Reading Lesson Reflection #2

Mary did a very good job.  She came in not being able to answer what “predict” meant or even guess what it meant and she left being able to define predict as “guessing what will happen next because of what you read” and make accurate and relevant predictions about the reading. 

When I first went to the room to bring Mary to the reading resource room, all the kids wanted to go with me.  “Take me!  I want to go!  Can I go?”  When I asked Mary to follow me out into the hall, I think she felt really important and excited because a big smile came across her face.  Once we got to the room we talked for a bit while I set up the computer and materials.  She shared that she had been in the room before and liked it because there were so many books. 

I started by telling her what we would be doing.  After, I asked her what she thought “predict” meant and I received a blank stare.  I asked her what comes to mind when she hears the word or if she had even heard it before.  After a large moment of silence, she smiled and shook her head no.  So I went ahead and started to explain it.  Using the examples was really helpful for her.  As soon as I gave my first example and had her finish the second, I think she was able to understand.  Creating examples that students can comprehend and that are relevant, helps scaffold and make the content connectable.

As Mary began reading, she did pretty well.  The text has some made up words, so I decided to read every other page with her.  Her fluency was pretty slow, but from where she was in the beginning of the year, she has certainly improved.  When the first predict question came up, she seemed a bit surprised because she was getting into the story and the repetition of reading.  Stopping made her think about what was actually happening in the text.  All of her predictions were relevant and could have potentially happened.  Near the end of the story she even made a comment on a page about what might happen next before I prompted her to predict.  This was very encouraging and evident that she comprehended the lesson because she started to take the skill and apply it on her own. 

As the story ended, we talked about why it was important and she decided that it helped her understand the story better.  Mary concluded by saying that she really enjoyed the story.  Working one on one with a student provided me the opportunity to specifically tailor the lesson to meet the individual student’s needs.  It is important to incorporate pull out lessons into your classroom to address individual students’ needs.

Clements Reading Lesson Plan # 2

Clements Reading Lesson Plan # 2

RATIONALE

·         In small reading groups the MT reports that Mary struggles to understand main parts of what happened in a story.  When asked to predict she doesn’t understand the meaning of the word or what it means to do.  The MT asked if I would work with her to help her with her comprehension strategies. 

OBJECTIVE

·         Student will be able to orally state that predict means to guess what will happen based off one’s prior knowledge and the previous events of the reading and make predictions of what will happen in the story “The Journey of the Noble Gnarble” during a pull out one on one mini lesson by showing they are able to make predictions that are relevant to the story and could potentially happen next in the story. 

·         Performance (what a learner is expected to do to demonstrate learning):

·         Conditions (the conditions under which a student is able to perform the task—when/where the student displays the performance)

·         Criterion (how well the student must perform the task in order for the performance to be acceptable)

MATERIALS & SUPPLIES

·         Computer

·        “The Journey of the Noble Gnarble” on Powerpoint (http://www.magickeys.com/books/noblegnarble/page9.html)

PROCEDURES

INTRODUCTION   (10 minutes) 

Call Mary out of the classroom and together, walk down to the reading resource room.  It is a small room that will provide a quiet environment and limit distractions.  While setting up the computer and getting out the supplies ask Mary how she is doing and connect with her.  Try to put her in a comfortable and happy mood and explain that this lesson should be a little bit fun!  Once everything is set up, explain to Mary the schedule of events for the mini-lesson and what she will be doing.  Explain you will be talking about what “predict” means and then reading the story “The Journey of the Noble Gnarble” and you will make some predictions while reading the story.

Q: Have you ever heard the word “predict” before?  What do you think it means?

Share the example that “If broke my mom’s favorite lamp, I would predict that when she got home she would be really upset because I know she really liked that lamp.”

Have her try to explain the meaning of the world “predict.”  Re-emphasize that predict means to use the things that you already know to guess what will happen next.  (Using what you know about what is happening to make a guess about what will happen next.)

Q: Mary you just bumped your head, what do you predict will happen next?

Explain that at different parts in the story you will ask her to predict what will happen next. 

Q: When I ask you to predict, what am asking you to do?

Begin reading the story.

