LESSON ANDĀ UNIT PLANS & REFLECTIONS
CREATIVE WRITING UNIT PLAN
This unit plan on creative writing is a newsletter for parents describing an upcoming creative writing unit for my 1st grade students. The unit teaches students how to write a cohesive story from beginning to end through examples in literature and animation, practicing storytelling through drawings, and finally working with their peers to create and share their final creative story.
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I have also made a virtual literacy center to go along with this unit.
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ELA OPINION WRITING LESSON
Also a lesson for first grade, this lesson is one that can be done either in person, or completely virtually as well, with instructions for both styles of teaching.
The students learn how to create their own opinion pieces on what they think are the best toys and games through an introductory whole class voting activity, a read aloud of a great book on one girl's opinions on red stockings, and a paired brainstorming activity before the final writing and show and tell.
There is also a video recording of a mock demonstration of this lesson with some of my peers.
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Click here to view this as well as my other ELA lesson plans and video.
STEM BACKWARDS NUMBER WORD SEQUENCES LESSON
In this lesson for 3rd grade students, students will be able to produce the BNWS from 30 to 1 and use the count-down-from strategy to solve removed item tasks. They will learn this through placing and counting astronaut manipulatives, and using the theme to do the more difficult subtraction activity of "Sending the Astronauts Home".
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Click here for the link to this lesson as well as my other STEM lesson plans.
ADJUSTMENT TO PRACTICE
Teaching is all about flexibility with your lessons and teaching style and adjusting and editing each lesson as you go in order to find the best ways to teach your specific students. Here are some excerpts from my lesson reflections on what I learned and how I proceeded to improve these lessons and continue to makeĀ adjustments within my classroom.
BUILDING COMMUNITY & SAFE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT REFLECTION
"Additionally, the various different desk and chair sizes, shapes, and types, also made the classroom a very fun and interesting place to look at let alone be in as well. This creates a space that prioritize student comfort, and allows them to sit at whatever work environment works best for them, thus differentiating for all different students, even from just the classroom environment. One of my favorite pieces of the room was the inclusion of exercise balls that students could sit on. These not only is just a fun addition that can help dispel some energy from more energetic students during class, but it also is a big piece in differentiating the classroom and creating a space suitable for everyone, as it allows students that may have trouble focusing and that need something to fidget with or use in order to focus, to use these exercise balls as their focusing aid."
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"If possible I would love to implement the use of exercise ball chairs into either my first or future classrooms. All of these would make for an entertaining and engaging space that welcomes students and creates a space in which they want to stay and learn."
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Click here to see the full version of this and all of my other reflections.
MEETING DIVERSE NEEDS
As I addressed in my bio, having a culturally responsible and diverse classroom and curriculum content, is incredibly important to me. My ownĀ goal as a teacher is to make sure that all students feel seen, heard, and comfortable in the classroom, and are able to dream big and have high expectations of themselves - especially for POC students. Thus, the following are some examples of meeting these diverse needs and creating more culturally responsible classrooms.
ELA CREATIVE WRITING & WORD STUDY LESSON ANTIRACISM STANDARDS (1ST)
"At the end of the read-aloud, I will ask the students to recognize and think about who Harold is as a character. Some might mention that heās a boy, or that he has short hair. Some students may even be able to recognize that he is white. Taking those into consideration, I will then ask the students if they believe that only people like Harold can make stories. If students say yes, then we will expand on the conversation even further and ask why they think that way, which will allow us to touch upon the fact that there is not a lot of diverse representation in books. If students say no, then I will further affirm that by saying that everyone, regardless of who they are, what they look like, and what their own stories and backgrounds are, are able to make amazing stories. I will also then touch upon how oftentimes we donāt see a lot of different people as main characters in stories such as this one, which is why it is that much more important for all of us to create those stories with main characters that look like us/others!
Short ex: āIn this book, Harold is a boy that looks a certain way, but do you think that only people like Harold can make stories? Youāre right, everyone can make stories! Creative writing is a great way for us to show our own stories, identities ā aka who we are as people, etc. I know Iām interested to hear everyone elseās stories, so I hope that you all are as well!ā
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