Objectives
My objectives are influenced by my core curriculum that I teach. The core does include biography and all of the objectives included within this unit. The reading objectives I have are in three parts. I would like to achieve fluency practice, phonics and writing. The first objective is to use a story to analyze its content. This can be through story structure, retelling, and discussion. The second is to analyze author's purpose through developed think-aloud questions. To discuss some of the biographical techniques used in writing a story I will talk about the author's craft. Did the story tell about a whole life or did it start in the middle? The students will be exposed to books that are appropriate to the reader's level. Dr. Seuss books will be used to practice fluency. The practicing of fluency is a way of practicing the ability to read accurately with expressive phrasing and comprehension. The students will identify the main idea, through journal entries on the reading of the day. They will have the ability to place things or events in order. A visual timeline will be done after each biography. Exposing them to a visual example of this type will help with their understanding of sequence in a story. They will note and discuss specific details of this timeline. They will use clues from the illustration to anticipate the meaning of the context. This is a form of inferring throughout the stories. They can also use the language experience approach by integrating literacy skills. They will be able to describe basic story elements (character, setting, plot and point of view). This will be drawn out in the Readers Theatre. They will be able to construct meaning orally from open-ended probes. The students will practice phonics skills by reading different books. Phonics practice is a big factor in getting my students to be more literate with vocabulary and reading. Phonics connects the sound to the spoken word. It is my intention to build on the words in the class and make word families from them. I would also like to place emphasis on Dr. Seuss's style of writing about which I will talk more about in the strategy section. That can be used in their writing journals. Speaking of writing; the students will write a personal narrative on being a first grader. They will follow the guidelines set in my school district's curriculum. We will also include the Writer's Workshop. The combination of the Reader's and Writer's Workshop sounds much better to me for this unit. These workshops help the students focus on certain skills and practice them all at one time. It is sort of like the differentiated instruction that is done daily in my class. Actually it is called Intervention Instruction; students are taken at their reading levels and put into a group to learn specific skills to make them better readers. The reading objective will also be a part of DEAR time, which I will explain in the strategies section.
The next group of objectives is Arts Integration related. One of the objectives is to make a simulation of animation through a flip book and story board. This is one of the pivotal moments in Walt Disney's life. The next would be to identify themselves through the use of art materials and to understand that these materials can be used as a symbol of time. This will help students look at animation as something that has become important over time. They will also look at two films with animation in it of their choice but the goal is for them to tell me about the animation as well as the literary components of the film. To explain arts integration more, I will try to define it a different way. This means that I will use the arts to help with learning. The goal of this approach is to teach awareness of the arts and how this medium can help you learn about other content areas. The goal of arts integration is to increase knowledge of the subject of animation while concurrently fostering an appreciation for visual and performing art. This type of education has existed in different forms. I experienced this when I went to the Gateway to the Arts. The arts were related to the reading curriculum. The concept was to take a piece of art and pull your subject area out of it, such as math, reading or science. For example: say you have a painting; you would use the painting to teach your subjects (reading, writing, math, social studies) from it. I would hope by including this experience, the students can appreciate the hard work that the individuals we are studying did. An art exhibit of the student's portraits will be done after they complete it.
The students will also use web sites that are interactive. The websites have a story building site on it and all of them have biographies of all of my individuals. These web sites can be used during differentiated instruction because it has a phonics and comprehension component. The Helen Keller Museum website deals with history and time. It also can teach about how blind students read.
I believe that working with these goals will help with the understanding of what a life is and how a biography is written. This will help me develop a community of learners and teach them to see that they can create their own lives, through creativity, like the creative people they will be learning about. I will be trying to blend reading instruction, explanation, and demonstration.
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