OUTLINE of key events during the lesson (15 minutes)

Have Mary read the story and at predetermined pages, have her stop and predict what will happen next.  After each prediction, read on and ask her if her prediction was right, wrong, close, or way off.  Also, periodically ask why she is making that prediction.  What prior knowledge is helping her make that guess?

CLOSING SUMMARY for the lesson  (5  minutes)

After the story is finished, congratulate her on reading the story.  Close the lesson by discussing for a moment her initial thoughts about the story.  

Q: Was the story enjoyable?  Did you like it?  What did you enjoy about it?  Why?

After talking about the book for a bit, shift the discussion to talking more about her predictions.  Does she understand what predict means now and why it is important?

Q: Why is important to be able to predict?

Q: How does predicting help us to be a better reader?

ONGOING-ASSESSMENTDuring the lesson take notes on Mary’s answers.  Check to see how many of her predictions were accurate.  After the initial lesson, regularly check in to see if her predictions and comprehension are improving.  Introduce other comprehension techniques as well.   Have her repeat this lesson again at a later date with another story to assess if improvements have been made.

ADAPTATIONS

Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson?

Mary is very quiet and shy, so allow longer wait time.  Working one on one, Mary will probably be more open to sharing her ideas compared to how she is in class.  She is well behaved, polite, and friendly so behavior issues should not be anticipated.  Mary has some vision impairments so make the text large enough for her to read. 

Clements Reading Lesson Reflection #1

In the words of Forest Gump, Veronica can often be like a box of chocolates… you never quite know what you are going to get.  She has the potential to be a stand out student for being creative, kind, smart, funny but can also be a stand out student for being mean, uncooperative, rude.  And during this mini lesson, I saw Veronica shine! 

As we were walking down to the reading resource room she seemed a bit nervous.  She said something and I thought I heard her say “I don’t want to go with you.” After repeating the question back to her she repeated herself and said that she said “What are we going to do?”  Once we got to the room I chatted with her a bit and she seemed to be in a good mood.  We moved into explaining what we would be doing and then reading the first chapter of “Charlotte’s Web.”  I was really impressed with her fluency and growth in reading since the beginning of the year.  She stumbled over a few words and tried to just read through them or skip them without sounding them out or understanding the meaning.  I had her go back and look at the word and she eventually was able to figure them out. 

I think I was most surprised by what happened next.  After the video started to play, she narrated and explained what she was looking at very well.  At a few points she stopped because the movie was moving through events faster than they did in the book and she was remembering and trying to retell more of the story from the book.  It was really great to see how well she latched on to the activity.  She did use a lot of direct quotes from the readings that she remembers, but I also saw that with the video she was able to retell the main events of the story.  The video helped her focus more on the main points versus just stating back lines she remembered from the reading.  By using the video, she included many of the main events of the story, and was able to notice a lot of the differences between the book and the movie. 

When we discussed her strategies for comprehension as she read, she said that she was able to see a movie in her head, but sometimes it got fuzzy.  We discussed ways she could make a stronger picture in her head and she came up with drawing pictures of each character as she read about them.  Veronica thought creatively and independently to problem solve and think of ways to make her own learning better. 

This activity was very successful for Veronica, and I think paring the reading with a video is a great way to continue to help Veronica develop those important comprehension skills.

Clements Reading Lesson Plan #1

Clements Reading Lesson Plan # 1

RATIONALE

·         In small reading groups the MT reports that Veronica struggles to retell main parts of what happened in a story.  Sometimes she will focus on a single line or phrase and repeat it.  The MT asked if I would work with her to help her with her comprehension strategies. 

OBJECTIVE

·         Student will be able to orally retell the main events of the first chapter of “Charlotte’s Web” after reading it during a pull out one on one mini lesson by using a clip from the 1973 cartoon version of “Charlotte’s Web” to aid in retelling the story by acting as the movie’s narrator and retelling the main events of the story and noticing the similarities and differences between movie and book. 

