The Language Arts Unit Plan - Essay Example

Language LANGUAGE ARTS UNIT PLAN February 26, 2013 Introduction This Language Arts Unit plan is for the Third Grade and it uses the Arizona Language Arts Standards. It will cover all the basic tenets of Language Arts and its representative skills in Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. It was also involve thinking skills. It will be a five days long. I have chosen a short story “The Boy and The Ghost” written by Robert D. San Souci. The week will cover Oral language and Vocabulary, Phonics and Word Analysis, Fluency, Reading Comprehension and Writing. There will objective and measurable activities to show student achievement. The lesson plans will have an Objective, Materials, Procedure, and Assessment. The lessons are all connected through using the same story but in different learning aspects and skills. Schedule of Lessons Monday-- Oral Language and Vocabulary Tuesday—Phonics, Word Patterns, Word Analysis Wednesday—Fluency Thursday—Reading Comprehension Friday—Writing The Arizona Standards that are taught in these lessons are as follows: 1. The children will be able to choose words and phrases to convey ideas precisely. 2. The children will use punctuation to separate items in a series. 3. The children will choose words for effect. 4. The children will learn Subject, Verb, Pronoun, and antecedent agreement. Lesson Plans Monday—Oral language and Vocabulary Behavioral Objective-- The student will use their oral language to improve vocabulary by reading a short story and will write down on a sheet of paper any new words that they do not know. For example, croaker-sack, kindling, scowling, sycamore tree are some of the possible new words. The students will begin to use the dictionary to look up the meaning of the new words after they try to figure out the meanings from the story. This activity will be done after the first reading of the story. The students will also read this story silently. Materials—Copy of Story “The boy and The Ghost” by Robert D. San Souci; Paper and Pencil Procedure— Students will sit in one group or in small groups and read the story to each other taking turns in reading each paragraph. The teacher will take short notes when students may have trouble with certain words. Assessment—The teacher can ask the student to write down the word or words that the students may stumble with when reading and then practice saying the word or words by sounding them out. The teacher then can ask the student to give the meaning of the unknown word by reviewing the story context. Tuesday—Phonics, Word Patterns, Word Analysis Behavioral Objective— Student will use the story to learn the concept of making compound words. The student will read through the story and write down all the compound words on a sheet of paper. The students will learn what makes a compound word. They will also learn that a compound word is made of two separate words that could stand apart. Materials-- Copy of Story, Paper and Pencil Procedure— Students will read through the story and when they come to a compound word they will them write it down on their papers. The teacher can then ask them what two words make the one compound word that they found. Assessment-- To check for understanding the teacher can ask the student to read the story and when the student comes to a compound word he will state the word, then the student states the two words that comprise the word. The teacher then can ask them if they know what that word means and the two words that make up the compound word. Wednesday—Fluency Behavioral Objective—Students will improve their reading speed and accuracy and then be able to discuss and summarize what they have read. The students will also state their likes and dislikes of the story. The students can also practice their silent reading skills as well. The students will try and not make any mistakes when reading. Materials—Copy of story Procedure-- The teacher will ask the students to re-read the story in their groups and the students will try to read the story without stumbling over the words. When the student stumbles on a word the student will practice saying that word several times and then when the story is finished they will write down each of the words they stumbled on a sheet of paper. Assessment-- Students will read a chosen passage of the story at a constant rate and try for smoothness in reading. The student should be able to read the story with making only one mistake, but preferably none. Thursday—Reading Comprehension Behavioral Objective- Students will read the story and then answer questions from and about the story to improve reading comprehension. The students will be able to answer the questions in their own words or if need be will find the answer through looking in the story for exact answers. Materials—Copy of story, paper and pencil, optional questions written on blackboard Procedure- The teacher will review the story and then ask the students the questions at the end of the story. The children will answer the questions in their own words and if the questions need exact answers then the students will know where in the story to find the answer to the questions that the teacher will ask. Assessment—The teacher will offer the student other questions about the story and they will answer them using exact answers. The questions will be answered with facts from the story. The quiz will be worth at five points. Friday—Writing Behavioral Objective-- The student will be able to practice their cursive writing skills along with what makes up a story (a beginning, middle and end). The students will also be writing their own story like the one read through the week. The student will also share their story with the class. Materials—paper and pencil Procedure-- The teacher will give the student time to review the previous story and then either individually or in groups the students will write their own stories. Remind them that their stories must have a beginning, middle and an end. This activity should last for 15 to 30 minutes. Assessment— The teacher will collect the papers and check them for having a beginning, middle and an end. Remind them that paragraphs have two or three sentences or the teacher can have each of them read their story and listen for fluency in reading and see if they can answer one question about their story for comprehension. Observation of Reading Classroom My observation of the reading classroom that I observed shows me how things stay the same even though teaching methodologies have changed and teachers still stick to the tried and true. The teacher did try the new methods that are available for the Language Arts Programs and/or Reading programs. In the classroom I observed in still used Basal readers, but used trade books and other media, for example films, tape players and audio-visual materials to teach these skills for literacy. Reading comprehension is important in this classroom, but phonics is still used for when some students are having trouble with various skills like vocabulary that is new to them. The teachers still believed that the basics should be covered before moving on to other aspects of literacy. They believed that books other than the Basal readers should pertain to the student’s interests. They think that if the students read what they are interested in their skills in vocabulary, phonics, comprehension, fluency and writing will also improve. Language Arts is a subject that involves Speaking, Listening, Reading, Writing and Thinking Skills. The teacher in the Reading classroom also used drama and creative writing to instill practice for all the reading skills. Even at the third grade level the students still like to choose the stories that they are interested in reading and they learn the necessary skills for learning smoother. There were a lot of other projects going on in the whole classroom and they used all the Language Arts areas throughout the curriculum. In the story that I chose I used it as a Science unit for a lesson on body parts. It could also be used as a Social Studies/History unit dealing with the setting of the story. Critique of My Lessons My lessons went well for the students and they were able to complete all the work with minimal assistance. I could improve on this by making each of the assignments with a little more detail. I could as more questions of them and ask them to share more of their opinions of the story. In the lesson on Phonics I could add along with the compound words I could also add words with prefixes, suffixes and root words. All the teachers taught me that teaching and learning should be fun even if only the basics are taught. In learning in a Language Arts Program you must remember that all the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing also include fluency, phonics, and comprehension along with vocabulary. This goes along with what teaching is all about and what we learned in class, “Reading should be easy, but not too easy they learn by reading.” “Instruction should be functional and contextual, making connections, and promote independence.” Conclusion Language Arts is where children can learn to read and read to learn. Reading should be goal oriented and systematic and still build motivation of the students and give them a feeling of competence, language proficiency and always be ongoing for future learning.” (Gunning. 2005) “When using Language Arts across the curriculum in the classroom they use discussions, dramas, debates, interviews and oral reports.” (Tompkins, 1995) Language Arts is really all subjects for learning and teaching. References Gunning, Thomas G. (2005) Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students; Chapter One The Nature of Literacy and Today’s Students, 5th edition Pearson Allyn and Bacon San Souci, Robert B. (1997)” The Boy and The Ghost” If You Meet a Dragon and Smaller Challenges Book B; Scott-Foresman Tompkins, Gail E. & Hoskisson, Kenneth. (1995) Language Arts Content and Teaching Strategies; Chapter 14 Extending Language Arts Across Curriculum; 3rd edition, Merrill Prentice Hall Read More