PowerTools

Summary

This lesson plan will discuss how to use the snipping tool and youtube videos to help improve my instruction.

Materials

Youtube videos that support each StoryTown story. Access to Think Central and StoryTown online in order to snip text.

Background for Teachers

In the Salt Lake District, language arts uses a program called Story Town. There are weekly lessons that focus on key reading skills. It can be a bit dry and uninteresting at times for the students. I thought that if technology were used in order to "liven" up this curriculum it might motivate students a bit more.

Student Prior Knowledge

Students will need to have a basic understanding of the Story Town program and be in a somewhat of an instructional routine with the daily lessons and requirements of the program.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to connect media to text through the process of writing and comparing and contrasting. Students will be able to write an opinion piece staying on topic with the prompt and snipping text from the Online Story Town resources to include in their essays as references and quotes.

Instructional Procedures

1. The weekly lesson will be introduced with a Youtube video that supports the main selection of reading for StoryTown. This week it will be a video about the Wilma Rudolph. 2. After watching and discussing the video, we will read the story "Wilma Unlimited" as a class in what I call "Big Book Circle," where we all gather on the floor in a circle and take turns reading. 3. As we read I will ask students to be taking notes about part of the story and page numbers that support the following writing prompt. "Determination and hard work can help you overcome obstacles and succeed." Write an opinion essay about why Wilma Rudolph is an example that this statement is either true or false. 4. After completing a few of the given Story Town worksheets and graphic organizers, to really help students think about and understand the story, we will head back to our desks and begin prewriting. 5. Using Utah Write, students will begin to draft their essays. I will do a mini-lesson on how to use the snipping tool, in order to go and find and snip parts of the story to quote and use in their essay to support their opinions.

Assessment Plan

Utah Write is nice in that once students submit their essays, it will be graded for them. Students will be asked to go back and revise their first draft after they have submitted and Utah Write has given them a score. I expect that students will revise at least 3 times in order to make their writing better and to increase their score in each of the 6 traits of writing.