what feedback would you want for a William & Mary gifted LA unit (grades 1-2)

[serendipitous journey]

I took a leap and ordered "Beyond Words," a Center for Gifted Education language arts unit for grades 1-2 designed to span one semester. I plan to do this unit in the fall and winter; and since there is an old thread indicating some board members would like feedback on these units, I thought I'd ask for help figuring out ... well, what y'all would like me to figure out about it! I have zero experience reviewing or previewing curriculum.

 

The publisher's site isn't working properly now so I can't link to the product; but here's a link to the Kendall/Hunt Publishing online catalogue and you can search for it. Here's some info:

 

Price: to purchase the Teacher (about $75) and Student Guides ($13) and have them shipped to my house cost about $110, $20 of which was taxes and shipping. I couldn't find them more cheaply, or at Amazon, or get them special ordered from my local bookstore. Please post if you are able to get a better price.

 

"Beyond Words: 2001 Winner of a National Association for Gifted Children Curriculum Division Award for Outstanding Curriculum. Organized around the study of figurative language, including simile, metaphor, and personification, this unit explores the idea that language can change the way we think about the world by creating new images and connections in our minds.

 

The literature unit is designed to engage primary students with high abilities in the verbal domain in challenging reading, writing, and interpretation skills in the language arts. It reflects the need among young gifted students for a greater exposure to higher-level thinking activities sooner in their school years than other students. In addition, the unit specifically focuses on literature that utilizes extensive figurative language, with the intent of supporting young children's development of metaphoric competence in the areas of both comprehension and production."

 

To do this unit, required are:

1. "Frindle" by Andrew Clements.

2. Various picture books (it seems to me that these could be checked out from a library, since they don't often span multiple lessons).

3. Poems. The poems are supplied in the student guide mostly ($13), some in the Teacher Guides or the resource books.

4. Dictionary. Suggested are

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary

The American Heritage Dictionary for Learners of English (esp. for ESL)

 

The unit is designed for classroom settings. In the case of a "self-contained" gifted class (as opposed to an inclusion or pull-out program) the authors suggest supplementing with some Michael Clay Thompson vocab/grammar materials and "Junior Great Books", which I think refers to the anthologies but am not sure about.

 

There are about 5 appendices, one of which is a bibliography and includes several teaching references; another is a really interesting, enjoyable and useful essay on the ethical dimension of this unit and the CFGE curricula generally; a third is an excerpt from a dissertation on teaching figurative language to children.

 

I'd originally hoped to teach this over the summer, but I will be wanting several books to go with it and don't want to spend more money right now; also, it seems like I'd do well to prepare ahead. A good sign, I think! So that's while I'll start in the fall. Any ideas for things to look for, or for the sorts of feedback y'all would find useful?

Edited June 14, 2012 by serendipitous journey

[Bang!Zoom!]

Ana, the thing that hooked me in this post was the mention of Junior Great Books.

 

I checked the website, but what titles/areas of Junior Great Books do they mention, I'm not connecting on this.

 

A second question, are you trained/taught in leading Junior Great Books and the program? It's not a complex issue to get the training, but the idealism behind it doesn't come naturally for some folks if they aren't aware of how it's done or it's theories.

[FairProspects]

A second question, are you trained/taught in leading Junior Great Books and the program? It's not a complex issue to get the training, but the idealism behind it doesn't come naturally for some folks if they aren't aware of how it's done or it's theories.

 

Where would I find this info? We are using Jr. Great Books next year.

[cmarango]

I would like to hear about its ease of use, what ages you felt it was appropriate for, how rigorous was the program, and if you felt it was worth the cost.

[Bang!Zoom!]

Great Books, the foundation - has training offered now and then. I took them years ago, I think it was a week long workshop, but I was training to be a trainer.

 

The basic idea is to learn how to lead through shared inquiry, it's a little clunky at first because your role as the guide is a little weird (you basically don't tell, you learn how to lead to more quality leading questions about the text) - so it ends up being like an orchestra pretty much, an orchestra of guided conversation.

