Overall, my lesson went really well. One of my main worries before teaching was that the students would not have enough time to complete each of the sections of the lesson. However, this was not the case. The students were able to complete each of the sections in the given amount of time. With younger children, I would try to provide more time so they do not feel rushed. The only issue that I ran into was that the Java on the computers wasn't updated. Because of this, the students were not able to access the Prezi presentation that I prepared. One of the computers was able to pull it up, so we all gathered around that computer in order to go over the presentation.
Learning about the "Conjunction Function" song
Our class discussion about the various parts of speech
Trying to get the Prezi presentation to pull up on the computers.
Like mentioned previously, we had to make a modification during our class discussion section of the lesson because Java wasn't working on 3 out of the 4 computers. To compensate for this, we all gathered around the one computer that was working and discussed the various parts of speech there. This was a really easy modification to make. I am just lucky that that one computer was working. If it wasn't, I really don't know what I would have done. It would have definitely thrown off my entire lesson. Besides this, there were no other modifications made to my lesson. If I had been teaching this in a classroom with younger children, I may have needed to provide other modifications such as teaching the lesson in small groups, one-on-one time, computer modifications (changing size or color of text, etc.), providing both oral and written directions, and/or allowing the student to use their native language.
Mechanics:
For this lesson, both the students and I had access to a computer. As the teacher, I used several various technologies throughout my lesson. I used Prezi in order to create a presentation about the various parts of speech. Before the lesson, I also made sure the two MadLib websites were easily accessible and child friendly. The students practiced viewing presentations on Prezi and working with the two MadLib websites. They were able to apply the knowledge they learned about parts of speech by writing their own story and removing words to create their own MadLib story. This lesson fostered the students' innate creativity.
A view of the Prezi presentation I created to help review
the various parts of speech with the students.
Part of the list of MadLib stories available for kids to choose
at http://www.eduplace.com/tales/
A view showing how the students fill out the prefabricated
MadLib stories at http://www.eduplace.com/tales/
A view of the program the students use to create their own
MadLib story at http://www.wordblanks.com/mad-libs/create/
The lesson was within the correct time frame because I walked around and made sure that the students were continuously on task. I would also answer questions as soon as they came up. I feel like this greatly helped my lesson stay on time. As mentioned before, I would more than likely lengthen amount of time given if I were teaching this lesson to younger children. I don't feel like they would be able to complete all of the sections in the 30 minutes that was given without feeling extremely rushed. I would not want their learning experience compromised because they were rushed to complete an activity. I would also probably take the class back into the computer lab on another day so that they could complete some of their peers' MadLib stories. I feel like this would be an excellent way to wrap up this lesson.
Assessment of Learning (InTask Standard #6):
The first section of the lesson was the class discussion where we reviewed the various parts of speech that the students would have learned in more detail in a previous lesson. There were no particular artifacts from this section. However, you can see some of it from the pictures above. The second section was when the students went to the first website and completed a prefabricated MadLib story. This met the second objective addressed in the lesson plan. I let the students choose a story that was of interest to them. One student chose the story "The Pet Show", another chose "The Camping Trip", and the third chose "Road Trip!". Their filled out stories are shown below. Each of the students would get 1 point on their checklist for submitting the screenshot of the prefabricated stories. They would also each get 2 points for using the correct parts of speech within the stories.
Amber's story "The Pet Show"
Kiersten's story "The Camping Trip"
Kirsten's story "Road Trip!"
For the third section of the lesson, the students went to the other website and created their own MadLib story. Below is the stories that the students created. Next to each is the checklist that will show how the students did on this project overall.
Amber wrote a very creative story. However, she did not include
any blanks for pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, or articles.
Kiersten also did not include blanks for pronouns, prepositions,
conjunctions, or articles.
Kirsten did not include the same things: pronouns, prepositions,
conjunctions, or articles. She also only included a blank for
one verb, instead of two.
After grading the students' creative stories, I now realize that we should have spent more time going over the rubric and what must be included for this project. If we had, or if they had more time, they would probably have gotten more points for the project.
All of the feedback that I got from my peers was positive. The only one that was semi negative was one that said they weren't sure if it was suitable for first graders, that it may be more appropriate for older students. The standards were for first grade. However, maybe I could have modified the lesson more so that it was suitable for a younger audience. After the lesson, I asked my peers what they learned from this lesson. These are the responses that I received:
This is Amber's response
This is Kiersten's response
This is Kirsten's response
Overall, I would love to teach this lesson again. It went really well and there would not be too much that I would have to modify or alter.
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