Development of Unit Plan - Coursework Example

Unit plan al affiliation Introduction The lesson plans for the entire week will be targeted at grade pupils. There are a number of characteristics specific to grade one pupils that will be addressed by the five lesson plans included in this paper. Ordinarily, grade 1 pupils need specific attention from their teachers in order to learn how to read and understand a variety of literature and learn how to write where they come up with a number of written texts. They are also expected to learn how to research in which they are not only expected to locate different sources but also evaluate and synthesize the information contained therein. This assignment therefore incorporates all the varied requirements of grade 1 pupils in the five lesson plans for the entire week. 1. Theme of the five lessons Story elements will form the theme of lessons of the entire week. This implies that all the books that will be used in teaching the five lessons will contain story elements while taking into consideration a number of genres. The texts will also include one media source. The source will be helpful in driving the imaginations of the students away from the monotony of using books in class for the purposes of learning. The concept of story elements for the lessons will also be supported by other books like multicultural books, non-fiction books and picture books amongst others (Karen, 2006). 2. Grade 1 students Lesson plans for this paper will be aimed at teaching grade 1 students. As already noted, students in this grade require specific attention from their teachers. It is for this reason that the books chosen for the lessons will address all the varied requirements of the students. It is noteworthy that the story books will not only be used to broaden their imaginations but also to help them learn how to read and understand texts. Despite the fact that grade 1 students have almost perfectly developed speech for the English natives, these students have underdeveloped writing and reading skills. The unit design for the lessons will seek to assist in the development of the reading skills of these students. 3. Work of theorists According to Lapp in his book ‘Teaching literacy in first grade’, there is always a fair element of evidence that support the fact that all students possess something similar to story grammar once they begin formal schooling. Lapp’s arguments imply that first grade students normally have the roughest idea of the general composition of stories. At this juncture, the students already have an idea of the underlying structures of narratives (Lapp, 2005). It is from this knowledge that first grade students draw their understanding of story elements used in class for the purposes of not only enhancing their reading but also writing skills. In addition, this knowledge of the underlying structures for narratives assist first grade students in comprehending picture stories that are becoming prevalent in the curriculum designed for the purposes of teaching such students (Lapp, 2005). 4. Lesson plans 4.1. Lesson 1 The lesson one will make us of ‘The Ugly Duckling’ which is a story book composed by Hans Christian Andersen. The book was composed by one person and illustrated by a different person named Jerry Pinkey. Story element: Sequence of events (Plot) Book title: ‘The Ugly Duckling’ by Hans Christian Andersen Grade: First Grade Genre: Series book Class duration: 1 hour 4.1.1. Objectives At the end of this lesson, students will be expected to: Gain a comprehensive understanding of the important elements of the narrative or story Understand the characteristics of series book as a genre Develop and awareness of the vital information from the many stories Narrate in their own words the occurrences of different stories from the book Read and understand the stories of the book Answer a variety of questions from the text 4.1.2. Materials The materials that will be needed for the purposes of this lesson include: The Ugly Duckling’ by Hans Christian Andersen One or two chart papers Markers Appendix A Pencils for each student Two pocket, three hole punch folders for each student 4.1.3. Introduction Lesson one will be expected to equip students with some skills including reading skills and interpretative skills. The book chosen for this lesson contains a series of stories hence the genre series book. For this reason, this lesson is expected to interest the students. 4.1.4. Lesson procedures and activities I will begin the lesson by gathering the students in a reading area and make then group themselves in the form of circle. I will then proceed to hold the book ‘The Ugly Duckling’ by Hans Christian Andersen and illustrate the title of the book to the students. Other activities that will follow in the lesson development include: Introduce the author of the book to the students and provide a synopsis of the book I will tell the students the name of the illustrator of the book. It is noteworthy that the illustrator of t he book is Jerry Pinkey. Before finally reading the book to my students, I will ask them to predict the content of the book from its title. I will ask them to predict what the story in the book will be and predict the ending of their predictions. I will them write the different prediction of the book on the chart paper using varied colors of the marker pen as a way of differentiating the variations. I will accept all the predictions of the students as a way of encouraging them. I will then ask them questions regarding their predictions in order to make them justify their predictions. Read the book audibly to the students (Karen, 2006) Relate the contents of the book to the predictions provided by the students while giving explanations of the similarities