Assignment #4: An Academic Assignment

Title: Make a designed summary of the mini book.

Submitted by: Youngran Song
Grade Level: Grade 3
ELL Level: Intermediate
Duration: 40 min session

Goals:
1.To allow students to report on their reading in a way that is creative and that integrates language skills
2.To let students share enthusiasm for what has been read
3.To introduce students to good books they have not read.

Objectives:
1.Content Objective: To make a designed summary of the mini book
2.Language Objective: To understand difficult words in story book with picture cards and apply it to prewriting.
3.Learning Objective: To have the students break summarizing into understandable parts

Standards: CELD standard
Subject: English
Grade(s): 3
Reading: 3.0
Literary Response and Analysis: Students read to a wide variety of significant works of children's literature. They distinguish between the structural features of the text and the literary terms or elements (e.g., theme, plot, setting, characters).
Narrative Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text: 3.3
Use knowledge of the situation and setting and of a character's traits and motivations to determine the causes for that character's actions.
Grade(s): 4
Reading: 3.0
Literary Response and Analysis: Students read and respond to historically or culturally significant works of literature. They begin to find ways to clarify the ideas and make connections between literary works.
Literary Criticism: 3.7
Evaluate the author's use of various techniques (e.g., appeal of characters in a picture book, logic and credibility of plots and settings, use of figurative language) to influence readers' perspectives.
Subject: English
Grade(s): 5
Reading: 3.0
Literary Response and Analysis: Students read and respond to historically or culturally significant works of literature. They begin to find ways to clarify the ideas and make connections between literary works.
Narrative Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text: 3.3 Contrast the actions, motives (e.g., loyalty, selfishness,conscientiousness), and appearances of characters in a work of fiction and discuss the importance of the contrast between the plot or theme.

Equipment Needed:
1.Picture book: Valerie Thomas's story "Winnie the Witch."
2.Computer
3.Board & markers
4.Scissors, color pencils, paper

List of Materials:
1.A-1 Focus Sheet: Winnie the witch storytelling script
2.A-2 Word picture cards
3.A-3 Vocabulary Work Sheet
4.A-4 Graphic organizer: Prewrite about the story
5.A-5 Summative Assessment Sheet: Rubrics for Mini-book

Warm-up:
1.Instructor does storytelling for students: Instructor asks pre-during-post questions during the storytelling (please refer to the below Focus sheet A-1).
2.Have students talk about the book with their partner.
3.Teacher shows some Mini-books to students and encourages them to make good one.

Task Chain 1.
1.Understand difficult words with pictures
2.Instructor’s role: Have students memorize key words so that they understand the story better.
3.Students’ role: Concentrate on the key words and try to remember them.
A.Show the word cards to students one by one so that students understand the difficult words easily. Show repeating the words and pictures a few times: Word cards A-2
B.Formative assessment: Check your words with vocabulary puzzle worksheet A-3

Task Chain 2.
1.To make a designed summary of the mini book
2.Instructor’s role: Help students make mini book without difficulties.
3.Students’ role: Have new experience making mini book.
How to Make eight page books
A.Hold up, in landscape position, a large piece of A3 or large white paper and tell the students to hold up their A4 paper in the same way.
B.Tell them “Fold it in half lengthwise” and show the students by folding your paper.
C.Tell the students to “fold the paper in half vertically” and the students will follow.
D.Tell the students to fold the paper vertically again.
E.Tell the students to open the paper.
F.Have the students cut a line lengthwise along the center two squares.
G.Have the students fold the paper in half lengthwise and push the two ends together.
H.The result will be an eight page book.
I.Formative assessment: Have the students unfold the Mini-book and practice the folding method by themselves

Task Chain 3.
1.To have the students break summarizing into understandable parts
2.Instructor’s role: Have the students prewrite about the character, setting, and problems in the story (Please refer to A-2).
3.Students’ role: Students change their prewriting with partner for peer correction.
4.During writing activity
A.Page 1: Title plus the picture from an important event in the book.
B.Page 2,3: A picture of the characters of the book and a two sentence summary of the characters of the book, including physical and emotional descriptions (For example, he has black hair. He is very brave. Etc.)
C.Page 4,5: A picture of the setting and time of the book and a sentence summary of the setting.
D.Page 6,7: A picture of the problem. Climax of the book and a two sentence summary of the problem.
E.Page 8: At the top, put the title again, in the middle, the student draw a picture of himself, and at the bottom he puts his name.
F.Formative Assessment of briefly summarized Mini-book: The instructor has a brief meeting with student individually and provides feedback.
G.Summative Assessment: Using the Assessment Sheet A-6: Rubrics for Mini-book, students check their awareness of description, knowledge of vocabulary.
5.Post-writing activity: For homework, tell students to summarize a book they have read, but instead of writing the actual ending, they should write a different ending.

References:
Díaz-Rico, L.T. (2008). Strategies for teaching English learners. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Thomas, v. (2002). Winnie the Witch. London: Oberon Books.

A Writing Strategy(Visualizing) Mini-Lesson PPT

545-50 ASSIGNMENT#3 BY YOUNGRAN SONG

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Assignment #6: Article review

Date: February 3, 2010
Title: Research on good and poor reader characterstics.(ISSN 1539-0578)

Summary
In reading research, there are lots of studies on good and poor reader characteristics. However, these findings remain largely scattered in applied linguistics and cognitive and educational psychology. This paper attempts to synthesize current theory and research on the topic in the past 20 years along 3 dimensions: language knowledge and processing ability, cognitive ability, and metacognitive strategic competence. A profile of good readers follows a review of the literature. With a special reference to second language reading research and pedagogy in China, the author argues that a key difference between first language and L2 readers typically have a gap between their L2 proficiency and their knowledge or conceptual maturation, and this tension determines to some degree the characteristics of good versus poor L2 readers. By examining L2 reading research in the country, the author proposes some areas worth exploring in the Chinese context.

