Reading for Intermediate and Advanced Learners, Fall, 2011

The RWT lesson that I am reviewing is Authentic Writing Experiences and Math Problem Solving Using Shopping Lists, written by Devon Hamner. This lesson is intended for grades K-2 and is implemented in three, fifty minute lessons. In this activity, students will use literacy and math skills to create shopping lists and use problem solving skills to follow their budget and purchase items.
In the preview of the unit, Ms. Hamner gives an overview, a purpose for the lesson, and a list of featured and further resources to use. The theory she states for this lesson is important and very wise to include. She gives a resource that supports challenging students to do "real and purposeful" writing. I really like that she included this. A resource list of age-appropriate books is provided next. Some of them I have, but she listed enough that I will have new ones to review and possibly use. After the resource list, teachers can find their state standards that coincide with this unit. This was a wonderful and needed feature. I found my state standards in language arts that matched the lesson. The math and social studies standards were not accessible, that would have helpful.
"Resources and Preparation" is the next part of the unit. Hamner gives a list of materials and technology, two printouts that you can use with your students and websites to enhance the lesson. Hamner has also included an article for parents to read to provide more understanding of the strategy used in this unit for spelling and writing. This article is a great piece to include in a lesson.
The instructional plan follows with detailed steps to reach the goal of the unit. It breaks down the unit into three sessions. Each session builds and follows one another very logically. The students discuss grocery lists, a variety of literature is shared, including grocery ads, a personal pre-made grocery list is shown, and the students publish their own lists using the guidelines given to them. Finally the students reflect on the activity by using reflective questions provided by the teacher (examples were also given by Ms. Hamner). These questions were very meaningful and allow the student to write about math and their experiences. This reflection piece is a great conclusion piece to the activity.
Overall, this was a great lesson to use with second graders. I really enjoyed her resources and extra effort put into the lesson. I will use parts of this lesson in my economics unit.