About Me...

I love reading! Books are our portal to new worlds; they are our passports to other countries. It is my goal to inspire a love of reading in my students.

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."
--Maya Angelou

"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."
--Mark Twain




"All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was." 
--Ernest Hemingway

"In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends imprisoned by an enchanter in paper and leathern boxes.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

 "The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." --Dr. Seuss  

(pictures taken from bookshelves at my house)

Student Work

Students drew postcards to demonstrate the setting of a short story, "Breaker's Bridge."

Summarizing Activity: Stretch to Sketch--Students had to choose an important part in the novel Number the Stars and draw a picture of this scene. Then they had to write a brief summary of this part of the novel, using their picture for inspiration. 

Summarizing Activity: Summary Star--Students had to answer questions on the six points of the Star of David to help them to develop a summary for the novel Number the Stars, which is set during the Holocaust.

Number the Stars Final Project: Letter Option--One of the options that the students could choose for their final project was to write a letter from one character in the novel to another. In this letter the student had to include a summary of the novel as well as the five Story Elements (characters, setting, conflict, plot, and theme) as represented in the novel. This student chose to make a letter-scrapbook. 

Number the Stars Final Project: Poster Option--One of the options that the students could choose for their final project was to create a poster. The poster had to include a summary of the novel, as well as five Story Elements (characters, setting, conflict, plot, and theme) as represented in the novel, and relevant images that represented the main ideas of the novel.  

Impact Study

Impact Study

              During my internship I conducted an Impact Study, studying the results of my unit on Lowis Lowry's novel Number the Stars.

Demographic Profile

            The school community of Battlefield Middle School is fairly diverse. There are a total of 795 students attending this school. Of these students 53.58% of the students are White, 21.64% are Black, 15.35% are Hispanic, 3.77% are Asian, 0.25% are Indian, 0.25% are Hawaiian, and 5.16% are two or more races. These numbers for the school are pretty fair representations of the students in my classroom, though I feel as if my classes are a bit more racially diverse than some of these smaller numbers show.

            This school also has a diverse economic population. Of the students who attend BMS 40.63% are labeled ECD, economically disadvantaged. These are the students who qualify for free and reduced lunch.  Of the students who are labeled ECD, 22% are White, 44% are Black, 40% are Hispanic, 16.6% are Asian, and 40% are of non-categorized or mixed races. There are also twelve BMS students who are currently homeless. On the other end of the spectrum, there are also many students who come from affluent middle class families. Unfortunately there is no current available percentage number for these students.

            BMS also has a fairly large community of students with disabilities (SWD).  85 BMS students are identified as SWD, making up 10.69% of the total population. I have five of these students in my sixth grade English inclusion class. Of the total population, students labeled as SWD who are White make up 5.1%, 2.9% are Black, 2.5% are Hispanic, 3.3% are Asian, and 2.2% are a non-categorized race. These percentages may appear slightly misleading though when only looking at the number because the percentage was taken from the total population of BMS students.  For example, it appears as though there are more Asian students with disabilities than Black students, which is not the case. This is because there are more total Black students than Asian students. As well as students labeled SWD, there are also some students who are labeled LEP. These students are English language learners. There are 43 LEP students at BMS, though none of these are in my classes. These students make up 5.41% of the total population.

            The students in my classes come from a variety of different economic, social, ethnic, and racial backgrounds.  I have many students who are economically disadvantaged and several students who have specific learning disabilities. Because of the diversity of my students, I try to differentiate my lessons and assessments in order to give everyone a chance to be successful.

Data Analysis:



In my charts I divide the data up by classes. The A2 class has a large SCOPE (gifted) cluster, though there are seven students who are not SCOPE and of these three of these perform very low academically and behaviorally.  This class achieved some of the highest overall scores, but also some of the lowest overall scores. I was very pleased with the performance of many of the SCOPE students. I expected that they would go the extra mile, and a few even exceeded my expectations. On the other hand, some of the SCOPE students produced disappointing results. Many did not turn the project in on time, even though there was a five point penalty for each day that the project was late. In fact, the A2 class had the highest number of students who did not turn in their work on time. Seven out of the twenty-two did not turn in their work on time, and of these six were SCOPE students. I was disappointed to see so many students underperforming. Of the SCOPE students who actually turned in the assignment on time, most earned A’s or high B’s. Still, I was disappointed though to see that there were a few who turned in very minimalistic work. Overall, about half of the SCOPE students performed to the level expected and half fell below the mark. While these results are a bit disappointing, they are not altogether unexpected. My MT and I have noticed a trend of underperforming with many of the SCOPE students. I believe that is because they grew accustomed to earning “easy A’s” in elementary school and have not yet learned that it will not be the same in middle school. Hopefully their results on the post-assessment will be a wake-up call for some of them.