Description
 Language knowledge and processing ability
 Cognitive ability
 Metacognitive strategic competence
 A profile of good readers
 New research directions in L2 reading in china
 Word-level issues in L2 reading development
 Exposure to print in L2 reading development
 Training of a strategic reader
 Relationship between instruction and testing

Evaluation of article
The review of previous research on reading comprehension and the subsequent profile of good readers presented in this paper may offer a new perspective for our understanding of reading in a second language. In the Chinese EFL context, reading provides rich and abundant samples of L2 input which is needed to improve learners’ overall language proficiency. From a utilitarian point of view, reading is just what Chinese EFL learners need most both in their academic studies and in their future work. China, reputed to have the biggest population learning English as a foreign language in the world, offers a wide range of issues in L2 reading to be explored. The four areas identified in this paper may provide a stimulus for Chinese scholars and others to carry out research that will not only help China to catch up with international research development but also help to exolore theories applicable to EFL reading.


Example of the useful material

Table 1. A profile of good readers
Dimensions
Language Knowledge and Processing ability.
 Automatic and rapic word recognition.
 Automatic syntactic parsing and semantic proposition formation.
 Resonable size of vocabulary ranging from 10,000 to 100,000.
Cognitive ability.
 Good store of cognitive strategies.
 Ready access to variety of purposeful strategies.
 Higher and proficient use of strategies.
 Effective use of prior knowledge.
 Supportive use of mother tongue in L2.
Metacognitive strategic competence.
 Good knowledge of cognition.
 Competence in monitoring comprehension process.
 Competence in evaluation and regulating strategy use to achieve maximum comprehension.

Many good reader characteristics are common to both L1 and L2 readers. Although L1 and L2 reading have differences, the fact that many more characteristics are sharted than not between the two types of good readers is reasonable: Good L2 readers seem to make every effort to approximate the linguistic proficiency and repertoire of skills and strategies found in good L1 readers. a profile of good readers based on the interpretation of the previous literature on three dimensions is presented in table 1.

Reference
Pang, J (2008). Research on good and poor reader characteristics: Implications for L2 reading research in China. Reading in a Foreign Language, 20(1), 1-18.

Assignment #2 Writing Prompts

EESL 545-50
Assignment #2-1 Writing prompt by Youngran Song.

1.Reading Journal entry

Close your eyes and think about snowy day activities for two minutes. Talk with your partner what you thought and write about it in your paper.

2.Free-writing

Imagine that you can fly to the sky for only one hour per day. Where do you want go? Please do a free writing about it.

3.Expository Writing

Ask somebody how to make Korean BBQ. Please summarize a set of instructions that tells your friend step by step how to cook it and the ingredients you need for it.

4.Narrative Writing

Read story book and break summarizing into understandable parts such as characters of the book including descriptions, setting/ time of the book, problem/climax of the book.

5.Descriptive Writing

Compare your present picture with 5 years ago picture and describe the differences.

6.Creative Writing

You need some money to buy new cellular phone. So you decided to sell your small clothes to neighborhood. Please write down attractive advertisement which will be posted in the elevator.


Assignment #2-2 Writing workshop by Youngran Song.

* Title
Make a designed summary of the fun reading book

* Level: Grade 4-5

* Learning objective
To improve writing: To help students break summarizing into understandable parts.

* Warm-up
1. Have students talk about the book with their partner.
2. Teacher shows some Mini-books to students and encourages them to make good one.

* Task Chain 1
Vocabulary review.
Draw a picture of the words fold and cut on the board with the words and have the students practice repeating the words a few times.

* Task Chain 2
Make eight page books:
1. Hold up, in landscape position, a large piece of A3 or larger white paper and tell the students to hold up their A4 paper in the same way.
2. Tell them “Fold it in half lengthwise” and show the students by folding your paper.
3. Then tell the students to “fold the paper in half vertically” and the students will follow.
4. Tell the students to fold the paper vertically again.
5. Tell the students to open the paper.
6. Have the students cut a line lengthwise along the center two squares.
7. Have the students fold the paper in half lengthwise and push the two ends together.
8. The result will be an eight page book.

* Task Chain 3

Prewriting:
1. Have the students prewrite about the character, setting, and problems in the story.
2. Do not let them tell the end.
3. Page 1: Title plus the picture from an important event in the book.
4. Page 2, 3: A picture of the characters of the book and a two sentence summary of the characters of the book, including physical and emotional descriptions. (He has black hair. He is very brave. Etc.)
5. Page 4, 5: A picture of the setting and time of the book and a s sentence summary of the setting.
6. Page 6, 7: A picture of the problem. Climax of the book and a 2 sentence summary of the problem.
7. Page 8: At the top, put the title again. In the middle, student draw a picture of himself, and at the bottom he puts his name.

* Final Assessment: Briefly summarized Mini-book.

* Variations
Some other possibilities are the story poster, story mobile, story notebook, story magazine, story newspaper, etc. All of these require the students to break the story into 3-4 pieces and summarize the story according to the pieces while making a pretty project to show their parents.

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About Young Ran

Hello!!
I am very curious about new world and I am not afraid of trying new things. Whenever I am presented with a challenge,I usually try my best to reach for the goal.Having worked at schools and private institutes, I feel that many students are not happy learning English.I want to make them happy and help them enjoy English.Also,as a christian, I want to give my love to my students. :)