In EDU387, Literacy Methods: K-8 Teaching Writing the goal of this course is to provide the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required to be a successful teacher of writing at the elementary level. This course was designed using the International Reading Associations (IRA) Standards for Reading Professionals as well as based in scientifically supported writing instruction and the increased demands of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). An integral part of this course is a targeted field study component. By combining course work with classroom observations, students will obtain practical applications that will deepen their knowledge of writing pedagogy for this age level.
Unit of Study Lesson Plans
In EDU387, our first project was our unit of study lesson plan and presentation. This project aligned with the common core teaching standard seven of planning for instruction because we were given a large unit of writing and then we had to understand it and dig into it to create our lesson plans. I had to draw upon my knowledge of how to teach writing and how to help students get feedback in a constructive way to develop my lesson. In this project, we had to start by creating a unit overview and learning targets then each member in our group chose a different bend (section of the unit) to make a mini-lesson about. We chose to do this because that way when describing the lessons we could give a good overview of what this unit would be like when taught to a class.
This project helped me grow as a teacher because I had to create a lesson plan to go along with a non-fiction writing unit and while this is a little below the grades I want to teach I will be needing to teach informational writing in my science classes. Knowing the methods and ways to give feedback that students might respond well too it will help me teach them ways to write informational pieces that are clear and consist but also easy for the reader to understand. I think overall this was a very helpful project because it taught me a lot about breaking down a unit and creating the learning targets that are going to be critical for my students.
