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Teacher Tools
Whether you are a classroom or preservice teacher, teacher educator, content leader, department chair, or administrator, the materials below can assist you in implementing the practices presented in the video clip.
Assessment and Evaluation: Some Useful Principles
The terms assessment and evaluation are often
used as synonyms. Distinguishing between them can be helpful
as you plan instruction. Assessment means looking at what students
can do in order to determine what they need to learn to do
next. That is, assessment, whether of individual students or
an entire group, is done in order to inform instruction. Typically
assessment is holistic, often recorded simply as "credit" or
"no credit."
Evaluation occurs after a concept or skill has been taught and practiced and is typically scaled, indicating the level of achievement or degree of competence a student has attained.
Mini-Lesson Planning Tips
- A mini-lesson can be short or might take up 15 to 20 minutes of class time.
- Typically, mini-lessons are singular topics of whole-class instruction, meant to give students a brief overview of a concept, explore the author's craft, ponder a question, or hone a skill. Often the mini-lesson provides a segue into the application of new learning.
- Mini-lessons can also be student-directed, in which students are given a guide, following the teacher's predetermined path of learning. Here, students are asked to define concepts and synthesize the information. Then students apply the information in a meaningful way.
- Students should be given many opportunities to apply the new learning beyond their initial introduction.
- Consider asking students to construct and present a mini-lesson
to their classmates in which they demonstrate an approach
to literature that they have found successful.
For suggested mini-lesson topics, see Suggested
Mini-Lessons for Literature Instruction.
Text Pairings
As you plan literature experiences for your students, consider offering text pairings. Some teachers like to introduce students to a number of books by the same author. Others try to find books with similarities in theme or content. Books that have received awards and appear to be developing into contemporary classics are also favored choices. No list of suggestions can be complete or can address every criterion. However, the following list of texts may help you choose titles to complement the ones used in this lesson plan:
Speak by Halse Anderson
Tangerine by Edward Bloor
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos
My Louisiana Sky by Kimberly Willis Holt
Silent to the Bone by E. L. Konigsburg
Mine for Keeps by Jean Little
Lovey, a Very Special Child by Mary MacCracken
Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
The Man Who Loved Clowns by June Rae Wood
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