Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Kelly Smalley
Regent University
Introduction
stage of development when creating their lessons in order to make the lessons appropriate and
meaningful. When teachers meet the needs of the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional
stages of their students, they create a community of learners who are eager to learn.
book called Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold. The story allowed me to make all three types of text
diversity of the students. I began the lesson by drawing upon the students prior knowledge about
text connections and creating an anchor chart; I added to the information the students provided as
necessary. I then read the story, stopping at certain points to share my thinking about the
connections that I made as I was reading. After I read the entire story and modeled the three
types of text connections, I allowed the students to share the connections that they made as they
listened to the story. As an extension activity, students used post-it notes to mark and share text
connections that they made while reading selected texts in their guided reading groups and while
reading independently.
appropriate cognitive, social, and emotional stages of the eight-year-old students it was created
for. First, it allowed the students to access prior knowledge and link it to what they were
learning. This is something that third-grade students begin to do as they process new
information, according to Bergin and Bergin (2015). Next, the students were active participants
DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE INSTRUCTION 3
in the lesson, not just passive receiver[s] of knowledge (Bergin & Bergin, 2015, p. 119), an
important aspect of developmentally appropriate practice. They were able to share their thoughts
and respond to others thoughts, creating an interactive classroom dialogue. Finally, the lesson
demonstrates careful consideration for cultural diversity in the classroom. Many of the students
could relate to the eight-year-old African-American girl in the story, even if they were not
African-American themselves, and in one part of the story, I was able to provide an example of a
text-to-world connection that led to a discussion about fairness, a concept that third-graders are
My second artifact is a set of pictures from a center activity on rounding. During a prior
center, students cut prices from grocery store ads, glued them to construction paper, and rounded
the prices to the nearest ten or hundred. Many of the students asked if they could continue the
activity on subsequent days, but they had progressed to rounding much larger numbers, so I
provided them with automobile and house ads to work with. Because we were at the end of the
rounding unit and the next unit was estimation, I added an additional requirement for them to
create sentences with their rounded numbers using wording related to estimation (for example,
difficult for him (Anthony, Support n.d.); providing students with an activity that was both fun
and had real-world connections enticed even those who were struggling with the concept of
rounding to complete the work. There were no complaints that it was too difficult because all
students were invested in the project. Next, allowing them to have discussions while working on
the task not only fulfilled their need for socialization, but it also provided scaffolding for those
DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE INSTRUCTION 4
students who needed it; the students were able to construct meaning from interacting with their
peers, which is an important concept in developmentally appropriate practice (Bergin & Bergin,
2015, p. 119). Last, the students were provided with external storage (Bergin & Bergin, 2015,
p. 151) in the form of a sample and instructions placed on the board using a document camera;
since a third-graders ability to follow complex instructions is limited, this allowed the students
to focus on the task rather than try to remember all of the instructions.
Not only do developmentally appropriate practices aid in growth of student cognition, but
according to several studies, they account for a variety of psychosocial outcomes ranging from
decreased stress to higher social skills among preadolescent children (Van Horn, Karlin,
Ramey, Adridge, & Snyder, 2005). When student stress levels are low, students may be more
willing to attempt challenging learning tasks. Moreover, when they have higher social skills,
cooperative learning becomes more effective, and challenging learning tasks become more
are still the most important determinants of the quality of childrens experiences and their
know them well, and part of knowing them well is knowing what they should be achieving
cognitively, physically, socially, and emotionally at whatever developmental stage they are in.
Because children do not always fit perfectly into a specific stage of development, I know that it
is also important to take into consideration what is individually and culturally appropriate for
each of them (Bredekamp, 2011). Doing so ensures that each of my students gets the best
Although it is not always possible to cater to each student during every lesson, I will be
able to reach the majority of my students by being observant and contemplative, paying attention
to their general developmental stage, and using what I observe about them individually and
culturally to plan my instruction. When I am familiar with what my students are capable of and
what they are interested in, I will be able to meet them right where they are and take them to new
levels of understanding.
DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE INSTRUCTION 6
References
http://scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/thinking-skills-learning-styles/support-
learning-8-10-year-olds
Bergin, C. C. & Bergin, D. A. (2015). Child and Adolescent Development in Your Classroom.
