CWS Part 2

B.     CWS Section III, Part B (key elements 3.A and 3.C):

Lesson Plan Assessment
Assessments	Accommodations	Evaluation Criteria
Unit Objective 1: The student will infer the soil qualities that affect the amount of water that goes through the soil.	The student will be placed in a group that will help guide the student during the lab experiment.	See attached handout for evaluation criteria and grading rubric.
Pre-Assessment ·         Students must understand basic concepts about soil
Post-Assessment ·         Students will be able to understand a soil quality that affects the amount of water passing through the soil.
Unit Objective 2: The student will be able to define the word permeability.	The student will be able to discuss what the word means with her group members or the teacher.	See attached handout for evaluation criteria and grading rubric.
Pre-Assessment ·         The students will infer what the word permeability means in association with soil.
Post-Assessment ·         The students will define the word permeability on their handout.

C.     CWS Section III, Part D (key elements 2.B):

Activities/Strategies/Materials/Resources (Key element 2.B)	Unit Objective Number(s)
Students will review previously learned characteristics of soil.	1
Students will infer what permeability means.	2
Students will complete a lab experiment testing the permeability of soil.	1,2
Students will analyze their results and form conclusions about their results.	1,2
Students will formulate a definition of permeability using their lab results.	2
Students will discuss how permeability relates to soil characteristics.	1,2

Annotated Bibliography

Brighton, K. (2007). Coming of age: the education & development of young adolescents.  Westerville, Ohio: National Middle School Association.

·         This resource is helpful for educators and parents trying to understand the development of adolescents.  It discusses the intellectual, social, physical, emotional, and moral and character development of adolescents.  It also provides information on contexts in which young adolescents functions as well as the well-being of young adolescents such as health and wellness issues and positive interventions.  This resource is most appropriate for those pursuing a better understanding of the development of adolescents.

Friend, M. (2009). Including Students with Special Needs: A Practical Guide for Classroom Teachers (5^th edition). Pearson: Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

·         This textbook broadly covers all the aspects of working with diverse learners and is used in Teaching Diverse Learners (EDEE 409).  This book is exceptionally helpful for building an understanding of the history of special education, the procedures and services, the assessment of student needs, the planning of instruction, the description of disabilities, how to differentiate instruction, evaluating student learning, building relationships, and responding to student behavior.  It discusses many important topics in one book while providing additionally resources such as websites, children’s literature, journal articles, and other books.

Mather, N, & Goldstein, S. (2001). “Reading Fluency.”  Learning disabilities and challenging behaviors: a guide to intervention and classroom management (p. 235-242). Retrieved from http://www.ldonline.org/article/6354

·         This article specifically focuses on a student’s reading fluency and how to increase it.  It lists ways of determining a student’s reading rate, how to adjust the reading rate, and examples of activities for increasing the reading rate.  Some of these activities included speed drills, rapid word recognition chart, choral reading, repeated reading, and taped books.  The accommodations listed in this article would be beneficial for all students and would only be slight adjustments in the classroom.

National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD). (2006). Accommodations for students with LD. Retrieved from http://www.ldonline.org/article/Accommodations_for_Students_with_LD?theme=print

·         This article focuses on making accommodations for students when developing an IEP.  The accommodations are broken into six categories, which included presentation, response, timing, setting, test scheduling, and other.  Each category listed a few examples that could be incorporated in the IEP to help meet the needs of the student.  A quote from this article that I found important was “accommodations do not alter the content of assignments, give students an unfair advantage or in the case of assessments, change what a test measures.  They do make it possible for students with LD to show what they know without being impeded by their disability.”

Powell, S. D. (2005).  Introduction to Middle School. Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

·         This book was used in the Middle School Organization class (EDEE 515) last semester and has proved to be helpful numerous times.  The book outlines major middle school issues such as teachers, structure, curriculum, instruction, assessment, and managing the learning environment.  The focus is centered on the student and creating the best learning environment for middle school students. It has been used numerous times when developing Part I of the Candidate Work Sample. My favorite part of this textbook is how each section does not tell you exactly how a middle school should function, but instead gives suggestions.

Stanberry, K, & Swanson, L. (2009). Effective reading interventions for kids with learning disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.ldonline.org/article/Effective_Reading_Interventions_for_Kids_With_Learning_Disabilities

·         This article focusing on effective reading interventions for students who have reading challenges.  The two main aspects discussed in the article was improving word recognition skills and improving reading comprehension skills.  Some instructional methods listed were sequencing, advanced organizers, directed response and questioning, elaboration, group instruction, and strategy cues.  The article encouraged readers to help students develop their own reading strategies.