Archive for January 2015
Week 4: Harriet Tubman and History
On Tuesday (January 27,
2015), I taught about Harriet Tubman in social studies. I wrote important
vocabulary on the easel board, these words included Harriet Tubman, courage,
Underground Railroad, and slavery. I did this as part of my FEAP goal, which is 2h: Adapts the learning environment to accommodate the differing needs and diversity of students. The first thing I did was state the purpose
to the students. The purpose of this lesson was to identify which character
ideal and principle Harriet Tubman showed. I opened up the lesson by asking
them what it means to be courageous or to have courage. I had them pair-and-share
about what they think it means to be courageous or to have courage. I gave them
about a minute or so. Most of them were not familiar with the term so I said it
means bravery or to be brave. I showed them the picture of Harriet Tubman that
is in their social studies book.
I
began to read the small paragraph provided in the workbook. I paused when I
came across the word slavery and
asked if they remember what that term meant. They were able to tell me since I
taught it to them in my previous lesson of Abraham Lincoln. I continued to read
until the end, which ended with the word courage.
I asked them if they have ever done something courageous. I provided them with
an example of me being courageous. I told them that I took courage and stood in
front of my entire high school to sing. I had them turn to their partners once
more to share their stories. Then I had them share out their own stories about
being courageous, which was my closure due to the fact that I ran out of time.
Photo credit to Wikimedia Commons.
On
Friday (January 30, 2015), I gathered the students at the carpet with their
social studies book and pencils. I wrote two vocabulary terms on the easel
board and a question from the workbook. The reason I’m writing the terms on the
board is so my ELLs are able to see the word. The two vocabulary terms were history and fact. I told them the purpose of today’s lesson was to understand
what history is and what it tells about people and events. I introduced the
lesson by defining history. The two
pages I had them turn to in the workbook contained various pictures, which includes
Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Harriet Tubman, President
Eisenhower, the Pilgrims, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas. I instructed them to
circle the pictures they are familiar with. Then, I had them pair-and-share
what they circled. I asked for volunteers to share out the people that they circled.
I had them follow along with their fingers as I read both paragraphs in the
workbook. I asked once again what history meant and several raised their hands.
I picked one boy and he defined the word, then I asked him how he knew. He was
able to tell me that he got the definition from the first paragraph. I took
that opportunity to tell them that he used text evidence to tell me what
history meant. The last thing I did was tell them about what the term facts meant.
Then I read them the question I wrote on the easel board, “Circle the one that
is a fact. A. You are in first grade or B. All grades are in the same
classroom.” One volunteer came up to circle a. I asked why she circled A and to
define fact. She was able to define the term and say that A was indeed a fact
because it was true.
Standards:
SS.1.A.2.4: Identify
people from the past who have shown character ideals and principles.
SS.1.A.2.1: Understand
history tells the story of people and events of other times and places.
Week 3
This week, I pulled my
phonics groups to work with them on their beginning, middle, and ending sounds.
I have two groups that consists of three students. They are grouped according
to their DRA levels so I have decided that I want to administer the spelling
inventory on them. The spelling inventory from Words Their Way will help me determine who is at the emergent,
letter name-alphabetic, within word pattern, or syllables and affixes spelling
stage. I will be able to re-group them once I get the results. So far I tested
four students, the fourth one refused to cooperate with me. My ELL student that
speaks only Spanish was taking the spelling test, but then stopped because he
didn’t know how to spell. I told him that it wasn’t for a test, it was for me
to know what he needed help with, but he just shut down on me. I need to test
two more students so I can re-group and have different activities according to
stages. I am still setting up goals for the My Profession video.
Week 2: Gallery Walk
This
week I began teaching Social Studies again. I created my own gallery walk that
I took from my Social Studies course. I printed out three images of events that
occurred while Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was still alive. Before I began the
lesson, I taped two of the images in the back of the room and set up sticky
notes. I did not state the purpose at the beginning of the lesson. I displayed
the picture I was going to model on the ELMO. Then I asked them what they saw
in the picture. I picked on a few of the students and made a caption according
to their answers. I gave out instructions and called out two tables at a time
to walk over the back. Once everyone was at the back of the room, I gave them
an opportunity to choose which picture they wanted to see.
Photo credit to Wikipedia.
After,
they finished choosing, I instructed them to get a stinky note from the board
and head back to their desks. Almost all the students were starting their
captions with “I see.” So, I had to refresh their memories on what captions
were and how it started. I walked around the room and picked two students to
share their captions with the class. I used these two students as examples on
how the captions should look like. Then, I had them all come up and stick their
sticky notes under the picture they chose. By the end of the lesson, I realized
that the students did not really get anything out of the first day of the gallery
walk. The gallery walk will be for two days.