Teaching Materials

This is a lesson set for teaching fiction skills. Students first learn a strategy for summarizing and then learn about determining the theme of a story. Both of these lessons work with a major Common Core standard for Reading Literature and are aligned with state assessments and materials. Students using these materials show a strong improvement in their ability to answer questions about these topics after the lesson is completed, with an average improvement of 10 percentage points or more by the end of the unit.

These slide decks represent two components to a successful classroom : Planning and Management. The Weekly Schedule, or what we refer to as our Week at a Glance (WAAG), details out what students should be focusing on daily. Each activity is planned with a specific end in mind - an assessment, project, or learning activity that will show their mastery of the standards for learning listed at the top. The plans are created by assessing student needs and gaps and then aligning the lesson materials appropriately.

These examples represent some of the lessons and a corresponding assessment/project that was assigned to my students. This is a brand new skill for their grade level and is not seen prior to 6th grade. Students are introduced to the new concepts, assessed regularly and then apply their new knowledge to a project-based learning assignment. Overall, students perform well above grade level on the state assessment that measures this particular skill. From the initial pre-assessment to the final assessment, students improve, on average, over 10 percentage points.