Gertrude+Ederle

Domain 1 C. Selecting Instructional Goals - Teaching Artifacts

This was a biography lesson for first grade. I had three goals for this lesson. First, I wanted the children to learn all about biographies. Second, I wanted them to understand that there are some very interesting people in the world who have done some really ‘cool’ things. Third, I wanted them to know where the biography section of the library is located. I choose to read the children America’s Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle for several reasons. First, not many people know who she is and second the library has a book about her quest to swim the English Channel. Additionally Utube has a few videos of her swimming the channel ( [|__http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8PIVRsd3KE).__]

 We began this lesson by talking about biographies. I always like to check for prior knowledge by asking the children questions like “Can anyone tell me what a biography is”? or “Who knows what a biography book is”? I then told the children the definition of a biography and showed them several biography books. I gave them a brief synopsis of the English Channel and showed them where it was located on a map. This was followed by the reading of America’s Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle by David A. Adler and Terry Widner and a lively discussion. The children were full of questions, such as “Did she take a nap”? and “Where did she go potty”? They thought it was great that she ate her snacks floating on her back. The lesson was followed by the children working on a graphic organizer (shown below) in which they were asked to write one thing they learned about Gertrude Ederle.

**Reflectio**n - I felt this lesson was a success. The children listened attentively to Gertrude’s story and had many questions. In addition biography books began to fly off the shelves. I will definitely repeat this lesson next year with the following change. I’d like to pick one or two more biographies so that this can be an entire unit.