Updated UDL Revision Post

Goal-directed Instructional Design Plan - Capitalization in Writing Author - Nichole Plank

1. A problem or a need – My first graders are starting to become more confident in their independent writing.  However, their work is filled with inappropriate use of capitalization.  The children are only mostly writing in transitional case, with capital letters sporadically placed throughout.  This occurs not only in their writing, but also in their spelling tests.

2. A real-world performance – The children will be expected to use correct grammar and use of capital letters in all of their testing, especially MEAP and whenever Common Core Testing begins.

3. An instructional objective – Applying Principles 1.                   The children will generate a sentence in which they use correct capitalization throughout.

4. A set of essential content – 1.                   Names of people, things, and places must start with capital letter. 2.                   All other words should consist entirely of lowercase letters.

An evaluation consisting of a test or observation – 1. The students will create an alphabet book.  Each child will be responsible for one page.  On the page, the student will create need to create a sentence that reads “(LETTER) is for _________.”  The student will be assessed on whether or not they appropriately use either an upper case or lower case letter in this sentence.

6. A method to help participants learn – the method to deliver the content; a lesson. The children will sit on the carpet.  I will start with the idea that I have a big problem!  My son Easton has ripped his favorite ABC book and is sad because he loves to read it.  I’ll try to get it so the kids come up with the idea themselves, that they can just make another one.  When they suggest that they will make it, I’ll tell them that we have a problem though.  In a real book, the author knows exactly how to use capital letters and they don’t.  I don’t want Easton to look at a book that is done wrong and think that is how it is suppose to look.  The kids will then want to learn what exactly to do.   I will ask the children when they use capital letters.  They will probably respond, “At the start of a sentence.”  Then I will continue by asking if we use capital letters any other time.  I will open up his ripped up ABC book.  To continue alternatives for auditory information, I will show the students pages from the torn book.  This way, they can see what words had capitals and which ones didn’t.  We will look at the pages and decide when the author used capital letters.  We will create a list.  The children will look at the list and check to see if there were any connections between the words on the list.  Then I will explain that names of people, places, and things need to be capitalized.  In order to provide options for language and symbols, I could show the students at this time an anchor chart that we keep in the classroom.  This anchor chart will show the children what needs to be capitalized and will remain in the classroom throughout the year.  Then we will practice this skill a couple more times.  I will do this by sorting cards with words that should be capitalized and words that should not be capitalized.  In order to provide alternatives for auditory information, I can have pictures on these sorting cards.  Once the children seem to be getting the hang of it, we will continue on towards the assessment.  Give each child To make it even more meaningful, have each child choose a letter of the alphabet.  Help them brainstorm things they could write about.  To help guide information processing, the students will come up with a rough idea.  They will share it with their partner and discuss if they should use a capital or not.  This will also foster collaboration.  Then, they will write the sentence and illustrate.  Each student will need to conference with me, explaining their capital/no capital rational.  During the conference, I will help those struggling, as well as encourage others to write more and add more detail to their sentence.  Check for understanding by having them read their page to me on camera.  I can compile these together for a digital story.  To increase relevance and value, once they finish, they will take the picture of their own work and practice reading their sentence.  Then, they will use the digital storybook program to record their audio.

•  Motivation: ◦          Meaningfullness – My students love writing.  They are trying hard to create stories and want to become more independent.  This will allow for them to know and apply the skills.   ◦          Pleasant consequences – The student’s writing will be more legible for the readers.  When I begin instruction on nouns, verbs, and adjectives, they may be able to identify nouns easier. ◦          Novelty – The students in my class are absolutely obsessed with my one year old son, Easton.  They beg for me to tell them stories about him and I will use him in my instructional stories often.  By making the book a gift for Easton, they will be motivated by the fact that they has a target audience, whom they love.

•  Socialization - Once the children finish their book, I would like to make a digital story of each of them reading their own page in the book.  The children will be especially motivated to see themselves on the computer!

•  Audience – For what audience are you designing this lesson? Consider the following: ◦          The audience is a group of first grade students between the ages of five and seven. ◦          Their skill level is very minimal.  They are just now becoming more independent in their writing and need a lot of redirection and support.   ◦          They have a knowledge of capital versus lower case letters.  They know that their own name begins with a capital letter.

•  Technology Needs – We will need to use the document camera in my classroom, as well as having internet access and the usage of my teacher computer.  The children will each be recorded reading using by flip cam and put together using Splice.