Bluebonnet Writing Project
Teaching Demonstration
Lesson Template
Title of the Book: ``The Very Best of Friends
Author: Margaret Wild
Illustrator: Julie Vivas
Publishing Information: Margaret Hamilton Books/ Harcourt Brace
ISBN: 0-15-200625-7
Suggested Grade Level: Elementary
Goal: To help students understand the need/importance of writing through emotions, especially sadness and anger while analyzing problem and solution in a picture book.
Objectives:
The learner will reflect on past memories, analyze problem and solution in the story, and reflect on the story through an invitation to write.
TEKS:
8(C) read for varied purposes such as to be informed, to be entertained, to appreciate the writer's craft, and to discover models for his/her own writing (4-8).
11(A) offer observations, make connections, react, speculate, interpret, and raise questions in response to texts (4-8);
(B) interpret text ideas through such varied means as journal writing, discussion, enactment, media (4-8);
(C) support responses by referring to relevant aspects of text and his/her own experiences
15 (A) write to express, discover, record, develop, reflect on ideas, and to problem solve (4-8);
Research Supporting this Lesson:
By writing about relevant, compelling topics, we are allowing the children to respond to the world in a safe place. Linda Rief, Voices from the Middle, Volume 12, September 2004
Bibliotherapy. Intervention in School & Clinic; Nov2006, Vol. 42 Issue 2, p91-100, 10p.
A Closer Look at Bibliotherapy. By: Jones, Jami L. Young Adult Library Services, Fall2006, Vol. 5 Issue 1, p24-27, 4p;
Using Children's Books as Bibliotherapy for At-Risk Students: A Guide for Teachers. By: Prater, Mary Anne; Johnstun, Marissa L.; Dyches, Tina Taylor; Johnstun, Marion R.. Preventing School Failure, Summer2006, Vol. 50 Issue 4, p5-13, 9p.
Introduction to author and/or story:
Ask students to think back to a time in their childhood when they were sad. What was wrong? How did they feel? What if anything made it better? Allow students the opportunity to discuss with their shoulder partner. (5-10 minutes)
Previewing the Text:
Have 2-3 students share their reflections. Discuss that when they were little, often a band aid or hug and kiss made it better. There are things, though, that a band aid can’t fix. Brainstorm those things.
Procedures:
1. Read the story The Very Best of Friends
2. Guided Practice- Create Problem/Solution Outline
3. Discuss Jesse and William. How did the way Jesse treat William affect her? Why did Jesse treat William that way? Was there a time in your life when you pushed away others when you were sad? Do you think Jesse felt better with William or without?
4.
Reading/Writing/Drawing Connection:
· The students will be invited to reflect and draw about what they have read.
Extension/Service Projects:
We could visit the local SPCA to find out how to properly care for animals.
13 comments:
Dear Heather,
Lens 1: Describing affect for teachers and learners.
Your calming affect helped create a soothing environment for learning. Having us think of a time when we were sad helped to set the tone for us.
Lens 2: Articulating best practice.
Thank you for allowing us, as 4th graders, to make inferences throughout the story. It gave a sense of suspense!
Lens 3: The Texas language arts standards and benchmarks.
TEKS:
8(C) read for varied purposes such as to be informed, to be entertained, to appreciate the writer's craft, and to discover models for his/her own writing (4-8).
11(A) offer observations, make connections, react, speculate, interpret, and raise questions in response to texts (4-8);
(B) interpret text ideas through such varied means as journal writing, discussion, enactment, media (4-8);
(C) support responses by referring to relevant aspects of text and his/her own experiences
15 (A) write to express, discover, record, develop, reflect on ideas, and to problem solve (4-8);
Lens 4: Extensions and adaptations.
I will definitely use this in my classroom, but of course with a high school text; the steps are something that I forget
Lens 5: Questions
How could you integrate technology into this lesson?
Thanks for a wonderful lesson! You did a great job!
