Teachers’ modifications to the cyberlesson to accommodate varying levels of student diversity
1. How might you modify your cyberlesson to accommodate to your grade level/teaching situation?
2. What changes would you make to the content of the cyberlesson- Before, During, After and Beyond?
IMPLEMENTATION?
3.What changes would you make to the implementation of it?
LOGISTICS
4.Where will it take place?
Over what time span?
Will it be done individually or with a partner?
Whole group teacher directed?
Independently and student directed?
Will it take place in the classroom? computer lab?
What access will students have to computers, Internet?
5. Once you modify for your grade level, how will you accommocate to student differences within your class?
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I am using The Arrival cyberlesson with a small class of students in a seventh grade reading intervention class. I have adjusted and reallocated the requirements of certain sections of the before, during, after and beyond activities of this cyberlesson to meet the specific needs of these students (see next response for details).
Students share difficulties with text comprehension. These difficulties include conceptualizing the story – making sense of such literary elements as setting and plot (exposition, conflict, important plot events, resolution). Thus, I have adapted this cyberlesson in order to target comprehension skills, placing more emphasis on “during reading” tasks. In order to help students make sense of what they are reading, “during” reading students have more opportunities to stop to infer, predict, adjust predictions, connect, question and clarify. The primary “after reading” activity, rather than an independent reading of a related novel, instead involves a group literature circle reading of a book on the students’ independent reading level about an immigration experience (possibly Letters from Rifka). Literature circle role sheets target and reinforce the comprehension skills they use “during” the reading of The Arrival. “Before” and “beyond” activities remain relatively unchanged, although students now choose between the scrapbook or interview activity in order to account for the additional time allocated for “during” reading.
The primary change in implementation of the cyberlesson is the incorporation of initial teacher instruction, modeling and guidance at each reading stage (before, during, after and beyond). We begin looking at the first few pages of The Arrival as a whole class, using an Elmo to project the image of each page on a large screen in the classroom. I first model examination of a page, then students join in with my guidance. Next, students take over as a whole class, discussing each page as together they question, clarify and make and adjust predictions. At this stage, students take turns going to the screen to point out important details in the images that support their ideas (students lead but I facilitate when necessary). Students record their ideas on structured response journal pages. As a whole class, student will look at the Ellis Island website and record information. Then they work in pairs, two to a book, and “read-think-pair-write-whole class share” during reading.
This cyberlesson takes place in the classroom. The entire cyberlesson requires 3 ½ weeks. Approximately one week is allocated for “before” and “during” reading activities. Students require about eight school days (1 ½ weeks) for the “after reading” literature circle book activity, and one more week to work on the “beyond” reading activity (including whole class share), choosing the scrapbook or the interview. As noted above, the activities move from whole class to partners. Students will work on their “beyond” reading project individually. “Before” and “during” reading activities begin with whole group teacher directed instruction and guidance, then transition to whole class student directed work, and finally transition to partner work. Again, after initial teacher instruction and guidance, students direct the discussion activities during the reading of The Arrival and during the beyond reading literature circle on the novel. Students work independently on their beyond reading project. The classroom has the capability to project images using the Elmo and to project images from the Internet (for before reading exploration of the Ellis Island site). Students will engage in pair work sharing copies of The Arrival. Students have access to individual computers to work on their beyond reading scrapbook activity. A computer cart is delivered to the classroom.
I have adapted the cyberlesson to target the comprehension difficulties these students share. However, several students need to also focus on vocabulary. These students use word strips to add new words to their personal vocabulary box. The Arrival is a wordless; therefore, these new words come from the Ellis Island site and the literature circle book.
How might you modify your cyberlesson to accommodate to your grade level/teaching situation?
In reviewing my cyberlesson I would make so many changes! Although I do not have a classroom I will describe my changes as if I were still a second grade teacher. I would like to use The Arrival book in an exploratory way with the second graders before investigating immigration on a deeper level. First of all, my Before Reading Activity would present a map of the United States. The student would have to find where he/she lives in the U.S. They would have to type the name of their city/town and state. In the next stage of the Before Reading Activity a second question would ask the student if they had ever gone on a trip, where did they go and how did they get there. There would be a map of the world and they would find where they had traveled to. They would write the name of the place in the question and in a second statement they would fill in how they traveled. A third question would ask the student why they traveled to the place. The final step in the Before Reading Activity the student would be required to draw a picture showing their feelings about going on the trip and who went with them. These Before Reading Activities would be kept in students’ individual folders.
