Topics/ Activities:

Monday

Monday 26 February 2007 (speed) ASW work on writing skills

1. Work stations in the nuDen (during the hour you must get to two of the four stations)

1. Peer conversations about draft of one of the portfolio pieces
2. Tutorial about Roy’s The God of Small Things (packet 29-34)
3. Student teacher conferences about writing and critical reading
4. Independent work on poem and prose analyses, research project, or portfolio pieces

1. By the end of the block, one of the children will stamp your first draft of your portfolio piece.
2. Process and dismissal

Tuesday

Wednesday

Work Keys Testing

Thursday

Friday

1. Objective. The learner will use multiple forms of written response to evaluate literature and explore their own writing. The learner will begin to make connections between critical analysis and their personal life. The learner will engage in peer analysis while learning the value and purpose of writing for a specific audience.

2. Standards. The focus of these reading assignments is to get students used to responding to a piece of literature. They are not graded on the “completeness” of the assignment – they are graded on the method of response and their effectiveness in doing so. They are learning to draft, to output a high quantity of work. The quality of the work will be the focus of the final two weeks, when they polish one drafted piece into a publishable work.

3. Anticipatory Set. For The Perfection of Giving specifically, I will begin by telling them the personal story of a relative in my life who would always give praise and gifts, but was as a result always expecting something in return. I believe all students will be able to relate to this.

4. Input. I would like this lesson to be more student centered. After they have finished reading the story, I would like to hear from them which they thought of each character, specifically, and if they knew anyone in real life that behaved in a similar way to each character. I plan to focus on similarities and differences between the characters, and how their interaction with one another really brings out their personalities.

I will then point out certain personalities in the classroom, and the class will respond about the “character” of that person or group of two people together. I am not going to linger on this too long since there exists the possibility that things could get out of hand, but being able to see each other as “characters” will allow for a fuller understanding and appreciation for fictional characters in the future.

5. Modeling. I will tell students briefly how I would respond to the story – through a dialogue, either between myself and someone I know that thinks differently than I do, or between two fictional characters. As always, students will be encouraged to think of themselves as writers, and to respond in a way that is creative and individual to them.

6. Guided practice. Students will be allowed to operate in one of two ways for the guided practice. Either they can respond in a creative way of their choosing, or, for those students that need more direction, they may get into pairs and create a dialogue with each person playing a part, and then afterward, each would write a brief journal outlining the differences and the similarities that they saw in each other, as the result of the dialogue.