Ms. Lisa Oates'Teaching Portfolio - Home



Lisa OatesDr. WerderichLTLA 341, Section P2November 15, 2012Click, Clack, Moo: A Persuasive Writing LessonI. Type of Lesson: Writing Lesson on Persuasive Letters from the book, Click, Clack, MooII. Information about the ClassA. Grade Level: 2nd GradeB. Reading Levels: 8 students are above-level, 7 students are at-level, 7 students are below-level, and 5 students have strategic intervention.C. Diversity1. Gender: 13 boys, 14 girls2. Race/Ethnicity: 17 Caucasian, 5 African American, 4 American Indian/Alaskan, 1 Multiracial3. SES: Mostly blue-collar, working-class families4. Academic Ability: There are 7 ELL students, 0 IEP, and 0 gifted.5. Duration: 50-60 minutesIII. Background KnowledgeThe second-grade students have been learning about authors’ purposes for writing, such as to inform, to entertain, and to persuade. Students already know what persuasive writing is, but they need more practice with it. Students should also be familiar with the basic conventions of writing, such as how to form sentences, state a main topic, and provide supporting details. Additionally, students have already read Click, Clack, Moo, by Doreen Cronin. In this lesson, students will learn about persuasive letter-writing and respond to a writing prompt related to the book.IV. RationaleI will begin my lesson with a read-aloud to refresh students’ memories about Click, Clack, Moo. According to one study, read-alouds are very crucial for children’s language development. Reading aloud to students can help them learn effective reading strategies and develop positive feelings towards the language arts (Lynch-Brown, Tomlinson, & Short, 2011, p. 281).In my lesson, I also include a shared writing experience to teach the class how to write a persuasive letter. According to Farris and Werderich, “Using shared writing enables the teacher to demonstrate how writing works” (2011, p. 164). Shared writing helps students learn new writing concepts, such as the structure and organization of a persuasive letter. I thought this technique would be the most effective teaching strategy to meet my objectives.V. Objectives and Assessment PlansA. Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.1 Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section. Objective: After a shared writing activity about persuasive letters, students will be able to describe the purpose of persuasive writing. Assessment Plan: The teacher can assess students’ understanding of persuasive writing by informally asking questions. The teacher should write down which students have difficulty answering questions about persuasion.B. Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.1 Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section. Objective: After a shared writing activity, students will be able to describe the organization of persuasive letters, including the topic statement, main points, linking words, and conclusion. Assessment Plan: The teacher can informally assess student comprehension by asking questions about the steps of writing a persuasive letter, including how to state the topic, provide reasons, and write a conclusion. The teacher should write down names of students who have difficulty answering questions.C. Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.1 Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section. Objective: After completing a shared writing activity, students will be able to write a persuasive letter in response to the writing prompt. Assessment Plan: The teacher will grade students’ persuasive letters using the following rubric:3210FormatThe letter includes all of the following: a greeting line, a body paragraph, and a closing signature.The letter contains 2 of the following: a greeting line, a body paragraph, or a closing signature.The letter includes only 1 of the following: a greeting line, a body paragraph, or a closing signature.The letter is missing a greeting line, a body paragraph, and a closing signature. The letter is out of order and anization and SupportThe body paragraph contains a main topic sentence and at least 2 main points.The body paragraph contains a main topic sentence and at least 1 main point.The body paragraph does not have a main topic sentence and has only 1 main point.The body paragraph does not have a main topic sentence or does not contain main points.ConventionsAll sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a period.1-2 sentences are missing a capital letter and period.2-3 sentences are missing a capital letter and period.All sentences are missing a capital letter and period.Persuasive LetterThe letter is a persuasive letter.The letter is not a persuasive letter.Points Possible:10Points Earned:VI. MaterialsBook: Click, Clack, Moo, by Doreen CroninReadability: K to 2nd GradeTechnology: N/ASupplies: Whiteboard and markersChart paper and markers (1 page with a letter from the book, 1 blank page for the shared writing activity)Writing PaperCrayons/Pencils/Markers for writing and drawingVII. Grouping TechniquesThe beginning of the lesson will be a whole-group activity. Whole-group activities are time-efficient and will allow the teacher to demonstrate persuasive writing the entire class.Students will work independently when writing their persuasive letters.VIII. ProceduresA. IntroductionBuilding Background Knowledge: (T) We’ve been learning about an author’s purpose for writing. What are the