Thematic Unit Plan on Character Education

The thematic unit plan that I am working on this semester in Language Arts Methods 6-12 course relates to character education.  I really think that with all of the teen depression, violence, and bullying within recent years, that it's important to begin chracter education early on in elementary school and procede into middle and high school.  One of activities that I really enjoyed adding to the thematic unit plan involved students being able to role play through different scenarios they might encounter in middle and high school and how they would handle these situations.

The following websites were also very helpful in creating activities and researching character eduation:
http://charactercounts.org (Well-known adopted character education program in schools)
http://charactered.net/preview/
http://www.goodcharacter.com/
http://myhero.com/go/about/ (Students can research role models that show examples of good character)

Chapter 5 - Popular Culture as a Literacy Tool

"The toxic media environment today provides cultural props that children can use to improvise their way into literacy" (Newkirk, 92).  This quote really struck me because we want our students to make connections to the outside world, yet we condone all the violence, especially with gun control in the media of recently.  Yet, how will our students expand their ability to write when we restrict our students to certain limitations?

When students are allowed to use their creativity of making connections through writing from fictional characters in movies and video games, it brings their writing more to life.  Being able to write fiction stories in class allows students the freedom to use their imagination and improvise.

The reality of writing is that when there is censorship in writing, it causes boys to fall drastically far behind in reading and writing by the 3rd grade.  As educators, I believe that we can look at this censorship in writing from two perspectives:
       - We can view media as the enemy and the negative effects in which it will take away from writing
                                                                 or
       - We can look at this as a way for students to connect to characters, special effects, and weapons as a

          way to connect through writing

Chapter 4: Expressive Writing

The beginning of Chapter 4 in Holding On To Good Ideas In A Time Of Bad Ones opens up with the following quote:

"Is a man to follow rules - or rules to follow him?" - Laurence Stern

This quote gave me the chance to reflect upon how there are so many rules when it comes to writing such as following a rubric that focuses on focus, organization, conventions, and support.  However, when we give students the chance to write freely without always critiquing and going over feedback, students are most likely going to have a willingness to write. 

Expressive writing gives students the opportunity to write freely without judgement.  If we want out students to enjoy writing, we need to give them more chances to practice writing than spending too much time going over feedback.  I love when my students get time to journal write about various journal questions such as "How would our world be difference if cows gave us root beer instead of milk?" or "If you could travel any place in the world, where would you go and why?"  My class always looks forward to writing freely with their own ideas and opinions and being able to share with a buddy.  It gives them the opportunity to express their writing in a comfortable environment.

                                                                      

Chapter 3 - Balance the Basics

A quote from Chapter 3 of Holding On To Good Ideas in A time of Bad Ones that really caught my attention was in response to the goal of writing in postprimary grades, "Using writing to respond to readings, deepen comprehension, and practice academic language" (Newkirk, 52).  As an educator, this made me reflect upon how writing should be integrated into all subject areas as a means to enhance what students are reading, rather than a separate area in itself.  Why writing has been neglected in other subject areas besides English classes I am not sure, but students need to be given the chance to connect the dots in their knowledge through writing.

Some examples of ways that my students used writing in the content areas this week in my class include some of the following examples: learning about artifacts in Social Studies and drawing illustrations of artifacts and writing about why they were important in history long ago, writing to explain similarities and differences between geometric figures, and writing a summary of what students had learned about our unit on space and connecting the stories to one theme in reading.

With the major shift in education towards implementing Common Core standards, it is a necessity for all teachers to work together towards one common goal to promote the embedded use of writing in all that the students learn.  The greatest deficiency right now in the workplace relates to written communication, and students need to continually practice it to grow at it.

Here is an article that relates to reading and writing in the content areas: http://www.adlit.org/adlit_101/improving_literacy_instruction_in_your_school/teaching_reading_and_writing_content_areas/