The A3 class is a general education class. As a whole, this class performed very well. Most of the students earned A’s and B’s. There were only two C’s and one D.  The two C’s were both students who typically perform on the lower end. I am satisfied with their results, because I know that both of these students had to work hard to earn those C’s. The D was unexpected. The student who earned this grade performed well below her ability level. Because this was so unexpected, I returned the project to this student and gave her the opportunity to do the assignment over again in order to improve her grade.  Except for this one student, I was very pleased with the results of this class.

The A5 class is an inclusion class. There are five Special Ed. students in this class with specific learning disabilities in reading comprehension and written expression. Two require the number 14 accommodation--tests must be read aloud to them. Both of these students also struggle extremely with written expression. Though these two students struggle the most with written expression, they are a bit better with reading comprehension than the other three. As a whole, I was very impressed with the results of the Special Ed. students.  Three of these students earned A’s.  I want to emphasize the word “earned” because these students truly went above and beyond. These students whose writing is normally jam packed with errors turned in nearly grammatically flawless projects and they demonstrated a thorough understanding of the novel. I must say that I was more impressed with these students than with many of the SCOPE students.  It was evident that these students really put in time and effort into their projects. This pattern rang true with the rest of the class as well. Some of the students who are usually at the top of the class performed below their skill level, while a few of the lower performing students really impressed me with their hard work. One student in particular, who normally performs at the lower end, put a lot of effort into her work and even included more than what the project required. Unfortunately, her project was riddled with grammatical errors (she typically struggles in this area) and she was missing one essential requirement. Though I really wanted to give this student an A, the rubric would not allow it. Because I wanted to give this student the grade that she deserved for the effort that she put in, I allowed her to add the section that she was missing to her project and this bumped her up to an A.  It was the most rewarding experience for me to see the expressions on the students’ faces when I told these struggling students that their hard work had paid off and that they had earned an A.

It was interesting to see the trends among the classes. There was a surprising trend of higher level students underachieving and lower level students overachieving. I think that part of this is simply the struggle of getting accustomed to middle school. Many of the higher level students are used to doing well without having to put in much effort, and they have not yet learned that they will have to try a bit harder to do well in middle school. Whereas, some of the lower level students are used to struggling and working hard to earn their grades, so they know that they will have to spend time and put in a lot of effort to achieve the grades that they want. For those students who did not do as well as they hoped, I think that this will be a lesson in the importance of hard work.

Overall, I feel as though the Impact Unit was a success. Many students proved that they had a good understanding of the novel as well as the different Story Elements and the skill of summarizing. All of the students showed a progression from the beginning to the end. This is particularly apparent when looking at the summarizing graph. Each of the lines shows a steady incline, save for the slight dip at Summary 4 (this was because Summary 4 was the first complete summary of the whole novel, and it was a more difficult task).  Some students did perform lower than desired in the unit, of course. I think that the best way to help these students would be to allow more class time to work on the essential skills, including the final project. I could also give these students the opportunity to make some corrections to their projects. In fact, I have already done so with quite a few students.

  

Reflection:

What worked well?

·   The pre-reading activities that I created giving background information about the time period really worked effectively to hook the students into the novel. These also gave the students necessary background information. The students needed to know about WWII and the Holocaust in order to understand the significance of the novel.

·   Having the students complete reading response questions while reading gave the students something to focus on in each chapter. This help to direct the students toward the details that I wanted them to take from each chapter. Giving the students focus questions also helped with summarization.

·   Working on summarization to improve reading comprehension worked really well. I was able to see clearly how the students comprehended the novel, and I was able to monitor their progress and understanding.

·   By repeatedly introducing the skill of summarization in new ways I was able to reinforce the material and reach students with differing learning styles. I modeled each of these methods and then had the students follow suit. This worked very well. I saw that they students steadily improved on summarization and with their comprehension of the text throughout the unit.

What did not work well?

·   Because we were reading the novel in class, all of the students were at different places at different times. Some students finished much earlier or later than other students. I would like to be able to send books home with students. I realize that this depends on the resources that the school has available, but I feel like it would make a difference if all of the students had a book at home to work with.

·   The Double Entry notes were difficult for many students. Some students struggled with the concept of writing a detail from the text in one column and explaining its importance in the other. Most students did not keep up with these notes as they read. I think that some of these students struggled with the multitasking of reading and taking notes at the same time, while others simply needed a little more prompting and reminding.

