Teacher : Renee Crumley/Jennifer Frisch/Tanesha Mowry/ Mary Jackson
Standard: ELA6R1 The student demonstrates comprehension
Grade: 6
and shows evidence of a warranted and responsible explanation of a variety of literary and
informational texts. For literary texts, the student identifies the characteristics of various
genres and produces evidence of reading that: d. Identifies sensory details and figurative
ELA6RC1 The student reads a minimum of 25 grade-level appropriate books or book
equivalents (approximately 1,000,000 words) per year from a variety of subject disciplines.
The student reads both informational and fictional texts in a variety of genres and modes of
discourse, including technical texts related to various subject areas..
ELA6W3 The student uses research and technology to support writing. The student
a. Uses organizational features of electronic text (e.g., bulletin boards, databases, keyword
searches, e-mail addresses) to locate relevant information.
b. Includes researched information in different types of products (e.g., compositions,
multimedia presentations, graphic organizers, projects, etc.).
c. Cites references.
Date of lesson: Ongoing throughout year
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
How can technology make reading and writing easier and more enjoyable?
Activating Strategy: Teacher will remind students of good grammar and punctuation rules. Teacher will remind
How will you activate your
lesson or link to prior
knowledge?
students that logs can be accessed from home through teacher blogs.
Students will log on to teacher link and complete questions related to current reading.
(
ACCELERATION
STRATEGIES: Students will create an account in Destiny and begin to use the online catalog for book
selections. Students who complete assignments quickly will help with peer reviews of logs
and book reviews.
TEACHING STRATEGIES:
What instructional strategies
will you use in your lesson?
(Examples: graphic organizer,
distributed guided practice,
distributed summarizing,
collaborative pairs)
Students will draft book reviews before posting to Destiny or recording to Audacity.
Students will use prewritten scripts in order to check for correct grammar, spelling and
punctuation.
SUMMARIZING
STRATEGIES: Students will post book review to Destiny web site or post recording to student drive for
future posting to Destiny. Students will check Destiny for classmate reviews.
How will students summarize
what they are learning during
the lesson and at the end?
(Examples: Ticket out the Door,
3-2-1, etc. Answer the EQ)
RE-TEACHING FOCUS
AND STRATEGY Students will rewrite drafts as needed. Students who have successfully completed activities
(if necessary)
will help classmates with peer reviews.
The sixth grade students at Lovinggood Middle School are required to read 25 books of various
genres throughout the year. Students are required to complete reading logs and the logs are graded for
content and pages read. In order to reduce paper work and vary the assignment s the sixth grade team has
collaborated with the media center. The collaboration will continue until the end of school.
During the first week of school, the sixth grade students receive orientation to the media center and
the types of genre they will be expected to read. (There is an attached schedule by teacher and genre.) The
Destiny system (library management) has added several new features that allows for students to react to their
readings and interact with other students and teachers about what is being read. Students can write book
reviews and recommendations for their peers. The students are then published to the program by the media
specialist.
During orientation students are shown how to access the media center blog and Destiny from any
computer that is Internet connected. Students can email me a request for holding a book of a preview of their
writings. In collaboration with the reading and writing teachers, ideas for student engagement were brain
stormed.
Students have a link to a blog where a form is completed. The questions then populate a Google Doc
which the language arts teacher uses for accountability and grading purposes. The link to Mrs. Frisch’s blog
is http://lovinggood.typepad.com/frisch/ . There are links to the sound recordings that have been produced
and will be uploaded into Destiny as soon as that feature has been activated. Currently there is no way to
load them individually. I have included a screen shot of Mrs. Frisch’s blog and links.
Lovinggood Destiny Homepage:
Here is a screen shot of two student reviews found in Destiny on the book Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Links form my blog:
Links to Mrs. Frisch’s entry points:
The Google Doc feature provides a time signature for parent communication. Google Docs are free to
use. It saves paper and expanded server save that may need to be added to county servers. Parents do not
need to “sign” a nightly reading log and the system alerts the student if blanks have not been completed.
