Unit Plan Canvas Remix

When remixing “Storytelling Through Photography” the first thing I thought of was picture prompts. However, I felt picture prompts are somewhat overdone. I thought it would be more fun to use picture prompts to prompt a prediction. Instead of writing the story based on the picture, the students will write the story based on what happens AFTER the picture. The goal is to get the students excited about writing and I believe giving them more freedom could help. While we tell our students the picture prompt does not have to be a large part of their story, often times I find students describing the picture instead of creating a story. Creating the assignment based on predictions could help the students stray away from this issue they may be struggling with.

Remixed Canvas

Audio Books

As a future English teacher it will be my job to motivate students to read. Of course, what I wish is that all of my students have the skills to read the books assigned and that all of my students will read what I assign as well. However, in reality, many of my students will not be able to read the books assigned at grade level. Usually, because of the structure of class, those students go unnoticed and do not get the help they need. Teachers assume that all their students have read and those who have not read are just neglectful. Instead of ignoring this we need to address it and realize that we can make things easier for our students. I believe audio books are a great way to help the students who have trouble reading. Because audio books read to our students it allows the students to think and comprehend. Usually, a student who struggles with reading will focus most of their time and effort on defining the words they are unfamiliar with and sounding out the words that do not come easy to them. An audio book allows these students to focus all of their attention on the content. What I hear often is “If a student can not read, how have they graduated to the next grade” and while I do understand that thought, the fact is, they have graduated and they do still need to learn the new content. If we can make things easier for our students occasionally, I say, why not? Yes, maybe audio books are not the way to go for every text and every assignment, but I certainly believe they can be very useful in moderation. 

Unit Plan Canvas

For this unit the goal is to be able to understand and analyze a character's thoughts and the decisions he or she makes. To demonstrate this students will be required to create a character blog at the end of the unit. The assessment will be based on whether or not the student's blog posts align with the thoughts and actions of one of the characters in the novel The Help which we will be reading throughout the unit. For the canvas I have created I decided to incorporate the movie along with the novel. Pictures and video from the movie help the students get more excited, in my opinion. Along with pictures and movies, I have provided 2 outside readings that may help the students understand the novel. One is a type of book review while the other helps the students understand the historical time period the novel is set in. Because the unit relies heavily on the character blog the students will create, I have provided a widget that will allow students to connect their blogs to the canvas, this way all students will be able to access and comment on the blogs easily. All in all, I believe that the PLAYground canvas is a great way to introduce a unit while getting the students excited and involved with learning.

The Help: Introduction Canvas