Rediesha Thompson
Dear Heather,
Lens 1: calming, soothing, comforting--perfect for this lesson and this book
Lens 2: Read audiences/real purposes--this seems the most important here because this lesson is a way to help children deal with real problems that they are facing
Lens 3: TEKS listed
Lens 4: The problem solving organizer would work in many curriculum and content areas
Lens 5: none at this time
Thanks!
Sherry
07/25/2007
Dear Heather,
Lens 1: Describing affect for teachers and learners
You took the time to address student's feelings of grief and loss. Like Jeannine says, -teach the whole child- by addressing their emotional needs you are doing this!
Lens 2: Articulating best practice.
The teacher will be able to respond by drawing about what they read. They can use the graphic organizer to write outline a similar stories of grief or loss.
Lens 3: The Texas language arts standards and benchmarks
• TEKS where available and correlated to the lesson
• Objectives where directly tied to support TEKS
• Research supporting the learner objectives was presented
Lens 4: Extensions and adaptations.
It will be a great idea for the students to visit the SPCA to learn how to properly care for animals.
Lens 5: Questions arisen
How would you use technology to encourage the students to maybe research about animal fair treatment?
I really enjoyed your presentation and appreciate the fact that you took the time to put it together. I really learned a lot from you.
Sincerely,
Sugey Villarreal
July 26, 2007
Dear Heather,
Lens 1: Describing affect for teachers and learners.
Having students reflect to a particular time of their life is comforting and lowers affective filter.
Lens 2: Articulating best practice.
Anticipating your students� writing and using real purpose and audience is pertinent to students and a good practice. Using graphic organizers in exploring and developing ideas ia a practice that I use with my students.
Lens 3: The Texas language arts standards and benchmarks.
TEKS are aligned with lesson.
Lens 4: Extensions and adaptations.
In addition, graphic organizers can be used to write in other classes. Therefore, it is useful to teach the diffierent types of organizers.
This lesson lends itself for students to write about other things that happen in their lives.
Lens 5: Questions arisen.
What do we do with students that refuse to talk about experiences in their lives?
I enjoyed your demo, Heather, and I can see how much you care for your students.
Lourdes
July 26, 2007
Dear Heather,
I really enjoyed your lesson. Even though this is a hard lesson to teach, it is SO important for us to reach our learners where they are and make the learning important, pertinent and personal to them.
The Five Lenses
Lens 1: Describing affect for teachers and learners. I really enjoyed your attitude and fearlessness to get to the heart of this matter. You are 100% right, you had a traumatic year and you have to reach and touch this kiddos in their affective domain before anything else can EVER occur. I applaud your positive, direct, caring manner of addressing this very, very difficult subject matter. We are so lucky to have you with us. Your kiddos are VERY lucky to have you for a teacher.
Lens 2: Articulating best practice. You were continually monitoring your learners. You used visual/graphic organizers to help several learning styles. You were aware that your learners need that kinesthetic aspect to help them keep learning. HH said, “When you are sad, you’re not happy.”
Lens 3: The Texas language arts standards and benchmarks. Good documentation. Nice planning. Could this be cross curricular?
Lens 4: Extensions and adaptations. Thank you for connecting writing, feelings, and books for your learners and us. It is so important to remember that we have to help kiddos feel and deal with horrible, crippling situations. I appreciate your work with this.
Lens 5: Questions arisen. How could you integrate technology into this activity? How could you involve the families in a “project of healing”? What could be another extension that involves speaking, listening, reading or writing? How important is it that the learners write before, during and after this activity? What about this lesson surprised you?
This was a great experience and thanks for being so ‘in tune’ with your learners to understand and value this lesson…
Excellent work,
Joyce
Dear Heather,
Lens 1: Describing affect for teachers and learners. You lesson was well researched and was relevant. Good connections to real life.
Lens 2: Articulating best practice.
Real Audiences, Real Purposes
Getting Students Started
Lens 3: The Texas language arts standards and benchmarks.
§110.6. English Language Arts and Reading, Grade 4.