·   I could also have explained more clearly that the students should choose a project not only based on their interests but what they have available. Some students struggled with the time constraints because they were attempting to complete a Power Point when they did not have a computer at home. I think that a lot of these students wanted to do what was “cool” and did not really consider how they were going to get their project done. In the future I will explain this a bit better.

What have I learned, and what will I do in the future?

·  I learned that it is really important to cover, cover, and recover any important material. Reinforcing the same material in different ways is very important.

·   Students finish at different rates. It is important to allow time for the slower students and to have sponge activities for the quicker students.

· If I teach another novel that the students must read in class, I will assign specific chapters to be read each day and try to keep all of the students at the same place in the novel. It becomes difficult to manage when everyone is in different places. 

Unit Plan

Novel Unit: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Unit Goals/Objectives

<           Reading strategies

·                     Reading comprehension

            Creating strong readers and building a wealth of reading strategies is essential to the success of these students throughout their school careers and throughout their lives. Students will be able to carry over the reading skills that they learn in this unit to their other classes, and they will be able to continue to use these throughout the year.  It is particularly important to focus on reading strategies with these students because they will have a reading SOL test at the end of the year. It is necessary to prepare these students not only with grammar and vocab knowledge but also with strategies for reading comprehension.  I believe that the students will be more successful on the SOL and throughout their school careers if they are taught how to read effectively.

            During this unit I also want to continue to work on Story Elements/Literary Elements. I want to be able to carry over the material that the students have just learned about Story Elements and use it comprehensively while reading. I plan to use Story Elements as a way of furthering understanding of the text. The students will use their knowledge of Story Elements and apply this to the new reading strategies in order to have a better comprehension of the novel.

Objective: Students will become stronger readers.

<         ·    Students will be able to use reading strategies such as note taking, summarizing, predicting, making inferences, and making connections to better comprehend a text.

<         ·    Students will be able to summarize a text.

<         ·   Students will be able to identify all Story Elements in a novel.

<         ·   Students will be able to make predictions and inferences about a text.

<         ·    Students will be able to make connections between fiction and history.

<         ·   Students will be able to make connections between fiction and their lives.

Assessment Plan

For Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Pre-Assessment—Students will read a passage from the novel and answer a series of multiple-choice standardized questions. I will be testing for reading comprehension as well as understanding of story elements.

The students will also fill out a KWL chart about WWII and the Holocaust.  This will tell me about the students’ background knowledge of the historical context of the novel.

Summaries—As we are reading, the students will be periodically asked to stop and summarize what they have just read/what has happened in the novel so far. These will be brief paragraphs, or sometimes longer entries that the students will hand in. I will use these to check on the students’ reading comprehension and retention abilities.

Reading Quizzes—I will give out reading quizzes.  After reading several chapters, I will give the students a short quiz on what they have read to test for comprehension. These will be multiple choice.

Double Entry Journal—The students will keep a double entry journal for each of the different parts of the Story Elements (setting, characters, conflict, plot, theme). On one side they will have a quote from the text; on the other side they will write why they think this is important to the novel. The students will fill these in as they read.

Chapter Questions—As the students read through the chapters, I will give them a series of questions to focus their reading. They will be given sets of questions for two chapters at a time. I started this in my inclusion class as an alternative to the double entry diary, which I found them to be struggling with, but I have found this to be a useful tool in all of the classes.

Paired Passages—The students will be assigned non-fiction paired passages to read alongside the novel. There will be activities associated with these—questions, Venn diagrams, etc.

Group/Partner Presentations—Each group will be assigned a Story Element. They will then write a poem/song/rap that tells what their Story Element is and how it can be identified. Then they will add in connections to the novel Number the Stars. The groups will then present these to the class.

Post Assessment—The students will create an individual, comprehensive final project. For this project, I will give the students several options. The students may choose to create a poster, a quilt, or a power point. The student must include in their project a detailed summary of each of the different Story Elements in the novel Number the Stars. I will allow the students to choose between three options: 1. Create a poster. 2. Create a Power Point. 3. Pretend that you are Annemarie and write a letter to Ellen. You must include a summary of what has happened in the novel.

Example Lesson Plans

10/15/12

Objective: Students will be able to identify World War II and the Holocaust and some major events of these. Students will be able to identify Denmark and this city of Copenhagen.

SOL:

6.4 The student will read and learn the meanings of unfamiliar words and phrases within authentic texts.

6.6 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a variety of nonfiction texts.

a) Use text structures such as type, headings, and graphics to predict and categorize
information in both print and digital texts.
b) Use prior knowledge and build additional background knowledge as context for
new learning.
c) Identify questions to be answered.