 

There are books for the guide, as well as books of the books, like cliff notes. It's a lot of repetition and rest really, very cyclical.

 

Many times, you see these "workshops" and such for a fee and it's really the only product, and not much value really.

 

However, with my experience with Great Books training, I'd have to say this is definitely NOT the case. It's highly valuable and a life long skill. There's a site here you can go plunk around and learn from.

 

If there are trainings or such around your area, I really recommend doing it. It's excellent, the benefits are enormous.

 

http://www.greatbooks.org/index.php?id=1270

[serendipitous journey]

Ana, the thing that hooked me in this post was the mention of Junior Great Books.

 

I checked the website, but what titles/areas of Junior Great Books do they mention, I'm not connecting on this.

 

A second question, are you trained/taught in leading Junior Great Books and the program? It's not a complex issue to get the training, but the idealism behind it doesn't come naturally for some folks if they aren't aware of how it's done or it's theories.

 

The Jr. Great Books mention was exactly that, with no title or anthology number. I'm going to have to go through the bibliography more carefully to make sure I haven't missed the reference, but didn't see it there the first time through.

 

Am not familiar with the training, so have none :D. Was a little annoyed by the abbreviated versions of texts in the Great Books reading groups a few years ago, which slightly put me off all their pedagogy. But you clearly found the Junior training very helpful; is part of the same organization?

 

ETA: this seems like it would interest many, so am giving it its own thread ...

Edited June 15, 2012 by serendipitous journey

[serendipitous journey]

I would like to hear about its ease of use, what ages you felt it was appropriate for, how rigorous was the program, and if you felt it was worth the cost.

 

Thanks! that is a succinct list: I think I'll base a lesson-by-lesson review on that ...

[FairProspects]

Serendipitous Journey - Can you list the picture books this unit requires? I'm trying to figure out if this is the one I want. Thanks!

[FairProspects]

Nm, I found it. I would like to hear more about the output requirements though. What are the writing projects included?

[serendipitous journey]

FairProspects: I'll give writing assignments and assessments from the first and last lessons, and #10 which is halfway through. Note that the first and last lessons are explicitly evaluative in nature, to assess the child's learning of the unit materials by comparing what they write before the unit to what they write after. I'm doing this in more than post b/c it may get long.

 

Lesson 1: Literature Preassessment.

 

Before the preassessment, the lesson plan describes how to do an exercise using similes and metaphors with the texts "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" by Shaw and "Cloud Dance" by Locker. It guides the teacher & child(ren) through an assignment: the child will draw what they see outside looking for/at clouds, orally help you fill in the blanks of the sentence "A cloud is like _____ because _____." and write their own sentence, perhaps based on that one, across the top of their cloud picture.

 

Directions: Read "Fog" by Carl Sandburg. Then answer the questions. (each question is followed by three blank lines for the answer)

_1. What is the main idea of this poem? Tell what you think in one or two sentences.

_2. What does this sentence mean: "The fog comes on little cat feet"?

_3a. What main thing is this poem about?

_3b. Look at your answer to 3a. Does reading the poem make you think about that thing in a new way? Tell how.

_4. Write a new title for the poem. Tell why your new title would be a good one.

 

Each of these preassessment questions is has its own rubric. Here's the one for question 1, about the main idea.

(score of 0): No response or a response inappropriate for the task.

(score of 2): Respons is limited, vague, inaccurate, or confusing: only quotes from poem.

(score of 4) Response makes simplistic, literal statement and demonstrated limited understanding of metaphor.

(score of 6) Meets expectations: Response demonstrated understanding of the central metaphor, including references to its topic, vehicle, and ground) -- note that these metaphor concepts are well explained in the teacher's guide.

(score of 8) Exceeds expectations: insightful response demonstrated understanding of the central metaphor and offers fluent, substantial support (meets requirements of 6 score plus extra elaboration).

 

Homework for this lesson is: "Have the students write a poem comparing a tree to something else. Tell students to use the words of their poem to show how the tree is like the other object. Have them illustrate their poem and share it with a family member of friend." Extension activities involve more Sandburg poems from the Sandburg volume of "Poetry for Young People" and Eric Carle's "Little Cloud".