and differences between the predictions and the actual content of the book Review the vocabularies as used in the book by asking relevant questions to the learners 4.1.5. Evaluating the effectiveness of the lesson to the students After reading the story to the students, it will be important to evaluate the effectiveness of the book’s content. This will be done with the aim of ensuring that the lesson objectives have been met. The activities that I will do in this section include: Provide each student with a copy of the appendix A and an pencil Provide each learner with the two pocket, three hole punch folders Read out the instructions of the appendix A to the students and assist them to fill out the worksheet by giving them the relevant directions Gather their filled out worksheets Insert the filled out worksheets in the two pocket, three hole punch folders to create some sought of journal for each student 4.1.6. Personal reflections It is noteworthy that the book chosen for the purposes of this lesson obviously stimulates learners’ imaginations in a way that makes them eager to learn the contents of the book further. This is known to encourage language and vocabulary mastery and enhance the communication skills of students. For this reason, the students will obviously be thrilled after reading this book and hence the lesson objectives will be met effectively. 4.2. Lesson 2 The second lesson for the second day will make of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ that was illustrated and retold by Jan Brett. The lesson will be aimed at making students able to identify the main idea of the text. Story elements: Main Idea Book title: ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ retold by Jan Brett Grade: First Grade Genre: Fable Class duration: 1 hour 4.2.1. Objectives At the end of this lesson, students will be expected to: Be able to tell the main idea of the story Be able to develop a comprehensive awareness of the vital information contained in the book Be able to narrate in their own words the occurrences of different stories from the book Read and understand the stories of the book Answer a variety of questions from the text 4.2.2. Materials The following materials will be required for the effective completion of the lesson: ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ by Jan Brett One or two chart papers Markers Appendix A Pencils for each student Two pocket, three hole punch folders for each student Learners’ Language Art Journals 4.2.3. Introduction The book ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ by Jan Brett is a fable because it contains animal characters. It is hence expected that students will be thrilled by it. Naturally, first graders love stories with animal characters. For this reason, I will make the lesson as interesting as possible to the students. 4.2.4. Lesson development I will begin the lesson by gathering the students and asking them to sit around me in a circular manner. This is always then typical posture for storytelling. After the students are all gathered and settled, I will read out the title of the book and explain a little history of the author of the book. Other activities that will be carried out during the development of the lesson include: Tell the students that the author of the book is unknown because the story is too old Before finally reading the book to my students, I will ask them to predict the content of the book from its title. I will ask them to predict what the story in the book will be and predict the ending of their predictions. I will them write the different prediction of the book on the chart paper using varied colors of the marker pen as a way of differentiating the variations. I will accept all the predictions of the students as a way of encouraging them. I will then ask them questions regarding their predictions in order to make them justify their predictions. Read the book audibly to the students (Karen, 2006) Relate the contents of the book to the predictions provided by the students while giving explanations of the similarities and differences between the predictions and the actual content of the book Review the vocabularies as used in the book by asking relevant questions to the learners 4.2.5. Evaluating the effectiveness of the lesson to the students After reading the story to the students, it will be important to evaluate the effectiveness of the book’s content. This will be done with the aim of ensuring that the lesson objectives have been met. The activities that I will do in this section include: Provide each student with a copy of the appendix A and an pencil Provide each learner with the two-pocket, three-hole punch folders Providing each student with the Learners’ Language Art Journals Read out the instructions of the appendix A to the students and assist them to fill out the worksheet by giving them the relevant directions Gather their filled out worksheets Insert the filled out worksheets in the two-pocket, three-hole punch folders to create some sought of journal for each student Compiling the worksheets of the students and filing them in the Learners’ Language Art Journals 4.2.6. Personal reflections ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ that retold by Jan Brett is a fable which makes it one of the most favorite books for first graders. On most occasions, students in this grade love books with animal characters. I will therefore take advantage of this fact and make the lesson as interesting as possible with the use of gestures and mimicry as a way of vivifying the story. 4.3. Lesson 3 Lesson three for the third day will make use of ‘Horton Hears A Who!’ By Dr. Suess. The book portrays a multicultural genre in its story of different characters. It is noteworthy that this lesson will focus in the identification of different characters and their varied traits. Story elements: Character Book title: Horton Hears A Who! By Dr. Suess. Grade: First Grade Genre: Multicultural literature Class duration: 1 hour 4.3.1. Objectives At the end of this lesson, the students will be expected to: Be able to identify different characters from the text and their varied traits Be introduced to the unseen world of living organisms Understand they have too can thrive in different environments Be aware of the microscopic world around them like germs, molds, spores, plant cells and pollen grains 4.3.2. Materials The materials that will be required for the effective completion of this lesson will be: Microscope Pre-made microscope slides Science book Paper Pencils Crayons Horton Hears A Who! By Dr. Suess. 4.3.3. Introduction I will start by asking the children to look around them. What if told you there are living things all around us in the air, on your desk and even on your hands right now. Or that apple you had for lunch is made of millions of living organism. You cannot see them with your naked eye, but they exist. Who believes that to be true? And who believe if you cannot see it does not exist? I have a great book to read to you all with exact same questions. Let us see what Horton discovers and everyone he knows ask these questions. 4.3.4. Characters Horton is the main character. He is trying to prove to everyone that things we do not see do exist. He is trying to save the town of people on the speck on the flower by relocating the flower to safe place. He strikes the curiosity of science and imagination in the children. He is kind, dependable, trustworthy, compassionate and forgiving. Kangaroo is does not believe in anything you cannot see. She wants to destroy the speck. She does not want the children to use their imagination or to be taught new things. The Mayor is the mayor of the town of Whoville on the speck. He too has the dilemma of proving to the town people there are bigger things in their world that exist by they cannot see them. He depends of Horton to save his world. Vlad Vlad-i-koff is the eagle that Kangaroo hires to destroy the speck that Horton has. The Wickersham gang tried to tie up Horton to take the speck away from him and destroy it. 4.3.5. Lesson development I will begin the class by introducing the title of the book to the students. I will then talk about microscopic germs, plant cells, mold spores and pollen around us. I will explain a microscope enables us to see thing tiny things. The microscope magnifies things thousands of times larger so we can see them. I will discuss the basic use of the microscope. I will then split the children into groups. And assign each group to a microscope. The parent volunteers and I will assist each group with looking through the microscope at the different slides. I will explain each slide they are looking at. For instance how we breathe in pollen every day in the air but it is invisible to the eye (Al-Somadi, & Mohammad, 2012). 4.3.6. Evaluating the effectiveness of the lesson to the students I will have each group pick something to observe under the microscope. This will increase the interest because they will be creating their own slide to observe. My volunteers and I will do the actual slicing and putting the slide together. Each child in the group will draw a picture of the cells they observed on their group slide and write about what they saw. I will close by stating every living thing around us has tiny living cells. I will encourage the children take an interest the none-seen world around them at the playground, at home, at the park, the foods we eat, germs and our own bodies. 4.3.7. Personal reflections The book I chose certainly stimulate a child’s imagination. It encourages the child to look at the world around in a completely new way. They cannot see microscopic things, so this will cause them to want explore the world around them under a microscope to see if things really exist. They do not have supersonic ears like Horton, but we have the scientific tools that enable us to see things. This opens awareness of world and universe from a science prospective (Karen, 2006). 4.4. Lesson 4 Story elements: Plot Book title: Online story Guji Guji written by Chih-Yuan and read by Robert Guillaume Retrieved from http://www.storylineonline.net/guji-guji/ Grade: First Grade Genre: Fairy tale Class duration: 1 hour 4.4.1. Objectives At the end of this lesson, students are expected to: Understand the plot of the story Be able to understand the information provided by an online story Answer a variety of questions from the text Be able to narrate in their own words the occurrences of different stories from the book 4.4.2. Materials The following materials will be needed for the effective completion of this lesson. Projector Computer (laptop/desktop) Internet connection 4.4.3. Lesson development I will begin the lesson by gathering the students in a reading area and make then group themselves in the form of circle. I will then tell my students that the lesson will be based on an online story and not books as they are used to. The activities in this section of the class will include: Tell the students about the author and the narrator of the story Tell the students about the title of the book that will be read by the narrator Show the students a picture of the back cover of the book Ask the students to make predictions of the contents of the book and a synopsis of the story contained therein Accept all the predictions of the students Play the online video to the students Relate the contents of the video to the predictions provided by the students while giving explanations of the similarities and differences between the predictions and the actual content of the video Review the vocabularies as used in the book by asking relevant questions to the learners 4.4.4. Evaluating the effectiveness of the lesson to the students I will evaluate the effectiveness of the online video by asking relevant questions to the students. I would also ask questions about the plot of the story and ask about the different vocabularies as used in the text. In addition, I will evaluate the effectiveness of the story by listening to students retell the occurrences of the story in their own words (Karen, 2006). 