st Century Tools: 21C.O.9-12.1.TT10 Student implements various Internet search techniques to gather information; student evaluates the information for validity, appropriateness, content, bias, currency and usefulness
21st Century Learning Skills: 21C.O.9-12.2.LS2 Student draws conclusions from a variety of data sources to analyze and interpret systems.
WV CSOs:
RLA.O.11.1.04 apply appropriate reading strategies for a successful literary experience, to gain information and perform an assigned task.
RLA.O.12.2.03 identify, evaluate, and analyze information (e.g. primary and secondary sources, print and electronic media, personal interview)
RLA.O.12.1.10 elaborate on the meaning of texts to expand vocabulary and to draw connections to self and the real world.
Question: What does a particular news story mean to you poetically?
Procedure:
Students will use the internet and newspapers to select one news story that captures their interest.
Students will write a poem based on the news story they have selected. Poems can be written in any style.
Students will exchange poems in groups and use peer editing to provide feedback.
Students will revise poems and produce a final copy.
Students will orally recite their poems to the class.
Materials needed: newspapers, computers, paper
Assessment: final copy of poem stapled to original news story
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Power Standard
In a Shakespeare based unit, students would read Macbeth along with a variety of Shakesperean sonnets. Students would begin by learning about the time period in which Shakespeare wrote plays to better understand the theatrical conventions of the time. Next, they would read Macbeth aloud by performing it as a play with each of the students assigned a new character each day. This would allow my struggling student the opportunity to direct his energy toward classroom material, would fulfill his desire for attention and give him the opportunity to utilize his humor through the characters in the play. Public performance may be one of his strengths based on his desire to be noticed in the classroom. Next, students would create epitaphs for the characters using this lesson plan. Students would then read and analyze sonnets in order to fulfill this power standard.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Observations of a struggling student
Student is talkative and disruptive. He likes the teacher and she likes him as well. He is also well-liked by students though they are often irritated by his outbursts. He doesn't take work seriously. He does not meet the deadlines for assignments. He is often given detention. He seems to enjoy the attention that he is given when he makes jokes in class. Both students and teacher are distracted by him. He seems to be bored with schoolwork. The challenge will be creating lessons that engage and involve him.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Where I'm From
I am from the house behind the rust-red picket fence; from Nunny's homemade pancakes and Mom's chicken and dumplings.
I am from the mornings when Chester the rooster crows to let us know the sun is up and dad's hunting dogs bark in enthusiastic response.
I am from chestnut trees, poison ivy.
I am from canning homegrown food and the pride of accomplishment, from my mother Valerie and my father Troy, my Nunny and my Papa Joe.
I am from the gardens I never learned to grow and the cows I never learned to milk.
From ghost stories surrounding those local lives passed and tales of deep-woods creatures who never showed up.
I am from the merging of a Catholic mother and a Pentecostal father; a religion with no name, deep-seated in faith.
I am from the shores of Italy and the hills of Appalachia, fried frittis and fried chicken.
From grandparents who value love and togetherness; grandparents I will never forget.
From grandparents who value hard work and self-sufficiency; grandparents I hardly know.
I am from a court battle for memories, photographs clutched in desparation, the home where I'm from no longer my home.
I am from the mornings when Chester the rooster crows to let us know the sun is up and dad's hunting dogs bark in enthusiastic response.
I am from chestnut trees, poison ivy.
I am from canning homegrown food and the pride of accomplishment, from my mother Valerie and my father Troy, my Nunny and my Papa Joe.
I am from the gardens I never learned to grow and the cows I never learned to milk.
From ghost stories surrounding those local lives passed and tales of deep-woods creatures who never showed up.
I am from the merging of a Catholic mother and a Pentecostal father; a religion with no name, deep-seated in faith.
I am from the shores of Italy and the hills of Appalachia, fried frittis and fried chicken.
From grandparents who value love and togetherness; grandparents I will never forget.
From grandparents who value hard work and self-sufficiency; grandparents I hardly know.
I am from a court battle for memories, photographs clutched in desparation, the home where I'm from no longer my home.
Student Interest Survey
To view a student interest survey used in the english classroom, click here!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
"As Soon As She Opened Her Mouth!"
The belief that educated people talk in complete, standard, syntactically integrated sentences is just wrong and ill informed. The concept of "sentence" as well as of "word" is a written language one. The "sound" system taught through phonics instruction never matches anyone's spoken language. The difference is that people with social and political capital get away with their "deviations," learn to adjust their language to the oral or written context, and are never made to believe that the way they talk is responsible for any failure to learn to read and write.
