Monday, April 16, 2012

#7 - Professional Development planning and implementation





On February 22, 2012 I had the opportunity to participate in a professional development on writing that I was privileged to design and lead with a partner on my k-2 team.  We, my partner and I, decided to make a cross-curricular approach to writing so that teachers would learn that they can multitask when it comes to lesson planning.  This writing lesson meets the language arts objective to use the senses to write and it also covers the science objective to teach students about the five senses. 
            It was a fun lesson and we got a lot of feedback from teachers saying that it was very engaging and definitely a lesson they could implement into their classrooms. 

Writing Lesson Plan – Using the 5 Senses

Objective:  SWBAT organize writing into a paragraph from a graphic organizer, using their five senses.  They will later use the graphic organizer to construct a paragraph.

Anticipatory Set:  Walk around the room with a bag that is very colorful and mysterious.  Ask the students to guess what they think could be in your bag.  Build up anticipation for what is in the bag.
  

Teach/Modeling:
1.  Give all the teachers bags of things in them.  Instruct them not to touch or feel it, smell it, or open it.
2.  Give all the teachers a graphic organizer to use it in the activity.
3.  Tell them that they are going to use their five senses to explain, describe and write about what's inside the paper bag.
4.  Explain to them using the five senses is a very effective way to write descriptive, informative piece of writing in k-2.
5.  The children are using something concrete and tangible in order to write.  It is something that they can understand.
6.   The first sense that you are going to use is the sense of touch.  Don't touch until you're told to.  You are going to use precise descriptive words to describe what you feel.  We will take all answers down.  So, now go ahead and take a minute to touch and feel.  Do it carefully so as not break open to reveal what's inside.
7.  Who can share what it feels like as you explore with your hands?  Write down all contributions.
8.  Now, we are going to use the sense smell.  Go ahead and smell it.
9.  What does it smell like to you?  Accept all answers and write them down on the graphic organizer.
10. Use your sense of hearing.  shake it.  Do you hear anything?
11.  Close your eyes and open it carefully.  Don't peak.  Put your hand in it, and feel it.  Do you notice anything else about how it feels. Take one.  Taste it.  What can you tell me?  Write down all responses.
12.  Now open your eyes and use your sense of sight.  Tell me what you see.  Write down all responses.


Guided Practice:  To begin writing from the graphic organizer, we are going to write it in order of the way we used our senses. Guide the class into coming up with sentences that are very descriptive for each sense.  When you are finished, you will have 5 sentences for the students to use for their paragraph.

Independent Practice: You are going to write a paragraph about the object we have examined together.  You are going to use your graphic organizer to make your sentences from it.  After you have completed the rough draft, your are going to think of a topic sentence and an exciting conclusion.   Go ahead.  If you need any guidance, I will walk around to help.  Remember this is your rough draft.  I will look over it and make suggestions as we have our talk together about it.

Closure:  Pictures are very useful tools for writing in k-2.  Students can use their sense of sight to tell you all about a picture.  They can come up with descriptive words even from only using their sense of sight.
What other tools could you use to elicit responses from students for informational text?

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