Now for the During Reading Activity. First I would have a page with a question asking the student where they thought the man traveled to and how could they tell me that. i.e. What country or place do you think the man traveled to? _____________ What clues helped you make your decision?____________________ The next question would ask the reader how the man traveled to this place. The next question would ask the student to guess why the man traveled to the place. He/she would have to write in an answer. And finally, the student would have to draw a picture of the man showing his feelings and who was with him when he left the ship. Hopefully, using these activities and discussing the book as we “read” it would get the children to start thinking about their trips, the feelings associated with the trip, and why the man’s feelings were so different from the ones they experienced. If this is successful it may lead to the thought that the reason for the trip could cause different emotions. If that is accomplished we could begin to discuss immigration, the reasons for it, and the emotions that come as a result of it.
For the After Reading Activity we, as a class would use the internet to go to http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/ site. At this point we could take a virtual tour of Ellis Island and hopefully, the children would see a connection between the photos of Ellis Island and the drawings in Tan’s book. In exploring the Scholastic site I also found a short unit on Immigration that could be used to deepen the students’ understanding of immigration. The activities I have created for this cyberlesson allow for the whole class to participate in writing and art work. When participating in the reading involved in the cyberlesson stronger readers would be supported by being allowed to read the more dense reading found on the website and the weaker readers would be supported by reading the power point slides of the cyberlesson. Between the remake of The Arrival cyberlesson and the mini unit from Scholastic I would support all learners in my classroom through the following IRA and NCTE standards.
• Read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world. (1)
• Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions. (7)
• Students use a variety of technological and informational resources (libraries, databases, computer networks) to gather and synthesize information in order to create and communicate knowledge. (8)
• Participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities. (11)
• Students use spoken, written, and visual language for learning, persuasion, and exchange of information. (12)
This mini unit could be accomplished in two to three days depending on time allotted and work skills of the students involved. In using the cyberlesson with the whole class I think it is natural to save the After Reading Activity for the second day after a review of Tan’s book and our thoughts and findings of the previous day. We could then work on the After Reading Activity and begin to see more deeply into the story of immigration. The Scholastic mini unit also provides for a couple of lesson extensions such as a Class Quilt that allows the students to create an image on their quilt sqare that represents their family culture or an immigration Wall of Honor where students bring in family photos of a relative that may have immigrated to the United States. Photos are posted on a world map on top of the country from which they immigrated.
1. How might you modify your cyberlesson to accommodate to your grade level/teaching situation?
I think the only modification I would make would be the Ellis Island website. I think that the readability would be too high for my students and definitely too high for my Special Education students. Modifications would be made in perhaps rephrasing some of the information or brining in other text materials for them to work on. Because the students I am getting ready to work with receive Read 180 services, I would work with the Read 180 teachers to modify any part of the cyberlesson they see fit.
2. What changes would you make to the content of the cyberlesson- Before, During, After and Beyond?
I would have to find a way to share the one copy of the book I own with the students that are participating. I believe the easiest way would be to bring them to the media center to use the Elmo or to bring the Elmo to them so everyone could share their thoughts on the illustrations. During the reading, instead of using the suggested text list, I would use some of the texts that the students already read on immigration and ask them to incorporate those findings and feelings with The Arrival. The students would be required to reflect on the stories read and connect their thoughts to what they are now seeing and learning using Sean Tan’s book. As for making note of the surrealism in the book, I think my students would be able to see things that I didn’t see especially if they were enjoying the activity. Beyond Reading activities could remain the same. I love the idea of creating a scrapbook and perhaps this is something that can be done as a group versus each student creating their own. I would love to see what the students could produce if they broke down the process and each contributed a component they felt strongly about.
IMPLEMENTATION?
3.What changes would you make to the implementation of it?
I would address the issues mentioned above but I don’t think I would change much else.
LOGISTICS
4.Where will it take place? Over what time span? Will it be done individually or with a partner? Whole group teacher directed?
Independently and student directed? Will it take place in the classroom? computer lab? What access will students have to computers, Internet?
I would as mentioned above, have the students come to the media center seeing as how all technology I would need is housed there. I would take probably a week to 10 days to complete the cyberlesson with a few more days for students to create a final pieced. I am thinking of only choosing between 4 – 6 students, as I would be completing the major portion of the activity alone. I think the best way would be to have the students partner up with a friend or, as I often like to do, give them the option of working alone or with someone. Students will have access to computers with Internet capabilities.
