Week 10... Traveling Stories (or sentences)

The Traveling Story was an activity that I have never done in a classroom setting. It was fun and I can definately see how it could be an activity for a secondary classroom. This activity can be modified for many different content areas, for example:
    in social studies the students can retell facts of an ancient civilization;
    in science students can restate the life cylce of animals and organisms;
    in math the students can randomly state addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division facts; 
    in history students can name a historical figure and name his/her accomplishments.

This activity is fun, engaging, and great for obtaining student participation.

Week 9... Rough Draft of 4 Week Unit Project

Topic: Solar System

Grade: 6th

TEKS:

(1)  Reading/Fluency. Students read grade-level text with fluency and comprehension. Students are expected to adjust fluency when reading aloud grade-level text based on the reading purpose and the nature of the text.

(12)  Reading/Comprehension of Informational Text/Procedural Texts. Students understand how to glean and use information in procedural texts and documents. Students are expected to:

       (A)  follow multi-tasked instructions to complete a task, solve a problem, or perform procedures; and

      (B)  interpret factual, quantitative, or technical information presented in maps, charts, illustrations, graphs, timelines, tables, and diagrams.

ELA: 10 days - read 2 informative books on planets and solar system
          1wk (1 writing stage per day) - write a descriptive essay about what a planet is like, the atmosphere, temperature, features, etc... for 3 planets
          1 wk (1 writing stage per day) - trade descriptive essay with elbow partner - write a comparison between your planets and your neighbors planets (choice: t-chart, venn diagram, essay, etc..)

Social Studies:
          2 wk - how and what ancient civilizations thought/knew about space (stars, moon, sun)
          2 wk - how stars were used as navigation tools in past, what the instruments looked like - how they impacted the technology of today

Math or Science (unsure of which):
          2 wk - measure distance - how far between objects in space (ex. sun to moon, earth to pluto, stars to stars) using scientific notation
          2 wk - gravity and how its different on every planet - how much do you weigh on all nine planets?

Art: (in groups of 3 or 4)
         4 wk - build a scale model of the solar system, including all moons, milky way, and asteroid belt

(14)  Writing/Writing Process. Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text. Students are expected to:

      (A)  plan a first draft by selecting a genre appropriate for conveying the intended meaning to an audience, determining appropriate topics through a range of strategies (e.g., discussion, background reading, personal interests, interviews), and developing a thesis or controlling idea;

      (B)  develop drafts by choosing an appropriate organizational strategy (e.g., sequence of events, cause-effect, compare-contrast) and building on ideas to create a focused, organized, and coherent piece of writing;

      (C)  revise drafts to clarify meaning, enhance style, include simple and compound sentences, and improve transitions by adding, deleting, combining, and rearranging sentences or larger units of text after rethinking how well questions of purpose, audience, and genre have been addressed;

      (D)  edit drafts for grammar, mechanics, and spelling; and

      (E)  revise final draft in response to feedback from peers and teacher and publish written work for appropriate audiences.

Week 8... No Blog

Week 7... What is Assessment

Week 6... Informative & Persuasive

Informative writing is when someone is trying to teach something. Informative writings have tons of facts and information about a particular subject. An Informative Writing activity can consist of a brochure or pamphlet that has details of a particular item.

Persuasive wrting is when someone is trying to persuade you one way or another. Persuasive writings have descriptions that tend to peoples emotions or their ego's.  An example of Persuasive Writing can be to have students make ads for different items... or to have the students do a commercial.

Week 5... Writing

Writing is a process. It is done in stages.

1) Prewriting is the act of brainstorming, making lists, thinking of themes or topics.. these are the very beginnings of the thought process.

2) Drafting is the act of actually writing out the ideas and putting pen to paper.

3) Revising is the act of making changes in words, filling in proper transitions and adding details if necessarry.

4) Editing is the act of correcting punctuation, format, or any grammatical errors.

5) Publishing is act of placing the writing in the necessary place, if it's a letter - mail it, if it's an email- send it, etc...

Week 4... Good Readers

Good readers are those who can read fluently, comprehend what they're reading, and know when they need to re-read. I feel I am a good reader because I do all these things.


Teaching students to be good readers is one of my fears as a future teacher. I know and understand why it is that reading is so important, but I  know that it will not be that simple to explain to those students who do  not like to do it, or may be a struggling reader. I hope to be the teacher who models good reading and writing habits, who shows her students that reading is essential to all, and who is the one teacher that instills the love of reading unto them, and that they carry that with them all through school.