Lens 4: Extensions and adaptations. I believe I could use lessons like this often with my high school students. In high school, the kids experience more than their fair share loss. I could use this lesson to help them talk through their sadness. Maybe a little after the incident. Then they could write after realizing they are not alone in their feelings.
Lens 5: Questions arisen. What other books do you think I could use for secondary level?
I loved this lesson. You have a real connection with students. Thank you for your connections to real life. This lesson helped me with some real life emotions.
Your friend,
Jolyn
Dear Heather,
Great lesson on problem/solution!
Lens 1: You shared a time when you were sad, and we each shared a time when we were sad. This got us in an empathetic frame of mind.
Discussion of the ways that people handle sadness.
Lens 2: Sharing, inquiry, read-aloud, great use of non-verbal communication,(this works well in my ESL classes) cooperative
problem/solution chart, class discussion, personal narrative
Lens 3:TEKS:
8(C) read for varied purposes such as to be informed, to be entertained, to appreciate the writer's craft, and to discover models for his/her own writing (4-8).
11(A) offer observations, make connections, react, speculate, interpret, and raise questions in response to texts (4-8);
(B) interpret text ideas through such varied means as journal writing, discussion, enactment, media (4-8);
(C) support responses by referring to relevant aspects of text and his/her own experiences
15 (A) write to express, discover, record, develop, reflect on ideas, and to problem solve (4-8);
Lens 4: Visit those in grief or need (animal shelter, nursing home)
write a letter to someone who needs love and support
Lens 5: What other books are good for helping children who hurt?
Heather, this is a great lesson for helping children cope with difficult situations and their feelings about them. You are such a thoughtful teacher to put this
together for your students when they are dealing with difficult situations.
Ginny
26 July 2007
Dear Heather,
Lens 1: You demonstrate so much caring for your students. Thank you for listening to your students’ stories.
Lens 2:
Asking/ modeling questions while reading
connected the reading to our own experiences
appealed to kinesthetic learners
use of GOs
bibliotherapy
Lens 3: Yes. Nice work on including those standards.
Lens 4:
What a GREAT idea for an extension! I would have LOVED this! How could you gain more ideas for extensions?
Lens 5:
There are many sites with GOs. Maybe, this is one way to include technology in your lesson.
Have you thought of allowing students to compare themselves with William using a Venn Diagram? This might give them more ideas for writing.
Is there a way to include more GOs to scaffold writing?
You did a nice job of redirecting with guiding questions.
Thank you for including guiding questions for our writing.
This is such an important lesson, and I would not discount it as not being an academic lesson. What extensions could you include that might assess the learning (for example, the GO you used for conflict/resolution could be the assessment).
Janelle
Dear Heather,
This was an awesome lesson.
Lens 1—Affect
You have a very calming influence on your students. It’s obvious you are a caring person since you chose this topic.
Lens 2—Best Practices
You included a number of best practices. There was a real purpose to this lesson. All were involved with the graphic organizer and the discussion. I liked how you stopped and let us make inferences during the reading. It is very helpful to write about feelings.
Lens 3—TEKS
You incorporated a number of reading and writing TEKS.
Lens 4—Extensions and Adaptations
I have shared some of my losses in the past, and the kids opened up to me on so many levels.
Lens 5—Questions
I don’t have any at this time.
This was a very powerful lesson. Thank you for sharing.
Pat Huster
Hello Heather,
Lens 1: Affect
Your demeanor is nurturing and inviting. As a student-participant I immediately felt at ease in the environment you created. Your lesson was powerful in conjuring emotional connections—I was surprised what bubbled to the surface in my writing. I really needed to get it out, so thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so in a risk free environment.
Lens 2: Best Practices
I noticed several best practices woven throughout the lesson. Before reading, students were asked to reflect on a time and discuss in groups, activating prior knowledge that would be connected to text. Also, students were asked comprehension questions during the reading of the text. After the reading, students worked cooperatively, using a graphic organizer to study story structure (character, problem, solution). Students had multiple opportunities to think, discuss, and write. Writing was connected to the text, which is another best practice.
