Objectives:
Arizona Academic Standards for Language Arts: Writing,
Grade 8
W-E1. Use correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization,
grammar, and usage, along with varied sentence structure and paragraph organization,
to complete effectively a variety of writing tasks.
W-E2. Write a personal experience narrative
W-E5. Write a report that conveys a point of view and
develops a topic with appropriate facts, details, examples, and descriptions
from a variety of cited sources
PO1. Write a report in own words
PO2. Organize a report with a clear beginning, middle, and end,
including use of smooth transition
PO3. Provide support through facts, details, examples, or descriptions
that are appropriate, directly related to the topic, and
from a variety of cited sources.
Arizona Academic Standards for Language Arts:
Reading, Grade 8
R-E2. Use reading strategies such as making inferences
and predictions, summarizing, paraphrasing, differentiating fact from
opinion, drawing conclusions, and determining the author's purpose and
perspective to comprehend written selections.
PO 3. Summarize the text in own words
PO 6. Summarize the text in chronological, sequential, or logical
order
Arizona Academic Standards for Technology, Grade
4-8
3T-E1. Use formatting capabilities of technology tools
for communicating and illustrating
PO1. Use word processing editing tools to revise
a document
PO2. Design a word processing document with graphical elements
3T-E3. Publish and present information using technology
tools
PO1. Design and create a multimedia presentation
or Web page using multiple digital sources
PO2. Publish or present the above production
Materials:
1. Tuck Everlasting class set, audio book, DVD
2. PowerPoint rough draft guide
3. Laptop for each student
4. Internet access for research (Google Image Search)
5. Individual story booklet for Tuck Everlasting
6. PowerPoint Jeopardy review game
7. LCD Projector
Instructional Strategies:
1. Small groups: Form each group with 4 members based on their academic
ability level (mixed)
2. Cognitive Strategies – Summarizing, Imagery, Making Inference
3. Social/Affective Strategies – Questioning for Clarification,
Cooperation, Self-Talk (Think Positive!)
4 . Metacognitive Strategies – Organizational Planning, Self-assessment
Language Arts Main Lessons
1. Young Author’s Chair (Word, Internet, email)
2. Book Synopsis (PowerPoint, Internet, email)
3. Jeopardy Review (PowerPoint)
Procedures:
Young Author’s Chair (Editing Process)
1. Write a personal narrative / poem on running away from home just
like Winnie
2. Type the narrative
(I usually encourage my students to change the background-color,
font-color, font-size, font-style….. using formatting palette)
3. Have students email his/her essay/poem to the teacher by email.
4. Be a young author and share a story with the class. The class will
help the young authors edit his/her essay/poem or give them positive constructive
feedback.
(Now, it’s time for Young Author’s Chair ask, “ Does
anyone want to share your essay/poem with the class?”
– In my class, everything is volunteer based. Because I do not want
to put any of my students into an embarrassing situation. Main key with
this activity, you have to make your students feel comfortable in class.
Never correct their mistakes in front of their classmates. Usually their
classmates will find the young author’s mistakes. At the beginning
of Young Author’s Chair, I make sure everyone understands the meaning
of giving positive or constructive comments to the young author (Not negative).
PPT Book Synopsis
Make a four slide PowerPoint Synopsis – Previous day, have students
prepare PowerPoint Synopsis rough draft.-(cover, female main character,
male main character, and setting)
1. Find pictures using “Google Image Search” (www.google.com)
(Teach them how to find images using Internet resource, copy , paste and
format the picture. Sometimes, it seems like you are wasting too much
time on the computer. But just remember if your students don’t enjoy
your lesson, they are not going to learn. Add some spice into your lessons.
We are focusing on quality not quantity.)
2. Spell Check / Editing Process
3. Email your PowerPoint to your teacher as an attached file.
(Repetition is one way of learning. Have your students repeat numerous
times!)
Possible Future Lesson – Students can expand their PowerPoint to
12 slides and share them with their classmates. Also upload them to the
school server, so their parents, friends, and staff can view on the Internet.
PowerPoint Jeopardy Review
1. Teacher prepares PowerPoint Jeopardy Review game using weekly lessons
taught in class.
2. Divide class into four teams.
3. Make a scoring chart on butcher paper and have one volunteer student
keep score during the game.
4. Play your Jeopardy game – you can always add more questions as
bonus points if needed.
(Main thing with Jeopardy game, I usually add lots of pictures on each
slide to give clues or add humor. One funny picture on a slide can change
your students’ attitude in class! Be happy and positive –
have fun!)
5. Distribute team points based on the scoring chart. Don’t forget
to give extra points to the person who volunteered to be the score person.
Possible Future Lesson – you can add more questions or replay
the same Jeopardy as review at the end of your unit. My students
love to play Jeopardy. I made a Jeopardy Game to review AIMS/ SAT9
tests.
Assessments:
1. Ongoing Assessment – look at level of interest, how well they
do on Jeopardy, their story maps, how well their writing is organized
.
2. Grade Assessments
- First each student takes a computerized AR test
- Next they turn in their PowerPoint book report
- Finally they present the report before the class using the LCD Projector,
- The class then grades each other using six trait rubric & presentation
rubrics. Believe me they are harsh! Much harsher than me. The teacher
then reads over their comments and scores and then give a final grade.
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