·         Performance (what a learner is expected to do to demonstrate learning):

·         Conditions (the conditions under which a student is able to perform the task—when/where the student displays the performance)

·         Criterion (how well the student must perform the task in order for the performance to be acceptable)

MATERIALS & SUPPLIES

·         Computer

·         “Charlotte’s Web” video - 1973 version

·         “Charlotte’s Web” text

PROCEDURES

INTRODUCTION   (10 minutes) 

Call Veronica out of the classroom and together, walk down to the reading resource room.  It is a small room that will provide a quiet environment and limit distractions.  While setting up the computer and getting out the supplies ask Veronica how she is doing and connect with her.  Try to put her in a comfortable and happy mood and explain that this lesson should be a little bit fun!  Once everything is set up, explain to Veronica the schedule of events for the mini-lesson and what she will be doing.  Remind Veronica that in class they have been reading Charlotte’s Web, and today she is going to read the first chapter out loud.  Then she is going to watch a clip from the 1973 cartoon version of Charlotte’s Web but with the sound off.  She will narrate the movie and retell what she just read using the movie to help.  Ask her to notice similarities between the picture she has in her head as she is reading, and the picture she sees on the screen. 

Explain that when you read something, being able to remember/understand what you read is comprehension. 

Q: What story are you reading for free choice right now?

Q: Would you be able to tell me a couple of things/events in that story so far?

Explain that being able to retell about what you read is an important comprehension skill.   

Q: Why do you think comprehension is important?  Why is it important to be able to remember/understand what we read?

Discuss the answer to that question and ultimately emphasize that comprehension is the reader’s process of using prior experiences and the author’s text to construct meaning that is useful to the reader for a specific purpose.  It is the goal of reading and why we read.

Ask Veronica what her questions are, and after answering them, pass her the first chapter and have her begin reading.

OUTLINE of key events during the lesson (15 minutes)

Pass Veronica the “Charlotte’s Web” text and have her begin reading.  As Veronica is reading, help her sound out any words she has difficulty with. 

Once she finishes reading the story, make sure the sound is off on the video and remind her that she is going to retell what she just read using this video.  She should discuss what is happening in the movie, what the characters are thinking, doing, saying, and notice what is the same and what is different in the movie clip compared to what she read in the chapter. 

Since Veronica is the only student, behavior issues should not be anticipated.  She does very well if you explain what you will be doing and treat her respectfully.  She also likes to work one on one because she enjoys the personal attention.  If for some reason she decides not to participate, and refuses to work or do the activity, take her back to class and postpone the lesson for another day.

CLOSING SUMMARY for the lesson  (10  minutes)

After finishing the “sound off” activity, discuss with her about the experience and what she noticed was the same/ different.

Q: How was it retelling the story?  What things did you try to remember?

Q: How did you remember what happened in the reading?

Q: When you read the book did you see a movie inside your head?  Could you picture things in your head?  What kind of pictures did you see in your head?

Q: What does seeing a picture in our head as we read help us do?  How does it make us better readers?

Q: What was the same between the movie and the book?  What was different?

Q: What are some other ways you can practice comprehension?  How can you practice being able to retell/understand what you are reading?  Can you draw pictures of the story after you read it?  Can you write about the story after you read it?  What can you do while reading?  Take notes?  Make a character list?

ONGOING-ASSESSMENT
During the lesson, take notes on Veronica’s answers.  Evaluate what parts of the story she remembers and compare those to see if she got the main points or only focuses on small unimportant details.  Have her think of other ways she can work on her own comprehension and in the future, ask her to complete some of those strategies as she reads.

Re-assess Veronica at a later date, to see where she is at with her comprehension and how well she is progressing.

ADAPTATIONS

Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson?

Veronica behaves very well one on one.  There should not be any behavioral issues. 

During the reading of the text, Veronica may need help sounding out words.  They have already read the text aloud in class, so she should be more familiar with some of the character names and words, but help her not to get frustrated with reading, and the main purpose of this lesson and goal is to work on comprehension.

Reading Lesson Overview

Veronica

·         ­­­Veronica is a stand out student, but often in more ways than one.  She is creative having been observed creating elaborate illustrations thinking out side of the box on assignments.  She is usually enthusiastic in sharing her ideas, as one of the students who consistently raises their hand to share during class discussions.  However, Veronica is also a stand out in less positive ways.  From time to time she can be seen in arguments with classmates, or simply folding her arms and refusing to do the work assigned by the teacher.  She can easily become distracted during independent work time, starting conversations with fellow classmates.  Substitute teachers often report finding her hard to manage and having an attitude problem. 

