Examples of Accommodations

Title: Exploring Oral Traditions

(Photo of Percy Bigmouth in Apache war bonnet)

Lesson Plan Topic: Listening: The importance of listening in oral traditions

Author:

Grade Level: 8^th Grade

NE Standards:

8.1.4- By the end of eighth grade, students will identify and apply knowledge of the structure, elements, and literary techniques of fiction

8.3.1- By the end of eighth grade, students will participate in group discussions by contributing information and ideas

8.4.1- By the end of eighth grade, students will identify information gained and complete tasks through listening

8.1.3- By the end of eighth grade, students will identify key people, events, and ideas from colonial America

Integrated Disciplines: Language Arts and Social Studies

Objectives:

Students will develop collaborative work skills through small group interactions.

Students will create an oral folktale that describes a natural phenomenon (rain, thunder etc…)

Students will use 1 metaphor and 1 simile in their oral fable

Students will elect 1 group member to present the oral folktale to the class

Students will listen to their classmates presentations

Students will understand the importance of listening in oral traditions

Assessment:

	1- Poor	2- Fair	3- Good	4- Excellent
Worked well in a group exercise	Students were disruptive and failed to work in a group environment	Students were not disruptive, but were not productive	Students worked well together	Students worked well together and creatively collaborated on their oral folktale
Group fables included the following: (1) described a natural phenomenon, (2) included 1 simile, (3) included 1 metaphor (4) must be at least 6 sentences in length	None of the four required items were present in the folktale	One of the four items were present in the folktale	Two of the four items were present in the folktale	All four of the required items were present in the folktale
Listening	None of the four members listened to their classmates’ presentations	Only one or two of the four group members listened to their classmates’ presentations	Three of the group members listened to their classmates’ presentations	The entire group listened to their classmates presentations
Group Presentations	The group was not prepared to present the folktale	Only half of the folktale was ready in time to present	The folktale was ready and presented to the class	The folktale was ready and presented to the class creatively: (with a picture, theatrics, etc…)

**Summative Assessment (included in the Rubric)- The final oral presentation and the inclusion of the three required elements

**Formative Assessment (included in the Rubric)- The way the group works on the project together and listens to their classmates’ presentations

Materials:

Pen

Paper

Copies of the rubric

Picture of Percy Bigmouth

Copy of verse #3 Apache Fable by Percy Bigmouth

Overhead projector

Whiteboard

Whiteboard markers

Procedures:

Anticipatory Set: I will bring in a picture of Percy Bigmouth and put his picture on the overhead projector. Then I will read verse #4 from "Apache Fables" by Percy Bigmouth. (This is an oral fable told by the Apaches about solar eclipses). I will tell the class about the importance of oral tradition in the Native American culture as well as other cultures. I will brainstorm with the class on the whiteboard and ask them:

o "Why would an oral culture be so important to the Native Americans?"

o "Why would listening be an important skill for Native Americans?"

Vocabulary:

o Oral- "Spoken rather than written."

o Folktale- "A story or legend forming part of an oral tradition"

Activities:

o Teacher will pass out rubrics to each student

o Teacher will assign students to groups of 4

o Students will move quietly to respective groups

o Students will assign each member of the group a respective title:

§ Scribe- in charge of writing ideas and writing the final piece for presenter

§ Facilitator- in charge of facilitating ideas between the group members and leading discussion

§ Time Keeper- in charge of keeping the group on track and letting everyone know how much time is left.

§ Presenter- in charge of presenting the oral fable to the class

o Students will move their desks into a large circle

o Teacher will move around the circle and ask each group to present their fable

o Students will quietly listen as the group presenters present their group’s fable

o Teacher will grade students based on the rubric above

Provisions for students will special needs: Sandra has cerebral palsy. She does not write well and gets nervous speaking in front of the class. However, she enjoys working and sharing ideas in a group setting. Therefore, I will assign her the part of the facilitator. Jacob is in a wheelchair. I usually do the sharing portion of this lesson in a circle on the floor. However, because Jacob is unable to sit on the floor, I will have the students move their desks into a circle and we will share sitting in desks.

Closure: In the sharing circle, the students and I will discuss the following:

o Why was listening so important for the Native Americans?

o Why is listening still important today?

o What pieces of information are still passed down orally today? (Family history etc…)

o What parts of your classmates’ folktales did you enjoy listening to? What made them so interesting to listen to? (Descriptive, theatric, use of similes or metaphors etc…)

References: This is my own idea for a lesson plan. However, I used the following site for my anticipatory set and photo: percybigmouth.home.mindspring.com.

Title: Root Words and Word Webs

Lesson Plan Topic: Identifying Word Meaning by Exploring the Word’s Root

Author:

Grade: 8^th Grade

NE Standards:

8.3.1- By the end of eighth grade, students will participate in group discussions by asking questions and contributing ideas

8.4.1- By the end of eighth grade, students will identify information gained and complete tasks through listening

Integrated Disciplines: Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts

Objectives:

Students will describe how roots carry meaning in words

Students will work together in a group environment

Students will write as many words as possible using their roots. They will write these words in a word web

Groups will share their word webs with the class

Assessment:

	1- Poor	2- Fair	3- Good	4- Excellent
Worked well in a group	Students were disruptive and failed to work in a group environment	Students were not disruptive, but were not productive	Students worked well together	Students worked well together and creatively collaborated to think of as many words as possible
Extension Exercise	Group did not try to find additional words for the other groups	Only two students in the group participated in the extension exercise	Three of the four students participated in the extension exercise	All group members participated in the extension exercise
Group Presentations	The group was not prepared to present the word web	Students did not make a clear presentation	Students presented their word web	Students presented a superior word web. Roots were found in different positions in the words

Materials:

Whiteboard

Whiteboard Markers

Word web worksheets

Pencils

Procedures:

Anticipatory Set: I will play a game with the students. I will put the root "hydro" on the white board. Then I will ask the students to take 1 minute to write down as many words as they can think of as many words as they can that have the root "hydro" somewhere in the word. Then I will ask the students to count the number they found. The winner(s) will get a small piece of candy.

Vocabulary:

o Root word- "The form of a word after all affixes are removed."

Activities:

o Teacher will divide students into groups

o Teacher will pass out rubrics to everyone

o Teacher will pass out word webs to each group

o Students will look up the definition of their assigned root

o Then students will be given 7 minutes to fill in their root word webs

o Students will move into a circle

o The groups will share what their root means and the words they found that contain that root

o Then, the groups will pass their sheet to the neighboring group

o The group will again have 2 minutes to complete this extension exercise

o Then the groups will take turns discussing the additional words they found

o This extension exercise will continue until the original root returns to the original group.

Provisions for Students with Special Needs: Due to a learning disability, Robin has trouble writing- especially in timed situations. Therefore, Denise will be in charge of writing Robin’s words as well as her own.

Closure: In the sharing circle I will ask the students to think of other roots they know. I will ask them to write these down and share them. Then I will ask:

How will knowing roots help you recognize words that you have never seen?

How will knowing roots help you with spelling?

References: We did something similar to this in Dr. Carlson’s "Teaching Reading" class. I really enjoyed this exercise because it felt like a game. It made me remember how important roots are to words, and how much meaning they carry. This is a modified version of her lesson.

email Dr. Schulz

Last Updated 07/07/2007