Description of Setting

I teach fourth grade at Henderson Mill Elementary School. Henderson Mill

Elementary School is located just inside I-285 in Atlanta. The address says Atlanta, but is

close to the city of Tucker and North Decatur. The school is approximately two miles

from the Atlanta campus of Mercer University. The neighborhood holds many supportive

families who not only support the importance of their childs education, but also support

the school monetarily. The neighborhood students (I use the term neighborhood to

mean students who live in houses around our school) make up approximately 30% of our

student population. The other 70% of our student population reside in one of nine

apartment complexes that feed into our school. We house approximately 46% Hispanic

children, 25% African-American children, 18% Caucasian children, 5% Asian, and the

remaining 6% are comprised of many different nationalities including, but not limited to

Russian, Iranian, Egyptian, and Middle Eastern.

There are four fourth grade teachers who partner together to make two, two-man

teams. One team is a gifted/advanced content team and the other houses the Special

Education (SpEd) students, EIP, and ESOL students. I teach the SpEd/EIP/ESOL cluster

with some higher students sprinkled in.

The students I will be teaching the content area literacy strategies to are nine and

ten years old. I will teach these strategies in a whole grounp setting and we are going to

be reviewing our Science standards, more specifically light and sound. The students will

listen to the directions as a whole group and then I will put them into groups of four to

five students.

Content Area / Strategies Used / Georgia Performance Standards and Common

Science/Tossed Terms (Vocabulary) and Exit Tickets (Comprehension)

S4CS5. Students will communicate scientific ideas and activities clearly.

S4CS6. Students will question scientific claims and arguments effectively.

S4CS7. Students will be familiar with the character of scientific knowledge and how it is

achieved.

S4P1. Students will investigate the nature of light using tools such as mirrors, lenses, and

prisms.

S4P2. Students will demonstrate how sound is produced by vibrating objects and how

sound can be varied by changing the rate of vibration.

S4P3. Students will demonstrate the relationship between the application of a force and

the resulting change in position and motion on an object.

Description Implementation Assessment

Specific description of Explain your reasoning for Describe how you will

Strategies (pg. # in course choosing this strategy for assess if content is learned

readings) this content through this strategy

Example: Vocabulary

Exit Slips IMPLEMENTATION ASSESSMENT GOAL:

(Comprehension): GOAL: Exit Slips:

Exit slips (Fisher et. al, Exit Slips: Students will be assessed

2007, p.24-25) are a great The use of exit slips with their exit slips as soon

way to assess students activates prior knowledge as they hand them to me.

learning in a quick way at and assesses students That is a benefit to using

are able to explain their content. It helps build upon typically shorter in nature

thought process or ask a their prior knowledge. At leading to a quicker

question if they are still this point, students have a assessment by the teacher

confused. I have formerly basic understanding of light whether the student gained

used exit slips as a way to and sound from first grade. an understanding of the

assess the students They should have a basic concept of not. It will also

knowledge and understanding of force and allow me to clear up any

understanding on the motion from second grade. confusion before students

specific content taught Therefore, the exit slip leave my classroom.

during that specific lesson. question of What are three Tossed Terms:

In this lesson, I am going to things you learned that are I will be walking around

review content from our important about light, sound, while students are working

Physical Science lesson and and force and motion? will in groups, tossing the ball

have students complete an have an emphasis of what and dice. Students will

exit slip. The questions or the students have learned in have the opportunity to

prompts they must answer our lessons, but will be correct each other if a

are: 1) What are three things reminded to think about student gets the meaning of

you learned that are what they learned in first a term incorrect. I will also

important about light, and second grade and have students rate this

sound, and force and elaborate on it based on activity at the end with a 1,

motion? 2) What are two what we learned this year. 2, 3, or 4. A 1 will tell me

questions you still have Tossed Terms: that they did not find the
about light, sound, and force The use of this strategy activity helpful at all. A 2

and motion? 3) What is requires students to recall will tell me they found the

something that did not help the meanings of vocabulary activity a little helpful. A 3

you learn about light, sound, words important to the unit will tell me the activity

and force and motion and of study. They will also have was helpful and it helped

what could be changed the process term that takes them review. A 4 will tell

about that part of the their learning to the next me the activity was just

lesson? These questions will level. We learn a lot about perfect for their review of

give me a quick snapshot of different levels of learning the concept and it is the

what the students truly with Blooms Taxonomy. way that helps them review

understand about light, The goal of the students concepts best. I will also

sound, and force and motion having to use the process ask for a justification of

and what I can do terms to extend their their rank to tell me what

differently next time I teach knowledge of a term helps was not helpful or what

this unit. I like for students me really see how well they was helpful.

to have an opportunity to understand a concept.

voice their opinions on what

goes well in a lesson and

what could be improved. I

am always trying to become

a better teacher and help

students learn the content.

