Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls: Realistic Fiction

This is an emotional story between a 10 year old boy and his two hounds that all live in the Ozark Mountains. The boy, Billy, saved enough money selling fruit and bait to fisherman that he is able to purchase two hound dogs who he names Old Dan and Little Ann, and teaches them how to hunt for raccoons. Billy trains his dogs so well that he ends up champion of the coon-hunting contest winning his family three hundred dollars which is enough to leave the country and move into the city where there are more opportunities. Unfortunately, his dogs die as well. Old Dan trees a mountain lion which ultimately attacks and the dogs end up saving him becoming badly wounded. This book is relative to students, seeing as how most children know what a dog is and can put themselves in Billy’s shoes. They also can express the heartache of having their companions die either from getting lost in the story, or by reliving a family member dying.

Objectives:
2.03 Create/modify simple content area databases to enter/edit, collect, organize, and display content data for class/group assignment/project, citing resources.
1.02 Select key vocabulary critical to the text and apply appropriate meanings as necessary for comprehension.
2.02 Interact with the text before, during, and after reading, listening, and viewing by: supporting answers from textual information, previous experience, and/or other sources, seeking additional information, and making connections with previous experiences, information, and ideas.
Ultimately, I would like for the student to be able to read a text and organize their thoughts into a concise and organized online story pyramid. This will seal comprehension by having the student recall three events using decoding, building on personal experiences and other necessary strategies.

Procedures:
First I want to the student to read the book. When she comes to school having read the book, I want to ask her engaging questions about the text that will start her thinking about what she actually read. I will include questions such as “What was your favorite part?” “How do you think Billy felt when both dogs died?” “What do you think Billy felt like knowing that he helped his family financially?” “How would you have handled the situation?”
After these initial questions are posed to generate some aspects of a book talk between the teacher and the student, the teacher will introduce a story pyramid from the online resource. I like this resource because the student can input the necessary information, and the application will spit the information out in a clear organized fashion. Using technology will also boost motivation and keep engagement with the activity high. This application is not colorful or flashy but it serves its purpose.
If I was doing this with a larger group of people, I would have them share their events and I would post them in the room.

Assessment:
For an assessment, I would have an informal discussion asking open ended questions. The engaging hook comprised of questioning that I open the lesson with would be considered as an informal pre-assessment. After the activity, I would ask students why they filled in a particular blank the way we did. Also I would question why they put the events in the order that they did. This is meant to be a fun activity and although it is meant to be fun, the actual pyramid could be the assessment to check for comprehension and to confirm that they read the material.

Modifications:
If I had ELL learners, I would modify this lesson by having them write their ideas in their native language and then translate it into English. I feel as though they would benefit from this by using the skills in their native language to fill in the blanks and then transfer them to English. Other modifications could include using a paper copy of the pyramid available or allowing students to work in partners to aid them in their work.
I took one student aside who loves to read. I knew I could ask her to read an additional text because she loves to read and she could read a text quickly. I picked Where the Red Fern Grows mainly because it was a chapter book that was age appropriate; however, my student was above grade level. With this being said, she had not read the book and after reading it, she said she was engaged the entire time and she loved it. She said that she would enjoy discussing her ideas with one of her friends or peers and that it seemed like a good idea for her English teacher to use.

