Today's lesson went very well! The students were very eager to use the Smart Board today!
I prepared an interactive concept map and a short interactive multiple choice quiz in order to engage students in today's lesson. I also created a random name generator to use today. This was a suggestion made by one of our students. I thought this was a great idea!
We began with our "Did you know?" fact and our goals for the day. We broke into our guided reading groups. First each student took turns reading aloud a paragraph at a time. We would stop after each person read to discuss important information or vocabulary words. When we came to the part of the text that discussed different types of dinosaurs, students took turns completing the concept map on the Smart Board.
At the end of the text we discussed fact and opinion. Students helped sort statements as fact or opinion on the Smart Board. I then assigned students to identify fact and opinions in the book they were reading. While students were working, I randomly chose students to work at the Smart Board. Some students wanted to work with a partner, while other chose to work independently at the Smart Board.
Overall I believe that the activities went rather well today. The majority of the students still comment positively on using the Smart Board. Tomorrow I will give a quiz over the guided reading books. Before I give the quiz, students will review concepts on the Smart Board. These concepts include vocabulary and comprehension.
I am hoping that the majority of students do well on the comprehension quiz. The small group setting is working well, but there are a few students having trouble staying on task. Many students in this summer school program have attention problems and they must be engaged constantly to stay focused. I am revising next week's lesson plans a little bit due to this issue. Next week we begin our research project. I would like to use Google Docs instead of letting students work independently at the Smart Board. This gives me a chance to work with 6 students at a time at the computers. The rest of the students will work in centers in another classroom with the other teachers. Groups will be organized by grade level. This will make accommodations easier. I will ask the higher leveled students to add more to their research projects than the lower leveled students.
So far I have positive feelings toward this unit plan. As with any work in the classroom, I must be flexible with my lesson plans and accommodate my learners. I enjoy greeting the students each morning and working with them in a small group setting.
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After working on the Final Project design, I have decided to still use Microsoft Works. Six students can still work at a time on their documents. They will have the opportunity to add an image, change the fonts, and save the document. I will take their documents and save them to a flash drive. I will upload their documents on the Smart Board and let students manipulate their slides on the Smart Board. They can arrange the text and images, and possibly add the sound of their dinosaur.
I have updated the Technical Guide. I need to print out one of the comprehension quizzes for tomorrow. I also need to prepare for the "dig" that will take place on Monday. The fossils are ready, but I need to get sand and brushes.
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