5. Once you modify for your grade level, how will you accommodate to student differences within your class?
Seeing as how all students learn differently, perhaps a good way to differentiate would be to assign different levels to different students. My higher readers may be able to read to the struggling readers. Another option would be to allow students to create a final piece based on their Multiple Intelligence learning style. I give my students the inventory at the beginning of the year and it only takes about 10 minutes to take. If these students have not had the opportunity to take the inventory, I would administer it and then use that information throughout the lesson. The great thing about The Arrival is that it is a wordless “picture” book with very cool illustrations that I think will grab the students attention from the get go.
Teaching modifications to The Arrival:
When using The Arrival, I broke my fourth grade students up into groups of four. Together, we read the graphic novel, stopping to wonder and discuss the graphics and make predictions.
In small groups, they read through the cyber lesson used the text within their small groups to go through the text again and record in their reader response journals their predictions, connections, and questions about this text. They recorded their observations about the graphics, and what they thought the significance of them to be within the meaning.
The students noticed the setting, how it looked like pictures of Ellis Island they have seen, as well as some fantastical images. They wondered if the man was traveling into space, and they wondered if he traveled in a time machine.
The discussed and responded to the character’s feelings, how he was alone, and probably missed his family because of the picture he kept of them. The students connected to other texts they have read on immigration and wondered if the man was going to see his family again, if they were going to travel to where he is.
In the small groups, the students pieced together their responses to create a PowerPoint template in response to their reading of The Arrival. The students wrote the responses from their journals into the PowerPoint.
The small groups read different short texts on the theme of immigration and “stranger in a strange land”. Together in groups, they brainstormed connections to characters in these texts to the feelings of the character in The Arrival.
In groups, they put together an electronic scrapbook on a PowerPoint template, using Internet resources, as a character from a short text they read during this mini unit. They students focused on locating images that connected to immigrant characters’ settings, possessions, family, and feelings.
Students are enjoying the technological component of this project, and the use of a wordless text as an anchor text for our Stranger In A Strange Land theme. In their responses, they noted that it was just like making connections, and reacting to text with words. The students were able to identify with feelings, and some noted that it was easier because the graphic were so “clear” that it was “easy to see what the man in The Arrival” was thinking.
I did not have the students individually interview a person who has immigrated to a new country. Instead, I invited a teacher who teaches in our school who recently moved to America from England with her family. She is relatively new to our country, as she came to America in her adult life. They students enjoyed listening to her experiences of arriving to a new country and adjusting to a strange land.
The students expressed interest in engaging in another Cyber Lesson, using the Internet and technology as the main resources for responding and reacting to text. They found the experience meaningful and the skills are transferable into their use of the New Literacies.
As I teach first grade I would have to make many modifications to the cyberlesson. The book would be presented to the students during a shared reading as a read aloud. However I would need to do some pre-teaching prior and tap into their prior knowledge. I would ask students if they know where they were born and have a globe/map to reference to. As I am aware that at least one of my students is from another country I would lead the discussion in that direction. I would then lead the students into a discussion on how they are different and the same from one another. Using kid friendly language I would introduce what immigration is and what it means.
I would make changes to the before reading activity by asking the students, as a whole group, to make a prediction as to what they think the story is going to be about. Students will be asked to draw a picture of what they think the story is going to be about and then write one sentence to go along with the picture.
During the shared reading we would check the class’ prediction by going back to their drawings.
After the reading, as a class we would discuss how students’ felt about the story and ask them if something that happened in the story reminds them of something that might have happened in their own life.
Since I teach first grade, this activity would have to be whole group especially at the beginning of the school year when students entering are just coming out of kindergarten so are young. The activity would be teacher directed however students would be expected to discuss in small groups on the rug and then come back together as a whole group to discuss.
This activity would take place during a free choice day in the reading program since there is little room for changes to the curriculum. In addition as time permits I would look for and introduce text that connects with The Arrival.
1. How might you modify your cyberlesson to accommodate to your grade level/teaching situation?
Before Reading: Modifications for Grade 2
Vulture website- I did not project the entire site because I felt it was not appropriate to expose students to unwarranted advertisements. Instead, I projected the illustrations displayed in the Vulture preview in the same order directly from the book, The Arrival, using a document camera. The entire class saw the projected pictures at the same time. They discussed what they noticed about each picture in pairs and then recorded observations in journals. (I instructed the students to jot at this point and not take the time to write in complete sentences.)
To build background knowledge before reading The Arrival:
*we visited the Scholastic immigration website http://teacher.scholastic.com/ACTIVITIES/IMMIGRATION/index.htm
We took the “Interactive Tour of Ellis Island” which included looking at still pictures with captions of the main building, listening to audio clips of immigrants who were processed at Ellis Island and watching short video clips.
