Language Arts Curriculum Unit

Lizzie was scared. She had been dragged away from her home and now was being stuck in this strange new place. The government man brought her to the desk. The nurse their looked mean.
"I have a patient for you," said the government man. "This is Lizzie Bright. She is with the other feeble-mind's from Malaga Island."
"I am not feeble-minded." Lizzie yelled.
"The state of Maine decided you are!" yelled the government man. He pushed Lizzie over to the nurse and walked out. Lizzie fought against the nurses grip, but the woman was too strong for her. Finally, exhausted Lizzie let the nurse drag her up to her room.
The nurse pushed Lizzie into the room.
"You stay here. All meals are down stairs in the cafeteria. Breakfast is at 8, lunch at noon and dinner at 6. At 2 O'clock every day you will be let outside for a supervised walk. After you eat everyday you will wash the dishes. At 10 everyday you will meet with the doctor for therapy. All other times will be spent in your room. If you act up we will have you tied to the bed and you will not be able to leave." After saying all this the nurse slammed the door, locked it and walked back down stairs.
Lizzie ran to the door and pounded on it. She was crying her eyes out.
"Turner! Turner! Turner come help me." she cried.
Then, worn out from the day Lizzie flopped down on the bed and cried. Life seemed over. She sagged into a depression. She did not even complain when the nurse stormed into the room and tied her to the bed.
The next few days went by in a haze. She was escorted to every meal, but she never ate. She cleaned every plate without noticing her body was acting without her mind. She met with the doctor but said nothing. She did not even move when she was brought outside. Every night she went to bed hoping to die. On the fourth night of her stay at Pownal Lizzie Bright got her wish.
She was buried in a grave with the rest of the residents of Malaga Island. Now in Heaven she was finally home. Home with her family, home with the sea, home, happy and waiting for the day Turner would join her on the other side of the Pearly Gates.

Blog b

• Spanish Lesson
  
  This podcast is teaching Spanish. It goes over phrases, words and numbers. Since World Language is part of the Maine Learning Results, this podcast could be a good tool in the classroom. This can help struggling students and help those that may have missed a day. It can also be good review. I could also use it to introduce a Spanish lesson. Another use is to give the material to students who were out in an easily accessible fashion.Podcasts are useful tools. They can be used for the same reasons that I gave for using the above podcast. They are also useful to help those that are auditory learners or who have hard times seeing. I can record my lesson in a podcast before I teach it to the class. Then as I am addressing the class the student with the visual impairment could listen to the podcast on the computer with a set of headphones. This will help to get rid of background noise and allow the student to focus on the podcast. They would get the same information, but I would describe on the podcast what I would be writing on the board for the other students.
  
  I think podcasts can be useful in a classroom. They can help the teacher and the students. When going over reading fluency, students can make a podcast of their reading and the teacher can listen to the podcast. The teacher can listen to the podcast and then analysis the students reading. Podcasts can be listened to more than once so the teacher can pick up all the miscues. Podcasts can also be used as another form of teaching. I think that podcasts are an interesting for teaching. They take some time to put together, but they are useful. I would not use them for every lesson, but I might use them for some lessons. I might use them as extra help methods. I don’t think they can replace a live teacher.
  
  Podcasts can be used to support literacy instruction. Students can use them for think aloud. Laura Robb uses think aloud to tell her students how she uses certain strategies to help her reading. It would be hard to make sure students are using their literary strategies when most of these are done silently. A teacher could have the students make a podcast, where they read a section of a book and then tell what strategies they are using when they read. For example, if a student is struggling with the meaning of a word he could say how he used context clues to figure out the meaning of the word. The teachers could then analysis these podcasts and determine who is on par and who needs more help. This is more beneficial for the students. If a teacher just lets the students read the teacher cannot tell if they are applying the rules. Even if she asks the students to explain the rules they may only do so at that one time. Podcasting makes it so they would have to be doing it continually throughout the whole period. I also can help the teacher to assess the students better, because she can listen to it more than once.
  
  5 Ways to use podcast in the practicum classroom:
  
  1. Reinforce a lesson
  2. teach a lesson
  3. have students make for activity with a lesson
  4. use if a student is out so they can get caught up on the work
  5. Model for an activity

Language Arts Unit Ideas

Idea 1: Students will read a book and answer questions about the book. The questions will be found on my webpage. This is for a third grade reading level. Students will read short chapter books. There will be questions posted on my site that will test the students’ retention of the material. They will answer basic questions about character and plot. This will test reading comprehension. It will incorporate technology because the students will be answering questions found on my website. The answers to the questions will be corrected quickly, so that the students can go back and reread the parts they had trouble with.

Idea 2: Student will read a book and answer questions that they post to a blog. The questions will be handed out to each student. They will post the answers to their questions in a blog. The students will be able to see everyone else answers and comment on what they agree and disagree with. This will help to build peer to peer relationships. I will also make comments. The students can then work together and with me to correct any errors they have. It will quickly allow me to see who is understanding and remembering the information in the book.

Idea 3: Students will read a book and make an imovie based on the book. After completing the book, students will write another chapter of the book that they turn into an imovie. This will see if students understand the book. They will have to take what they have learned about the characters and make a credible movie that deals with events and themes raised in the book. The students will make cut out characters and take pictures of the characters in action. They will turn these pictures into an imovie. This should be educational and fun.

Idea 4: After reading a book students can make a web with Inspiration based on a theme of the book. They will have at least 5 webs of the main theme and two examples of each from the book. They will had pictures and colors to make them more astatically pleasing. They will present their webs when they are completed. Webs are good organizers and using Inspiration will make it more interesting for the students. The pictures used will have to apply to the novel. All aspects of the web will be explained in the presentation. This lends itself well to group work, so I will have the students work in groups of 3 or 4 to make the web and present it.

Idea 5: After reading a book students will pick out a topic in the book that they want to learn more about. They will use the internet to find good sources of information on the topic. They will work in group of 3 or 4. They will present the information they have found to the class. It may be an oral presentation, a poster presentation or any other format that the group decides to use.