·         Veronica is below grade level in her reading but quickly improving.  The MT reports that she is very capable of reading, but has trouble understanding the text and needs further instructional practice with comprehension.  The MT has mentioned that Veronica often reads with great fluency, but will forget to mention main parts of the reading when asked to retell or explain.  The MT asked me to create a lesson to help Veronica learn or practice using some comprehension strategies to make it easier for her to be able to retell events of a reading.    

·         Katherine Stahl discusses in her 2004 “Proof, Practice, and Promise: Comprehension Strategy Instruction in the Primary Grades” about how important it is to develop comprehension skills at an early age.  For Veronica, as a third grader moving into fourth grade, it is even more important that she improves her comprehension skills because “often, students who engage in comprehension activities are more likely to understand and  recall more of what they read” (Stahl, 2004).  In selecting an appropriate focus and instructional strategy for Veronica, I had to think about what her strengths and weaknesses were.  Veronica easily gets distracted when she has to engage with basic and repetitive worksheets and book work.  However, when a lesson is engaging and interactive and student focused, she is most always vey engaged and participatory.  And since “visual imagery instruction seems to help younger readers and older reasons” (Stahl, 2004).  I decided to look into incorporating video into the lesson to help Veronica become engaged.  “Children with limited literacy backgrounds and young children may have difficulty sustaining attention on the type of lengthier, complex story that is necessary for comprehension instruction.  The richness of video as a medium and its familiarity to children has made it an effective tool in the development of a visual representation especially for young at-risk readers with limited literacy backgrounds.”

Mary

·         Mary is a wonderful girl.  She is always smiling and has a very positive attitude about school.  She can be seen working well with others, and has been observed helping her twin sister who has visual and cognitive impairments.  Mary is also very quiet.  If you were not specifically observing her, you might not even realize she is in the class.  She follows classroom rules, is very easily managed in the classroom, but often doesn’t speak up to share her ideas in class. 

·         Mary is well below grade level in reading and writing.  Mary was born 8 weeks early along with her twin sister.  She also has a visual impairments and slight cognitive impairments, but not to the extent that her sister does.  This often means that resources and attention goes to her sister, and less attention is available for Mary.  The MT said she is very concerned for Mary, and wants her to be able to catch up and get to a point where she can become confident in her reading.  She specifically said that Mary is having trouble connecting to the stories they are reading.  She will lose focus and when asked to predict, she doesn’t understand the concept, or has trouble taking her prior knowledge and applying it to guess what will happen next.    

·         Paul Neufeld in a 2005 article “Comprehension Instruction in Content Area Classes” explains that predicting about a text is a combination of using answers to questions posed during the overview/reading process and prior knowledge of a topic.  Mary has had some great experiences so far, and is familiar with a wide range of topics, but getting her to connect those ideas to a story is what she has been working on.  Mary is unaware of what “predict” means and will need guided instruction to practice predicting, the goal being to help her learn a strategy to improve her reading.  “Predictions can then be used as the student reads to test whether or not the text is making sense. In other words, the predictions become hypotheses to test as the student is reading” (Neufeld, 2005) and this would be very helpful for Mary as she improves her reading.  

4-10-12 Students and Writing

I think this page said something like
"Why is there a whole in the bottom
of my backpack?"

When I was a student, I loved writing.  In kindergarten, I wanted to write a story about my pet hamster sneaking into my backpack and having an adventure at my school.  I wrote out my story and then having some of the best and supportive parents a young boy could ask for, my mom bought me one of those white hardcover books, and helped me take photographs for the illustrations.  I even wrote in a line about how my pet hamster ate through all the pencils in the principal’s office. I even got to take a picture of my principal holding up a “chewed up” pencil. 

But it wasn’t until 5^th grade that my writing really grew leaps and bounds.  We must have gone through 15 different writing prompts that year – all of which my teacher guided us through using the 5 stages of writing that Tompkins outlined. (And I still have all of those writings – complete with laminated covers and bound in black spiral plastic.) 

