Professional Development My first Portfolio

Lesson Plan Format

Intern: Robinson Secondary school Grade Level: 9

Title: India Date: 10/11/2007

I. Objectives

By the end of the lesson students should be able to:

VA-WH1 2.4A

• 
  Identify India in Geographic, and Chronologic History
  
• 
  Understand how Geography (or climate) impacts History
  
• 
  Understand written language, science and technology of Indus River valley
  

VA-WH1 2.4B

• 
  Understand trade network and cultural exchange
  

VA-WH1 2.4C

• 
  Understand possible reasons for decline
  

II. Materials for Learning Activities

Power point presentation, map work, projector

III. Procedures for Learning Activities

• 
  Teacher explanation of History and Geography of the Indus River/ orally conversation
  
• 
  Lecture
  

IV. Assessment

Questions from Homework, test items will assess students’ understanding of content

V. Differentiation

Make copies of notes for visually or special needs

If remediation is necessary plans could be altered

VI. Reflection

Add or delete content based on reflection

Portfolio strategy sheet

Choose a method or strategy that you have learned about or observed during field experience.

1. 
   Name of method or strategy:
   

Jigsaw Activity

2. 
   When this method or strategy is is useful?
   

When there is a wide topic or a whole unit.

3. 
   Why or how this method or strategy is is useful?
   

This is one of the cooperative learning strategies which: is used to cover a big topic and help students to learn from each other.

4. 
   What are the steps involved in using this strategy or method?
   

Step 1: Divide students into four groups

Step 2: Assign the student from the group to research one of the given sections

Step 3: Individual reading and note down the necessary information from this section

Step 4: Working in expert group to make sure all information is correct (those who worked on the same section come together and work on it)

Step 5: Returning to original groups to share information. Each student should have notes for all of the sections

5. 
   When would this method or strategy be useful in your settings?
   

I can use this strategy whenever I want because we do not need any IT technology. It also can be used during the reviewing of the topic or unit.

6. 
   What would you like other teachers in your school to know about this method or strategy?
   

When I will use this activity I will invite my colleges to my lesson and will share with them; or every week we have methodology day on which I can explain them this strategy.

Portfolio Strategy Sheet

Choose a method or strategy that you have learned about or observed during field experience.

1. 
   Name of method or strategy: Scavenger Hunt
   

2. 
   When is this method or strategy useful?
   

It is useful when there is a new topic students are unfamiliar with which you want to differentiate learning and teaching methods.

3. 
   Why or how is this method or strategy useful?
   

The purpose of this activity is to have students collect information on a particular instruction topic, to teach students to use search engines properly, and to introduce students to text, digital resources, and research process.

4. 
   What are the steps involved in using this strategy or method?
   
   1. 
      Identify standards
      
   2. 
      Identity objectives
      
   3. 
      Essential questions
      
   4. 
      Types of resources you want kids to use
      
   5. 
      Making a list of questions on particular topic
      
   6. 
      Find the sources of information which can be used by students: dictionary, books, internet, magazines, atlas, encyclopedia and etc.
      
   7. 
      Provide students with the questions and sources they can use
      
   8. 
      Use Media center and library to find answers to questions+
      
   9. 
      Facilitate students’ learning and research process the library
      

5. 
   When would this method or strategy be useful in your setting?
   

I like this activity because by using this activity we will teach them how to find information by using different sources. As we have two computer labs in our school and they are always busy during the lessons I can use this activity after the classes.

6. 
   What would you like other teachers in your school to know about this method or strategy?
   

In our school teachers give students homework to find information on a particular topic but they do not provide them with the sources of information and students face difficulty. By using this activity they will be familiar with what? when? and how? to use different sources and find information.

Library Quest

1. According to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, what is the definition of “migrate”?

2. According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography, Chandragupta founded what dynasty in 322 B.C.?

What page did you find this on?

3. Using a different dictionary, find the definition of “edict.” Cite your source.

4. Find a map of India in an atlas. What two bodies of water touch India? Cite your source.

Use the Facts on File Database for questions 5-7

5. The Vedas, a collection of prayers and rituals of Hinduism, was originally brought to India by whom?

6. Give three facts about the Mahabharata.
1.
2.
3.

7. What is the difference between the Mahayana sect and the Theravada sect of Budhism?

8. What does it mean when most Indian families were patriarchal?

9. What is the meaning of the Hindu process of reincarnation? Cite your source.

10. Find and describe where the steppes are located.

For questions 11-15, go to the ABC Clio Database. Click on the World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras Site and search “Hinduism” and then read the essay entitled “Hinduism.”
11. What picture is in the upper left corner?
12. What language did the Aryans use?
13. How many social categories were there?
14. What three Hindu gods are mentioned?
15. How many paragraphs are in the article?