three main purposes for writing? (To inform, to entertain, and to persuade.) What does it mean to persuade? (To share an opinion or change someone’s mind.)Setting Purpose: (T) Today, we are going to learn more about persuasive writing by revisiting Click, Clack, Moo. First, we will look at one of the cows’ letters, and then we will be writing our own persuasive letters to decide whether or not Farmer Brown should give the cows electric blankets.Piquing Interest: (T) Starting now, we are farmers, just like Farmer Brown from the book. I am going to read Click, Clack, Moo, and as I am reading, I want you to think about how you would respond to the cows if you were Farmer Brown.B. Lesson Steps1. Read Click, Clack, Moo to the class. Read with expression and use different voices for each character. When finished, display the first letter from the cows and ask for a volunteer to read it.Dear Farmer Brown,The barn is very cold at night.We’d like some electric blankets.Sincerely,The Cows2. (T) What do the cows want? (electric blankets) The cows wrote a persuasive letter. They want to convince Farmer Brown to give them blankets. Should Farmer Brown give the cows electric blankets? Why or why not?3. Write this writing prompt on the whiteboard and encourage the students to provide reasons for their responses. As students provide answers, make two lists of ideas on the whiteboard to support each side of the argument.4. (T) Now that we have some ideas on the whiteboard, let’s write a persuasive letter together to Farmer Brown. Let’s persuade him to not give the cows electric blankets.5. Do a shared writing activity to help students find a topic statement, three main points, a letter wrap-up, and a signature line. Ask questions to promote understanding. For example:a. What is the first step to writing a letter? (Dear…)b. What should the first sentence be? (The topic statement)c. Why do we need a topic sentence? (To state what the letter is about.)d. What is one supporting idea, or reason, that we can include?6. For the main points, demonstrate how to use linking words, such as first, second, next, and last. Ask:a. Why is it important to use words like first, second, next, and last when we give our main ideas?7. Prompt the students to make a concluding sentence and write a signature line. The final letter should like:Dear Farmer Brown,You should not give the cows electric blankets. First, the cows have been very rude by typing all day. They should be more respectful to you before you give them blankets. Also, electric blankets cost too much money. Finally, cows are not like people. They don’t need electric blankets. That is why you should not give cows blankets.Sincerely,Farmer Oates8. After you model how to write a letter, hand out paper to all of the students. Have them answer the prompt by writing a persuasive letter to Farmer Brown. They can use ideas from the whiteboard. Each letter should have at least two main ideas. Remind them to write their name and date at the top of the page.C. Closure1. When students are finished, ask for some volunteers to share their letters with the rest of the class. Call on several students to share. Comment on what the students did well.2. (T) Before we move on to our next activity, who can tell me what persuasive writing is? (To share an opinion or change someone’s mind.) What are some things that you learned about persuasive writing?3. Make sure everyone has turned in their papers and transition to the next activity.ReflectionI. Assessment OutcomesA. Discuss the achievement of the desired outcomes of each objective. Provide appropriate evidence (table, chart, checklist, student work products) related to each assessment plan.Overall, the students did a fantastic job meeting the standards and objectives. For objectives 1 and 2, I wanted the students to understand the purpose of persuasive writing and explain how to organize a persuasive letter. I assessed these two standards by informally asking questions about the purpose and structure of persuasive writing. The students answered all of my questions correctly, but unfortunately, my assessment was too informal. Only the students that raised their hands could complete my assessment. Some students did not participate, so I have no idea whether or not they met my objectives. In the future, I will make my assessments more concrete and testable.For my third objective, I made a rubric to see how well the students can write a persuasive letter. The scores were out of 10, and I recorded the results in the following table:Student Score DistributionScore (out of 10)Number of Students109910857263I was really pleased that most students got a score of 9 or above. Most of the letters contained a greeting line, a topic sentence, clear main points, a concluding sentence, and a signature line, which demonstrated that they understood the structure of persuasive writing. Some letters were really difficult to grade, even with a rubric. Although some letters contained main points, they were unorganized and confusing. Some students needed a lot of extra support to write words and sentences, so I could barely decipher their letters. Other students turned in two different letters, thus, adding extra scores to the table and skewing the results. Despite these difficulties, however, the majority of students clearly demonstrated their understanding of persuasive writing.II. ReflectionA. What went well? Why did