Stage 1:  Pre-writing

I was always motivated when it came
to writing about giraffes.  

Choosing a topic is important.  I mean you can’t write about something, if you don’t have a something to write about.  I believe that “students should choose their own topics for writing - topics they are interested in and know about – so that they will be more engaged” (Tompkins, 53).  When students are engaged, they are more motivated, more studious, and take more time to do a better job.  And at this point of their learning career, those are the things that matter.  Once they have their idea, they should gathering and organize the ideas.  Tompkins gave some great ideas like “drawing pictures, brainstorming lists of words, reading books, doing internet research, and talking about ideas with classmates” (53).  The one that I think is most important is reading books. 

I have a mentor/friend who was a college professor of literature and education at our local community college (he is now retired).  Last year, I had the privilege of observing him do a poetry workshop for 4^th grade class.  He said a lot of brilliant things that day, but the one that stuck out the most was what he said after he asked a girl – who had written a lovely poem – if she liked to read.  She said that she read all the time and that it was one of her favorite things to do.  He said that made sense because people who read a lot become better writers.  He then asked how many kids liked to play baseball.  A bunch of hands shot up.  He asked how many of them like to watch baseball.  More hands shot up.  He said it was the same as reading and writing.  You can play baseball, but when you get to watch a professional play, you can learn a lot – how they hold the bat, how the stand, when they run, what kind of pitch they throw.  When you get to read the writings of people who are really good at writing, you can learn a lot from them – how to phrase a sentence, vocabulary, how to describe something.

Stage 2: Drafting

A draft is “usually messy, reflecting the outpouring of ideas with cross-outs, lines, and arrows as they think of better ways to express ideas.  They write quickly with little concern about legible handwriting, spelling correctness, or careful use of capitalization and punctuation.” (54)  I have to wonder if Topkins was observing my classroom.  When my students write their drafts they are messy!  Words spelt wrong, lines crossed out, eraser marks all over, and words circled.

My 5th grade teacher Ms. Marks.

In that 5^th grade classroom, one of our bigger writings was an in-depth research narrative where we presented on a topic of our choice in a factually creative way.  She inspired us to choose topics that were really meaningful, things we wanted to know more about, things other teachers might have steered us away from.  Some people chose the holocaust, others would chose divorce, and I chose homelessness.  It was a really big project.  Lots of research, and lots of drafts.  I visited my 5^th grade teacher last year, and the first thing she did (after giving me a big hug) was rush to her closet and pull out my rough draft of that book.  It had pages taped together, words circled, blue, red, black ink all over it, sticky notes attached.  She called it “the beautiful mess.”  And it was.  It showed exactly how messy drafting is supposed to be.  We expect students to be right all the time, that when in reality and in life, rightness isn’t always the most important thing.

Stage 3: Revising

I have been glad to see that my MT doesn’t skip over this step.  In many classrooms, I have seen teachers just go from first draft to “hand it in so I can correct it.”  Talk about working harder and not letting the students think smarter.  Revision means seeing again and after “writing the rough draft, writers need to distance themselves from it for a day or two, then reread it from a fresh perspective” (55).  Anyone who has written knows this to be true.  In my class often the teacher just has them re-write it telling them to look up words they are unsure about.  While this is a good step, I was really impressed with the great ideas Tompkins had for making this process more group oriented.  One station was re-reading where group members offer compliments and asking questions about the writing challenging the author to explain their choices.  Word choice was another station where the writer circle 5-10 words which they bring to their group to work together to make them more specific or more powerful.  Sentence combining where they group helps one another take short sentences and put them together.  Revising has always seemed like a solo process, something teach individual student needs to work on so they can work on their individual skills – but look at how much cooler and beneficial it becomes when you think of it in terms of group work.

