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Information
Reports ~ Lesson Ideas
Here
are some lesson ideas to support your creativity as a teacher.
You, of course, know your own class's learning styles, needs
and interests better than anyone, so please use what is helpful
and modify or disregard the rest. Depending on your teaching
style and your students' pace of learning, each lesson step
could last one or several days. In "Download
Options" you can find a downloadable version of this
unit and sample student handouts.
Part
I: Preparing Essay Subjects
In
the first part of this unit, I require my students to use
their Hidden Villa notes extensively. This helps students
remember information they might have otherwise forgotten
and reinforces the value of taking notes. For ideas about
how to teach note-taking before your class goes to Hidden
Villa go to the "Before Trip" curriculum pages.
Step #1
(choosing essay
subjects)
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Model: Explain
that the subject of an essay needs to be broad enough
to include several main ideas and supporting details.
Think aloud as you give an example. E.g. I was really interested
in
the bay
laurel
tree.
What
did
you
learn
yesterday about
the bay laurel? Do you think we have enough information to
write several main ideas about it? What could be a broader
subject (riparian trees, medicinal plants used by Native
American used) which could include the bay laurel as one
of its main ideas? Support: In
pairs or small groups, students think of things they learned
at Hidden Villa and
make a list of ideas for good essay subjects. Share: Have
each pair share one essay topic idea until all ideas are
written
up on the board. Guide a class discussion as you go
through the list to decide whether each subject would
work well for an essay. |
Teacher
Note
(subject suggestions)
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Good
essay subjects will depend on your students' interests
and individual experiences at Hidden Villa. Here are subjects my students worked on successfully: Farm Animals (cows, sheep,
chickens, pigs, goats), Wild Herbivores, Wild Carnivores,
Nocturnal Animals, Six Plant Parts, Plant
Reproduction, Organic Gardening, The Compost Pile, Duveneck
Family History, How Native Americans Hunted, Medicinal
Plants
Native American's Used, The Creek Habitat, The Chaparral
Habitat, Trees of the Forest, Plants of the Forest, Mini-Habitats
(see separate unit) and Food Chains (see separate unit).
My students work in pairs for this writing project.
If
your
class
can't
come
up
with
enough
subjects for
each pair,
have some pairs to double up on subjects, even though the
pairs will work separately. |
Step
#2
(gathering information
- preparation)
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Before: As
a teacher you will need to choose an essay subject that
you will use for all of the modeled lessons in this
unit (In our example we will use the subject: Trees in the
Hidden Villa Forest). Model: Ask
students to take out their Hidden Villa
notes.
Demonstrate how to use these field nots to fill in a web of information about the class essay subject. Explaining that all good scientists and writers continue to have many questions about their subject, model thinking of a question about the class essay subject.
Write this question on the web. Ask if anyone knows the
answer to the question. If they do,
link their answer to the question on the web.
As you begin, your class web might look like the following
example:
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OPTION A |
Assign a subject from the class idea list to each student or pair of students. Students will follow the modeled
lesson to create their own webs for their assigned subjects. |
OPTION B |
This
activity reinforces the value of taking notes and sharing
knowledge. Working in groups of 2 or 3, the entire class
shares information
about each subject. To do this, groups rotate through stations
set up in the classroom. Depending on your class size,
you may want to choose at least ten subjects so that
each station
focuses on a different subject. Each station needs a large
piece of paper with the subject written in the middle.
Give students about 10 minutes or more at each station
to write
on the web. Before starting, show where each "web-station"
is located in the classroom and review the following student
instructions:
- Read everything that has already been written on the
web by your classmates.
- Find information about this subject in your notes.
- Share this information and what you remember with your
partner(s).
- Add at least one new piece of information and answer
any questions you can.
-
Brainstorm questions about the subject and add
at least one to the chart.
This process reviews
and validates students' experiences at Hidden Villa and
allows for students to learn from one another. I have found
this activity to be a valuable community building experience
that heightens students' enthusiasm for writing essays. |
Part
II: Organizing the Essay
Before
continuing, students will need to have an assigned topic
and project partner. To capitalize on their motivation, allow students to participate in the selection process.