16. Who was the founder of Buddhism? Cite your source.

17. What are the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism? Cite your source.

18. What were the Silk Roads?

ANSWER KEY

1. to move from one place to another

2. Maurya Dynasty
page 426
3. official, public announcement of policy
4. Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal

5. Aryans

6. answers will vary
7. Mahayana sect accept the new doctrines that offer salvation to all, Theravada adhere to the strict original teachings

8. headed by the eldest male

9. an individual soul or spirit is reborn again and again until a state of perfect understanding is reached

10. dry grasslands that stretch North if the Caucasus Mountains which are between the Black and Caspian Seas

11. statue of a dancing Shiva

12. Sanskrit

13. 4

14. Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, or Krishna

15. 16

16. Siddartha Gautama

17. life is filled with sorrow and suffering, the cause of this suffering is selfishness, one must end desires to end the suffering, overcome desires by following the 8 fold path

18. vast network of caravan routes that traders used to bring silk from China to West Asia and then to Rome

World History I

Ancient Middle East

Cut-Outs Project

Directions:

1. 
   Cut along the lines to create individual tabs for each Empire, Fact, & Leader.
   
2. 
   Match each of the Facts & Leaders for each of the empires of the Ancient Middle East
   
3. 
   Rank the empires from earliest to most recent, using your text and notes as a reference
   
4. 
   Paste the information in your foldable booklet pasting one empire per page in the booklet.
   

Sumerians	Akkadians
Chaldeans	Phoenecians
Assyrians	Persians
Hittites	Babylonians
Hebrews/Israelites

Ancient Middle Eastern Empires

Ancient Middle Eastern Facts

Created the wheel, Ziggurats, & Cuneiform	Created world’s first written code of laws
First Empire builders in World History	First to use iron weapons
World’s First Alphabet	Created Royal Roads that stretched across Mesopotamia
World’s First Monotheists	First chariot builders
Seafaring traders, eventually move to Carthage	Created library at Nineveh
City-states included Ur, Uruk, Lagash	Empire was centered in Asia Minor; its capitol city was called Hattusas
Established cities such as Tyre, Byblos, and Sidon	Moved into the land of Canaan, later enslaved by Egyptians
Fierce warriors that wore body armor and besieged cities using ladders and battering rams	An Indo European group that borrowed aspects of culture from the Akkadians
Defeated Assyrians and built the Hanging Gardens at Babylon	Conquered land empire that stretched from the Indus River to the Aegean sea
Used Satraps to govern their large empire	Scientific findings make up the basis for astronomy & Astrology

Leaders:

Abraham	Xerxes
Sargon	Zoroaster
Hammurabi	Cambyses
Moses	Saul
David	Cyrus I
Sennacherib	Darius
Ashurbanipal	Nebuchadnezzar

4 Materials from mentor teachers

The Jersey

Vocabulary Work

Directions:

1. 
   Find the word in the book.
   
2. 
   Write the sentence which contains the word.
   
3. 
   Use context clues to define the word.(do not use a dictionary)
   

________________

SENTENCE:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DEFINTION:_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________

SENTENCE:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DEFINTION:_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________

SENTENCE:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DEFINTION:_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________

SENTENCE:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DEFINTION:_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________

SENTENCE:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DEFINTION:_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5 Action Research

Action Research

I have been teaching in secondary school #5 named by Mirzo Tursunzoda. My school is situated not far from the center of our region called Hisor. I’ve been working in this school for seven years. I teach English as a foriegn language. Our school is very big it has 2375 students and 103 teachers. It’s a secondary school because we have elementary students, middle school students and high school students. Education is in two languages Tajik and Uzbek. At school students learn different subjects and English is one of them, the requirement to learn English is very high, students are eager to learn English and parents also want their children to learn English. But some students have challenges’ with learning the language. The students are mainly from two backgrounds about 70 present of them are from Tajik families and 30 present are from Uzbek families. As I said before students have some challenges. They’re not confident,afraid of making errors and some prefer to keep silent then to speak with mistakes. That’s why I decided to do research work on following topic. And I think it’s a real issue to make research.

How can I correct errors in oral language in ways that do not discourage my students from communicating freely in English?

• 
  What causes my students to feel ashamed of their errors?
  
• 
  How can I increase my students’ participation in the lesson?
  
• 
  What techniques can I use to help my students?
  

When I correct my students errors they feel upset and if I don’t correct their English goes wrong. That’s why I considered this issue an important topic to do research, study the problems and learn the ways of solution, correct their errors

by encouraging way and help them to communicate in English freely.