[serendipitous journey]

Lesson 10 Overview:

 

IN CLASS:

* Discuss the Lesson 9 homework.

* Learn about the Hamburger Model for Persuasive Writing.

* Put a jumbled paragraph in order.

* Use the Hamburger Model to write a persuasive paragraph about positive or negative changes.

* Discuss opinions on a current issue or issues.

 

HOMEWORK:

* Complete a Hamburger Model with an opinion and reasons for that opinion. (This involves filling in blank lines on a Hamburger Model worksheet, not writing a paragraph per se.)

* Read through Chapter 4 of "Frindle" by Andrew Clements.

* Continue work on the unit research project (involves finding out how family and community members have experienced change and writing about this).

 

EXTENSIONS:

* Make a list of transitional words.

* Connect to Music.

 

Writing output involves circling the different parts in a modeled Hamburger paragraph; cutting disordered sentences apart and rearranging them in the proper order for a paragraph (conceptual writing); filling in a Hamburger Model sheet with an introduction, three or so reasons, and a conclusion; drafting their paragraph; discussing their paragraph. Also the Hamburger Model for homework.

Edited July 14, 2012 by serendipitous journey

[serendipitous journey]

Lesson 20 Overview:

 

IN CLASS:

* Discuss "Frindle" by Andrew Clements and complete a Change Chart above the noveL (The Change Chart involves writing or drawing examples of four kinds of change from "Frindle": a change that happened fast; a change that took a long time; a positive change; a negative change).

* Read "April Rain Song" by Langston Hughes and complete the Literature Postassessment.

* Complete the Persuasive Writing Postassessment.

* Write in Response journals.

 

EXTENSIONS:

* Complete a Literature Web for "April Rain Song".

* Connect to Music.

 

LITERATURE POSTASSESSMENT (there are three blank lines under each question): Read "April Rain Song" by Langston Hughes. Then answer the questions.

_1. What is the main idea of this poem? Tell what you think in one or two sentences.

_2. What does this sentence mean: "Let the rain sing you a lullaby"?

_3a. What main thing is this poem about?

_3b. Look at your answer to 3a. Does reading the poem make you think about that thing in a new way? Tell how.

_4. Write a new title for the poem. Tell why your new title would be a good one.

 

(the scoring is as for preassessment in Lesson 1).

 

PERSUASIVE WRITING POSTASSESSMENT: Write a paragraph to answer the following question. Tell what you think. Give three reasons that explain what you think. Write a conclusion.

"Do you think all students in your grade should read "April Rain Song"?

(followed by a bunch of blank lines)

 

The scoring for the Persusaive Writing paragraph is in 4 parts: Claim/Opinion; Data/Supporting Points; Warrant/Elaboration (any elaboration is considered to exceed expectations at this grade level); Conclusion.

 

Here is the scoring for "Claim or Opinion"; the rest are similar, but I'd rather not type them all out :). There are also 4 example student paragraphs given with example scoring. The example paragraphs range from 2 - 5 sentences, so that is probably the expected range of student output.

(score of 0): No clear preference or view is given, and context does not help clarify it.

(score of 2): The writer simply answers yes or no, or the writer's position is poorly formulated, but the reader is reasonably sure what the response is about, based on context.

(score of 4): Meets expectations: A clear topic sentence exists, and the reader is reasonably sure what the response is about, based on the strength of the topic sentence alone.

(score of 6): Exceeds expectations: A very clear, concise position is given in a topic sentence and elaborated with reasons. Details explain the contest, such as the title of the reading or references to "the poem," etc.

 

 

 

... HTH!

Edited July 14, 2012 by serendipitous journey

[FairProspects]

Wow, thanks for the detailed posts. I'll have to think more about it. I know I wouldn't use it as is though from those examples, so I'll have to decide if it would be worth the cost if I plan on tweaking it. I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts as you start teaching it!

 

I'm wondering if there is something literature-based, that is not so assessment-driven?

