Introduction:
This plan is for an English lesson. It will take place over the summer as a reading program and will be for accomplished 8th graders or to-be freshmen. The objective is to keep their minds working for at least a little bit of the summer months. Their task is simple, all they must do is to read the given book and write responses.
INITIAL STEPS:
Each student will receive a list of books that are going to be considered for the possible projects. They will then choose a book and will receive it on the last day of school. Then the students will be asked after their first reading to join blogger.com and create an account. Their first post is to be made before they start reading, students are required to write about predictions about the book and expectations plus any other initial reactions. After this, each week they must read a significant amount in their chosen book. In doing so they must be keeping a journal that will be online where the instructors can look at and grade the given responses. Students REMEBER THAT THIS MUST BO DONE EACH WEEK, no late posts will be accepted. They are DUE SUNDAY OF EACH WEEK BY 5PM!!!
RULES OF THE POSTING:
The rules for each post are simple, as stated above all posts must be in by every sunday at 5pm. No late posts are accepted and missing more than 2 posts can be very hurtful for your grade. Posts can be turned is as early as you would like to. If you go on vacation than make sure you get your work done before if you do not plan on doing any on that time. Each post must follow the three follwing criteria:
(1) You must clearly answer the question(s) that are asked by this certain post you are responding to. Do not use the same post question more than two times.
(2) You must clearly show your knowledge of the material you read and the comprehension of this material as well, this is the bigger section of your grade.
(3) Each post that is submitted must be at least 500 words with no maximum limit.
FOLLOW THESE STEPS AND KEEP UP ON TIME AND YOU WILL BE SUCCESFUL WITH THIS ASSIGNMENT!
TYPES OF ENTRIES:
(1) Journal-you must treat this entry as just a regular journal entry, putting down reactions and thoughts of what you read and how this has made you feel.
(2) Characters Descriptions-You will make a character list of everyone in the chapter or section that you read and you will put descriptions and traits of each one. Decide what kind of person that they are.
(3) Collage-Put up a list of pictures, minimum 10, that describe what was happening in the section you read. These can also depict the main ideas or scenes of the reading. Under each picture provide a caption which describes why you chose the picture and how it relates to the book.
(4)Summary-Summarize the events that you read and what happened. Be clear and descriptive. Show a clear and accurate description of you reading.
(5)Webster-Find words that you read that are not very common and may have unclear definitions. Make a list of at least 15 words and write them in the blog, define each word and put down 3 synonyms for it as well.
(6)Lyrics-Write lyrics to a song that will reflect on the topics and the mood of the selected reading. After the song you will need to write a description of why you wrote these lyrics and how they relate to the story.
(7)Character Letter-Write a letter to a character in the story who is in a crisis or problem. Write them a letter and tell them what you think they should do and offer them thoughtful advice on their problem.
Rubric:
Each entry you post on the site will be worth up to five (5) points. Then at the end of the summer the instructor will assess your overall knowledge of the book based on up to 25 points. The posts will go on for 15 weeks. The total possible points that can be awarded for this assignment is 95 points.
How to receive a....
(5) Follow all the instructions in the description and provide accurate knowledge of the book, 500+ words.
(4) Follow all the instructions and there is sub less than 500 words in the post.
(3) Does not follow all the instructions but there is 500+ words.
(2) Does not follow the instructions and is less than 500 words.
(1) Something was posted but it wasn't quite relevant to the topic.
(0) Nothing was posted at all.
-Students can have a teaching assistant read the assignment to them and help to understand it.
-They can elect to work in groups of no more than 3 students if needed.
-Optional assignment can be to find a book on tape with the assistance of the librarian(Grading will be the same)
-Talk to instructor if you need assistance with any of these!
The assessment of comprehension of the book will be judged based by the posts and answering questions that are posted in the form of comments by the teacher. Remember that this is 25% of you overall grade and CAN BE THE DETERMINING FACTOR!
Enjoy this assignment!!!!!!!
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/writingabookreport/a/report.htm
This plan is for an English lesson.
INITIAL STEPS:
Each student will receive a list of books that are going to be considered for the possible projects. They will then choose a book and will receive it on the last day of school.
RULES OF THE POSTING:
The rules for each post are simple, as stated above all posts must be in by every sunday at 5pm. No late posts are accepted and missing more than 2 posts can be very hurtful for your grade. Posts can be turned is as early as you would like to. If you go on vacation than make sure you get your work done before if you do not plan on doing any on that time. Each post must follow the three follwing criteria:
(1) You must clearly answer the question(s) that are asked by this certain post you are responding to. Do not use the same post question more than two times.
