Lesson Plan : Author study for 2nd Grade
Teacher Name: | Christine Mullarkey |
Grade: | Grade 2 |
Subject: | Literature Activities |
Topic: | Author: Jan Brett |
Content: | Develop vocabulary - author, title, illustrator Make a connection between books and authors.Use technology as an educational tool to develop an awareness of authors and to participate in activities at the website of an author. |
Goals: | Student will understand the concepts of author, title and illustrator. National ELA/IRA Standard 5 Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes. New York State ELA Standard 3 Students will read, write, listen and speak for social interaction. New York State ELA Standard 3 Students will read, write, listen and speak for critical analysis and evaluation. NETS Standard 4 Stduents use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences. Students use a variety of formats to communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences. |
Objectives: | Given a book, student will point to the author, title, and illustrator and be able to define each with 100% accuracy. |
Materials: | Computer - internet capabilities, email capabilities, printer Books by Jan Brett: "The Mitten" and "Wild Animals" (Large copy for teacher, small copies for students) E-mail account routed through the teacher Journals Jan Brett's homepage: http://www.janbrett.com Jan Brett's email account: http://www.janbrett.com/email.htm Puppets & felt mitten to the story, "The Mitten" Audio cassette of "The Mitten" White lined paper Markers, crayons, scissors The Jungle Song - cassette |
Introduction: | As students come into the classroom explai to them that today you will be talking about your favorite author. Hold up the book, "The Mitten" by Jan Brett. Give them each a copy of the smaller version. Write "Jan Brett" on the blackboard. Ask the children to find the name on their book. Tell them that Jan Brett is interested in finding out how people feel about her book. Read them the story, pointing out the beautiful illustrations as you go along. Talk about how Jan Brett not only writes her own stories but that she also draws the pictures. Next, act out the story using the animal puppets and felt mitten. Later, at snack time, play the audio cassette of the story, "The Mitten". End with a discussion on what the students' favorite books are and why they like them to activate prior knowledge. |
Development: | Explain to the class that Jan Brett has a website that we can go into. Demonstrate using the computer and having the students able to view the screen using the overhead. Show students step by step how you type in the website address. Briefly open up each section of the website so students can see the different activities and information available. Tell students you have another book of Jan Brett's to read to them. Let them follow along on their copies. Tell them that now they will have a chance to go into Jan Brett's website on their computers. Explain that it is important for authors to know what people liked or disliked about their books because it helps them to write good books. Ask the students to think about what they liked or disliked in the two books that were read today. Tell the students that you have written your thoughts down about "The Mitten" and then you have carefully put your thoughts into sentences, and then you have revised and proofread it until it is just right. Go into the e-mail account and type in your note for students to see. Explain that they will email Jan Brett and tell her what they think about her books, but first they must get their thoughts together. |
Practice: | Have students use their journals to write their thoughts down. Then have students use paper to draft a short note to Jan Brett. Have students show you their work so that you can proofread and help direct revision for their final copy. Then have students go to the Jan Brett homepage. (Have the address written on the board) Once at the site direct them to "email Jan Brett" and have students click on that. Have students type their edited note to the author. Teacher will walk around checking on students to make sure they are following directions. |
Accommodations: | Visually Impaired Student: Electronic reading device/optical character recognition technology used to scan the information on a page and transform it into audible words. Student with sever motor disabilities: Voice recognition technology can accept spoken commands such as entering data into a computer and writing papers. |
Checking For Understanding: | Monitor and observehow students are accessig websites. Can they locate website icons? Are they exploring the website? Is there confusion? Are students following directions? Were students able to formulate sentences and type in note to author? Observe student comfort level. Are they nervous and unsure or confident. |
Closure: | Have a class discussion about the concepts of "author", "title" and "illustrator". Have each child read his or her email to Jan Brett. After each child reads, discuss how everyone felt about the letter. Did many children like the same things in the books. Discuss different titles for the books. Talk about the illustrations in both books. Were they similar or not? Did they prefer one book over the other and why. Recap the vocabulary and end everyone putting on their animal masks and moving the "The Jungle Song". |
Evaluation: | Have students bring their favorite book in and compare/contrast their book to Jan Brett's "The Mitten". Have them discuss how the authors, titles and illustrations were alike/different. Do students have a complete understanding of vocabulary. If so, you can move forward. |
Teacher Reflections: | This section needs to be complete after actually giving the lesson. In this section, I would put what went well with the lesson and what did not. Are there any modifications or adjustments that would have made the lesson plan flow better. |
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