Ashley Brownson

Ashley Brownson

Dr. Keiper – Ed. 303

9/19/2012

Building a Learning Community

Standards:

NCTE/IRA NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

4.

Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes. 

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. 

6.

Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.

7.

Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

11.

Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities. 

12.

Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Objective:

Students will

·         Become aware of the reasons underlying social rules

·         Build classroom community as they work collaboratively to develop a framework for classroom deportment

·         Practice interviewing skills as they gather opinions of community members using a structured questionnaire

·         Engage in consensus building through discussion of priorities and expectations for classroom behavior

·         Become more aware of their own social behavior and that of their classmates

Website: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/building-learning-community-crafting-991.html?tab=4#tabs

Overview of Lesson:

                In this lesson students will work together to write classroom rules that they will follow throughout the year. This lesson will start by reading a book to students called Miss Nelson is Missing and then proceed to have a discussion about rules in the classroom. Students will think of the most important rules that they feel should have in the classroom as the teacher records the information on the white board. The students will think of categories to place the rules under so they are able to sort through the most important ones the easiest.

            Once the class has constructed a list of important classroom rules they will go on to interview various people from around the school about what they believe are the most important rules and why. The students will record their data on their interview forms and then report their findings. During this time students will also learn important interviewing techniques and how to communicate with others on a more professional level. Once students have interviewed various people they will be asked to write a short summary and present their findings to the class. The students will then have a brief discussion on whether or not they feel that rule should be included in their classroom rules.

            Students will then decide on what classroom rules should be included in their class. During this time students will choose whether or not they want the rules to remain the same all year or if they would like them to be reviewed after a certain time period and changed if needed. Students will then help create the bulletin board that will display the classroom rules and explain what is needed in order to make an effective bulletin board (title, list of rules, etc.). In order to wrap up the lesson students will create a booklet explaining their classroom rules using the ReadWriteThink Printing Press that will explain the rules in more detail and be presented to their parents.