[serendipitous journey]

Wow, thanks for the detailed posts. I'll have to think more about it. I know I wouldn't use it as is though from those examples, so I'll have to decide if it would be worth the cost if I plan on tweaking it. I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts as you start teaching it!

 

I'm wondering if there is something literature-based, that is not so assessment-driven?

 

I'm glad it was useful! BTW, I don't think the unit as a whole is assessment-driven at all, it is just bracketed by those assessments at the beginning and end. If you look at the sample normal lesson, #10, there is no assessment per se of the work, but a lot of discussion and jamming about things; and the lessons generally do not have assessing going on. I got a kick out of the assessments myself: it was interesting for me to see how one could measure writing progress -- a question I've been asking myself -- but maybe including them was misleading.

 

Have you looked at the Junior Great Books stuff? so much literature, not assessment-feeling at all.

 

and do you know what would you change in the teaching? anything other than the assessments?

Edited July 14, 2012 by serendipitous journey

[FairProspects]

Well, I actually feel that the whole process (just from these samples) is too didactic, I'd prefer to ask more open-ended leading questions about the literature. I'd also like to see more connections made between the different works of literature and more complex questions that connect to the theme (these seem a bit simplistic to me) such as "How did you see change over time in the character x?" "How is that different from character y?" "How might people in the same situation perceive/process change differently and how might that impact their choices?" etc. I realize these would be categorized as more "logic stage" questions, but I would expect that a program written for gifted students would model this type of thinking.

 

It just reads linearly to me, like they are looking to measure critical thinking and writing with charts and product, when the process of a discussion would do. :) I, personally, would modify a lot of the writing to oral output or a project, but that has to do with my dc's limitations. Persuasive writing I'm leaving for the older grades so that is not really a huge priority of mine for the younger grades. I was hoping for more content and less skill work, I guess.

Edited July 14, 2012 by FairProspects

[serendipitous journey]

Well, I actually feel that the whole process (just from these samples) is too didactic, I'd prefer to ask more open-ended leading questions about the literature. I'd also like to see more connections made between the different works of literature and more complex questions that connect to the theme (these seem a bit simplistic to me) such as "How did you see change over time in the character x?" "How is that different from character y?" "How might people in the same situation perceive/process change differently and how might that impact their choices?" etc. I realize these would be categorized as more "logic stage" questions, but I would expect that a program written for gifted students would model this type of thinking.

 

It just reads linearly to me, like they are looking to measure critical thinking and writing with charts and product, when the process of a discussion would do. :) I, personally, would modify a lot of the writing to oral output or a project, but that has to do with my dc's limitations. Persuasive writing I'm leaving for the older grades so that is not really a huge priority of mine for the younger grades. I was hoping for more content and less skill work, I guess.

 

this makes a lot of sense. I am looking esp. for skill work for Button right now ... really, what you are describing seems exactly like what Jr. Great Books tries to do (and, from the K-1 series, which I have, it seems like they are managing to do it). The literature is just wonderful, I think, and the program is designed to elicit children's responses. Esp. if you could form a local book group around it, or use it with more than one child or maybe include an adult family member in the group reading & discussions, I think you might really really like it.

 

Also if you aren't being esp. didactic you could prob. skip the Jr. Great Books instructor's guides and go with the student materials. There are samples of the teaching for each level online. If you want I can hunt the links down later.

[serendipitous journey]

FairProspects --

 

I have only a moment, but thought I'd add that "change" is the conceptual focus of the unit, so the questions about change are more open-ended than they seem: the child will have been thinking about change for several weeks.

 

okay screaming child must be dragged to party!!!

[FairProspects]

I had actually previously ordered Jr. Great Books from my virtual charter for next year, so hopefully that is more my style. I also ordered the MCT literature supplement, so that might be enough lit work for us. I just wish they would get here already! :D

[serendipitous journey]

I had actually previously ordered Jr. Great Books from my virtual charter for next year, so hopefully that is more my style. I also ordered the MCT literature supplement, so that might be enough lit work for us. I just wish they would get here already! :D

 

:):) I hope you like them! and that they arrive soonish!