Overview
My ultimate goal for teaching is to help the students I teach to discover who they are, who they want to become, and how to be contributing citizens who make a difference. I want good character to be emphasized through the literature that we read so my students continue to develop from learning about the contributions of others. I want my students to be critical thinkers and intelligible readers by knowing that there is sometimes more to a story than just what the author may include, and therefore ask questions about what is missing...and even seek out answers. Students should also be able to transfer and integrate what they learn and do in reading to their writing by exploring and applying the same ideas and concepts. I am creating this curriculum unit for my second grade students in response to what I am learning at the Yale National Initiative in the Seminar The Art of Biography with Seminar Leader John Gaddis.
The goal of this unit for my second grade students is for them to engage in the genre of biography while reading and writing and becoming experts about a historical person, including themselves. My students will read biographies and autobiographies in order to identify the characteristics of the genre as well as to learn about real people who made distinguishing contributions to various fields, including arts, sports, politics, literature, music, and exploration. They will read on their level and engage with various text types including picture books, graphic novels, websites, encyclopedias, and identified apps. My second grade students will also write their own autobiographies. In doing so, students will be taught how to decide what to include and what to leave out. They will have discussions with their peers about their choices and why they made them in order to learn how to make decisions and defend them. Students will continue to craft their own autobiography throughout the school year, adding events or chapters that shape their time in second grade.
I am designing this curriculum unit for second grade students, but it could easily be applied to other elementary grades, especially 2-5. I am a second grade teacher in a self-contained classroom in a large urban public school district, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. Teachers on my grade level work together and create thematic units with integrated connections across the subjects of math, science, social studies, and language arts. We develop and use a relevant and rigorous curriculum for students. As we implement the national Common Core standards for Language Arts and Math and state-created Essential Standards for Science and Social Studies, prior knowledge of students along with observations and assessments inform instruction in the classroom. Student assessments include district mandated tests in the subjects of reading, math, science, and social studies, self-reflection, portfolios, grade level pre- and post-unit assessments, formative and summative assessments, and classroom observations. In the classroom and at the school, students have access to numerous technologies including computers with internet and instructional software, calculators, overhead and data projectors, TV, VCR/DVD player, CD player, and cassette players. Some students have access to technology at home, while others have limited resources at home. My PreK-5 school has an average student population of 900 students, but a lot of students come and leave throughout the year. There is an approximate one to twenty-five teacher to student ratio on my grade level. The student population of my school includes 66.2% African American, 14.6% Caucasian, 10.6% Hispanic, 3.9% Asian, and 4.7% other. Approximately 63.6% of our students meet the state's poverty level.
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