Back-to-Back Lessons

Lesson and hand outs

Mystery Excerpt Activity

Student and Teacher Feedback

My lesson was about poetry about time, and how it has changed over time. I allowed my students to select their own poem from the ones that I provided. Each poem had a short biography attached. Students then read over their poem and biography, and completed the formative assessment worksheet. In the following lesson, students would have been expected to do a close reading of their poem and write a short summary about what it was about. How to do a close reading would have been taught to them in the lesson as well. Students would be assessed on their summary after class, and would work further with their poem later in the unit.

 

In this lesson, I encompass the part of the Mission Statement Pillar that states:

"Our graduates are creative and integrative educators:

They are adept at both discipline-based and interdisciplinary teaching methods, using emerging technologies, social interaction, and imagination to support students’ achievement of rigorous academic standards. Understanding the connection between intellectual and emotional-social growth, they help their students gain self-knowledge and assume responsibility for their own learning."

This lesson is grounded in English, but knowledge about history is necessary in order to facilitate student learning on this topic. This lesson was grounded on group discussion with teacher guidance for students to collaborate on ideas that are new to them. As a class, they built off from each others imaginations in order to form their own beliefs. The answers were not given to them, but they were given the tools they needed in order to find the answers on their own. The depth in which they went was up to them. 

 I feel that in my lesson this portion of the pillar was met with the exception of integrating emerging technologies. Using technology more frequently is a tool that I hope to rely more heavily on in the future. If I had been able to teach both lessons back to back, I would have taken into account how much my group did well with group discussion. I formatted a "double lesson" with the intention that whatever was not finished in the first portion would carry onto the next lesson. This worked well as we ended right where I was expecting we would. The next lesson would have focused more heavily on teaching how to close read poetry, which I would have a more hands-on class, due to the learning styles of my group that I observed in the first lesson.

My worksheet in my first lesson was a formative assessment that would prepare my students for the close reading and summary writing that they would be working on in the following class. The worksheet itself would be a helpful tool for them to guide their thinking. The close reading and summary writing of the poem would be a summative assessment, that directly correlates with one of the standards for the unit.

I learned that the "mystery excerpt" activity that I added at the end of writing my lesson was one of the most impactful parts of the lesson for the students, because they could use their imaginations, and it worked as a bridge to connect their ideas with the knowledge they were about to gain. I realized that I do not know what to do with myself while my students are individually working, however, and this is something that I will have to figure out in the future. In the observation of instruction in both my literacy and curriculum courses, I felt especially comfortable with the class collaboration atmosphere that I was intending to implement in my mini-lessons.

Digital Teaching and Learning

In class, we created both a Technology Contract that our students would be expected to read, sign, and abide by, as well as a Letter to Parents that would explain the technology initiative at our school. 

In creating the contract, my content area group (English) and I searched online to find examples that other high schools have used. We found 2 particular documents that embodied what we believed to be most important. The first one went in depth on using digital citizenship, while the second was a poem that we also found fitting because of its in depth descriptions on the benefits and negatives of technology usage. 

In the letter to parents, we went into specific detail on why we are using technology, what we are using it for, and how it will benefit the students. Our group found it important to elaborate in all these areas so that parents could feel comfortable with their child's technology use in school, and understand how it can be such a useful tool for them. 

In creating both these documents, these PC's were met:

Performance Criterion 3.1: Candidates design learning environments that support individual learning marked by active engagement.

  Performance Criterion 3.2: Candidates design learning environments that support collaborative learning marked by positive social interaction.

PC 3.1 is met in these assignments because the learning environment that my group was intending on creating was to have a community where technology could be used to help the student thrive. Technology is already such an easy tool for youth to use today, and to utilize it in the classroom means that they can work independently in a way that has them actively engaged.

PC 3.2 is met in these assignments because in our groups hypothetical learning environment in how technology will be used in our classroom. In the letter that we sent to parents, applications and websites that will be utilized are stated. These apps/websites often are ones that allow students to collaborate with one another through technology, in a way that is fun and positive.

My biggest hope in using technology in my future classroom is that it is more of useful tool to facilitate learning than a distraction. I fear that if it becomes a distraction, there will be so many opportunities in my teaching where technology would have beneficial where instead it could not be because of the distractions that would inhibit my students. I think that after a few years of teaching, I will be able to recognize what tech activities will cause distraction, and find a way to actively facilitate the learning environment to ward those off. This is something that will take in class experience unfortunately I believe.

