Instructional Sequence Assignment
Context:
During my GLT II, I will be teaching a unit on Speak that will be focused on small group, student-led discussion, as well as active reading. During both of these activities (active reading and small group discussion) the focus will be on answering questions completely and using appropriate textual evidence to support the answer given. Also, students will begin to learn to make personal connections with a text.
Goals:
· Students will learn to answer questions completely, using evidence from the text to support their claims.
· Students will read and be able to make personal connections with the text (in this unit, Speak)
· Students will learn to ask appropriate questions that push their comprehension and connections with text to a higher level.
· Students will learn the value of working in small groups. They will learn to be responsible for their own portion of the group work, as well as how to be courteous to others while working/discussing the text.
· Students will learn how to (as a group) conduct an effective discussion that includes each member of the group
Task Analysis:
I have separated this into 3 different tasks in order to make this easier to understand. The numbered item is that WHAT, while the bulleted items are the HOW.
1. Students will answer questions completely using evidence from the text as support.
· In order to get students to answer questions completely and use evidence from the text, I must first teach them what a complete answer is and what that entails (which has been an ongoing process in my classroom).
o Gateway Activity—This will be accomplished through several instances of modeling. I have been modeling examples of “complete, supported” answers for several weeks. I will continue to do this. Every time I come across a good example to use as a model for the class that reinforces the idea of “complete, supported” answers, I will project it for the entire class to read and analyze.
· Students will need to learn how to choose effective quotes and passages from the text that serve as evidence for their answer, and how to contextualize this quote/passage appropriately.
o Gateway Activity—This will also be accomplished through modeling. I have been modeling this for several weeks already also. We began modeling this with examples on the board (created by teachers) and have reinforced this through providing extraordinary student examples. At this time, we have just finished writing a paper, and I will use this as a way to continue to reinforce how to choose appropriate quotes and then contextualize them. (Remember when you wrote your “birds” paper and had to ‘add an extra sentence’ that explained why you chose that quote and how that quote answered the question? You still need to do that!)
2. Students will learn to become active readers.
· Students will need to learn how to stop periodically and process what they have read. They will need to learn how to be “active” readers.
o Gateway Activity--We will teach this by having them stop and answer “active reading” questions, in the hope that eventually these types of questions/connections will become automatic in our students’ minds.
o Gateway Activity—I will equate active reading with people who constantly ask questions while watching movies. Hopefully students will see the correlation between the two.
· Students will learn to ask effective and relative questions that relate to the text and push their thinking to a higher level.
o Gateway Activity--In order to do this, they will need much scaffolding. I will begin by providing discussion questions to work from, in the hopes that by the end of the unit, students will be able to answer these discussion questions, as well as generate their own interesting/relevant questions and connections to this text. In doing this, students will gain the skill of learning how to ask questions/make connections to several different types of texts, not simply a young adult novel in an ELA course.
3. Students will learn to be effective, responsible members of a small group.
· Students will need to learn how to play a role (facilitator, time keeper, scribe) in a small group and to accept the responsibility that goes along with that role.
o Gateway Activity--Students will need to see what this looks like several times before they will be able to successfully accomplish this task, so I will model the expected behavior as often as possible, as well as provide them with specific instructions and goals they should accomplish while playing this “role.”
· Students will need to learn how to work cooperatively to complete a task as a group. This means that students will need to learn how to be quiet when one person is talking, and then how to respond to that person’s opinions.
o Gateway Activity--This will all need to be accomplished through modeling. I will provide and also have students give positive examples of how students should behave and speak in this type of situation, as well as having each group compose their own set of “group rules and procedures” that they will be help accountable for following throughout this unit. I will also provide stem-questions/responses that students can refer to while working in small groups.
Assessing Progress:
· Students will prove they have learned something through their completed responses to “active reading” questions that they fill out independently, using complete answers and relevant support/evidence from the text.
· Students will also prove they have learned something by conducting themselves (behaviorally) appropriately within the small group discussions.
· Evidence of learning will come from the answers to the group discussion questions that have been written out completely and use evidence/support from the text.
· Other examples of learning I will look for will be during group discussions—I will be able to listen to the types of questions they are asking (meaning, questions they have come up with themselves as opposed to questions I have provided for them), as well as specific connections they are making to their own personal lives.
Sequence of Lessons:
I have attached a calendar that dictates the reading schedule for the entire unit. This calendar has been handed out to students and will be followed carefully. It lists what students will be doing each day during class, as well as each night’s homework.
I have also attached the “Active Reading Guide” that students have been given to follow along with. I have attached the document in its entirety, however would like to note that students will be given a new “Active Reading Guide” each day that correlates with that day’s reading (in class and as homework).
I have also attached the first day’s discussion questions (for Friday November 9, 2007). These questions are the only ones we have decided on for sure at this point; the discussion questions for future days are still a work-in-progress. I will post them as they are finalized.
Lastly, I have attached my lesson plans that correlate with the days covered to this point. I will post future lesson plans as they are finalized, along with the discussion questions for these days.
SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson – Reading ScheduleSun / Mon / Tue / Wed / Thu / Fri / Sat
6
Complete Pre-reading / 7
Read to page 6 in class / 8
Form groups
Explain daily routine
Read 6 – 14 in class
Homework: 14 - 24
/ 9Group discussion
Read 24 – 35 in class
Homework: 35 - 46
/ 1011 / 12
Group discussion
Read 49 – 61 in class
Homework: 61 - 70
/ 13Group discussion
Read 70 – 80
Homework: 80 - 92
/ 14Group discussion
Read 95 – 107 in class
Homework: 107-116
/ 15Group discussion
Read 116–126 in class
Homework: 127-137
/ 16Group discussion
Read 141-152 in class
Homework:152 - 163
/ 1718 / 19
Group discussion
Read 163-176 in class
Homework: 176-189
/ 20Group discussion
We will read 189 to the end of the book
as a class. / Happy Thanksgiving!
Daily procedure When you enter the classroom, your scribe for the day will pick up that day’s discussion questions from the lectern by the door.
Your facilitator for the day will pick up your folder.
You will put your active reading notes from the night’s reading on your desk.
SPEAK ACTIVE READING GUIDE
First Marking Period
Pages3 - 6 /
Welcome to Merryweather High
What are some of the clues that there is a problem between Melinda and her friends?Which “clan” would you belong to? If none of the names given fit, write your own.
Who is Rachel? What is the situation with her?
What is your favorite “lie” from Melinda’s list?
Vocabulary: rival factions, thespians, orthodontia (braces)
6 - 7 /
Our Teachers are the Best
Who is Hairwoman?Why does Melinda call her this?
Who is Mr. Neck?
morphing
7 – 9 /
Spotlight
Who is the “Basketball Pole?”Why is Melinda sure Mr. Neck won’t listen to her after the cafeteria incident?
inconspicuous
9 - 12 /
Sanctuary
“. . .art follows lunch like dream follows nightmare” (9). This is an example of what kind of figurative language? ______“Welcome to the only class that will teach you how to survive,” he says. “Welcome to Art” (10)
What does this statement mean? Do you agree with the statement? Explain.
What does Melinda have to draw?
What is your “survival class?”
What might be significant about Mr. Freeman’s name? (Could it be a kind of foreshadowing?)
13 – 14 /
Espanol
Make at least one comment, connection, prediction, or ask a question.Vocabulary: charades
14 - 17 /
Home. Work.
Describe how Melinda is being treated at school. (Give examples.)How do Melinda and her family communicate with each other?
Why has the author waited to tell the reader Melinda’s name until page 15?
Prepare to discuss these two statements in your reading circle.
“My room belongs to an alien. It is a postcard of who I was in fifth grade” (15).
“I can’t stop biting my lips. It looks like my mouth belongs to someone else, someone I don’t even know” (1).
Vocabulary: dryad from Greek mythology
17 – 18 /
Our Fearless Leader
What does this incident reveal about the principal at Merryweather High?What kind of characterization is this? (direct or indirect)
Vocabulary: errant
18 - 20 /
Fizz Ed
Nicole, the “play till death or maiming” jock, has Potential. What does this “potential” mean to the gym teachers?Why can’t Melinda hate the perfect Nicole?
Vocabulary: maiming, humiliating, alcove, discreet
20 - 22 /
Friends
Why does Rachel change her name to “Rachelle?”What sentence on page 21 gives a hint as to what happened between Melinda and Rachel/Rachelle?
What is “dropped like a hot Pop Tart on a cold kitchen floor?” (21)
Vocabulary: wan, pseudo
22 – 24 /
Heathering
What is the effect of the writer’s capitalizing words like Plan and the Right People? (22)Describe Heather in your own words. Do you have any friends like her? Or are you like her?
What sentence on page 24 tells us how long ago Melinda experienced a life-changing event?
24 - 26 /
Burrow
Why do you think Melinda thinks about napping so often?Why is the old closet the “perfect place” for Melinda?
Do you have a “closet?”
Vocabulary: crocheted, burrow
26 – 29 /
Devils Destroy
“Her enthusiasm makes me itch” (27). What does this mean and what does it tell us about Melinda?What does the last sentence on page 27 reveal?
“The same boys who got detention in elementary school for beating the crap out of people are now rewarded for it. They call it football” (29).
Vocabulary: vaguely, hostile, potpourri
29 – 30 /
Cheerleaders
Vocabulary: simultaneously, “eau de Jocque,” dutifully30 - 32 /
The Opposite of Inspiration is . . . Expiration?
32 – 35 /Acting
35 - 36 /Dinner Theater
Have you ever been in a situation like this with your parents? How did you feel?How do you think Melinda feels?
36 – 37 /
Blue Roses
Can you remember a time when a teacher did or wore something so funny or outrageous that this was all you and your friends talked about?Vocabulary: interrogation, gelatinous
37 – 39 /
Student Divided by Confusion Equals Algebra
“toolz eye kan youz”Do you have any sayings like this that you have rewritten with a funky spelling?
Vocabulary: ensemble
39 – 41 /
Halloween
What is different about how Melinda is spending Halloween this year compared to last year?41 – 42
42 - 45 /
Name Name Name
What does it mean to “get hosed?”How do you think Melinda feels when she gets “hosed?”
The Marthas
What does “money changed hands” mean on page 42?Who is “Saint Martha of the Glue Gun”(43)?
What do you think the faculty lounge at HHS looks like?
Vocabulary: russet, Fair Isle, deliberately
45 - 46 /
Nightmare
Who is “IT?”Make at least one comment, prediction, or ask a question of your own.
Second Marking Period
49 – 50 /Go ______(Fill in the Blank)!
If you could choose a new mascot for HHS, what would you choose? Why?50 – 51 /
Closet Space