Stage 4: Editing

The biggest tip that Tompkins gave was an “editing checklist.”  We used these in 5^th grade and they were incredibly helpful.  Just like anything else we teach, we should model how to proof read.  It is very different from regular reading and something that needs to be explicitly taught.  I have helped the students edit a few times now, and each time I really enjoy it.  My MT has the students sign up on a list for a 1:1 editing time with the teacher.  When I get to do it, I sit down with them and have them read it aloud to me.  I usually let them read it all the way through one time, and then I read it aloud to them.  We stop a few times and fix things that they catch.  Then we go back and I ask them about words I think they should know, and help them sound out the words that I think they can sound out and should be learning.  I am also quick to point out that I am not a very good speller, and it is something I work on but that I do know how to use a dictionary.  So for the words I am not 100% certain of their spelling, we flip to the word in the dictionary to make sure of its spelling. 

In my 5^th grade class, the one thing that made that teacher stand out so much from all the rest was that she admitted to not being good at math.  It was the first teacher that openly admitted to not being the best/all mighty boss/knower of all knowledge BUT that she worked hard at it and never stop trying to be better at it.  I really connected with that honestly and determination. 

Stage 5: Publishing

I think this is a really important step and a lot of teachers forget about.  Just like who letting them choose their topic makes it meaningful, being given the opportunity to share their work makes the writing meaningful.  Tompkins gave some great ideas on page 59: “read it to parents and siblings, share it at a back-to-school event, place it in the class or school library, read it to students in other classes, post it on the class website, send it to a children’s literary magazine.”  The ideas are not all necessarily just getting it actually published in a magazine or a book.  The definition of publishing is much broader than I had thought, but it makes sense.  Writing should have purpose, and when students are allowed to share their writing, it helps them connect to that purpose.

My MT is very proud of her students publishing portfolio.  All the items of writing go into their writing portfolio and they often share these with their parents and conferences, or go read them to the kindergartners down the hall.  They spend time going through the writing process and making a piece of writing they can be proud of and I have enjoyed being a part of the process.  It is also really great because you can even just visually see their growth when you flip from their first piece of writing back in September to the one they just finished last week.  Their penmanship has improved, the amount they wrote, their sentence structure, spelling, vocabulary, etc.  It has all really improved and because of those writing portfolios, assessing that growth is reliable and very simple to do.  

3-22-12 New Literacy Project Reflection

After completing this project I have a better understanding of what goes into teaching a new literacy and a new technology.  As far as the new literacy goes, I think just teaching it is step one.  So many of the literacies I learned about I really hadn’t heard before.  Teaching strategies to understand them and their importance has been shown through all the projects to also be very important.  For the new technology, I think this has to be done, slow and at the learners pace.  There is a lot of anxiety for some people attached to learning a new technology.  It takes time to learn the program, learn the interface, learn what tools to use, learn shortcuts.  It is a lot of information that can’t be learned on day one.  Allowing students the time to experiment, and openly play with the technology, I believe is one of the best ways to teach it.  It is often something they have no prior knowledge about so it helps to simple play.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:

I think I have a much broader idea of what literacy is.  Before, it mainly consisted of reading and writing.  With this new literacy, (mine was media literacy) I realize that it is very complex.  I think making it accessible to students is the key.  The same would apply to “traditional” book literacy, so it only makes sense then that it applies to these “new” literacies.  Media literacy is really complex.  It builds off a lot of knowledge of how the world works and how social identities interact in the world and with each other.  Just as “traditional” literacy is really complex and can’t be learned overnight, neither can media literacy.  The more you learn, the more you understand, but it is a continuous growing process.  Language Arts certainly encompasses much more than what I thought it did at the beginning of all this.  I had heard of a few of these literacies, but “math literate” or “political literate” I hadn’t so it makes me think now that there must be even more out there.

The main article I used for my project was “What is Media Literacy” by Robert Kubey.  It is a really interesting article full of great information to understand media literacy.  He talks about why it is so important for students to know because todays child is exposed to three hours of TV a day – and that is just one form of media and an average.  So students are bombarded with images that they can’t read or fully understand every day.  The article made a lot of sense to me, but I knew I couldn’t just give it to my students to read and expect them to understand it.  So I tried to think how I could make this accessible to students.  I believe that any topic can be taught or discussed as long as it is made appropriate and accessible to the student. So I took the big ideas in the article of “analyze” and “think critically” and turned them into more age appropriate ideas like “stop” “who is missing” “how did they get your attention?”