those things go well?The best thing that went well was the students’ enthusiasm about writing. Each student loved writing the letters to Farmer Brown, and one student even made an envelope to mail her letter in. Several students made two different letters, one for the pro side, and one for the con side. Every student was engaged in the lesson, and during the independent writing, the classroom fell completely silent except for the sounds of pencils scratching on paper.I think the students were interested in this assignment because of the shared writing activity. After I showed the class how to compose a letter, persuasive writing suddenly became easier for them, which made success more attainable. My cooperating teacher even commented that she should use shared writing more often! I was extremely pleased with the overall result of my lesson, and I am glad that the students enjoyed it.B. What problems occurred? Why might they have occurred?Time management was the biggest problem that occurred. I would have liked to teach my lesson during an uninterrupted, 60-minute period. Unfortunately, I began my lesson ten minutes before the kids had to leave for gym, so we only had time to finish the read-aloud. When they returned, a student got into a fight with another student, and all of the kids were upset. My teacher turned off the lights and made the kids put their heads down on their desks to calm down. After that, the kids were still upset, and I only had a half-hour left to complete my lesson before the end of the day. We completed the shared writing activity but ran out of time for the independent writing, so we continued the lesson the following day.The next day, I had to revisit the book and the shared writing activity to remind the kids where we left off. We had plenty of time for the independent writing activity, but overall, I did not like breaking up my lesson because the transitions took up more time than planned. Although I got a little frustrated with time management, I realized that teachers must deal with these issues every day, so this was a good learning experience for me. Next time, I must be more flexible to last-minute changes.C. What changes would be appropriate?If I gave this lesson again, I would change my rubric. As I mentioned before, some of the letters were very difficult to grade because they were unorganized and confusing. Perhaps I should have given students a point for neatness. One student combined two different viewpoints into his letter. That problem wasn’t clearly addressed on the rubric, so all I could do was remove a point for organization. The next time that I make a rubric, I should carefully consider how students may write their letters and figure out exactly what I will be grading.D. What insights did you gain about the students?One crucial insight that I gained about my class was the students’ motivation to learn. I was very surprised at their enthusiasm to write more than one letter. At the end of the lesson, I allowed the students to share their writing, and everybody got a chance to share. They seemed truly interested in what others were writing, and the presentations fostered a positive and supportive environment.I also gained an insight to one student that I worked with. He was one of the students who received strategic intervention for reading and writing. He could barely write words, so I used the language-experience approach to support his writing. I asked him what he would like to say in his letter. He told me exactly what to write, and I copied his sentences word-for-word as he spoke. After we finished, he copied my written sentences onto his page. I was really impressed with his letter. Although I helped him write, he still demonstrated his understanding of persuasive writing, and he earned full points. I was amazed at how well the language-experience approach worked, and I learned that this student understood persuasive writing.E. What insights did you gain about your progress toward becoming an exemplary teacher?The best insight that I gained from this lesson was the importance of shared writing. The shared writing activity encouraged students to actively participate, and I could demonstrate how to write an effective letter. The students learned a lot by helping me write, and they had a clear idea of what I expected from them in their own writing. I never imagined that shared writing could be so beneficial to students. The students also felt a sense of achievement after writing something together. As a prospective teacher, I will definitely use shared writing in my classroom.I also learned how to use the language experience approach (LEA) to support a students’ writing. When I worked with the student who struggled a lot with writing, the LEA helped him tremendously. The LEA only took a few minutes of my time, and if I had not helped him, the student would just sit and refuse to work, as he frequently does. After I helped him, he was more motivated to practice his writing. Working with that student was an enlightening moment for me and the student, and it is a memory that I will never forget.ReferencesFarris, P. J., & Werderich, D. E. (2011). Language Arts: Process, Product, and Assessment for Diverse Classrooms (5th ed.). Long Grove: Waveland Press, Inc.Lynch-Brown, C., Tomlinson, C. M., & Short, K. G. (2011). Essentials of Children’s Literature (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download