This is really my first all online class! I must say that I had my doubts as to how meaningful this class would be! I thought make a few posts on a blog and do a little research wham bam done! But this class has been very interesting and I really enjoyed looking at all the sites. Sometimes I would be looking at information on a couple sites for a few hours!! Gathering information is an important thing that we can start doing now to prepare ourselves for the future. I was really impressed with this class and how in touch you still are with the entire class even though you never see anyone.  Dr. T was very prompt with his responses which was nice. Bottom line I enjoyed the class and look forward to using all the massive amounts of lesson plans and various information that I have accumulated during this course.  

 

 

 

 

 

Materials:

Mythological Stories

• “Perseus” (Greek Myth)
• “The Story of Moses” (Old Testament)
• “Sargon the Mighty” (Ancient Akkad)
• “The Sword and the Stone” (Arthurian legend)
• Superman The Movie (1978) Directed by Richard Donne

Plan:

1. Introduce the lesson with a journal entry: “What is a hero? ”
2. List on the board what the students believe to be the attributes of a hero.
3. Distribute the four mythological stories to separate groups of four. Have each group member read the story, summarize them for the class, and point out the themes of the story.
4. List the common themes of heroic mythology.
   • a) Abandonment: Hero is cast away in a small “box” or “boat” across a great “sea” from family due to tragic circumstances.
   • b) Fate/Destiny: Hero grows up ignorant of identity but learns of true origin.
   • c) Emergent Savior: Hero faces incredible odds to become the unlikely savior.
5. The origin of Superman
   • a) Ask the students to recount the origin of Superman.
   • b) Point out Superman’s relation to Judaism (physical characteristics, Kryptonian name “El” means God in Hebrew).
   • c) View Superman the Movie. Have students look for themes of mythology in the story.
   • d) Interpretive Essay Question: “Is Superman mythology?”
6. Have students compare the origin of Superman to the stories read in class and the themes of hero.

This lesson plan is really exciting! I love the fact that I can use something up to date like the new superman movie that has been out for a couple of years to help students understand mythology. With this lesson plan you will discuss how the heroic and tragic myths and legends of ancient civilization were both their education and entertainment. You really don’t even have to show the whole movie you could show important clips and have the students compare this with there mythology stories.

 

http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/pages/433.shtml

 

This lesson was done in conjunction with the computer class. After studying the 13 colonies, students were to create a brochure advertising one of the colonies. The purpose of the brochure, they were told, would be to urge people in Europe to come to America and settle in their particular colony. They worked in groups of 2-3 and each group was assigned a different colony. The brochure had to include a map, famous people of the colony, reasons why people would want to settle there — opportunities available for jobs, land, religious freedom, etc; cities settled, dates of founding and settlement. After the research was done and the brochure planned and designed, the project was completed in computer class using Pagemaker. Brochures were printed on an 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper and most used a trifold design. Pictures were scanned in. After the projects were completed, students gave an oral report and passed their brochures around to their classmates.

I really liked this lesson plan I though it was a unique way to make students truly think about everything that went in to setting up the first colonies. Students would be able to see both sides of why people would want to come to start up colonies and why they would be afraid of making this journey. Students are required to do quite a bit of research and this particular assignment is coordinated with a computer class to allow for more time on the assignment.

 Here is the link http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/571.html

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed looking at the teachers websites they were all really good. I enjoyed listening to the podcast from Kelly Wilson’s class I thought that was cool the kids did a great job. Some of my favorite things were the I poems, ABC books and the wanted posters. The posters of Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Baby Face Nelson were well done!!! http://www.lesn.appstate.edu/fryeem/RE4030/wantedposterexample.htm

(Check out those posters on that link)Stuff like this gets me excited and makes me want to use these types of alternative assignments. This stuff is different and it is somewhat out of the box. Kids come in class expecting a research paper and get to make a wanted poster or take on the persona of someone and write a letter as if they were that person. They get to do something different and probably learn more than they would from regurgitating information from a report. I enjoy getting this information and ideas and look forward to putting them to use in class.

