Artifact 5

Context: I contributed to creating a Louis Sachar literature circle unit by planning second grade lessons, based on the books Marvin Redpost: Alone in His Teacher’s House, Marvin Redpost: Class President, and Marvin Redpost: Why Pick on Me?. The literature circle unit was created in a Language and Literacy in the Elementary School course at Appalachian State University, under the instruction of Beth Frye.

Impact: Since the Louis Sachar literature circle unit is posted on the web, it serves as a resource for teachers and students world-wide. The unit incorporates books for students on second, third, and fifth grade reading levels, and it allows students to become self-directed learners, as they read texts, choose characters to evaluate, create questions and answers, highlight interesting passages, and mark words for vocabulary studies. Students then use collected information to facilitate group discussions on specified sections of the texts. Students take ownership of learning, as they are actively involved in reading texts, completing assigned role sheets, and guiding small group discussions. The Louis Sachar literature unit provides teachers with engaging and comprehensive reading lessons, which take into account varying reading abilities to meet the diverse needs of students.

Alignment: The Louis Sachar literature unit meets goal IIA of the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers, as well as INTASC Standard I. By creating the literature circle unit, I developed developmentally appropriate learning opportunities to meet the diverse needs of learners. For example, the literature circle unit accounts for differences in reading levels of students in a single grade level by incorporating books on second, third, and fifth grade levels. Thus, struggling students, as well as advanced students, can be included in the same unit of study. The roles of students as character sketcher, discussion director, passage picker, and word wizard are also adjusted according to student abilities. The web based literature circle unit serves as a technology resource for teachers as they plan instructional strategies to support the diverse needs of learners (IIA). In addition, the literature circle unit meets INTASC Standard I since it employs the use of different roles to assist students in interpreting ideas from a variety of perspectives. For example, each student is assigned a different role, collects information in the text to support that role, and shares ideas specific to that roles in small group discussions. Furthermore, the literature circle unit is based on an inquiry method of learning, as students facilitate discussions on texts by asking and answering each others’ questions (INTASC I).