EFFECTIVE LITERACY INSTRUCTION:

Just like any other concept or idea that is taught to students scaffolding during a literacy lesson is important.  I student can’t have a strong grasp of political literacy if they aren’t informed about politics.  A student can’t have a strong grasp of media literacy if they aren’t informed about social constructions that are in the media.  After having gone through the process of learning a new literacy and a new digital literacy, I have a much better understanding of what factors can make the process successful and which can make the process frustrating.  Having a guided expert would certainly have helped.  I am at the point where I can research on my own, finding articles and learning the information.  For my younger students I will not only be teaching the content, but the process as well. 

If I was to do a similar project with my students, I would spread this out over a period of time.  Schoology lends itself to being applicable all year, so this would be something I would introduce right at the beginning of the year.  I would allow them to first set up their profile, explore the different features.  Then as time progressed add new assignments (adding a photo, posting a discussion, taking a quiz, etc.)  Doing it piece by piece helps to make it less overwhelming an focus can be placed on each part so that the student understands it better. 

For the media literacy part, this would be more of a summation assignment.  To be able to “SMAC UP” the media, the student needs some background information on other literacies like cultural, political, social, etc.  They need to know about different social identities and how they operate in the world.  Only then can they use that information to understand the images being portrayed in the media.  Maybe one way to do this would be to focus on a specific idea in the media – like the portrayal of young people, or how are women represented.  Narrowing the scope of what is a huge topic would provide clarity for the student. 

I talked earlier about how I believe anything can be discussed in a class as long as it is made accessible an appropriate for the age group.  Studying media literacy has the potential to bring up issues that might be considered taboo for a classroom, like sexuality or race.  In one of my favorite articles titled “Affirmation, Solidarity an Critique: Moving Beyond Tolerance in Education” by Soni Nieto, in a classroom “nothing is taboo as a topic of discussion as long as it is approached with respect and in a climate of caring ” (Nieto, 1994).  By setting a respectful tone for discussion, the conversation could be very effective and show the students how that identity is represented in the media.  By looking at the media and its messages, this would teach complexity and that “there are many sides to every story and that in order to make informed decisions they need as much information as they can get ” (Nieto, 1994).  Having students learn the acronym “SMAC UP” would serve as a tool to recognize social issues and agendas set by the creators of that particular piece of media.  This shows tudents that media cannot be taken at face value, but that it reflects and prescribes social beliefs and how different socio-cultural identities, including their own, work in the systems of power. 

 LESSON PLAN:

Using www.schoology.com  to teach media literacy.  To summarize,  I created a class page where students had 6 assignments to complete which would be an extension of work done in school. 

a.       Discussion: What do you know about "Media Literacy?"

b.      Assignment: Your Turn To Teach: Media Literacy

c.       Quiz: SMAC UP

d.      Assignment: SMAC UP Your Own Piece of Media

e.      Album: Media Literacy

f.        Discussion: What do you know about "Media Literacy" now?

They would interact with each other in an online format exploring the tools that www.schoology.com  offers, and at the same time learning about media literacy.

Target Area and Rationale:

Media literacy revolves around media.  An online format allows students to easily share pictures, links, videos, etc. Using www.schoology.com  allows students to accomplish all these goals and easily communicate with me as the teacher and with one another in an open online format.  It is important for students to learn media literacy because it helps students better understand and breakdown the stereotypes they see every day in visual images.  When a student is able to do this, they become in control of the media images instead of the other way around – they control how they view the image and recognize any bias or slant. 

Objectives

Students will be able to…

   - define that media literacy is understanding the message behind examples of media (TV 

     commercial, movies, magazine covers, etc.)  (expanded definition: critically analyzing media 

     messages, evaluating sources of information for bias and credibility, raising awareness about 

     how media messages influence people’s beliefs, attitudes and behaviors and producing 

     messages using different forms of media.) 

   - write what each letter in “SMAC UP” stands for.

   - ask questions about the media using the framework of SMAC UP. (Connecting individual  SMAC 

     UP letters to pre-proposed questions)

   - apply the SMAC UP process and deconstruct media images

Materials and Supplies Needed

   - Computers

   - Internet access

   - www.schoology.com  account

Key Events

   -  www.schoology.com  has been used since the beginning of the school year.  Students are 

     familiar with the website.