I thought the second article was very good. It offered a lot of information and ideas that teachers can and should use. The article basically talked about different ways that teachers could help improve a student’s vocabulary and the understanding of vocabulary. I was really interested in students understanding the specific breakdown of a word. Which means understanding the root word, prefix etc. I have heard that this is how competitive spellers learn and it seems to work for them. The article was very good and covers things that are relative to the real world. The examples of strategies in this article were great!

I really enjoyed this article. As a future teacher I think we always need to be searching for new ideas and ways for students to present information. The idea of this multi-genre paper is a great idea that implements numerous ways of presenting information. The whole purpose of this paper is to explain the process of the multi-genre paper. This type of paper allows for students to present traditional information in a non-traditional way. I really enjoyed the way the students were allowed to use any number of writing styles. The paper talks about how the students are able to incorporate their own take on the information rather than regurgitating something that they have researched. The idea that you could make a birth certificate, newspaper clipping, wanted poster, song lyrics etc. really gives the student a chance to run with this project as long as they can justify why a certain format was used. I could see how this would be fun.

My questions concerning this topic would be

1. How can you be sure that the grading for something like this is fair?

2. Does the research become compromised in exchange for creativity?

3. Would you be able to use this with EC kids?

4. How would this work in other areas like Math?

Amazing how kids use the simpsons, family guy, and music from Rage Against the Machine to earn Pop Culture Points for class !!!!!!! This is a fantastic idea the video is around five minutes but well worth the watch!!!!!!!!!

 

Rodney Pyatte

 

ABC Brain Storming

 

readingquest.org

 

http://www.readingquest.org/strat/abc.html

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source: Have students list all the letters of the alphabet down a sheet of paper. Then allow the students to start listing all the words or phrases that pertain to the given topic. For example if the topic was mythology then students may start listing A- Apollo B-Birth of Athena C- Cyclops etc. leaving room beside each letter to write out the rest of a word or phrase. Students will work individually at first, then as time passes allow students to pair up in groups to help complete their list. You can use this strategy anytime, prior during or after starting the reading or topic.  

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity. Competency Goal 2 The learner will explore and analyze information from a variety of sources

 

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

This strategy will work well because it allows students to work by themselves and then break off into groups for extra help or to collaborate with other students. If you use this as a pre-reading exercise then you can get an idea of what your students already know about the given topic. Use it during to see what areas you need to cover more thoroughly, and use it to wrap up to find out how much your students have learned.  

 

 

Rodney Pyatte

 

Think-Pair-Share

 

readingquest.org

 

http://www.readingquest.org/strat/tps.html

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source: The teacher assigns the class a reading assignment, with an open ended question, after the students have read the assignment the students will have the opportunity to “Think.” After the students have had time to think and write down their own answer then they will pair up with another student and discuss their answers. Afterwards the teacher will lead a classroom discussion comparing answers.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity. Competency Goal 2 The learner will explore and analyze information from a variety of sources

 

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

This strategy will work well because it allows students to do three things. First of you have to think about the answer to the proposed question. Secondly you have to pair up with another student and discuss your answers, which means if the answers are different then you really get a good discussion. Last the students then are required to participate in a teacher lead discussion. Which will help them discover why their answers are right or wrong and allow them to argue their point.

 

 

 

 Rodney Pyatte

Jigsaw Method                         

 Source (Where did this come from?): Education World

 http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr324.shtml

Competency Goal 2 The learner will explore and analyze information from a variety of sources

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

The Jigsaw method is group collaboration. It’s easier for me to explain with a premise. Say you’re discussing fairy tales; you divide the students up into 4 groups each reading a different fairy tale. Each individual member of that group will be responsible for answering a particular question. One person will answer “Who are the main characters? “ one student will answer When the story takes place etc. After the group reads the fairy tale then you mix the groups up into their “Jigsaw” groups.  One person from each fairy tale will be assembled in a new group. In their new groups, students were each given time to tell the other group members about the story they had read as well as the information they had collected. This technique will allow students to compare and contrast different stories.  

 

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

This strategy will work because it makes everyone pay attention to the story so they can collaborate with other students. This method requires all students to participate; they will no longer be able to rely on another student to pull all the work for one group