Standard 6 - Reading, Writing, and Oral Communication – The competent teacher has foundational knowledge of reading, writing, and oral communication within the content area and recognizes and addresses student reading, writing, and oral communication needs to facilitate the acquisition of content knowledge.
Book Unit
Rationale: I created my book unit on the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. The theme I chose to focus on was emotions. This story does a wonderful job depicting the fact that we all can experience having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. The story talks about a young boy named Alexander and how he continued experiencing lousy events throughout his day.
Connection to IPTS Standard:
IPTS 6.A. states the teacher "understands appropriate and varied instructional approaches used before, during, and after reading, including those that develop word knowledge, vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, and strategy use in the content areas."
The unit plan contains pre, during, and post reading activities that were included in this unit. The pre-reading activities are the book box and KWL chart. These activities engage the students and help connect to the story by using background knowledge to predict what the story will be about. During the reading activities are the journal and feelings chart where students analyze the character of the story and his feelings. The post reading activities are to complete the KWL chart and complete a Venn Diagram to compare the book and the movie.
IPTS 6.M. states the teacher "uses modeling, explanation, practice, and feedback to teach students to monitor and apply comprehension strategies independently, appropriate to the content learning."
For every activity I will model how to start it off with examples. I will think out loud to help students understand how to think while they are completing the task. I will make sure to provide feedback as students answer and discuss their reasoning.
IPTS 6.P. states the teacher "integrates reading, writing, and oral communication to engage students in content learning."
In this book unit students will read the text. Afterwards students will complete a variety of writing activities that will engage students while further comprehending the story. Students will participate in oral discussions to orally communicate their thoughts and experiences about the story.
Self-Evaluation: By creating this picture unit plan, I have learned how to find materials that are significant and engaging to students. I have learned how to select materials that will help my students comprehend the text, as well as engage them in reading, writing, and communication skills. I have learned how to incorporate the four domains of language; listening, speaking, reading, and writing, to my lessons, to further support my English language learners. I realize the importance of having a pre-reading activity to develop their background knowledge and expand their critical thinking, listening, and speaking skills. I learned the importance of pre-reading, during, and post reading activities to further their knowledge. This unit is great for my students to emotionally connect to the story, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and at the same time learn the reading skills necessary to understand a variety of texts.
The Water Cycle
Rationale: This artifact is a video lesson on the water cycle. In this demonstrative video I give students a visual on how the water cycle forms using supplies you can find easily find at home. This video shows the water cycle process;
Connection to IPTS Standard: This video lesson connects with the IPTS standard 6 by demonstrating how "the competent teacher has foundational knowledge of reading, writing, and oral communication within the content area". I had to make thorough research to create this video and use visual arts to further my students' understanding on the process of the water cycle as well the scientific terms that have to do with the water cycle.
Self-Evaluation: I enjoyed making this video because it let me use my creativity in combination with visual arts to demonstrate how the water cycle works. Students that have various ways of learning can benefit from seeing this video and visualizing how the water cycle works in a different way rather than solely reading about it.