The issue of spoken language deviating from written language is one that came up last semester in Dr. George's Theories of Language course. It is something that has stuck with me since, and I thought about it again the other day when Dr. Jones asked us if West Virginians should be made to change the way that we speak. Language is such an important factor in the preservation of a culture. If we all begin speaking the same, we will lose something so vital to retaining diversity. As a student in English classrooms, throughout my education there has been little if any attention to the separation between written and spoken language by instructors. If a student asked why we had to learn grammar when that's not even how people talk, we would simply be told that that was how we were supposed to talk. Just as Purcell-Gates writes however, no one speaks in the same way that they write. This article made me think about why certain students would be considered less capable of learning english because of their spoken language even though everyone in the classroom speaks differently than they write. It seems that if a student speaks differently than the majority of the classroom, he is marginalized because the others do not realize that their language is deviant as well.
The issue of spoken language deviating from written language is one that came up last semester in Dr. George's Theories of Language course. It is something that has stuck with me since, and I thought about it again the other day when Dr. Jones asked us if West Virginians should be made to change the way that we speak. Language is such an important factor in the preservation of a culture. If we all begin speaking the same, we will lose something so vital to retaining diversity. As a student in English classrooms, throughout my education there has been little if any attention to the separation between written and spoken language by instructors. If a student asked why we had to learn grammar when that's not even how people talk, we would simply be told that that was how we were supposed to talk. Just as Purcell-Gates writes however, no one speaks in the same way that they write. This article made me think about why certain students would be considered less capable of learning english because of their spoken language even though everyone in the classroom speaks differently than they write. It seems that if a student speaks differently than the majority of the classroom, he is marginalized because the others do not realize that their language is deviant as well.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Mountaineer
Do you think West Virginia has been able to hang onto our traditions and way of life to a greater degree than other states? If so, why?
Although I don't have enough knowledge of other states' cultures to say that West Virginia has retained its traditions more than any other state, I do believe that we have a very strong sense of tradition. This is partly because many West Virginians were born and raised within the state. Perhaps the reason for this is our traditionally close family relationships. People who have lived here may not want to leave the state because they prefer to stay close to their families. Another reason for the prevalance of tradition is that the threat of urbanization or industrialization is low. Geographically, West Virginia is difficult to industrialize. The landscape would not permit the type of construction that other states have undergone without great difficulty and expense. Therefore, West Virginia culture and tradition is maintained because much of it is staying within the state, while little change is coming in.
People often ridicule what they fear or don't understand. What should be our attitude toward outsiders that misunderstand our way of life?
I think that a very common misconception which seems to exist nationally is that education and intellectualism are separate from that which is natural. Cultures which are tied to the land are often perceived as lacking the formal education which has become the more respectable type of knowledge in today's society. In order to change outsider's minds, I believe two things must be done. Formal education should become more important to West Virginians as well. Because it has become a national standard for success, our students must be given an equal opportunity to succeed. In this way, many West Virginians must change their attitude toward intellectualism and understand the importance of becoming educated individuals. On the other hand, outsiders must also be shown the importance of practical knowledge. West Virginia culture has maintained skills which have been lost in much of the country due to industrialization. This knowledge should be given equal respect as that which can be obtained from schools and books.
Although I don't have enough knowledge of other states' cultures to say that West Virginia has retained its traditions more than any other state, I do believe that we have a very strong sense of tradition. This is partly because many West Virginians were born and raised within the state. Perhaps the reason for this is our traditionally close family relationships. People who have lived here may not want to leave the state because they prefer to stay close to their families. Another reason for the prevalance of tradition is that the threat of urbanization or industrialization is low. Geographically, West Virginia is difficult to industrialize. The landscape would not permit the type of construction that other states have undergone without great difficulty and expense. Therefore, West Virginia culture and tradition is maintained because much of it is staying within the state, while little change is coming in.
People often ridicule what they fear or don't understand. What should be our attitude toward outsiders that misunderstand our way of life?
I think that a very common misconception which seems to exist nationally is that education and intellectualism are separate from that which is natural. Cultures which are tied to the land are often perceived as lacking the formal education which has become the more respectable type of knowledge in today's society. In order to change outsider's minds, I believe two things must be done. Formal education should become more important to West Virginians as well. Because it has become a national standard for success, our students must be given an equal opportunity to succeed. In this way, many West Virginians must change their attitude toward intellectualism and understand the importance of becoming educated individuals. On the other hand, outsiders must also be shown the importance of practical knowledge. West Virginia culture has maintained skills which have been lost in much of the country due to industrialization. This knowledge should be given equal respect as that which can be obtained from schools and books.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Inclusive Practices
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