As they begin organizing the information for their essays, some students may wnt to know more about a certain topic. I prefer students rely on just the information gained through their experiences, rather than include outside research on their particular topic. Researching skills are entirely separate from the skills required to organize an interesting essay. I have found that my students are more successful when the different skills sets are practices and mastered in isolation, and then brought together. If, however, your students already have a good base in writing and researching, you could use this writing project to inspire them to expand their skills in both of these areas.
Step
#1
(organizing
the web)
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Model: As
a class, read all the information on the web you created
for your class essay subject (Part I, Step 2). Guide
a discussion about how to organize all the information
around just a few (2-4) topics. (E.g. Subject - Trees
of HV Forest, Topics - Oak, Bay, Buckeye; Subject -
Cows, Topics - Products Produced, Behavior, Care of)
After the class has decided on the main topics, on a separate piece of chart paper, model how to quickly reorganize the information in a more structured web. (Draw
the main topics in circles linked to the center subject, then add the examples and supporting information for
each main topic around its circle.) Support: With
their project partners students follow the same steps:
- Read through
the information about your assigned subject on
the web created by your class.
- Discuss what
pieces of information can go together to form a
main topic.
- Decide out
what this topic would be called.
- Reorganize the
information into a more structured web on a second
piece of paper.
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Please
Note: Students can begin writing their essays from their organized webs. If you feel your students would benefit from a structured introduction to writing the five-paragraph essay, as expected in the California State Standards, you could adapt the following lesson which was extremely successful in my class. Otherwise, proceed directly to Part III.
Step #2
(teaching essay
organization - preparation)
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This lesson uses the digital camera to teach students about organizing essays by ordering ideas in successive layers of complexity. Easily connected to a classroom television, the digital camera - and its zoom capabilities - can visually show students how to soom into topics, main ideas, and supporting evidence. As the most readily available subject, I recommend "Out School is a Special Place for Learning." To prepare for this lesson, take digital photso of your school, in the order you expect them to be presented in an essay, Take the following four pictures:
- A wide-angle shot of the schoot (the overall subject and introductory paragraph)
- Your classroom (topic of the first body paragraph)
- The library (topic of second body paragraph)
- The computer lab, or other special learning classrom (topci of third body paragraph)
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Step #2a
(introductory
paragraph)
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Gather your students together and make sure they can all see the television comfortably. (This lesson required students to sit, focus, and interact for at least one-half hour.) Explain that you will use the digital camera to show how an essay is organized, and that you will write the essay outline on a chart, using green-yellow-red for different levels of information. Introduce the subject of the essay, and write it at the top of the chart.
Show the first picture (school) and ask students to describe what they see and share what they know about the school. Explain the importance of the introduction, as the means to orient the reader to the subject, just as the photo orients the view to the school. On the chart, begin the outline. Intro - Castro School in Mountain View, dual immersion program, 450 students
If they are visible in the photo, point out the three additional places that expand the essay subject. (E.g. your classroom, the library, the computer lab) Explain that in an essay people also like to be able to "see," right from the start, what they will be reading about. On the chart, write down the next line. Thesis - Our classroom, the school library, and the computer lab are three special places for learning at our school. |
Step #2b
(1st body paragraph)
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Explain that "our classroom" will be the first topic addresses because it is the most important support of the essay subject. On the photo of the school, zoom in on your classroom, illustrating that each topic needs to be "connected" to the essay subject. Switch to the photo of your classroom. On the outline chart, skip a line to indicate the start of a new paragraph and, in green, write the first topic. Topic - Our classroom is a special place to learn at our school.
Explain that this claim needs to be supported. In the classroom photo, find some places that make the classroom a special place to learn. Think alod and select some areas; zoom in on them in the photo. (To demonstrate zooming in, I have my students mimic my big arm motions, engaging kinesthetic learners.) On the chart, indent and write one of the topic's main ideas on the next line, in yellow. Main Idea - Class comes together on the rug.
Looking at the zoomed-in photo, ask students to name things or activities that support the main idea. What else do we do on the rug that supports our learning? On the outline chart, indent and list the supporting explanations in red. Explain - We sit close together so that we can share ideas. Explain - There are big whiteboards where we can write down the things we want to explain to each other... |
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After 2-3 "explanations," move on to another main idea. (I think our classroom library helps us learn in our classroom.) Instead of zooming out of the whole class photo, stay zoomed in and attempt to find the next main idea (library) by moving around the classroom at the zoomed-in focuse. (This should present some difficulty.)