Materials:

WWII and Holocaust images
Map of Denmark
\Non-fiction passages
Newspaper clippings

Procedure:

1.      Warm Up: The students will find mistakes and correct a sentence. They will do this first in their notebooks and then I will call them up to make corrections on the board.

Incorrect:  He held out his hands to catch the football, then he glanced at Kiyoko to see if she was chearing for him, when he turned back the football hit him right in the face.

Correct: He held out his hands to catch the football and then glanced at Kiyoko to see if she was cheering for him. When he turned back, the football hit him right in the face.

•           Chearing should be cheering.

•           This run-on sentence should be broken up into two sentences.

2.      Introduce New Vocab: I will hand out the new vocabulary word list and go over this with the students. I will give the definitions for the new bases and prefixes and put the words up on the word wall.

3.      KWL Pre-Reading for Number the Stars: Students will complete the first two sections of a KWL (What I know, What I want to know) chart about WWII, Holocaust, and the involvement of the Danish. The students will create this chart on notebook paper.  

4.      Pre-Reading Activity for Number the Stars:  Students will complete a constructivist learning activity where they will discover information about World War II, the Holocaust, and the country of Denmark. The students will travel around to different stations in pairs where they will create various activities. At each station, the students will learn about one of these three topics. At the different stations there will be images, map activities, non-fiction passages, as well as newspaper clippings. After they finish all of the statements, the students will fill in the last column of the KWL chart (What I learned) and had this in.

Assessment:

KWL chart
Station activities

10/17/12

Objective: Students will be able to describe the historical events that shaped a novel. Students will be able to make predictions about a novel.

SOL:

6.6 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a variety of nonfiction texts.

b) Use prior knowledge and build additional background knowledge as context for

new learning.

c) Identify questions to be answered.

d) Make, confirm, or revise predictions.

e) Draw conclusions and make inferences based on explicit and implied

information.

Materials:

Pre-Reading Assessment questions

Procedure:

1.      Warm Up: The students will find mistakes and correct a sentence. They will do this first in their notebooks and then I will call them up to make corrections on the board.

Incorrect:  After the tiny baby bird opened it’s tiny beak, and let out an earsplitting squawk that made my sister drop her Slurpee. I laughed.

Correct: After the tiny baby bird opened its tiny beak and let out an ear splitting squawk that mad my sister drop her Slurpee, I laughed.

·         “It’s” should be replaced by “its” in order to show possession.

·         While the first comma is unnecessary, there needs to be a comma added at the end instead of a period. This should all be one sentence.

2.      Pre-Assessment: The students will read a passage from the textbook and answer a series of multiple choice standardized questions. I will be testing for reading comprehension as well as understanding of literary elements.

3.      Background Info Pre-Reading: I will introduce the novel Number the Stars by first introducing some background information to the students about the time period in which then novel is set. I created a power point/ smart board with information and pictures about the author, WWII, the Holocaust, and Denmark (the setting of the novel). I will just ask students to listen and participate in the conversation as I introduce (and maybe review) these topics. 

4.      Predictions: I will have the students write a prediction about what they think will happen in the novel based on what we talked about during the pre-reading. The students will hand this in.

Assessment:

Pre-Assessment

Predictions

10/25/12

Objective: The students will be able to read and comprehend a longer piece of fiction.

The students will be able to summarize a piece of fiction and make predictions about what will happen next.

SOL:

6.5 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a variety of fictional texts, narrative nonfiction, and poetry.

a) Identify the elements of narrative structure, including setting, character, plot, conflict, and theme.

b) Make, confirm, and revise predictions.

i) Identify and summarize supporting details.

Materials:

Number the Stars (class set)

Procedure:

1.      Warm Up: The students will find mistakes and correct a sentence. They will do this first in their notebooks and then I will call them up to make corrections on the board.

Incorrect:  Then the career counselor goes, “we have alot of job openings for accountants that are abominable snowmen.

Correct: Then the career counselor said, “We have a lot of job openings for accountants who are abominable snowmen.”

·         “Goes” needs to be changed to “said.”

·         “A lot” is two words.

·         “We” should be capitalized because it is the first word in the sentence that the counselor is saying.

·         “Who” is for people. “That” is for things.

·         The quotation marks need to be closed.

2.      Library: I will take the students to the library to check out books.

3.      SSR: Students will be given ten minutes to read silently in their independent reading books. Or the students may choose to work on their writing for their writing groups.

