Books+for+Brains+Lesson+Plan

=Books for Brains Lesson =  By Megan Boss Subject: Language Arts (and Health) Grade: Third

__ASSURE Model__

**Analyze Your Learners:** This lesson is geared toward third grade students, both boys and girls, from any background. Students should have the skills to correctly complete the following standards: LA.3.1.4.4: The student will use self-correction when subsequent reading indicates an earlier misreading. LA.3.1.6.2: The student will listen to, read, and discuss familiar and conceptually challenging text. LA.3.2.1.2: The student will identify and explain the elements of story structure, including character/character development, setting, plot, and problem/resolution in a variety of fiction. LA.3.2.1.6: The student will write a book report or review that identifies the main idea, character(s), setting, sequence of events, and problem/solution. HE.3.B.3.3: List healthy options to health-related issues or problems. (When Opal found the dog, poor Winn Dixie was dirty and possibly sick. Describe what you would have done if you found a stray dog. How would you find out if it was sick or not? List the steps you would take to ensure that the dog is healthy.) The learning styles identified in this lesson include visual (creating pictures), verbal (discussions), structured (taking quizzes and filling out worksheets) and logical (reading and reasoning the book).

 The Objectives that we are aiming towards include comprehension (discuss and describe), application (construct and sketch), analysis (examine and categorize), synthesis (formulate), and knowledge (identify). All these help to give the students a proper working environment and allow them to succeed by their own doing. The teacher simply gives a push in the right direction.
 * State Objectives: **
 * 1)  Third grade students will discuss at least 90% of the plot from Because of Winn-Dixie when given story-related questions.
 * 2) When looking at PowerPoint questions, third grade students will correctly identify at least 70% of certain information chosen from the book.
 * 3) Using Microsoft Word, third grade students will construct a Character Chart that labels every character with his/her relation to Opal, personality traits, role, and actions with 95% accuracy.
 * 4) Third grade students will fully describe the main idea, characters, events, main problem/solution, and opinion of the book when writing a book review with correct information of at least 95%.
 * 5) Pulling information learned throughout their lifetimes, third grade students will formulate a list of “How to Stay Healthy” using Winn-Dixie as an example with 80% accuracy.
 * 6) Using Inspiration, third grade students will examine main proponents of the book and categorize at least 70% of the information into separate parts.
 * 7) Utilizing KidPix, third grade students sketch an adequate representation of a scene from the book with 95% accuracy.

Laptop cart with laptops for Scavenger Hunt PowerPoint Microsoft Word Extra paper for book review Inspiration software KidPix software Windows Movie Maker
 * Select Materials:**

Create a Scavenger Hunt that students will fill out; discuss. (M) Secure an appointment time in the Computer Lab for two days of the week. (T & R) Secure the laptop cart for Monday and Friday for Scavenger Hunt and KidPix picture assignment. (M & F) Create a PowerPoint quiz that students will take regarding the information they learned while reading the book. (T) Instruct student’s use of Microsoft word to create a table chart. (T) Supply directions for book review. (W) Utilize Inspiration software for students to use to create a visual chart of the book.(R) Using the pictures submitted by the students, create a short movie using Windows Movie Maker. (F)
 * Utilize Materials:**

Students will fill out the Because of Winn-Dixie Scavenger Hunt on a laptop from the cart. Teacher reviews Scavenger Hunt aloud, then discusses their thoughts on the book. (M) Students take PowerPoint quiz given by the teacher. After all quizzes are handed in, the teacher walks the students to the Computer Lab and instructs them to create a color-coded Character Chart using Microsoft Word. (T) Teacher gives students time to write a short book review about the main idea, characters, setting, events, the solution to Opal’s problem at the end of the book, and the student’s opinion of the story. Then, teacher facilitates a short class discussion about “How to Stay Healthy” regarding the information provided in the book. (W) Teacher walks students to the Computer Lab to do the Inspiration assignment, the visual oval-chart of the book. (R) Using laptop cart, each student creates a KidPix picture in class of their favorite scene from the book for thirty minutes. When finished, they will e-mail the picture to the teacher will use the next ten minutes to pull up school e-mail on the overhead projector and, one at a time, open KidPix pictures and put them onto a Windows Movie Maker picture slot. After all pictures are posted on a slot, the teacher chooses one slide transition for all slides and plays the movie for the class with previously chosen music (Who Let the Dogs Out). (F)
 * Required Learner Participation:**

I was very happy to find out that the lesson met most of the objectives. The students read the book on time and answered the questions throughout the week with ease. They seem to have enjoyed it very much. One of the only problems that we had was the KidPix assignment; I was shooting for 95% accuracy and we made 80%. The reasoning behind this was many of the students could not upload their pictures correctly. The files were too large for the school’s e-mail. We had to discard a few pictures and promise the students that we would try it again in another project in a few weeks. Most of the other technologies used worked perfectly. The Microsoft and Inspiration assignments were a big success and loved by the students. There were very high quiz grades from the PowerPoint quiz and a lively discussion when talking about “How to Stay Healthy.” I will definitely be doing the same project next year, although a few things that need to be revised are the KidPix sketches and the Scavenger Hunt. Next year, the students will be given flash drives so that we can upload them directly into the computer the day of our mini-movie. As for the Scavenger Hunt, many of the students were not able to finish because it was too long for a 50-minute period. I will revise this document to be shorter or less wordy in the future. Overall, the students and I agree that the project was a huge success.
 * Evaluate and Revise:**

 

Go back to Books for Brains Navigation Page.