(2) You must clearly show your knowledge of the material you read and the comprehension of this material as well, this is the bigger section of your grade.
(3) Each post that is submitted must be at least 500 words with no maximum limit.
FOLLOW THESE STEPS AND KEEP UP ON TIME AND YOU WILL BE SUCCESFUL WITH THIS ASSIGNMENT!
TYPES OF ENTRIES:
(1) Journal-you must treat this entry as just a regular journal entry, putting down reactions and thoughts of what you read and how this has made you feel.
(2) Characters Descriptions-You will make a character list of everyone in the chapter or section that you read and you will put descriptions and traits of each one. Decide what kind of person that they are.
(3) Collage-Put up a list of pictures, minimum 10, that describe what was happening in the section you read. These can also depict the main ideas or scenes of the reading. Under each picture provide a caption which describes why you chose the picture and how it relates to the book.
(4)Summary-Summarize the events that you read and what happened. Be clear and descriptive. Show a clear and accurate description of you reading.
(5)Webster-Find words that you read that are not very common and may have unclear definitions. Make a list of at least 15 words and write them in the blog, define each word and put down 3 synonyms for it as well.
(6)Lyrics-Write lyrics to a song that will reflect on the topics and the mood of the selected reading. After the song you will need to write a description of why you wrote these lyrics and how they relate to the story.
(7)Character Letter-Write a letter to a character in the story who is in a crisis or problem. Write them a letter and tell them what you think they should do and offer them thoughtful advice on their problem.
Rubric:
Each entry you post on the site will be worth up to five (5) points. Then at the end of the summer the instructor will assess your overall knowledge of the book based on up to 25 points. The posts will go on for 15 weeks. The total possible points that can be awarded for this assignment is 95 points.
How to receive a....
(5) Follow all the instructions in the description and provide accurate knowledge of the book, 500+ words.
(4) Follow all the instructions and there is sub less than 500 words in the post.
(3) Does not follow all the instructions but there is 500+ words.
(2) Does not follow the instructions and is less than 500 words.
(1) Something was posted but it wasn't quite relevant to the topic.
(0) Nothing was posted at all.
-Students can have a teaching assistant read the assignment to them and help to understand it.
-They can elect to work in groups of no more than 3 students if needed.
-Optional assignment can be to find a book on tape with the assistance of the librarian(Grading will be the same)
-Talk to instructor if you need assistance with any of these!
The assessment of comprehension of the book will be judged based by the posts and answering questions that are posted in the form of comments by the teacher. Remember that this is 25% of you overall grade and CAN BE THE DETERMINING FACTOR!
Enjoy this assignment!!!!!!!
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/writingabookreport/a/report.htm
A reading assignment over the summer, with a blog is a good way to keep students thinking. Although it would most likely have to be a voluntary one.
ReplyDeleteI have several things you may want to consider:
One thing to note is that you say in the lesson description that the post must be 400+ words, but then in the rubric you say 500+.
Also I am not sure that there would be reason to give a bonus point for making your entry in the beginning of the week, that really defeats the purpose of having a week to the assignment. Students who have jobs or other activities that would take up their week days would not have the option for that bonus point. Also if there is 15 weeks of blogging, that is 15 whole bonus points.
Another thing to note about the 15 weeks of blogging is that you have 7 questions and none can be used more than twice, leaving them with no questions to answer for the last week. Maybe you should have a questions that everyone has to answer on the last week.
Also you should consider listing your objectives and your standards, you may want to refer to a blog entry I have describing the break down of the lesson plan format. The standards that you choose from can be found here : http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/deputy/Documents/learnstandards.htm
I also do not see any accommodations for students of different abilities listed.
Oh, this is such a good idea. Way, way better than what my sister's high school used to have her do, which was read two books and then write essays on them. She and all of her friends would be scrambling to get them done, ruining their last few weeks of summer. This would keep kids on top of the ball, having everything time stamped and all. I do wonder, though - if they are going on vacation, somewhere without regular internet access, would they really have time to do all of this? I mean, is it... fifteen posts? I guess they'd have to pick a fairly short book...
ReplyDeleteNice lesson plan, easy to understand and read, well organized. god job man.
ReplyDeleteI like how you make very clear when the post is due. It is also nice how you allow students to post their work ahead of time so they may go on vacation or something like that. It is original that you did your lesson plan as an over the summer thing. I like the collage part! That would be a fun visual thing to do. The song lyrics part is really cool! That is something students will enjoy doing and it is still relevant to your lesson.
ReplyDelete