4.      Vocab Homework: I will go over the vocabulary homework from the previous night with the class. I will ask students to volunteer the definitions that they looked up. I will call popsicle sticks for this.

5.      Number the Stars: The students will continue to read Number the Stars individually. They will continue to fill out their double entry journals as they read.

6.      Summaries: The students will write a brief summary of what they have read so far in Number the Stars. They will also revise and add to their original predictions.

Assessment:

Summaries

 

11/7/12

Objective: The students will be able to summarize a story using the “Somebody Wanted But So” method.

SOL:

6.5 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a variety of fictional texts, narrative nonfiction, and poetry.

a) Identify the elements of narrative structure, including setting, character, plot, conflict, and theme.

h) Identify the main idea.

i) Identify and summarize supporting details.

Materials:

Number the Stars

“Gertrude McFuzz”

Graphic organizer

Procedure:

1.      Warm Up: The students will find mistakes and correct a sentence. They will do this first in their notebooks and then I will call them up to make corrections on the board.

Incorrect: The affects of my sun burn—peeling itching blistered skin and a lot of pain—effected my ability to attend the annual beach BBQ.

Correct: The effects of my sunburn—peeling, itching, blistered skin, and a lot of pain—affected my ability to attend the annual beach barbecue.

·         Effects is a noun, affects is a verb.

·         The series should be punctuated by commas.

·         Sunburn is one word.

·         BBQ is text language.

2.      Introduce new vocab words: I will hand out the new word list and give the meanings for the prefixes and bases.

3.      Somebody Wanted But So: I will introduce a new summarizing technique called “Somebody Wanted But So.”  I will give instruction using notes on the smart board, and I will have the students fill in a graphic organizer with the notes as they follow along. 

4.      “Gertrude McFuzz:” I will read Dr. Seuss’ story “Gertrude McFuzz” aloud to the class in order to model the “Somebody Wanted But So” method of summarizing. As the students listen to the story, I will ask them to write down when they hear the somebody (main character), wanted (what they were trying to do), but (the problem), and so (how they solved the problem). After I read, I will ask the students to tell me what they wrote down. We will write a one sentence summary of the story together as a class. Then, I will have the students complete the “Somebody Wanted But So” method of summarizing on their own to write a summary for Number the Stars.

5.      Number the Stars: The students will read the novel and take notes on their notes chart.

Assessment:

Somebody Wanted But So

Number the Stars Final Project

Due: Tuesday Nov. 20^th

Options:

·         Poster:  Create an attractive poster that shows all of the story elements in Number the Stars.  Each story element must be summarized in detail (hint: you may take ideas from the group presentations). The poster should be neat and well organized.

·         PowerPoint: Create a Power Point that shows all of the story elements in Number the Stars.  Each story element must be summarized in detail (hint: you may take ideas from the group presentations). The poster should be neat and well organized.

·         Letter: Pretend that you are Annemarie and write a letter to Ellen. You must include a summary of what has happened in the novel and a prediction of what might come next. Make sure that you include all five of the story elements in your summary.

Requirements:                              

·         Must include all five story elements

·         Must give an accurate overview of the novel

·         Power points and posters should include relevant images

·         All images or quotes from the novel must be accurately cited

CATEGORY	10	9	8	7
Requirements	All requirements are met and exceeded.	All requirements are met.	One requirement was not completely met.	More than one requirement was not completely met.
Content	Covers topic in-depth with details and examples. Subject knowledge is excellent.	Includes essential knowledge about the topic. Subject knowledge appears to be good.	Includes essential information about the topic but there are 1-2 factual errors.	Content is minimal OR there are several factual errors.
Attractiveness	Makes excellent use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance the presentation.	Makes good use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance to presentation.	Makes use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. but occasionally these detract from the presentation content.	Use of font, color, graphics, effects etc. but these often distract from the presentation content.
Organization	Content is well organized using headings or bulleted lists to group related material.	Uses headings or bulleted lists to organize, but the overall organization of topics appears flawed.	Content is logically organized for the most part.	There was no clear or logical organizational structure, just lots of facts.
Originality	Product shows a large amount of original thought. Ideas are creative and inventive.	Product shows some original thought. Work shows new ideas and insights.	Uses other people's ideas (giving them credit), but there is little evidence of original thinking.	Uses other people's ideas, but does not give them credit.
Mechanics and usage	Well-rehearsed with smooth delivery that holds audience attention.	Rehearsed with fairly smooth delivery that holds audience attention most of the time.	Delivery not smooth, but able to maintain interest of the audience most of the time.	Delivery not smooth and audience attention often lost