Evolving Teacher Practice

Primary education is the foundation to positive life long learning. How can primary educators make sure they grab their students’ attention and set them on the right path? With the guidance and support from their Teacher Librarian.

 Here is an example lesson plan from a kindergarten teacher; we will call him Mr. McCully.

Language Arts Lesson Plan for Kindergarten

Retrieved from National Academies

Mr. McCully is a new teacher who does direct teaching instruction in a double classroom with 32 kindergarten students, two educational assistants and another classroom teacher. On the Concern based Adoption model Mr. McCully level of use—adopting a new program is at the Consequence stage— How is my use affecting learners? How can I refine it to have more impact. Mr. McCully came to the Teacher Librarian and asked how he can increase the engagement and extend the writing lesson plan on fish.

Possible Resources:

kids britannica Encyclopedia: The teacher can look up different kinds of fish, fish habitats, One possibility to build vocabulary and knowledge as exploring fish together as a class, Then the kids could do further research themselves of what kind of fish they want to write about. 

What Makes a Fish a Fish DVD: Building further vocabulary 'juicy' words with the kindergarten class the teacher can show chapters of this information DVD stopping at each chapter to make brainstorm webs with pictures and words in kind friendly format 

National Geographic Kids: On this online reference there is many sources within that gives factual support on all different kinds of fish and fish facts. Another great source to build vocabulary and knowledge on fish to write a story about.

Maker Station Fish: A maker station for the students to create a fish out of recycled water bottle and possible other craft materials. The students can design the fish they have been researching to go along with their story. 

Swimmy: A picture book about a school of fish and the wonders of underwater world; there is danger and it isn’t until swimmy comes to help build confidence and team work to get the school out from hiding. 

Rainbow Fish: A picture book story about a beautiful shiny fish who struggles with sharing and looks for wisdom from an octopus as to why he has no friends.

Retrieved from National Academies

To get Mr. McCully at a higher level of innovation Refinement—The user making changes to increase outcomes, the Teacher Librarian can collaborate with Mr. McCully with possible unit plans. To provide hooks for students interest Mr. McCully can read a few storybooks about fish Rainbow Fish, Swimmy and then start to build a fish tank together as stated in his previous lesson plan. To bring in technology watching the DVD What Makes a Fish and Fish and stopping at each chapter to then use chart paper to make brainstorm webs in kid friendly format of pictures and words that can be placed around the classroom to build a larger vocabulary and knowledge. When the students are at the point on writing their story they can go onto National Geographic Kids or Kids Britannica online encyclopedia to further their research on the type of fish that will be in their story. Once the students have finished writing their story they can go to the Fish Maker station to go along with their fish story. This unit can be spread out for a couple weeks to help build vocabulary, story line and interrogation of technology.

Mrs. Jane is an experienced grade three teacher who teaches in a closed classroom with direct teaching instructions to 24 students. On the Concern based Adoption model Mrs. Jane level of use—adopting a new program is at the awareness stage— I am not concerned about it. Mrs. Jane was very reluctant to ever use the Learning Commons; the Teacher Librarian made a meeting with Mrs. Jane to talk to her about a possible Social Studies unit on Tunisa she can use.

Here is the example of her simple one unit plan to teach about Tunisia.

Social Studies Lesson Plan Grade 3

Possible Resources:

Teacher's Pet: Tunisia: An in-class field trip; students will get to explore traditional games, learn about good and services, build a mosaic to take home, and learn facts about daily life, geography, importing and exporting.

Students of the World: An online secure pen pal site that teachers can upload their schools website or create one, the teacher then can search a school for their class to exchange electronic messages to get real life experiences about life in Tunisia, Peru and India.

If the World was a Village: This picture book can give an understanding that if you took everyone in the world and put them into a village how we can all work together with food security, energy and health

Kids Britannica Tunisia: An online source for students to do further research to learn more about Tunisia, answer possible worksheet questions or develop a research project. 

The Great & Marvelous Akarek' and other Tunisian Tales: Students can explore four different folktales based in Tunisian. This source to provides information of the oral history of Tunisian. 

Retrieved from Goofle

Retrieved from Google

To get Mrs. Jane at a higher level of innovation Preparation—The user has definite plans to use the innovation; the Teacher Librarian can collaborate with Mrs. Jane and explain how they are a resource to help take off the pressure and lesson planning and preparation. To get the students hooked on a new Social Studies unit Mrs. Jane could start with reading If the World was a Village then split the students up for them to create their own village; keeping in mind all cultures, demographics, languages and how to survive. Bringing in Teacher’s pet can add hands on experiences to instill all the information they have explored in their textbook from the sample lesson. The Great & Marvelous Akarek' and other Tunisian Tales can be used as a stepping-stone to provide historical evidence of Tunisia; the students can make up their own folktale and present to the class after doing research on Kids Britannica and finding information from their Pen pal on Students of the World.

Works Cited

Bacha, M. (2013). The Great & Marvelous Akarek' and other Tunisian Tales. CreateSpace Independent Publishing. Print.

Crawley, A. “Kids Ocean Movie: What Makes A Fish A Fish? Sample Chapter- Frogfish- Ocean products for Kids”. Online video clip. You Tube. YouTube, 9 April 2009. Web. 6 February 2018.

Durr, J. “Water Bottle Fish Craft.” Web Blog Post. Meaningful Mama. 8 August 2014. Web. Retrieved 6 February from: http://meaningfulmama.com/water-bottle-fish-craft.html

Hord. S, Rutherford. W, Huling-Austin L, and Hall, G. “ The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM): A Model for change in individuals.” The National Academies. Web. Retrieved Feb 6 from: http://www.nationalacademies.org/rise/backg4a.htm

 Kids Britiannica. “Britiannica Kids.” Online. Encyclopedia Britcanna Inc. 2017. Web. 18 January 2018. From: https://kids.britannica.com/

Lionni, L. (1963). Swimmy. Knopf Books for Young Readers. Print.

“National Geographic kids”. Fish facts. Web. Retrieved Feb 6 from: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/search-results/?q=fish

Pfister, M. (1999). Rainbow Fish. NorthSouth Books. Print.

Smith, J. (2011). If the World was a Village. Kid Can Press. Print

Students of the World. “School of the World. Retrieved Feb 6 from: http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/menu_schools.php3

Teacher’s Pet. “Tunisia.” Online. Retrieved Feb 6 from:

https://www.tpet.ca/fieldtrips/tunisia/

What Makes a Fish a Fish. Big Kid Productions, 2007.