Lesson Plan Critique

Carolyn Wilhelm of Maple Grove, Minnesota seems to be an extraordinary teacher with a systematic approach towards learning. In her lesson plan for “A Bear of a Poem”, she is sure to integrate the five key ELA standards. She does this through scaffolding, only moving on to the next phase once she ensures that her students have fully mastered the previous step.
She begins by reading a children’s book to them and has them share their thoughts. Writing is then incorporated when the students begin to share their own lines to include in the Found Poem. Once they have a complete poem, they work on perfecting and creating a good oral presentation. At this point, focus is set on a combination of speaking, listening, and language.
During each step of the learning process for Found Poetry, Ms. Wilhelm avoids preaching and guides her students’ thinking to get most of the information from them. She uses excellent graphic organizers: A Venn Diagram to compare and contrast types of poems provides great analytical skills and helps clarify what a Found Poem actually is.  A planning page helps the children get started so they don’t feel lost. (We all know that feeling of, “Help, where do I begin?”) A detailed and well-defined rubric also sets the standards for the students and lets them know what is expected of them.
I also like her interactive approach in which the entire class is involved in every step of the process. There is so much that the students learn from each other during group work, with minimal teacher intervention. Having the class vote for favorite lines is also a way she includes all students. Everyone feels part of it when they all volunteer their lines in a circle. It is in these instances that real learning takes place.
Her entire lesson is centered around the children and is a fun and engaging opportunity for them to express their creativity. Encouraging kids to perform for family and friends makes them feel important and instills self-confidence in them that can take them really far.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ELA Reflection

According to the Common Core, the key ELA Standards are comprised of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language. These components work hand-in-hand; if you want your students to be completely proficient in Language Arts, they must be able to excel in each of these areas. In the early years of education, children usually learn all this from one teacher. However, as they grow older, this learning branches out and they learn the information through a diverse curriculum of numerous subjects delivered by multiple educators. When teaching children to read, our focus should be on comprehension and the students’ ability to apply their readings to the real world. Students respond to their reading through writing, mainly in the categories of argumentative, informative and explanatory, and narrative writing. They must be able to plan, revise, edit and eventually publish their finished products. Speaking and listening work together, where we aim to have students who can communicate w...
Read more

Video Reflection

I always knew that students can achieve only as much as you expect of them. Watching Sheila Owen’s class, I observed this in real-time. She sets high standards and goals in her classroom, goals which seem almost impossible for children of this age. However, with the confidence and self-assurance that she instills in these young charges, they really soar high. When children feel that you believe in them, they can reach unimaginable heights. It’s Sheila’s positive approach in her classroom that helps her accomplish this. She makes every child feel good about themselves and comfortable in their surroundings. She uses positive reinforcement such as when she thanks the children for joining her on the carpet, as opposed to commanding them to do so. This tactic is great as children feel good when they’re recognized and complimented, and will want to do the right thing again. As for those who weren’t in the right place yet, they got the message and scrambled to their spot without feeling ne...
Read more

Week 7 Assignment 3: Teaching Word Study

Word usage is divided into three levels: Tier 1 words are the basic words that get used in everyday reading and conversations. Being that these words are those that everyone is familiar with, they don’t have to be taught explicitly. Tier 2 words are new words that students will come across in text, conversations and TV shows. We want students to know the definitions and proper usage of these words. Examples of these words are ‘freeway’, ‘democracy’, ‘hurricane’. This category of words is the one that is important to focus on during reading and writing instruction. The lesson doesn’t necessarily have to be an add-on vocabulary lesson; it can be incorporated in what they’re learning by finding age-level Tier 2 words in the children’s learning material. Tier 3 words are the highly technical words that are usually unique to a specific topic or subject. It is not necessary to focus on these words, rather teach them when it pertains to the subject matter being taught. When stude...
Read more