We read “Immigration Stories of Yesterday and Today” Recounting stories of recent child immigrants from India, Kenya and Vietnam.
*I read aloud and we discussed:
Bunting, E. (1988). How Many Days to America: A Thanksgiving story. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN: 0395547776.
Bunting, E. (1999). A Picnic in October. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co.
ISBN: 0152016362, ISBN: 978015205016562
Bunting, E. (2000). Dreaming of America: An Ellis Island story. New York: Troll. ISBN-10: 0816765219. ISBN-13: 9780816765218
Recorvits, H. (2003) My Name is Yoon. New York: Frances Foster Books.
ISBN-13: 9780374351144. ISBN-10:0374351147.
• We discussed the meaning of surreal and looked at pictures (i.e.: cow w/ antlers standing atop a telephone pole/ Salvador Dali paintings found on website/ pointed out surreal pictures in My Name is Yoon ) I projected these pictures from website and used document camera for still pictures.
• Located and viewed movie through United Streaming -A girl from Southeast Asia corresponds with her grandfather who has immigrated to the USA via letters as she readies for her own immigration to The United States. (Immigration to the United States. Discovery Education. 100% Education Videos. School Videos.)
During Reading:
Each section of The Arrival was viewed as a whole group by projecting pages from the book using a document camera. After whole group short discussion, students gathered in small student directed groups (4-5 students) to look at the pictures in the book from the section projected and respond in their Double Entry Reading Response Journals.
2. What changes would you make to the content of the cyberlesson- Before,
*Age appropriate websites, books and videos will be used to build background knowledge before reading the book, The Arrival. (See Above)
During,:
Students will write entries in a reading response double entry journal since their keyboarding skills are not adequately developed and look at sections in a whole group setting and then in a small student led group. (We are still working on completing this activity.)
After and Beyond?
We began:
Students created questions to use to interview an immigrant.
*We began an initial interview through e-mail with an immigrant from Argentina and are in the process of e-mailing additional follow-up questions.
*We invited an immigrant from Jordan to visit and used the prepared questions as well as questions that arose during our meeting.
*One student and his mother interviewed his grandmother who immigrated to the USA from Guatemala and once settled in a job and apartment, went back to bring her husband and two daughters.
Students will work in groups of 7 to 8 children to create a scrapbook for one of the immigrants interviewed. (We are going to try to use Kidspiration or another software program if we can get the program downloaded on the laptop computers that we can sign out to use in the classroom.
Otherwise, we may scan pictures and create a PowerPoint presentation for each immigrant interviewed.) We are in the process of creating the scrapbooks this week.
I plan on reading another two Eve Bunting books, Going Home (1996) and I Have an Olive Tree, after reading.
I will play appropriate portions of the Shaun Tan podcast interview and show the students some of his other illustrations from his website. The students want me to share my double entry journal when they complete and share their journals.
The students would like to create their own surrealistic animals after we complete the other projects associated with the book.
IMPLEMENTATION?
3.What changes would you make to the implementation of it?
LOGISTICS
4.Where will it take place?
Grade two self contained classroom in a K-6 public school
Over what time span?
Preview illustrations from The Arrival 3 - 20 minute sessions
Scholastic website:
Interactive Ellis Island
Immigrants from today and yesterday 3 sessions
Books read during Read-Aloud
Dreaming of America 3- 20 minute sessions
Picnic in October 2 -20 minute sessions
My Name is Yoon 2 -20 minute sessions
How Many Days to America 1- 20 minute session
We stopped and discussed while reading each book with partners and whole group
United Streaming Video – 1 session Whole group projected
Will it be done individually or with a partner?
Before reading activities - Preview of pictures: pairs/ Scholastic website whole group and partner discussions.
Books read aloud to develop background knowledge: whole group
Video: Whole Group
Whole group teacher directed?
Initial projected sections whole group w/ quick teacher led discussion based on student observations and inquiry. Then off to small group student led discussion and individual journal jottings.
Independently and student directed?
Will it take place in the classroom? computer lab?
Classroom
Laptops signed out for classroom use
What access will students have to computers, Internet?
I can sign out laptops for classroom use.
I can sign up for time in the media center w/ students paired at desktop computers. (So far have only been able to use laptops per pair in the classroom.
Internet use is monitored by classroom teacher and a school system security
We, students or teachers, can not blog or access blogs at school. I can not access every website and podcast that I intended to use due to restrictions set up by the district for in school access.
5. Once you modify for your grade level, how will you accommodate to student differences within your class?
Books read aloud by teacher to whole class
Text from websites read aloud by teacher
Partner students for support when necessary
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