Topic 3: Model Classroom Lessons

The Model Classroom lessons were interesting to read and I learned a lot from them. I think that it is always a great idea for teachers to be able to look at other's lesson plans and learn/steal from them and then make it fit for thier kids.

Lesson #1--If I Were in Charge of the World

This is actually an assignment that we have considered doing in my classroom. I love the concept that students are able to write to express. I think that the one downfall to this lesson is the fact that it takes so long to complete. For my classes, I would cut this to three lessons. After that, my 8th graders start to get a little bored with items. Last year my ITS on campus and I wrote a great and were able to purchase digital cameras for our English department which would work with this topic very easily.

Lesson #2--Narrative Writing

This is another lesson that I do each six weeks, so I was interested in seeing what I could gather from another teacher. I was actually rather surprised in how organized this was for being a three-week project. We do something similar to this in a Living Museum where the students do reasearch and then present at the museum and then create a powerpoint to show to their classmates. I liek the fact that this one includes an interview. I think that for many of my students this is needed not only to gather information, but to know how to talk to adults. I would adjust this in my class by cutting down on the time period. I feel that while I have 45 minute classes, this could be done in a weeks worth of time for the research and writing of a paper. The powerpoint would lead into the second week, but shouldn't take any longer than two weeks.

Lesson #3--Vocabulary Development for ESL students

I am our ESL tutoring teacher for our campus. I love the idea of incorporating more technology with our ESL students, becuase while they need to know the content vocabulary, they also need to know how to use the technology available to them. I love that this concept takes a week, becuase I think it is needed, and while I only see my students twice a week, it would be easy to roll this over into a new week. I think that before I did this activity, I would review what an adjective is by doing a non-technological activity. I love the idea of taking pictures of items, we would be able to do this by going through our school on a video scavenger hunt to find the items. As I type this I am getting more excited about how we can use this to help with vocabulary building.

Overall, these lessons have made me more excited about what I am already doing and giving me great ideas about adding items in the future.