ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

Data from Special Education Evaluations, the 2004 North Dakota State Assessment, the district MAP assessment, the school improvement plan, and the classroom and LD teachers’ observations were the basis for this unit of instruction.
The students in a 6th grade classroom will present an oral presentation to their class on a given country. The students have worked all year compiling information on the country and they will write a final report and present the information in speech form to their class. Two students with learning disabilities are integrated into the regular curriculum and will be completing this project.
All assessments indicate that one student is functioning in the delayed range in written language and the other student is in the significantly delayed range. The first student’s performance (1-05) in broad written language on the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement was a Standard Score of 92 and at the 29th percentile. This is one standard deviation below her Full Score IQ of 106 on the WISC-III. She demonstrated difficulty writing and organizing paragraphs on informal assessment. Her RIT score in Language Usage (2-05) was a 206, which is at the 24th percentile. She demonstrated low average writing samples on the school improvement plan assessment. The second student’s performance (4-04) in broad written language on the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement was a Standard Score of 76 and at the 6th percentile. This is two standard deviations below his Full Score IQ of 107 on the WISC-III. His RIT score in Language Usage (2-05) was a 198, which is at the 11th percentile. He demonstrated below average writing samples on the school improvement plan assessment. The ND State Assessment data will be included when it is received. Both students have a written language goal on their IEP.
The classroom and the LD teachers report that these students have difficulty organizing and expressing their ideas and demonstrate weak capitalization, punctuation, and spelling skills. However, vocabulary and grammar skills are strengths. In addition the classroom teacher reports that both students have struggled with delivery of previous oral presentations.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: I want the students to be able to utilize computer networks and software to help organize, write and revise their written work and to be able to present the information in oral format.
Goal(s):To improve written and oral communication skills.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. What are the main ideas in paragraphs? 2. What are the supporting ideas in paragraphs? 3. How can a graphic organizer help write a paragraph? 4. What are the main ideas of their reports? 5. What are the supporting ideas? 6. How does a graphic organizer help develop an outline, and write and revise the final report? 7. How can an iMovie improve the oral presentation?
Objectives: 1. The students will identify the main ideas in written paragraphs with 80% average accuracy. 2. The students will identify the supporting details in paragraphs with 80% average accuracy. 3. The students will write paragraphs with a topic sentence and 2 to 3 supporting ideas on paper and computer graphic organizer with 85% average accuracy. 4. The students will identify the main ideas and supporting detail in the topic areas of their country from encyclopedias and websites with at least 3 details per 6 topic areas based on the report rubric. 5. The students will develop an outline utilizing Inspiration Software with at least 3 details per 6 topic areas based on the report rubric. 6. The students will write a rough draft utilizing a word processing program including a topic sentence and 3 detail sentences per paragraph based on the report rubric. 7. The students will revise and edit their rough draft utilizing word processor grammar and spell check and/or proof reading checklist with 2 or less errors per paragraph. 8. The students will present the report in oral form to their class with 85% accuracy on the oral report rubric.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding? Written and oral quizzes.
What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance)will provide evidence of understanding? Open ended questions and daily academic prompts
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?  Student understanding will be demonstrated in their finished products: 1. The students will be given paragraphs and will demonstrate understanding of main idea and supporting ideas by listing them. 2. The students will demonstrate paragraph writing utilizing a paragraph graphic organizer. 3. The students will demonstrate application of Inspiration Software to write and revise a report. 4. The students will tape each other’s speech and create an iMovie of their own speech.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect? 1.  Classroom observations, self-assessment rubrics, teacher assessment rubrics, and writing samples will be utilized. 2. The students will self-assess their writings utilizing paragraph and report rubrics.  3. They will self-assess their oral presentation following an oral presentation rubric. 4. They will edit their writing utilizing a proof reading checklist.

Instructional Strategies

Working cooperatively, utilizing a combination of inquiry-based and project-learning strategies, the students will identify main ideas and supporting details, develop an outline, write a rough draft, edit, and revise the drafts.
The final report and the presentation to their class will demonstrate project-based learning and achievement of the objectives. These strategies promote higher order thinking skills because they enable the students through writing, rewriting, and rephrasing techniques to produce summaries in their own words.