IA Teaching Standard 3
DEMONSTRATES COMPETENCE IN PLANNING AND PREPARING FOR INSTRUCTION.
The teacher:
a. Uses student achievement data, local standards and the district curriculum in planning for instruction.
b. Sets and communicates high expectations for social, behavioral, and academic success of all students.
c. Uses student developmental needs, background, and interests in planning for instruction.
d. Selects strategies to engage all students in learning.
e. Uses available resources, including technologies, in the development and sequencing of instruction.
A. Uses Student Achievement Data, Local Standards & District Curriculum in Planning for Instruction
C. Uses Student Developmental Needs, Background, and Interests in Planning for Instruction
E. Uses Available Resources, Including Technologies, in the Development and Sequencing of Instruction
In order to plan the curriculum schedule for each class, I develop the units with students, content, strategies, assessments, and Common Core State Standards in mind and align those in a document as shown below. My curriculum for each class (and its schedule) evolves each year depending on the differences in student needs, background, and interests, along with changes in local standards that may occur due to evolving student achievement. Using this document to develop my curriculum and instruction better enables me to see the big-picture of my year and sequence each unit in a way that explicitly connects one unit to the next so that the entire year's curriculum has a strong sense of purpose.
B. Sets & Communicates High Expectations for Social, Behavioral, and Academic Success of all Students
D. Selects Strategies to Engage all Students in Learning
E. Uses Available Resources, Including Technologies, in the Development and Sequencing of Instruction
I use my class website as a portal to communicate all expectations for social, behavioral, and academic success. This is also the location of every lesson plan for the year, available to all students and parents, for constant updating on the instruction occurring in our classroom. Additionally, all documents and assignments are disseminated electronically through the use of our class website. The strategies I use most often in my classroom are all identified and described on my "Classroom Learning Tools" page. Please feel free to browse through HartwigEnglish in order to see the variety of strategies I employ in engaging students with different learning styles and interests.
Lesson Plan for High School English Literature
To the right is an Of Mice and Men position paper unit, which is one of my favorite lessons of my year. Not only do I love performing a read aloud of the entire book in which we focus on John Steinbeck's skillful use of dialects, but I love the engagement the students show as we focus on the real-life themes Steinbeck presents in his novella. Because they ultimately are required to compose a position paper arguing and supporting their belief about one of these themes, we also focus on personal connections to these real-life themes, and they show great engagement and communicate very openly about the issues. Through this unit we also work constructively on annotating and journaling in order to effectively support their positions in writing.
Lesson Plan for High School English Communications & Speech
To the right is a Speech Unit that instructs and engages students, in an extremely atypical manner, in understanding their audiences. In this unit we discover what our audience (classmates) know about each of the students' chosen topic by way of flying paper plate "frisbees" around the room on which the speech topic is indicated and on which the classmates write what they know and/or expect to hear about the topic and what their attitude is about the topic. This knowledge is then to be used to engage that class audience when students compose and present their first speech. Not only is it fun and interactive, but it is effective in helping to teach the importance of engaging your audience in your message. In addition, I use this strategy for several brainstorming/audience purposes.
Lesson Plan for Middle School English Demonstrating Use of Strategies & Interests
To the right is a unit entitled "Writing Whose Line is it Anyway Style." This is a five-day lesson I've taught regarding the writing process. I specifically planned the lessons around both improv and scaffolding. My intent in designing the unit this way was twofold: 1) to increase the students' motivation, as I hooked them with the idea we would be performing improvisationally like the comedians do on Whose Line Is It Anyway? and 2) to increase the students' awareness of the writing process through practice, practice, practice. The improv and continued, fast-paced motivation was attained through both preparation and the consistent use of a timer. The practice of the writing process was attained through planned scaffolding, starting on day one with working through the writing process as a whole class. Then day two moved to small group work, with day three moving to pair work. Days four and five then completed the individual writing process performance.
After teaching this lesson to the first group of middle schoolers, I revised a few of the time frames during the steps of the individual writing process performance, as I noticed the students in the first group were taking more time and effort individually than I had anticipated. The whole class was completely engaged and diligently working during the entire process but still needed more time. This was a good sign that the students not only understood the writing process but also enjoyed what they were learning. I feel this is because of the way the lesson was planned so that students were both motivated and comfortable with the writing process.
Lesson Plan for Middle School Reading
To the right is a unit entitled "The Diary of Anne Frank." This is a four-week unit studying the effect of the Holocaust on the world, the differences and similarities between the daily life and struggles of Anne Frank and our typical American life, the political and social climate of World War II and Nazi Germany, the effect that the publication of The Diary of Anne Frank
has had on the world, and myths about Anne Frank, all in light of the impact literature has on humanity. The unit was also intended to facilitate cultural sensitivity and global human rights awareness, as it ends with a performance/product-based assessment requiring research, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and justifying of their acquired knowledge and beliefs about a different act of documented genocide of their choice. Various forms of assessments and activities are combined with daily reading, reflection, and journaling to facilitate continuous connections between the learner and the text.
The lesson plan to the right, entitled "Balloon Theme Objectives," is a lesson I did with my K-5 Non-English Speakers to Limited-English Speakers during ESL pull-out. It was a tremendously successful unit simply because the balloons thrilled the students every time they came into the room. During the week, as they passed by our ESL room with their class, they would even stop to show off the balloons and tell their classmates all about our lesson. Because of the natural interest in the balloons and the fact that each child got to hold, play with, and move the balloons during each of our lessons, I was able to get the very most out of what some would consider costly materials ($30-$35 for helium-filled balloons). However, the entire unit was designed around student interaction with the balloons, so each new day brought new objectives that may not have been so easily connected without such an interesting hook. The target skills ranged from learning colors, demonstratives, prepositions, and pronouns to comparatives, superlatives, and multiple phonics rules.
This is probably one of the most fun units I have taught with my ESL students. Because of the amount of fun and enjoyment they had in working with the balloons, it was also one of the most successful units I have taught. This is evidenced by the fact that the students still talk about the unit and how fun it was, but more importantly, what they learned in the unit.
Lesson Plan for Elementary ESL
I am all about knowing HOW a person learns, realizing we all learn differently. This is all the more vital for the English language learner who is not only learning new content but also a new language. The ELL has to be as smart and efficient in how they learn as they can be because they have to learn so much more than their native-English speaking peers. This lesson/unit provided the basic but vital information and practice the ESL students need in order to use their textbooks successfully. However, because of the differences in individual learners, how they learn, and what personal habits and educational experiences they have had, I realized that reinforcement and reminders of the information in this unit was and is essential on an ongoing basis.
To the right is a unit called "Study Skills Textbook." This is a lesson plan I prepared for my secondary ESL students to help them increase their study skills and understanding of the use of textbooks. The hook for this unit was simply survival on the part of the ELL. Each new ELL realizes acutely the need to understand how to do homework and take tests successfully in their new American school. The sad fact is that they (and many American kids as well) don't understand the basic setup of textbooks, nor do they realize that there really is a special way to study and use the textbooks to their advantage.