The last two lessons for the interactive notebook focused on writing skills. I started with writing summaries because their core teacher requested that I work on those skills with the students. Writing clear and concise summaries is associated with the writing Standard 3 (CCSS: W.9-10.4). For this lesson, I gave them a summary template to follow and a graphic organizer on how to write a summary, which they placed in their books. At the end of the lesson I wanted them to write a summary of their own using a Ted Talk; therefore, the objective was for the students to write an effective summary of the Ted Talk using their graphic organizer with 85% accuracy. In order for them to successfully reach that objective, I reviewed the graphic organizer and the steps to use and things to avoid when writing a summary with the class. I gave them a short story and together we used the template I gave them to make a summary of the story. After practicing writing that summary, I showed them a short Ted Talk. As a class, we talked about the Ted Talk and we discussed and analyzed the speech. At the end of the lesson for their independent work, I played the Ted Talk again so the students could use the template to write their own summary. Since the students had the template to work off of, the summaries were written well. I felt using the Ted Talk was a great way to keep the students engaged in the activity.
The last lesson for the interactive notebook was about writing and structuring an