ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

English Language Arts: 2. Students engage in the reading process..

Needs Assessment/Rational

I would like to help children develop a self-awareness for themselves through language arts and social studies. The “all about me” book will enable the children to work with something interesting: themselves - and will also allow them to develop their reading skills while broadening their knowledge of facts about themselves.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: Students will read high frequency words with ease, and this will enable them to transfer words to text to be fluent readers and writers.
Goal(s):  Students will practice high frequency words and transfer them to text to become fluent readers and writers.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. Are the children practicing words with a variety of methods and materials?  2. Can students transfer known words to test?  3. Are students fluent while reading high frequency words in text?
Objectives: 1. Students will practice writing high frequency words using a variety of methods.  2. Students will read a high frequency word book.  3. Students will learn to sort high frequency word graphemes.  4. Students will use high frequency word cards to form sentences 5. Students will make computer generated books using sentences that contain high frequency words.  6. Students will present a powerpoint presentation of high frequency words.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?
1. Children will be required to read a list of high frequency words appropriate for reading level.  2. Leveled readers will be used to practice fluent reading with high frequency words with use of a running record for accuracy rate.  3. Children will be asked to summarize stories read with prompts.  4. Timed powerpoint (5 second) will be used to test the response time.
What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?
1. Probing questions for comprehension for leveled readers.  2. Usage of high frequency words in text/sentences.
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?
1. Leveled reading material.  2. Finding words in the environment around us.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?
1. Daily log of progression with words. 2. Check-off lists of books/words read.  3. Packets with words and sentences to form books.  4. Print out of scores for computer software used.  5. Rubric for fluency.

Instructional Strategies

I will be using the project-based method with my students. The end project of the computer books will be in mind throughout the project and everything will be organized around it. Children will be using their own ideas and original sentences which will make it authentic. Children will be asked to think up their own topics using every-day high frequency words that are used in the real world. This project will promote self-directedness as they go at their own pace to make books and the promotion of higher-order thinking skills will be accounted for as they produce their own sentences/books.