Lens 3: Standards
Thanks for adding the TEKS to your lesson plan. You picked several that fit your lesson perfectly.
Lens 4: Extensions and Adaptations
This lesson is very similar to something our guidance counselor would do with children. I can see that in this day of tight budgets with counselors’ jobs often on the chopping block, the classroom teacher may need more lessons like these as crisis or tragedy happens—which always does, unfortunately. All students have had some sense of loss (divorce, death, etc.), so I can see this lesson applicable to any class at most grade levels. Even just the story read with journaling connections would be easily adapted to any grade level. In a regular reading lesson however, the graphic organizer with problem, solutions, and end result could be applied to any narrative texts as well as a way for students to plan their own narratives. It is really easy to follow.
Lens 5: Questions arisen.
None at this time. You covered everything.
Thanks again, Heather. I really loved it!
Dear Heather,
Wonderful book and great lesson!!!
Lens 1: You could tell that you are very sincere in you compassion for the students through this lesson. You did a great job of focusing on their feelings and allowing them to share.
Lens 2: I really liked the problem/solution chart, good job on incorporating that into the lesson it helped the students see the bigger picture.
Lens 3: TEKS =)
Lens 4: I loved this lesson I could totally use this in my classroom, I think I would also have my students read each others work and respond with a letter back to their shoulder partner.
Lens 5: No preguntas! =)
Wonderful, wonderful lesson. You can tell you are such a caring, compassionate and passionate teacher! I wished I would have had you as a teacher.
Thanks,
Rachell
Lens 1: Describing affect for teachers and learners. This lesson really opened the class up for discussion on issues like this. Jesse is someone we all know. It’s important to show kids that when they have these feelings it’s okay and that they are not alone. Sometimes when those we care about go through things (even those we don’t know) we feel pain. This book is a great way to help kids develop coping mechanisms.
Lens 2: Articulating best practice. All Children Can Write, **Real Audiences, Real Purposes, Student Ownership and Responsibility, Getting Students Started, A Classroom of Shared Learning,
AllChildren Can Write
Real Audiences, Real Purposes
Student Ownership and Responsibility
TheWriting Process
Getting Students Started
Supporting Students as they Draft and Revise
Grammar and Mechanics in Context
A Classroom of Shared Learning
Writing Across the Curriculum
Evaluation and Assessment
Lens 3: The Texas language arts standards and benchmarks. -- Ditto
Lens 4: Extensions and adaptations- A great way to put this to use is to use this anytime someone in class is going something. Kids have questions, and this is way for them to share and know it will be okay. I would have liked having this when I received students from Hurricane Katrina. We don’t just teach kids, we deal with real issues.
Lens 5: Questions arisen—no questions at this time but why did the cat have to be so scary? (ha,ha,ha)
Thanks so much Heather! Your kids are blessed to have you for a teacher.
July 26, 2007
Dear Heather,
Thank you for sharing your coping lesson with us. Though it is a hard topic to broach, you did so with tact and grace. Yours was a very touching and effective presentation, one that stands up to the scrutiny of the Five Lenses.
Lens 1: Describing affect for teachers and learners. We really connected with the story that you read to us. Poor William and Jesse! I really empathized with both characters.
Lens 2: Articulating best practice. I noticed several best practices being used in your lesson. I like how you incorporated quality literature, timely lesson delivery, and compassionate discussion.
Lens 3: The Texas language arts standards and benchmarks. You substantiated your lesson content with the TEKS and research support.
Lens 4: Extensions and adaptations. I can definitely use this book and the discussion strategies when I teach my students about emotions.
Lens 5: Questions arisen. I really don’t have any questions at this time. Your demonstration was so straightforward and comprehensible that I feel I will have no problem adapting it to my classroom.
Thank you again for the fun presentation.
Sincerely,
Leslie Hancock
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