Zoom out to the whole class photo, find the next main idea (library) and quickly zoom in on it (again using large arm movements). Point out how much easier and smoother this process is, exmphasizing the parallel that, in writing, EACH main idea needs to be clearly connected to the topic of the paragraph.
On the outline, write the new main idea on the next line, in yellow. Main Idea - We can learn a lot from the books in our classroom library. Ask students for input on details that support this idea. Write these on the chart, in red. |
Step #2d
(2nd body paragraph)
|
Ask students to remember what the subject of the whole essay is - return to the first picture (school). Remind students that the next paragraph topic needs to be connected to this subject - zoom in on the school library. Forward to the photo of the school library. Before continuing the outline, explan that complete sentences will not be necessary because the lesson concentrates on organizing ideas.
Repeat the same procedures as for the 1st body paragraph, this time demonstrating how to use only quick notes in the essay outline. Increase students' involvement in the process, asking them to recall each step and direct you. A student volunteer could lead the class in hand gestures for zooming or could serve as class scribe. |
Step #2e
(3rd body paragraph)
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By the last paragraph, students should have a firm grasp on the steps. Continue to release more responsibility to your students. Divide them into groups of 2-3 to write down the outline of the last paragraph by themselves. Students who are not ready to work independently can have the "special priviledge" of working with the digital camera for extra support.
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Step #3
(model organizing HV essay)
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The following day, return to the Hidden Villa essay subject that your are using to model each step. Using the newly-structured web from Step #1, point out to the class that, although they are not viewing photos, in their minds they need to do the same zooming in and out to examine topics and connect explanations to the overall essay topic.
Demonstrate how to turn the essay subject and main ideas into the outline for the introductory paragraph. Show how to convert the supporting information for the first main idea circle into the first body paragraph. As you proceed, release more responsibility to the class until you are simply guiding their decisions. |
Step #4
(Students' own essay outlines)
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In pairs, students develop their organized web planners into essay outlines. If you prefer, provide them with essay outline worksheets rather than asking them to write in their writer's notebooks. (See Download Options.) Students who have mastered the skill of outlining can finish their work without the support of partners. |
Part
III: Writing the Essay
At this beginning stage, focus on how to use a web or essay outline, emphasizing that each sentences in an essay needs to introduce new information. For example, instead of "I'm going to write about coyotes," write "Coyotes are predators that live in the Hidden Villa forest." This concept is worth several mini-lessons. Jot down some weak topic or main idea sentences and use them for a whole class demonstration. Keep examples of these lessons posted in the room to remind studetns that they need to write string, information-rich sentences.
Writing the actual essay can take students anywhere from a few days to over a week. Allow students to work with their partners on writing the first paragraph or two together. This provides stduents the support they may need to remember the teaching points and apply them to their own writing. Students who acquire essay-writing skills should be encouraged to finish their essays on their own.
Part
IV: Revision to Publishing
Despite intense modeling, most students still need a lot of support in revising their essays. Review the peer revision conference procedures thoroughly with your class, emphasizing all the components on which you focues in your lessons. (Using a peer-revision checklist will hold students accountable in their revision advisor role.) Also, set aside time to meet individually with students to review their essays.
Making iMovies is a wonderful, motivating way to publish your students' Hidden Villa essays. This provides yoru students with incentive to learn new skills that support technology standards. The final product is an excellent vehicle for sharing and celebrating all your students have learned during this project, especially when when they are able to incorporate photos taken during the Hidden Villa field trip.
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EXAMPLE OF MODELED ESSAY OUTLINE |
Subject: Our School is a Special Place
to Learn |
- Intro - Castro School in Mnt. View, dual immersion program,
450 students
- Thesis - Our classroom, the school library and the computer
lab are three special places for learning at our school.
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- Topic - Our Classroom
- Main Idea - Class comes together on rug
- Explain - Sit close to hear each other
- Explain - Whiteboards for writing
- Explain - Teacher's chair so we see her
- Main Idea - Learn from books in class library
- Explain - AR books at our level
- Explain - Check out on clipboard
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- Topic - The School Library
- Main Idea - Fiction in Castro Room
- Explain - Organized by author
- Explain - Spanish and English
- Explain - Librarian reads us stories here
- Main Idea - Non-fiction in Cougar Room
- Explain - Organized by topic
- Explain - Computers help you find your book
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