syllabus
calendar
blackboard
student.email resources

last.updated 3.13.06

Abstracts: Group 4

Anthony

The pedagogical presentation by Anthony Garcia will present to students in the 12th grade with a brief explanation of an upcoming unit on career based writing. In completing this unit, it will be explained to students that they will gain both knowledge of the career field they are considering and research and writing skills necessary for contacting professionals in the business world.

After the brief opening lecture, students will be given an abbreviated five minute period to consider the fields and occupations that may interest them and write about them before discussing these interests in class. During this discussion, students will work with the teacher to determine whether the class has any popular career interests and whether these interests require additional training beyond high school such as vocational training or college.

Students will be provided with an assignment sheet detailing assignment dates, in-class activities and a brief explanation of an upcoming library research tutorial. Based on the in-class writing, students will be assigned homework, asking them to identify three businesses they would like to contact and research for their career based research assignment.

The goals of this lesson are to prompt the students in a free-writing activity that will introduce a more detailed, research and documentation based activity. Students will benefit from this lesson by determining the topic of their upcoming writing activity through free-writing and working together to pool from each other's existing knowledge. As this is an introductory unit activity, the teacher will also benefit by determining studentÕs individual research needs and goals and making any necessary changes to the upcoming unit activities accordingly.

Gia

This lesson is geared towards a group of sixth grade students. The whole unit focuses on students learning the writing process. Along with learning about the different steps of the writing process, they will also be reading the novel, Shiloh. At the end of the unit, the students will write an essay comparing and contrasting two characters in the novel. Every step of the writing process has to be completed before the final paper is published. This will all be collected and graded by the teacher, each step weighed equally.

For today’s activity, students will focus on revising and editing. The teacher will define terms and give a little explanation of what they consists of and explain why these steps are important components of the writing process. She will also give tips of good writing. This way students can know what to look for while they are revising and editing their essays and the papers of their peers. As a group the teacher and students will revise and edit a paragraph. This should take about three minutes. Next, the teacher will give the students about five minutes to revise and edit a sample essay. We will come back together as a group and discuss the revisions that have been made. The goal of this lesson is to familiarize students with the revision and editing steps of the writing process. Students can also benefit from other students by listening to their ideas and opinions. This lesson focuses on Virginia’s standards of learning. The student will write descriptions, narratives and explanations. They will use a variety of planning strategies to generate and organize ideas. They will establish central idea, organize, elaborate and unify. They will select vocabulary and information to enhance the central idea, expand the ideas, and revise for clarity. Finally, the student will edit writing for correct grammar, capitalization, punctuation, spelling and sentence structure.

Heather

This lesson is geared toward a seventh grade class that will read Lois Lowry's The Giver. Upon completion of the book the students will write a personal narrative, using the idea of memory (from the book) as a starting point for the narrative. This lesson will be one of the first of the sequence of lessons leading to the completion of the personal narrative. The Inspiration program will be used as a brainstorming and prewriting activity, as well as a means of outlining the elements of the narrative. Inspiration will allow the students to look at their work in two forms-- diagram or outline. Brainstorming will help them organize their thoughts so that they may more easily put them on paper. Using this program will help the students focus their ideas into a cohesive narrative beginning. Additionally, if the student is having difficulty choosing one event to use for the personal narrative, this activity will help them select the one most appropriate. Prewriting is an essential component of effective writing, as it helps students gather and organize their thoughts and emotions regarding a topic, in this case a personal event that made an impact on their life. A personal narrative lets students write about an experience in their own life from their own point of view, giving them more purpose and meaning in their writing.

Tyler