Teachers Need To Consider Both Long-Term Planning And Short

Teachers Need To Consider Both Long Term Planning And Short Term Plann

Teachers need to consider both long-term planning and short-term planning. For this assignment, I will focus on creating a four-week New York State Next Generation Standards map for English Language Arts (ELA) tailored to the 3rd-grade level. The selected topic is "Main Idea and Supporting Details," a fundamental component of comprehension within the ELA curriculum, which significantly enhances students' ability to analyze texts effectively and meet the New York State Next Generation Standards.

This unit is chosen because understanding how to identify main ideas and supporting details is crucial for developing critical reading skills. It aligns with the grade-appropriate curriculum by fostering comprehension, a core aspect of literacy development. This focus also supports diverse learners by providing explicit instruction on organizing information, which benefits students with different learning styles, including English Language Learners (ELLs) and students with learning disabilities.

Focus Standards

The standards guiding this unit are from the New York State Next Generation Learning Standards and include:

  • Reading Literature: RL.3.2 – Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
  • Reading Informational Text: RI.3.2 – Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details that support the main idea.
  • Reading Foundational Skills: RF.3.4 – Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
  • Writing: W.3.2 – Write informative/explanatory texts to plan and organize ideas clearly.
  • Speaking and Listening: SL.3.1 – Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
  • Language: L.3.4 – Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases.

Skills/Strategies

Two instructional skills/strategies explicitly taught during this unit include:

  1. Graphic organizers for identifying main ideas and supporting details.
  2. Annotating texts to highlight key information and supporting details.

Selected Vocabulary

Five Tier Three vocabulary words explicitly taught are:

  • Central Message
  • Key Details
  • Paragraph
  • Summary
  • Support

Sample Lesson Activities That Focus on New York State Next Generation Standards and That Reflect Available Resources

  1. Activity 1: Main Idea Graphic Organizer (Comprehension Focus): Students read a short story or informational passage and fill out a graphic organizer identifying the main idea and supporting details. This activity reinforces RI.3.2. For diverse learners, visual supports and sentence starters will be provided.
  2. Activity 2: Annotating Texts (Skills Strategy): Students practice annotating texts by underlining or highlighting key details that support the main idea. This supports skills from RF.3.4. Differentiation includes providing annotation templates for students needing additional structure.
  3. Activity 3: "Main Idea Song" (Engagement): Students create and perform a song or rhyme about identifying main ideas to facilitate memory retention. This activity aligns with engaging different learning styles.
  4. Activity 4: Summary Writing (Writing Standard): Using their graphic organizers, students write a paragraph summarizing the story or informational passage, emphasizing main idea and details, supporting W.3.2.
  5. Activity 5: Group Discussion and Sharing (Speaking and Listening): Students participate in a collaborative discussion about their texts, practicing building on others’ ideas and articulating their understanding, aligned with SL.3.1.

Diverse learners will be accommodated by providing sentence frames during discussions, visual aids during reading and annotation, and flexible grouping strategies to support peer modeling.

Possible Assessments

  1. Formative Assessment: Exit Ticket Students will write a brief summary of a given passage, identifying the main idea and key details. This measures their immediate understanding and ability to extract significant information.
  2. Summative Assessment: Main Idea Poster Project: Students create a poster illustrating the main idea and supporting details of a story or informational text studied during the unit. This assesses comprehension and ability to organize information visually and verbally.

Selected Works

Literary Texts

  1. "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" by Beatrix Potter
  2. "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak

Informational Texts

  1. "Plants Grow and Change" from Scholastic Science Readers
  2. "The Life Cycle of a Bird" from National Geographic Kids

Reference Materials

  1. "Reading Strategies for Main Ideas" article from Reading Rockets
  2. "Supporting ELLs in Reading" from the WIDA Consortium

References

  • Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2010). Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers.
  • Ontario Ministry of Education. (2017). Literacy for the 21st Century. Toronto: Queen's Printer for Ontario.
  • Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2014). Better Learning Through Structured Teaching: A Framework for the Collaborative Classroom. ASCD.
  • Tomlinson, C. A. (2014). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners. ASCD.
  • Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement. Stenhouse Publishers.
  • Schmoker, M. (2004). The Results Teacher: How to Expect More and Get It. ASCD.
  • Tovani, C. (2000). I Read It, But I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Learners. Stenhouse Publishers.
  • National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
  • Allington, R. L., & Johnston, P. H. (2001). Curriculum-Based Measurement: A Manual for Teachers. Pearson.

Related Assignments