Tossed Terms
(Vocabulary):

I liked the strategy tossed

terms (Fisher et. al, 2007,

p. 123-125) because it gets

students up and moving.

Hopefully, by students

moving and interacting with

each other and working with

the vocabulary words, their

muscle memory will help

them remember meanings of

vocabulary words. Having

students up and moving also

helps them stay focused and

awake. During this activity,

we will be reviewing

vocabulary from light,

sound, and force and

motion. Fisher et. al

recommends using a box

with the words written or

taped onto the face of the

cube. I will be using beach

because I have done an

activity similar to this where

students tossed the beach

ball and had to answer

questions that were written

on the beach ball. Students

will use the word closest to

their right hand in a

sentence. If I fill that

students have mastered the

use of these words, I will

put two groups against each

other. Team one will then

toss the beach ball up and

will ask team two to use the

word in a sentence and give

an example of the word. I

will also use the inflatable

dice for process terms to

add an extra element of

comprehension of the term.

The process terms will

justify, apply, compare

(they will toss the beach ball

twice for this process term

and compare the two terms

they get), and illustrate.

Like I mentioned in the setting part of the chart, my school is very diverse.

Therefore, the make up of my class is also very diverse. The students learn a lot from

each other, which I think is beneficial. Most of my lessons involve some social aspect for

students to have the opportunity to develop those social skills needed for their future. In

chapter one of Content Literacy and the Reading Process by Gillis, Boggs, and

Alvermann, they discuss how important it is for English Language Learners (ELLs) to

have discussions involving rich content vocabulary. They also say interactions with

peers also enable students from diverse cultural groups to learn from one another, (p. 7).

By using Tossed Terms, students will have those conversations revolving around

content vocabulary. These discussions will give ELLs in my class the opportunity to

associate even more meaning around a word than what I have taught them. They will get

to hear their peers describe the word or use the word in a sentence, which will cause their

schema around that word to grow.

I think it is important for students to understand that both of these strategies are

literacy strategies. I think a lot of times, students only feel that they are using literacy

strategies in their Reading and English/Language Arts class. I find them consistently
glossing over when I present them with an article in Science or when we work with word

problems, like they have never had instruction in reading before. Because we are a team,

I know the verbiage the Reading teacher uses when discussing reading strategies.

Therefore, I use those same phrases and words with my students. With that said though, I

believe it is important that we let students know they are still practicing literacy by

discussing content vocabulary and writing about the content. Gillis, Boggs, and

Alvermann in chapter one again, talk about literate thinking, (p. 10). They point out

that being literate does not just mean traditional school literacy and being able to read and

write. Students need to learn how to be literate thinkers and develop skills to have

conversations about something they have read previously or written. These two strategies

are both strategies that can help students develop those skills to become literate thinkers.

My hope is that by teaching students these two strategies is that they will feel

comfortable using content vocabulary in conversation with their peers. I think that when

students feel comfortable in a group discussion, they are more willing to share their ideas

and knowledge. By using the strategy Tossed Terms, students will be in a small group

and able to feel comfortable with their peers that even if they are not 100 percent sure of

a term, they will take a chance and try to use the word in a sentence or explain the

concept. The exit slips will give students the opportunity to give their content writing a

shot and hopefully by writing something that only the teacher will see, they will become

more comfortable and try using the content vocabulary to answer the comprehension

questions. I also feel the exit slips give them a voice on things that could change for the

future.
 Resources

Gillis, V., Boggs, G., & Alvermann, D. (2017). Content Area Reading and Literacy:

Succeeding in Today's Diverse Classrooms. United States of America: Pearson

Education, Inc.

Fisher, D., Brozo, W., Frey, N., & Ivey, G. (2007). 50 Content Area Strategies for

Adolescent Literacy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.