The MP3 feature will be added using “Audacity” a free recording program that can be downloaded
from the Internet. The only expense was the purchase of microphone/headsets for the students to record book
reviews. This was a very successful activity that engaged the students. It also provided the teacher with an
authentic assessment.
Further Questions:
1. We chose these particular tools because they are free and easy to use. The students have enjoyed
being published to the web and recorded on the Internet. I provides the teachers with an authentic
assessment of what each individual student has read.
2. These activities are free or nearly free. The interfaces with Destiny are purchased with the program.
Reports provided through Destiny and Google Docs save paper and print toner.
3. The students were engaged in their own learning and we excited to see what they had written on the
Internet. They were able to self assess, practice good oral reading, and have peer reviews. One
student who normally speaks with a stutter was able to complete this recording assignment without a
stumble because the audience was the computer not his classmates. The oral reviews became an
invitation to read.
4. Parents can see the student’s work from home. Students are encouraged to show parents all of their
work before posting or responding to email. Continued promotion and invitations to parents to review
students work from their own computer is another plus. Educating parents to the available resources
and how to use them has helped get additional support. These tools have added to the communication
between school and home.
5. Administrators have observed the students’ enthusiastic responses to these assignments. Parent
feedback has been positive. There is evidence of authentic assessment of student learning.
6. Students who do not have Internet access at home are allowed to complete assignments at school.
Students were given the option of a paper/pencil review. The media center is open for extended time
periods before and after school and students are encouraged to use computers there if they don’t have
Internet at home.
Final Thoughts:
At the beginning of the year, I became a full collaborative partner on the Sixth Grade Language Arts
Reading Team. We meet every other Tuesday to discuss projects and lesson plans. Many of the procedures
used have streamlined the reporting and documentation for this group if teachers. The students have become
more engaged and willing to take responsibility for their own learning. Visits to the media center have
increased for book check outs and computer use. As the grade period changes, classes are scheduled for a
media lesson and book talk on current genre. (I will continue to use and adapt some of these projects for
other grades and subject areas.
(See below for the student reading schedule.)
1,000,000 Word Plan 2009-2010
Lovinggood Middle School Sixth Grade
Georgia Reading Standard:
“The student reads a minimum of 25 grade-level appropriate books or
book equivalents (approximately 1,000,000 words) per year from a variety of
subject disciplines. The student reads both informational and fictional texts in a variety of genres and modes of
discourse, including technical texts related to various subject areas.”
Breakdown of plan for Lovinggood 6th graders achieving the 25 books goal:
2 – Summer reading books. Final due date - August 28
3 – Total number of book equivalents allotted for subject area readings
16 – Total number of books students will be required to read outside of
class. Half of these will be assigned genres and will have related graded activities. The
other half will be genres of the student’s choice and will not require assignments. As they
finish reading each book, students must log information about all sixteen books on a
spreadsheet. It is recommended that students pace themselves by reading at least four
books per nine weeks outside of class and reading at least 30 minutes nightly.
4 – Total book equivalents for in-class reading in literature class
Total
25
Genre requirements and due dates for outside reading:
Complete reading
by:
September 3
September 24
October 22
November 12
January 14
February 11
March 17
April 29
*Page
Goal
Mowry
Frisch
Jackson
Thayer
400
General Fiction
General Fiction
General Fiction
General Fiction
650
Fantasy/
Science Fiction
Mystery
Nonfiction
1,000
Historical Fiction
Fantasy/
Science Fiction
Mystery
Nonfiction
Biography
1,300
Mystery
Nonfiction – “How
To” Book
Biography
Historical
Fiction
2,000
Nonfiction
“How To” Book
Biography
Biography
Mystery
Historical Fiction
Historical
Fiction
Fantasy/
Science Fiction
2,600
Nonfiction
General Fiction
Nonfiction –
“How To” Book
General Fiction
3,200
General Fiction
Nonfiction
General Fiction
Nonfiction –
“How To” Book
2,300
Fantasy/
Science Fiction
* Students will receive grades based on how close they are to the page goal.
**Advanced Content students must choose award winning books or those above a 900 Lexile unless they have
advance approval from Ms. Frisch.