Thesaurus Lesson =)

Well Ladies I have completed my Thesaurus lesson with my students today and I am pleased to say that it went very well, which I am very excited about because I was very anxious about how this lesson would go over. I started my lesson on March 4th and we reviewed what we learned today and students were able to work independently, which was a big deal for me. I wasn't sure if they were going to be able to grasp the concepts to work independently with out the me constantly modeling every problem; but they worked very well and while I walked around observing their work I saw how hard they were working and the effort they were putting into their work.
When introducing the lesson (on the 4th) I told the students that one of their fellow students had inspired me to write the short story we would be reading aloud because he reminded me of the time I got my dog. I then moved into reading the story I had written for the lesson, after I read the first few sentences I asked for a volunteer to continue reading (my most excited moment was when one of students who is dyslexic volunteered to read). I stopped the each new reader after a certain point to ask questions about what they were reading. Since they were going to be editing one of my paragraphs that I purposefully made worse than the others. Students were more than happy to let me know what was wrong with my “bad” paragraph, things like: “you used the same word twice”, or “your descriptions aren’t very strong”. I was pleased that they all caught on to what made my poor paragraph bad.
After competing the read aloud portion of the lesson I handed out a ditto that had my bad paragraph with the poor description words underlined. I asked the students what they were learning about in the library, which they all answered: reference books. I then brought out the thesauruses they would be using for the activity. As I passed a thesaurus to each group of two I explained the different ways a thesaurus can be used. I also modeled how to look up words in a thesaurus because it was a different set up then the dictionaries they had been using in the library. Once each student had their ditto and a thesaurus we, as a class, did the first two sentences together. After I had the students work with their partner and finish the ditto. As they worked I walked around the class observing how they were doing. If I saw an answer that was unique or creative I had that pair go up to the overhead I had and write their answer so the whole class could see how their peers were doing.
As I was walking around I was also able to help students who were struggling, and answer questions. I was thrilled that the students stayed on task and work well with their partner. My teacher pulled me aside to let me know how impressed she was with the success of my lesson and the improvement of my classroom management. At the end of lesson, as I went around collecting their work, we discussed what we learned about using reference books and when to apply/ use them. We also discussed how during CMT testing we aren’t able to refer to these books which is why it is important to build a large vocabulary and come up with creative ways to engage our readers.
My Lesson:

SAINT JOSEHPH COLLEGE TUESDAY FIELD EXPERIENCE
Language Arts Lesson

Date (Started): March 4, 2008
Grade: 3rd

Title: Using a Thesaurus

Standards:
Standard 4: Applying English Language Conventions, students apply the conventions of standard English in oral, written and visual communication.
4.3 Students use standard English for composing and revising written text.
Standard 1: Reading and Responding, students read comprehend and respond in individual, literal, critical and evaluative ways to literary, informational and persuasive texts in multimedia formats.
1.1 Students use appropriate strategies before, during and after reading in order to construct meaning.
Blue Print:
Comprehension: answers literal and inferential questions about grade-appropriate books read aloud by the teacher and about own reading in context (at instructional level); applies comprehension strategies, such as summarization and prediction to grade-appropriate stories read aloud by the teacher and to own reading in context (at instructional level)
Objectives:
Students will sit while teacher introduces lesson
Students will participate and insist in instruction
Students will be able to use Thesaurus with guided instruction
§ To engage students in the practical uses of a thesaurus and to reinforce the use of synonyms as a way of making writing more interesting.
Students will be able to complete ditto(s)

Rationale: Throughout the students writing workshops the students have been doing all year, during the editing as a class they have discussed enriching their writing with better vocabulary. Students have been going over different ways to make what they are writing sound more interesting and engaging. Students are also familiar with how to use a dictionary.
I feel this would be a perfect time to introduce using a thesaurus to help in making writing more interesting and expose students to more vocabulary.

Materials:
@ The Day We Got Dixie (story composed by teacher)
o Transparency for teacher’s overhead
@ A First Thesaurus: The Word Hunter’s Companion by James Green (one for every student)
@ Ditto/handout for paragraph editing
@ Homework ditto/ handout for students who may finish early

Procedure:

1. Initiation: To engage the class, the teacher will make a connection to the student (Charlie) in her class who has gotten a puppy to introduce the task the students will being doing. Once teacher goes over directions for the task, teacher will also explain appropriate behavior for this activity:
§ Ask neighbor for help before asking teacher.
§ Is appropriate to use Thesaurus and dictionaries
After going over directions teacher will start reading The Day We Got Dixie, and then call students to continue the reading.

2. Development of Lesson: After certain points of reading The Day We Got Dixie teacher will pause and question what makes the writing good or poor. Once the read aloud is complete teacher will introduce the ditto that allows students to revise teachers “bad” paragraph. After modeling what to do for first two sentences on the overhead and modeling different ways to use a Thesaurus, teacher will answer any questions that arise. As students work the teacher will circulate around the room to make sure that students are understanding the activity and using the Thesaurus correctly. If the teacher observes good work she will have the student come up to the overhead and write their answer to model the work for the rest of the class. For any students that finish their work early, after teacher checks ditto, the teacher will give them another activity to do that involves using a thesaurus.

3. Closure: At the end of the lesson students will hand in their work to the teacher, so teacher can evaluate it (check for understanding of the words to see that they are used in the correct context). While collecting work teacher will review with student what they learned and how they can apply it to their everyday writing.