Bringing Informational Writing To Life!
Each year I find my fifth graders loving their informational writing unit more and more. I believe this is because each year I try to take my lesson plans and look at the UDL within them, trying to step it up a notch year after year. This helps increase the engagement of my students and in writing that can make or break you as a writer. Our informational writing unit is based off of the research of westward expansion. My main focus for this UDL lesson plan improvement is going to be on the end product of our informational writing unit.
Year 1: Old School Written Report
Year 2: Lets SWAY This Writing
sway.office.com/UjPaM7RHx8j5wGAn?accessible=true
Open the link above to scroll through the SWAY!!!!!! The pictures to the left are just a print out view of the sway, click the link to see what the hype is about!!
Open the link above to scroll through the SWAY!!!!!! The pictures to the left are just a print out view of the sway, click the link to see what the hype is about!!
My second go around when creating an end project for the informational writing unit was a fun, engaging showcase of knowledge that the students participated in! SWAY is an AMAZING program that gives students the freedom to create and organize their work in a way that brings the project to life! Multiple means of representation was hit across the board. Specifically, 1.1 and 1.3 were captivated by students having the opportunity to customize how they display their information along with having visuals, such as tables and pictures, to represent their information given. 2.1 Clarifying vocabulary was supported by students being able to include the text feature of having a glossary. The level of engagement had definitely rose, especially in the area of 7.1 which was providing choice and autonomy. Students had multiple features within SWAY where they chose how to represent their information as well as how they wanted to support it; charts, tables, text features, pictures, videos, etc.
With this being said I have a new idea that I would love to try this year to increase my UDL even farther! My goal is to focus on integrating all of the checkpoints that the SWAY provided, but this time also including 1.2 (alternatives for auditory information), 2.3 (provide decoding of text), 4.2 (optimize access to tools and assistive technologies), 5.3 (multiple tools for construction and composition), 6.2 (planning and strategy development), 7.2 (optimize relevance, value, and authenticity).
With this being said I have a new idea that I would love to try this year to increase my UDL even farther! My goal is to focus on integrating all of the checkpoints that the SWAY provided, but this time also including 1.2 (alternatives for auditory information), 2.3 (provide decoding of text), 4.2 (optimize access to tools and assistive technologies), 5.3 (multiple tools for construction and composition), 6.2 (planning and strategy development), 7.2 (optimize relevance, value, and authenticity).
Year 3: Lets Amp It Up!
Book rack classroom is the challenge I am taking on this year with my students!!! After watching this introductory video and hearing what it was all about I fell head over heals for it! This will actually bring my students informational to life in a way like never before. My students will create their final draft of their informational writing about westward expansion and then input it into book rack classroom. Here my students become audio editors where they create a sound track to their story. This is going to bring out the emotion and passion in their story. This is my vision for how my students could use it:
My students writing transitions into the trail of tears section. (The wind begins to blow in the background as dreary music comes on.) The writing describes the hardship of 1,000s of Indians walking 1,000s of miles on their barefeet. (whimpering in the background.) The sound effects and the music that can go along to the timeline of westward expansion gets me so excited to introduce this lesson to my students. This program allows students to slow down or speed up the rate of reading and the program highlights the test. (1.2, 2.3, 4.2) Students will have many tools that they can use to construct and compose a project in order for it to come to life. (5.3) Finally, students will need to think about the events they wrote about and truly plan out what music or sound effects would go where. This project represents true authenticity. (6.2, 7.2) |
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