Summer Practicum | eportfolio

A+ Acceleration Summer Camp

In conjunction with our summer courses, my peers and I planned and taught incoming 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students for an Auburn University Summer Camp.

"This two-week camp provides students an opportunity to explore reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies in a fun, challenging, and engaging atmosphere. Students will take field trips around campus to explore and connect concepts learned in the classroom, play mathematics games, conduct hands on explorations with fractions and computation, read about various aspects of Alabama, create stories about their experiences, problem solve and conduct experiments. Students will work with education experts and pre-service teachers who have designed curriculum to support student academic growth at every level."

The camp was divided into two weeks. Week 1 my co-teaching group taught reading and science, and week 2 we taught math. Here is an overview of what each week entailed.

http://www.auburn.edu/outreach/opce/auburnyouthprograms/index.htm

The Classroom

Our classroom was decorated with a campground theme. Our campers enjoyed sharing their dreams on our tent bulletin board, sitting on beanbags and sleeping bags, and the over all feeling of being outdoors (minus the insane Alabama heat!)

Week 1 Reading

For week one of reading, our main focus was on teaching the students to analyze informational texts using thier structural elements to gather information. Our mini week "unit" was broken down into the following five days:

Monday

On Monday our main focus was to activiate and assess our students' background knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement. We did so by exposing the students to different texts related to the topic and teaching them comprehension strategies to help monitor their reading as we went.

Tuesday

Tuesday we went on a scavenger hunt around Auburn's campus as a fun way to expose the student to different forms of informational texts. Each stop on our scavenger hunt was linked to a particular text that we analyzed and noted it's importance.

Wednesday

On Wednesday the students learned and practiced using two additional comprehension strategies to analyze texts, "Tackle the Text" and "FQC" charts. In groups, the students used these strategies to analyze informational texts and gather information about either Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks. Before the students lefts we introduced their news cast porject. Using the information they just gathered as a group the students would collaborate to create a news cast script centered around their assigned individual, MLK or Rosa Parks.

Thursday

On Thursday the students began by creating graphic organizers to arrange their thoughts and facts based on thei analysis of the informational texts provided and the results of the strategies used to analyze. Then, working collaboratively in groups, they drafted a script. We then had a mini lesson on giving conrtustive feedback to our peers and the students were given the opportunity to read and give feedback on each others' scripts. Lastly, they filmed their news casts

Friday

On Friday we watched the news cast video projects and relfected on what we learned from them. The students made a flipbook that contained facts about the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks, and MLK. To review the informational text features we played a text feature jeopardy review game.

Each co-teacher was responsible for a whole group lesson at some point during the week. Our lessons were written into edTPA format. My whole group lesson was on Tuesday. In addition, we did a lesson and results edTPA Analysis Write Up. Click the red button to see my analysis of the lesson plan as well as the results.

edTPA Lesson Plan

edTPA Analysis

Scavenger Hunt Booklet

Making Text Connections	Auburn University Seal	Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger Hunt	Scavenger Hunt	Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger Hunt	Making Predicitons	Think Pair Share
Think Pair Share	Reading Rosa's Bus

Student Newscasts (summative project, scripted and directed by the students themselves)

Week 1 Science

In science, my peers and I partner-taught lessons that centered around the theme of rockets. The students were fascinated as they learned more about space, but were even more excited to launch their own rockets at the end of the week. Rocket launching coupled with drone "satellite" images of the class made for an exciting and enriching week of science for the students.

Summer Camp Satellite

edTPA Lesson Plan

Rocket Launch

Week 2 Math

During the second week of camp my group of co-teachers and I taught math to the same group of students we had in week one. The focus of the week was on introductory fraction concepts. The students in our class were incoming 4th and 5th graders. Some of the students had background knowledge on fractions and some did not so we decided to break fractions down to help build and expand on what they knew.

The lesson plan I wrote and taught covered comparing fractions with different numerators and denominators. The goal was to practice comparing the fractions prior to introducing the cross multiply and divide method. The lesson included manipulatives and visuals to help the students explore the concept. It also incorporated a game to keep the work load light and maintain the summer camp fun.

To start math each day we did Number of the Day. During number of the day we would write a number on an anchor chart and give the students 5 minutes to come up with ways to create that number. Then we selected students to share their example by writing it on the chart.

This activity is great because each student can perform on his or her own level. Challenge and scaffolding was given when necessary with specific students

Math Lesson Plan