There are many things which cause this problem: first our students begin to learn language from the second grade when they’re 7 or 8, Tajik classes learn Russian and Uzbek classes learn Tajik and Russian. And from the third grade they begin to learn English. So for Tajik students English is the third language and for Uzbek students it the fourth language. As the students are from different backgrounds all of them use their own languages at home and English they hear in school during English classes. Their motivation is very high to learning English. Some students just enjoy speaking English, some of them have their own goals they wish to study abroad and they realize without English they can’t, some of them learn English and in future wish to have a good job, some wish to live in foreign countries. Taking into consideration all of these we’ve organized an English Club and every Wednesday is an English speaking day in our school Tuesday after the classes we get together and do different activities: do preparations for some event, develop quiz games for the whole school, edit wall newspapers or do some preparations for the English day like translate the Timetable into English and hang it in the corridor for everybody to see arrange school competitions between classes. We try to motivate our students, increase their interest toward the English language.

But still we have some difficulties with sources its lack of English teachers, lack of good textbooks and there’s no Internet access in the school. All this things influences negatively on students leaning.

What I plan to do. First I will observe conversations, actions, reactions, students’ behavior and their climate of the environment in learning centers, interview my students and collect all the information to assess. Then I will organize a group for students who are shy or don’t feel confident. I will begin my work from January and till January I’ll have groups and plan for the course. I will focus on students’ oral communication and develop activities according students needs and abilities of learning, interests and learning styles and activities which develops their thinking and speaking skills and creativity. And in the classroom activities I’ll put them with strong students in groups and pairs and create the natural atmosphere of learning from each other.

For analysing data I will use different techniques as observation, interviews, discusssions, focus groups and performance asessments.I will use the following tools: Organizing my evidence into themes or categories, Analysis using emergent themes, Getting started: The first shifts, shakes, and shuffles, Coding my data, Traingulating data, Ethics and bias, Peer work: Ensuring reliability of my coding, Reflective analysis, Data analysis chart

Sharing the final project

Going back home I’m going to share with my students, friends, collegueas the things I’ve gained duing the program. I’m going to use all methods and techniques in my lessons and in extracurricular activities, English club, and for my colleguas I will organize some workshops and share my lesson plans, strategies, materials from my mentor teachers, fieldwork reflections, the abstract which we developed in group of three from different countries for the End of the Conference Program, It’s Teachers working with parents and local community. I’ve got lots of ideas abuot this toipc and going to share them with my colleguaes and discuss the ideas take something and implement it in our school. I’ve learned some activities and stratigies which is useful in every subject and I’ll share it with my colleguaes. And also I’m going to discuss the idea of making portfolios and the advantiges that every time you can make changes like update your portfolio. As we have English Teachers Assosiation meeting I can present my porthfoilo in Asosiation meeting and let other teachers know about the creating portfolio. Our Teachers Asosiation has its newspaper called ETAT (English teachers asosiation of Tajikistan). It’s published monthly and artiles from teachers are welcomed so I’m going to write an article about my visit, expirience in US and discuss the portfolio. I’m sure that our teacher will like it because it’s easy to use, make changes, saves you from paper and pencil work, is not heavy to carry if you’re going to take it with you, it’s a new way of collecting documents together, a good example for students.

References

The Power of Questions

A Guide to Teacher and Student Research Beverly Falk Megan Blumenreich

6 Conference Abstract and Presentation

End of Program Conference

TEA Fall 2007

Proposal Abstract

General Area

Presenters: Atiya Siraj

Daniya Gaisina

Gulnora Kamolova

Virginia “George Mason University”

Title: “Teachers working with parents and Local Community”

Introduction

PTA

With sincere gratitude to IREX, like us teachers from overseas, had this great opportunity to come and observe Middle and High public schools of America. Our field visits to particular schools have boarded our horizon and enhanced our knowledge about the successful learning objectives of students here. Among other remarkable and innovative things learned about school policies, one is the PTA. That is, Parents Teachers Association.

We have discovered that no policy of school administration and the goals/objectives of can be realized without the support of Community. The schools here give due and significant importance to active involvement of parents in school and learning activities.

It is really amazing to notice that the school authorities empathize greatly and enthusiastically on the support of parents for the successful accomplishment in schools.

What we’ve come to know through our visiting and observing and associating with the teachers and students is that, this PTA is a committed and supportive part of a school which contributes largely and helps students. The student who are more other than their children.

These PTAs, we’ve learned help students to become life-long learners and successful citizens.

Now what is PTA.? It is a part of school with a noble mission, which plays important role to improve Communication between parents and teachers becoming a PTA, can demonstrate to his/her child the importance her/his place on education.

Helping Your Teenager

Succeed in School

To succeed in school and work teenagers need to know they are capable of doing a good job.

Teachers working daily with middle school and high school students report that the most

important "school supply" a teenager can bring to school is a "Can Do" attitude!