Bredekamp, S. (2011, October 13). Q & A with the editors of Developmentally Appropriate
Van Horn, M. L., Karlin, E. O., Ramey, S. L., Aldridge, J., Snyder, S. W. (March 2005). Effects
research and discussion of methadological and analytic issues. The Elementary School
Core Components
Student Population
20 Students
Learning Objectives
TSW demonstrate comprehension of fictional texts by making connections between previous
experiences and reading selections.
Materials/Resources
Easel pad and markers for creating anchor chart
Tar Beach (Ringgold, 1991); post-it notes on pages where connections can be made
For small groups: leveled books (groups 1 & 2 Kid Power, group 3 Freckle Juice,
group 4 Cat and Rat Fall Out)
chrome books logged onto Achieve 3000
word study notebooks, thesauruses
High Yield Instructional Strategies Used (Marzano, 2001)
Check if Used Strategy Return
Identifying Similarities & Differences 45% X
Summarizing & Note Taking 34%
Reinforcing Efforts & Providing Recognition 29% X
Homework & Practice 28% X
Nonlinguistic Representations 27% X
Cooperative Learning 23% X
DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE INSTRUCTION 8
Time
Process Components
(min.)
*Anticipatory Set
TTW facilitate discussion: What are text connections? (text connections are
5 when the story you are reading makes you think of something else). What
kinds of text connections can you think of? (there are three types of text
connections: text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world) Why do you think text
connections are important? (they help us to understand what we are
reading). TTW begin anchor chart with student ideas.
*State the Objectives (grade-level terms)
Today you will be learning how to make connections by linking what you have
<1
experienced, read, or seen to a book you are reading.
Introduce Tar Beach using the cover: sate the author; ask students what
genre they believe the book is in; ask students to predict what they think the
book will be about
Point out the use of post-it notes to mark when a connection could be made
Read Tar Beach, stopping to model as noted
*Modeling
Stop at p. 13, first post-it note. Discuss the connection to the story: I can
10 make a text-to-self connection here because this reminds me of how Ive
driven across lots of amazing bridges, and it always made me wonder how
they were built and who built them. I also understand why Cassie thought the
bridge was the most beautiful bridge in the world, because I have driven
across it before, and it really was beautiful.
Stop at p. 17, second post-it note. I can make a text-to-text connection here
because this part reminds me of the story we just read, The Man Who
Walked Between the Towers, and I think that Cassies dad must have been
just as brave as Phillipe to be up so high.
Stop at p. 19, third post-it note. I can make a text-to-world connection here
because this reminds me of stories I have heard in the news about how
people are treated unfairly because they might have a different skin color or
they come from a different place.
TTW facilitate discussion about these connections.
*Check for Understanding
TTW give students a moment to think of a connection that they can make to
10 Tar Beach (if they cannot think of a connection to this story, tell them they
can use another story that they have read recently).
TSW turn-and-talk with a partner, stating the type of connection and what the
connection is; remind students to make rich connections.
TTW listen as students talk with one another.
*Guided Practice
TSW practice marking connections during guided reading center.
5
TTW provide feedback to students.
*Independent Practice
10 TSW continue marking connections and then share them with the group.
Group 1 (low) Cat and Rat Fall Out (McCaughrean, 2011)
Group 2 (intermediate) Freckle Juice (Blume, 1971)
Groups 3 & 4 (high) Kid Power (Pfeffer, 1977)
Rotations: Guided reading, word studythesaurus, chrome booksAchieve
3000, early finishersindependent reading (20 minutes for each rotation
guided practice, independent practice, assessment during guided reading
rotation)
Assessment
Teacher observation
5
Exit ticket: during guided reading, on a piece of paper, students will write:
name of book, type of connection, and what the connection is using
appropriate wording as listed on anchor chart
DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE INSTRUCTION 10
*Closure
Students share connections they made while reading
10
Lesson Critique. To be completed following the lesson. Did your students meet the objective(s)? What
part of the lesson would you change? Why? Students could make text-to-self connections easily;
need to try to draw out more text-to-text and text-to-world connections. One lower-level
student had difficulty making connections because the characters in his book were not
people; instead, he tried to make connections between his cat and the characters in the story.
Use texts that have people in them or give explanation that we can still make connections
even if the characters are not people.