4.5. Lesson 5 Story elements: Setting (place and time) Book title: ‘How many spots does a leopard have?’ by Julius Lester Grade: First Grade Genre: Picture book Class duration: 1 hour 4.5.1. Objectives At the end of this lesson, students should be in a position to: Understand a story told from mere pictures without wordings Retell the story in words Identify the setting (time and place) of the story from merely having a look at the pictures 4.5.2. Materials ‘How many spots does a leopard have?’ by Julius Lester 4.5.3. Lesson development Lesson five will be a generally quite lesson at the beginning. Since the lesson involves the use of a picture book, students will only be required to see the pictures and comprehend what they mean without having to utter a word. For this reason, the activities for this section of the lesson will include: Introducing the title of the book and its author Introducing the genre of the book because it is not commonly used for the purpose of teaching first graders Asking the students to make predictions of the contents of the book and a synopsis of the story contained therein Accepting all the predictions of the students Showing the pictures to the students Relating the contents of the picture book to the predictions provided by the students while giving explanations of the similarities and differences between the predictions and the actual content of the picture book 4.5.4. Evaluating the effectiveness of the lesson to the students I will evaluate the effectiveness of this lesson by asking students to retell the events of the picture book verbally. I will also evaluate its effectiveness by asking the students questions that are relevant to the picture book. 5. How the objectives of the five lessons measure learning concepts From the different genre chosen for the purposes of the five lessons, it is important to note that the objectives of the lessons conform to the learning concepts. The five key objectives that aim at meeting the objectives of the five story elements for the lessons include: Students will be able to gain a comprehensive understanding of the important elements of the narrative or story Students will be able to tell the main idea of the story Students will be able to identify different characters from the text and their varied traits Students will understand the plot of the story Students will understand a story told from mere pictures without wordings 6. Different genre of literature for each lesson 6.1. Lesson 1 Another alternative genre for lesson one is nursery rhymes. This is because the book makes use of alliteration in most of its content and therefore the genre can also be said to be nursery rhymes. 6.2. Lesson 2 An alternative genre for lesson two is fiction. This is because the story makes use of personification when it gives animals human qualities like the quality to talk. Ordinarily, animals like bears cannot talk and hence the text can be classified as a fiction. 6.3. Lesson 3 Another genre that can be used to describe the book for lesson three is phonemic awareness book. This is because the story involves the equipping of the students with skills of the microscopic world. 6.4. Lesson 4 An alternative genre that can be used for the book for lesson four is non-fiction book. This is because the story narrates the occurrences in a manner that conforms to the ordinary happenings and nor fictions-related occurrences. 6.5. Lesson 5 The other genre that can also suit the picture book for lesson five is fable. This is because the paper makes use of animal characters to communicate its ideas. 7. Plan of sharing the literature with the students’ families A family literacy night will be the most effective plan for sharing the literature used in class with the parents of the students. For this reason, I will organize a literacy night in which all parents and other guardians will be invited. The event will be aimed at sharing the literature used in class for the five days with the parents and guardians of the students. 7.1. Plan for the literacy night At the beginning of the event, I will introduce myself as the teacher before asking the representative parents to introduce themselves to the gathering. This will be followed by telling the parents the theme of the week’s lessons which was story element (Karen, 2006). I will then communicate the different lesson objectives that were used in class as a way of making the parents and guardians understand what is taught in school. After reading out the class objectives, I will call five students to narrate the stories discussed in class as a way of convincing the parents and guardians that the students understood the stories and that the lesson objectives were met (Al-Somadi, & Mohammad, 2012). Each student will narrate one story. References Al-Somadi, M., & Mohammad, F. (2012). The effect of a story -based programme on developing moral values at the kindergarten stage. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research In Business(4).7: 534-559. Karen, C. (2006). Childrens Literature and the Developing Reader. New York: Bridgepoint Education. Lapp, D. (2005). Teaching literacy in first grade. New York: Guilford Press. Read More