I am going to design a 4th Grade Reading and Writing course. I am going to use the Alabama's 4th Grade Language Arts and Technology Education standards. I want this course to be like our online courses in that everything will be done through digital technology. The basic plan is for students to read assigned books, research historical topics, and write. This would start in the second half of the school year. This course will not teach grammar--that will be done in the classroom.
I have a hard time writing objectives. I tend to write more behaviorist objectives. I want to write "understand". The problem I have is the way I work. I do lesson writing that is more simultaneous rather than in a certain order. So the problem is I am starting to choose books for the reading list as well as the research topic so that I can write an objective. This means that I am wading through language arts and social study standards too.
The good thing is--I am inspired. I have a subject! I have a good idea I am confident in. I know what I want!
During both my 4th and 5th grade years, my reading and writing teachers done things very differently compared to your teaching and I think yours would be better.
ReplyDeleteFrom 4th grade, we would be assigned to head to the library every Monday and choose at least one book from our reading level (Example: If a student can read clearly and made only very little mistakes, they would be rated 3.5 (the highest is 4.0)). Sometimes, we were even allowed to have two for those who enjoy reading or want extra points to improve our grades. Every week we would have to read our library books at home, read the assigned stories and answer questions, write a summary about the library book we have read, and take an A.R. test to see if our reading skills have improved. I hoped this has helped give you some ideas, and yes I enjoy reading. Especially, anything that has mystery or creepy urban legends. :)