Today we had our last Lesson Presentation -- many thanks to our group -- Esanju, Melani, Stephanie and Julie -- who used the Aboriginal story, Red Parka Mary. Blogging about class activities is now optional but please give our last group some feedback.
Thanks also to Harpreet and Helen for sharing their ideas for our Literacy Fair. For next week, bring your two best ideas and we'll gather up many more excellent tools for our kit.
Lastly, if you could bring the first article we read, "In Pursuit of an Illusion" by Duffy, we'll revisit some of the ideas of the course.
I will very much miss this class -- it's been a wonderful semester! We'll celebrate next week.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and engaging presentation! It was a great story and you had a variety of fun yet challenging activities.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with the comment Sue made in class. The activity you had us do in class was extremely difficult and challenging for us as adult. Perhaps using fewer papers with text or using different quotes (simpler, easier to tell what is going on in the story) may help.
Well done!
A great presentation! I really liked the strategies you presented, i.e. the prediction activity, and feel it is completely adaptable for students of all ages. The book you chose I think addresses some very pertinent issues that are an important aspect of our Canadian culture. By sharing stories about First Nations people in the way you successfully depicted, students are able to identify with a way of life that may not be familiar to them and gain a greater appreciation for the aboriginal cultures that have shaped our Canadian identity. Thanks for some great ideas!
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing us to a great story. You made me so curious about Red Parka Mary that I’ve requested it from the public library so I can read the whole thing. You incorporated two very important topics for children in this lesson; being able to identify the message of a story and the message that you shouldn’t judge people/things by outward appearances. These are important ideas to address with any class of students.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the warm-up activity of getting into groups based on portions of the story and trying to figure out what sequence to put these pieces in, or how they might relate to each other. I’d never seen this done before and I like that it generated a lot of curiosity about the story. While I think it may be hard for kids to put these events in sequence (we struggled a bit with this as adults), I think the somewhat simpler task of figuring out which ideas might go together could work quite nicely. I also like that this is a low-pressure opportunity for each student to do a little bit of oral reading.
One idea I had was that you could tie the mystery box idea to the message of not judging outward appearances more clearly. For example, you could have one plain ordinary box and one box that was really decorative and fancy looking. You could then have mystery items in each box, but have it turn out that the more special item is in the plain box.
If I have one concern about your lesson it was that it felt like there may have been too many activities leading up to reading the story. First we thought about a time when we may have misjudged someone, then talked about it, then guessed what was in the box, then got into groups to look at parts of the story, then talked about those and made predictions about the story, then were told what we would be “reading to” find and (at last) read the story. I think this might be a bit much and may end up using more classroom time than is necessary to prepare students for the reading. You might want to consider if you really need all of those activities. Since children will be writing about a time they misjudged someone later, maybe you could leave this out at the beginning and just open with the mystery box activity.
Well done! Thank you for introducing the book Red Parka Mary I love the message and the pictures. The mystery box is a wonderful way to get students interested. Our group never got beyond reading our cards but I must say I think it would have been difficult to put in any order. I wonder if a picture clue or picture walk of the book would have helped. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing
Hi ladies
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the workshop! The mystery box was great. I have seen that used for show and tell. Students ask questions to the student that brings the item. I also enjoyed the activity of putting the cards in order.... I was a little hard but fun to guess the order
The group did a wonderful job on their presentation. What an awesome story!! I enjoying your coloured card activity, it was fun - it really got my group thinking. Your lesson was structured, organized and easy to follow.
ReplyDeleteGood job!
I'm sorry I had to miss this class. I caught a dreadful cold that I did not want to pass on to any of you. I'm sorry I had to miss the last presentation; however, I heard you did a wonderful job. I look forward to seeing you all on our last day of class and look forward to hearing your reading lesson ideas! See you next class
ReplyDeleteRed Parka Mary
ReplyDeleteYour powerpoint presentation was excellent!
I found the portion of your presentation that addressed what the teacher would need to do to prepare great! It really spoke to the audience, since we are all future teachers! You also laid out the before, during and after stages, rationale, assessment and criteria very clearly. I also thought it was great that you included a friendship bracelet craft within the lesson as an extension activity.
Thanks!
Well organized and well presented lesson!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for bringing the beautiful story about first Nations. I am going to adapt this lesson plan for my long practicum because I am going to teach about communities, and the importance of elderly people in the community. I liked the idea of bringing the beautiful and mystery box with pictures of first Nations. It was a great hook to the lesson. The other great idea I liked was giving coloured cards which was helpful for the class management, and the students automatically went to different groups.
Your presentation was very good, I really enjoyed it. I really liked your book choice, it is so important that teachers use multicultural picture books. I also really liked the activity that we did where we had to sequence the story before it was read. It is a great way to get students thinking, great job.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a precious book! The way it is written promotes respect, not only for elders and for native culture, but also for looking beneath the surface to see the good on the inside, and to accept people for what they really are. Understanding across the generations is also an important theme.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated your focused introduction, your rationale for all the things you did, and the many activities you provided to choose from. Personally, I enjoyed the card sequencing activity, and wished we had had more time to finish it! The idea was great, and just needed maybe a few more simple, easy to predict selections, along with a few hard ones.
The cross-curricular connection was also beautiful, and seemed very appropriate in working with the native theme, as first nations people are well known for the way they express themselves through art. Learning about the meanings of colours in the friendship bracelet would serve to promote appreciation for, and understanding of, the culture on an even deeper level.
Thank you, I really enjoyed this presentation.
Hey everyone:
ReplyDeleteI anyone bringing a laptop to the class this week? I have need of one, if you are willing to share yours!
Kathie
Red Parka Mary: I appreciated the powerpoint for following along. I also thought the lesson was great for addressing awareness in aboriginal cultures. As far as connecting self to text, I thought you created a very creative way to teach this learning outcome. The sentence cards were a really neat hook. Even though I found the story challenging to sequence, I wanted to continue, as it was almost as if the sentence cards were a game - I wanted to win! On top of that, I became really interested in the story because the tidbits of information that you gave us appeared to allude to a great story. Red Parka Mary’s big jacket and bunions on her feet, for example, revealed the story indeed did have a lot of character. The way that the author described Red Parka Mary as frightening, yet loving in the end was such a great message of how we shouldn’t judge people on outwards appearances. Your emphasis on effective questioning, challenging advanced students, addressing learning diverse learning styles, and making the lesson multi-level was well done.
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