"Exploring Same Sun Here through the Arts" Workshop

At this workshop, we worked as a department to explore the common themes presented in the novel Same Sun Here. The most prominent theme that was focused on was activism. Around the room, there were thought provoking images hung, such as the LGBTQ flag, farming conditions, and pollution. We discussed these images, and discussed which ones stood out most for ourselves.

We also were matched up with a stranger to explore the ideas of "friendship". We talked about things we thought we my have in common with them before talking to them, and then again after talking with them for a few minutes. This activity gave insight to how much you can have in common with anyone-- no matter how different you are.

Finally, we worked in small groups to create a tangible piece of art (a prayer flag woven from yarn) in order to reflect on what we had discussed in the workshop, and express ourselves in doing so.

In doing this, we made connections from the book, into our own lives, and facilitated in the Education Departments mission in creating students who are "life long learners".

The instructional strategies used in this workshop are ones that I could see myself using as a teacher in order to facilitate discussion. This included, mostly, the opportunity for students to walk around in order to express their thoughts, using tangible objects (such as stickers) to make an observation or connection, and promoting both small and large group discussions. 

Vocabulary Lesson

• Lesson Plan
• Quizlet Stack
• Sparkpage
• Video

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In creating this lesson, I thought that my students would value learning the terms that will be on their rubric for their final uni assessment. I thought that exposing them to the words, then teaching them, discussing them, and then doing practice with them would be the most efficient way for them to learn the vocabulary.

Goal: By the end of this lesson, students will understand the literary terms associated with the rest of their unit on understanding poetry from the author’s perspective.

In my instruction, I made sure that my students did not only know the terms, but truly had a deep understanding by working with them multiple times, in multiple ways.

To reflect on my lesson, I learned that my posture and body movemenets are at times too relaxed and informal, which I did not recognize until watching the video of my lesson, and my feedback. My goal, however, was to express all the content I know and not leave too much out. My feedback says I did this well, however, I think I still could have improved in this area. I need to make sure that when teaching vocabulary, staying away from simply stating definitions is more difficult than I first thought. I tried to stray away from this but in the moment, it was difficult. However, I think that through my assessments, my students were able to learn the vocabulary. They were able to discuss the terms as a group with little prompting by the end of the lesson. I think that more interesting activities would have helped my lesson to be more engaging. 

Using New Apps to Show New Learning

Spark Page:

https://spark.adobe.com/page/0VIG2r86mvYBV/

Task: Using the app Adobe Spark Page, present a response to the questions, “What is literacy in the digital age?” and “What forms are most relevant to a high school English content area?”.

Goals:

Performance Criterion 4.1: Candidates accurately communicate central concepts of the discipline

Performance Criterion 5.2: Candidates integrate cross-disciplinary skills (such as critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving) to help learners demonstrate their learning in unique ways.

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Explain Everything:

Task: Using the app Explain Everything, create a visual and audio representation of the curriculum orientation “Progressivism”.

Goals:

Performance Criterion 4.1: Candidates accurately communicate central concepts of the discipline

Performance Criterion 5.2: Candidates integrate cross-disciplinary skills (such as critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving) to help learners demonstrate their learning in unique ways.

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In both projects, I was able to explore what these key concept meant for ME and MY future classroom. In the Literacy Spark Page, I had the opportunity to explore what exactly I thought literacy was, and what that would look like in my future classroom. In the Orientation Explain Everything, I was able to learn more about the curriculum orientation that I associated with, as well as work out what implementing my orientation into my future curriculum will look like.

I was also able to, in both presentations, communicate the ideas that I had learned about both literacy and Progressivism, and did this in a cross-disciplinary medium that allowed me to demonstrate my learning in a unique way. In doing this, I was able to show how I can be creative and integrative as a future educator.

In my Spark Page presentation, I was able to communicate what I have learned thus far about literacy through a technology that I had never used before. Similarly with my Explain Everything presentation, I communicated what I have learned about Progressivism through an additional app that I have had no other experience with. Technology is, I would say, currently my weakest point in becoming an educator. Fortunately, what I lack in technological ability, I have surplus of in creativity and hopefully I can continue to use my creativity to help guide me learning how to make the best use of new technologies available.

Advisory Reflection

Teaming Reflection