Part Three: Applying

Technology is an interesting piece to add to any classroom. A teacher must be prepared to handle any type of miscommunication to the students along with technical malfunctions. I believe it is a teacher’s job to ensure that every student becomes exposed to technology. A student may not receive proper training at home due to their family’s specific situation, so a teacher needs to reinforce the technology aspect of education. A teacher could hold monthly classes where the library or media center is opened for student and parent involvement. The student could become the teacher and the parent could become the student. This would also be a great way for parents to monitor student’s progress while in school. Regardless, as our global economy is trickling through many more businesses, it is important that teachers begin to incorporate these same ideas into the classroom to ultimately prepare students for life after elementary, middle, and high school. Within my project, I included story pyramids, wordle, and blogging.
I found a story pyramid application on the internet and thought it would be a useful way to show comprehension of a passage of entire book while keeping the information neat and organized using a computer instead of paper and pencil. The application was user friendly and did indeed produce a pyramid. I feel as though students could read a book and show that they understand the material based on their answers in the pyramid. The pyramid is easy to use; it explains what to put in each line on the site. A student could complete this task with minimal teacher interaction.
I also used a wordle which is a great tool to use in discussing adjective. A teacher could introduce adjectives with this application and make a display in the wall. A student would be able be able to see their work and always remember what an adjective it. I do not like how you can not put phrases into the picture. If a sentence is entered, all that is able to be seen are words. I did not care too much for that limitation, nor did my student. She wanted to put her entire idea in the wordle as a phrase and it would not let her. She also had trouble figuring out how to make certain words larger than others. It took her a couple of times, but she was finally able to enter the word multiple times to make it larger.
Blogging would be a neat dynamic to add to a classroom. It is important to communicate to students that this is a great way to speak to a large amount of people at one time that are not necessarily present. This is a small introduction into the corporate world. It could also be a baby step into the introduction of emailing. Overall, I feel as though this could make a large impact into a classroom, especially if a teacher’s students have access tom computers at home. A teacher could design an interactive website for students and parents where their homework was posted. Either students or teacher could pose questions that all could see and the teacher could respond.
Finding a way to incorporate technology is a critical component for students from this day in age and on. Teachers should find a way to not only incorporate technology through media or computer time, but through instruction time. Not only will students have a better understanding of the advanced digital world, but will also be successful within the classroom with a realistic portrayal of our working society and ultimately our global society that is vastly changing and developing everyday.

Part Two: Gathering

http://www.education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/Lesson+activities/Notebook+Activities/Browse+Notebook/United+States/Elementary/4-6/Language+Arts/

This website is great if the classroom has a SMART board. I do not have a SMART board, but my partnership school and State has several, and I was able to explore with the Smarttech site. There are many applications to download that can aid in teaching. There are applications for helping students form haikus, cinquains, conjunctions, clause, adverbs, and many other English grammar practice. This website is perfect for a SMART equipped classroom. It would motivate and encourage students to learn while having fun.

http://www.boobis.com/students/pyramid.html

This website is an application for the story pyramid. This is a strategy to help students with comprehension. The pyramid also could be used for character traits and relationships with other characters. Even though the website is quite plain, it allows the students to type into the fields designated by line numbers. A student would be able to enter their descriptive words or their five word sentence and the application would compile it for the students. It is a clean neat way to keep ideas organized and for children to be further involved with technology via a computer.

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ (http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Audiences/Educators/)

At first glance, this website looks great for a science classroom, but upon further inspection this website reaches across all curriculums. There is a helpful site just for educators that breaks down activity guides, worksheets, and helps to educate students about domestic and foreign animals. There are also articles available to read about different animals that would further students knowledge about foreign animals that they maybe will never see. These articles allow for the meshing of science and reading. Even though there is a fee, it seems to be well worth while.

Song of the Trees by Mildred Taylor Illustrations by Jerry Pinkney: Historical Fiction

Mildred Taylor has written this story about her father, David, living in Mississippi during the Depression. Work was scare there and he hears of a job in Louisiana laying railroad ties. He fares well there sending money home whenever he can. While David is south, Cassie helps her mother and grandmother, Big Ma, out around the house. She has grown very fond of their trees surrounding their house. She plays in them with her friends, they produce berries, they sing to her, they are beautiful to look at, and they are worth a lot of money. Mr. Anderson offers sixty-five dollars to chop down however many he feels sixty-five dollars is worth, trying to take advantage of their land and their family. I did not like this book. I felt while the story somewhat represented a typical African American family, it did not represent economic hardships adequately enough. I feel as though I would put my money towards a better book that serves as a better example of the time.

Beethoven Lives Upstairs by Barbara Nichol Illustrated by Scott Cameron: Historical Fiction

This is a dialogue expressed through letters of a nephew, Christopher, and his uncle Karl. Christopher’s father recently died and his other is now financially strapped. She ends up renting out the second story in the Christopher’s house to a madman Ludwig van Beethoven. As the story continues, Christopher’s frustrations and embarrassments become empathy as Beethoven deals with being deaf and a profound love for the music that he creates. Real events in Beethoven’s life are told through the fictional letters of a boy and his uncle. I enjoyed reading this book and I think it appropriately explains a person’s differences and how important it is to try to understand them and how not to judge a person by those differences. I believe students would greatly benefit from reading this and it could open the door in discussions dealing handicaps.