EDT 5373: Assignment for Week 11/ Developing Ideas for Final Project

Week 11: Developing ideas for final project

My lesson will be in the subject of Language Arts. The state standard (TEKS) that will drive the lesson is the following: 7.8A Determine the figurative meaning of phrases and analyze how an author’s use of language creates imagery, appeals to the senses, and suggests mood. The design of the lesson will follow the format I am required to use presently in my campus. The topic I would like to address will be figurative language in poetry. The tool my students and I will be using is Inspiration. I will use this tool in various ways.

First, I will teach students what figurative language is and how it is used by writers. I will address Metaphor, Simile, Hyperbole, Idiom and Personification. Secondly, we will analyze poetry from various authors to practice identifying figurative language. Third, I would like for students to classify figurative language from a poem titled The Witch by Jack Prelutzky using Inspiration. They will also write a paragraph explaining how figurative language creates imagery, appeals to the senses, and suggests mood.

Finally, Students will be required to create an autobiographical poem using each of the types of figurative language. Last, I would use the online rubric maker to make the rubric that will be used to assess the autobiographical product of each student.  

EDT 5373: Assignment for Week 11-Explore Two Tools - Chapter 10

Week 11: Explore two tools for the second chapter you have chosen

            The second chapter I chose was chapter 10. This one deals with assessments. The first tool I have been exploring is Rubistar. You can find this tool at http://rubistar.4teachers.org. My initial search was using Delicious and found out the site has many followers. I added the link to my stack and signed up for Rubistar. I reviewed some examples of rubrics that are already available and they are editable. Looking at examples is a good way to begin brainstorming on how to create one. Rubrics can be challenging to create and they have to assess the learning target(s) that were taught. Rubrics can be applied to any educational subject. I used to create rubrics with my subject team, but we would use a table from Word. We often would lose the rubric or would forget to save it. Saving rubrics within Rubistar will make our work a lot easier. The online rubric maker will support the assessment part of learning.

 Experts in the area of assessments stress that teachers need to teach students how to compare their performance with the learning target. And rubrics with clear performance level descriptors are helpful in this process. Constructive criticism in this form should be part of a “safe” environment for students. Students need instruction and practice in how to compare their work with others using rubrics. The scenario that I will demonstrate will be in 7^th grade Language Arts. Given that we have to begin developing our final project, this scenario would be addressing the use of Figurative Language in poetry: metaphor, hyperbole, idiom, personification and simile. Students will use the rubric created by the teacher ahead of time in order to know how they will be assessed once they complete an autobiographical poem using each of the examples of figurative language. The sample illustration of the rubric tool follows:

The second tool I explored some was the online survey www.surveymonkey.com. When I searched under Delicious, it showed over 9000 saves. It seems like a very useful tool for creating web surveys. I also added this link to my stack in Delicious. I reviewed the sample surveys the site has available and it gave me some ideas on how I could utilize this tool with my 7^th graders. One of those ideas would be to have my students take a survey at the beginning of the school year so that I may get to know them better.

Presently I have them answer questions on a large index card and I can’t really fit a lot of information. Using the online survey would give me a chance to ask more questions about them. Some of the questions I like to ask have to deal with their reading habits and normally at the end of the school year I would give them back their cards and revisit what they had shared with me. What is always surprising to them is how their perspectives changed as far as their reading habits etc.  Another idea I had was to have students creating a survey over the types of activities done in class over the school year. Perhaps some of the questions in the survey would be (1) which was your favorite novel? (2) which of the following activities did you enjoy the most? (3) which activities did you enjoy the least? The technology learning objectives would be addressed using this type of tool. If students are involved in creating surveys and then analyze results, they would be using the higher levels of Blooms Taxonomy. This is an example of one of the already made sample surveys. 

 

EDT 5373: Assignment for Week 10-Explore Ideas for Final Project

Week 10: Explore ideas and resources for final project

My initial ideas for my lesson design will probably be in the subject of Language Arts. The design of the lesson will follow the format I am required to use presently in my campus. The topic I would like to address will be figurative language and grammar in poetry. The tool my students and I will be using is Inspiration. I am thinking of using this tool in various ways. First, I would like for students to classify figurative language, adjectives and nouns from a poem using a graphic organizer. Next, after addressing the state standards (TEKS) that drive the lesson, students will be required to create a poem using the skills targeted in the lesson with the same tool (Inspiration). An autobiographical poem would be the product students would create. Finally, I would use the online rubric maker to make the rubric that will be used to assess the autobiographical product of each student.