   - Over the course of a week, this unit helps students learn one strategy that can be used to help 

     approach breaking down a piece of media to better understand it.

   - Before the lesson begins, student post their answer on the discussion wall to the question: Have 

     you ever heard the term "Medial Literacy?" What do you think it means?

   - In class, the lesson begins with an introduction to the term “media literacy.”  Media is explained 

     and students learn the different types of media.  The acronym of SMAC UP is also taught and 

     each letter is explained as a step/question to be answered to break down the messages in a 

     piece of media.

o   Stop - Stop and think about what you are looking at.

o   Missing - What/Who do you think is missing?

o   Attention -How do they get your attention?

o   Created -Who made it?

o   Understand it -Do you understand the message they are sending? What helps you to understand what they are saying?

o   Point of View - Who is in it and what are they like?

   - As a class, model these steps and questions and SMAC UP a piece of media.
   - Online students “get to be the teacher” and explain what they learned during the lesson to
     whoever is at home with them or at an afterschool program.  They can use the PowerPoint to
     help them explain what they learned.   They then post on the discussion board what they talked
     about with the person they taught to. 
   - In class, review SMAC UP and spend more time on each letter reviewing how to answer the
     questions that each letter poses.   - Online, take the SMAC UP quiz as an assessment of if they are able to explain what the
     acronym stands for and what the corresponding questions are.
   - In class, explain the “SMAC UP” project and that they will be choosing a piece of media to break
     down and then reconstruct.
   - Online

o   1. Select a piece of media: 

§  It can be a video game, music video, print ad, TV commercial, movie commercial, wiki, blog, virtual life (e.g. second life), movie, TV, song, product packaging, newspaper, lyrics, comedic sketches, printed text, mass media photographic exhibit (e.g. BBC photos of the week), etc.

o   2. Explain why you chose that text. 

§  Q: What is this?

§  Q: What didn’t you like about the ad?

§  Q: How did it make you feel?

§  Q: What did you learn from it?

§  Q: What does this piece say about you? 

§  Q: Do you often read this text? Do your friends? 

§  Q: Did you look at them differently prior to this class and now you are amazed by the way you read this text now after learning about Media Literacy?

o   3. SMAC UP the piece of media you chose.

(S) Stop
• Q:What is the first thing we do?
• Q: How does this help us?
(M) Missing
• Q: What is left out of the ad?
• Q: Who is left out of the ad?
• Q: What kind of message is that telling us?
(A) Attention
• Q: How did they get our attention?
• Q: What things did they get us to pay attention to it?
• Q: Why were in interested in it?
(C) Created
• Q: Who made the clip?
• Q: Does that influence our interpretation of it?
• Q: Are they trying to influence us in a certain way?
(U) Understand it
• Q: How do you understand the message?
• Q: How might others understand the message?
• Q: What was the intended message?
(P) Point of View
• Q: Who is in it or how is represented?
• Q: How are they represented?
• Q: Who can best relate to it?
• Q: What are your questions?

o   4. Make it your Own.
• Re-create this text so that you tell the media message from a new perspective. Rewrite the lyrics. Re-tell the story. Write a letter. Make the media your own.

o   5. Post your picture into the "Media Literacy" album and post a comment that summarizes your SMAC UP

   -  In class, allow for work time on their SMAC UP project and provide guidance and answer any
     questions. 
   - Online, have students view other classmates projects and comment.  
   - Online, have students re post their new answer to the beginning question: Have you ever heard
     the term "Medial Literacy?" What do you think it means?

Closing Summary

Media literacy is hard.  Being able to recognize bias in media is not a simple task.  However, using a memorable acronym and creating easy to understand questions that students can answer makes the topic appropriate and accessible to students.  Using the online format is engaging students outside of class, and getting whoever is at home or at an after school program involved for part of the assignment provide more opportunity for discussion about appropriate online behavior.

Ongoing Assessment

www.schoology.com  allows me as the teacher to continually monitor the online activity of each student and assess the work that they are posting.  I can directly comment and keep numerical/statistical data of their assignments.