Thunder Cake 1
Running head: THUNDER CAKE
The New American Lecture Strategy
Kay Steinhour
Walden University
EDUC-6630-T1004
Instructional Models and Strategies
September 16, 2007
The New American Lecture Strategy
The New American Lecture Strategy “uses four kinds of support to make presentations more memorable: an anticipatory set or hook; an Advanced Visual Organizer; deep processing; and periodic thinking reviews utilizing questions in all four styles” (Silver, Hanson, Strong, & Schwartz, 2003, p. 21). The New American Lecture Strategy is used when teachers want students to remember and understand important facts, ideas, or information. An important component of this teaching strategy is to incorporate active participation in the lesson. I like to use multi-sensory lessons and activities that encourage students to make a connection to past experiences that will help the student relate the lesson to real-life experiences. Activating prior knowledge reminds the students of the things that they already know and will help them to understand and retain the new information they are about to receive. The lesson that I have developed is based on the book Thunder Cake (Polacco, 1997). The lesson is geared for students in the third grade and may be taught with small groups or an entire class. The activity will increase the students’ awareness of the content by activating prior knowledge, using sensory activities, as well as using a graphic organizer to help the students categorize their information in preparation for a final assessment activity using visual imagery.
To begin the lesson, I will ask the students to think about something they are afraid of. The students will then share their thoughts with their study partner at their table. Students will have to think about the question before sharing. This will help the students to manage their impulsivity and use more precise language. I will write their responses on chart paper. I will follow the same format and ask the students to think about and share what they know about farms and chores that are done on a farm. I will also ask the students to share what they know about thunderstorms. What do you see and hear in a thunderstorm? Students will also be asked to think about a family tradition they may have. The students will write down the name(s) of a person in their family who has been important in sharing a family tradition and what that tradition is in their reading journals. I will give the students the example that my grandmother handed down a family recipe for sweet bread that she always made at Christmastime. Even though my grandmother is no longer living, I still carry on the tradition of making the bread every year at Christmas, and have also taught my daughter to make it. I believe the anticipatory set is a very important part of this lesson to stimulate the students’ curiosity. By using an interpersonal hook and asking these questions before reading or listening to a story, the student have background knowledge to draw upon, and therefore starts the thinking process. This bridging activity helps the students to listen with interest and understanding to see how this story relates to them.
Students will have a graphic organizer on their desk. The organizer is found after the reference page in this paper. The matrix organizer is an essential part of this lesson. As I read the story Thunder Cake (Polacco, 1997), the students will fill in the graphic organizer on visualization with words and pictures as they hear examples from the story that fit into the categories of “see, feel, hear, smell, taste”. Listening with a purpose will help the students to be focused and manage their impulsivity as well as help them organize and categorize their examples of visual imagery. Students will be listening for cues that indicate precise thought and language that contain clue words relating to visual imagery. They will also draw upon past knowledge and experiences to help them determine what items to put in their graphic organizer. While reading the story to the children, I will stop every two or three pages and ask a few questions to ensure understanding. An example of a Mastery question I will ask is: Who are the main characters in the story? Where this story taking place and what is happening to let you know that the little girl is scared? An Understanding question I will ask in the beginning of the story is, “Why do you think the little girl is hiding under the bed? I will then transition to an Interpersonal question by asking, “Do you think hiding under the bed is a helpful thing to do if you are afraid of thunder? Why? Can you relate to how the little girl is feeling? Why?” As the story progresses, I will ask the students to close their eyes and imagine what it is like in Grandma’s kitchen after the cake has been baked. What do you see, hear, smell, feel, and taste? These Self-Expressive questions are very important to help establish the concept of visual imagery. After the story is finished, we will discuss what we have written down on our graphic organizer and talk about how the words the author uses enhances our mental picture of what is happening in the story.
To make the story a little more vivid for the students, I will read the story to the students again, but this time, they are going to have some actions to do in the story. One table is going to have sheets of paper to wave to simulate the sound of thunder. One group will have shakers from the music room to make the sound of rain. Another group will have tambourines to shake to represent when the thunder booms that shake the dishes in the house. Another group will do the counting the little girl does in the story to measure how far away the storm is. I will also pick a name out of the can for someone to turn the lights on and off to represent the flashing of lightening. Everyone in the class will have a job to do making the sights or sounds in the story. By incorporating the element of drama into the story, students will have a much more sensory experience that will enhance their learning rather than just listening to the story. The students will be active participants in the story, not passive listeners. The story will come alive for the students, and hopefully, the concept of the importance of visual imagery when writing a story.
Students will be assigned to choose an activity that incorporates the use of visual imagery to develop characters, plot, and setting. Students may choose to work in groups of two or three or they may choose to complete the activity by themselves. They may write a story or journal entry using a word processor so the entry can be shared with the class via the use of the AverKey, create a PowerPoint slide show, write and perform a short skit, write a newspaper article using Microsoft Publisher, or they may come up with their own activity and discuss this option with me. Students will use their graphic organizer to help them incorporate all of the elements of visual imagery that we learned about through the story Thunder Cake when writing their stories, skits, articles, or slide show. They will also need to write their entry in chronological order so the members of the audience can easily understand what is happening in the story. Students choosing the skit must submit a written copy of their play demonstrating the effective use of visual imagery in addition to the skit. Students will have three days to work on their entry before sharing with the class on Friday. This lesson will incorporate the entire Language Arts block for the week.
The four principles of the Mastery model are embedded in this lesson. The students are connecting the information they learned in the story Thunder Cake to real life experiences and feelings. The students are organizing information about visualization through the help of a graphic organizer, and developing visual images through drama and multi-sensory activities. Finally, the students are elaborating on the knowledge they gained in this lesson by transferring and processing the information to their own piece of writing containing visual imagery. While this lesson may not require the students to memorize any facts, the New American Lecture Strategy is a perfect way to convey the importance of using vivid visual images when developing a strong story including characters, plot, and setting. The students are actively involved in the learning process helping to create a memorable learning experience.
References
Polacco, P. (1997). Thunder Cake. New York: Penguin
Silver, H. F., Hanson, J. R., Strong, R. W., & Schwartz, P. B. (2003). Teaching styles & strategies. Trenton, NJ: The Thoughtful Education Press.