Leaning Letter

The book talk, mini-lesson, and unit plan were the first experiences I've had putting together curriculum on literature, so needless to say, I learned a lot from these activities. The book talk I enjoyed because I can remember re-reading the Scarlet Letter three times in High School, which was great once, but pointless the second and third times through from an academic perspective. My senior year I had a teacher who had me read another The House of Seven Gables in addition to the Scarlet Letter homework, which was good, but could have gone further to differentiate it to be meaningful. Come to find out, she hadn't read House of Seven Gables, so she didn't know what to do with it to give me something else to do.I say all of that because I think of the book talks and I heard about books that I haven't read that I'm excited to read and possibly suggest to students, for personal and teaching purposes. 

The Mini-Lesson and Unit Plan especially were challenging for me in thinking through all the aspects of assignments, handouts, rubrics, in-class activities, videos and all of the planning that goes into one class session. The mini-lessons were great for ideas of how to teach different parts of a text.  The lessons that came  from the readings we did were mostly much different than what I would have devised on my own, so I appreciated all of the different methods presented. It was valuable for me to take the theories that we talked about in class and use them to develop or justify the different lessons that I wrote. 

The theories that we discussed in class have challenged and formed the way the way I think about teaching as I am at the beginning of my journey to becoming a teacher. Having the theories and perspectives that we talked about to articulate my teaching philosophies is taking from thinking like a student to thinking like a teacher.  I had to write  a classroom management philosophy in Dr. Valeo's class this quarter, if I wouldn't have been in this class and reading about differentiation, assessment, and discussion, I would have struggled to have said anything meaningful in that paper.

I benefited greatly from hearing about the classroom experiences that everyone else shared this quarter. There are methods that I can use and incorporate in my teaching that I've observed and heard about from many of you this quarter. Being around the passion and excitement for teaching that was exhibited made it easy for me to want to engage with these topics. Talking about oppression, poverty, and social justice in regards to education is a conversation that I haven't thought much about especially as a teacher. The articles that we read about social justice and how individual teachers bring about social awareness in the classroom is crucial in building students who are critical thinkers and initiators of change.

Romeo and Juliet Mini-Lesson Plan

1.      Teacher Candidate: Michelle Dexter

2.      Subject: English Language Arts

3.      Lesson Title/ Central Focus: Romeo & Juliet

4.      Grade Level(s): 9

5.      Length of Lesson: 20 Minutes

6.      Academic and Content Standards (Common Core/National): CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

7.      Learning  Objective(s):

·         Working individually and in groups, students should be able to reflect on the themes and events in Romeo & Juliet to discuss the conclusion of the play.  In addition to their initial thoughts and reflections, students will be able to work in small groups to change part of the story to write a new ending.  This will require a summative knowledge of the key points in the play to create a new ending by interacting with the changes they outline.

·         We will be able to reflect on the overall story of Romeo & Juliet.

·         We will be able to interact with the details of the text by re-writing the details and re-summarizing the storyline.

8.      Academic Language:

·         This lesson is coming at the end of a unit on Romeo & Juliet; therefore, the language of Shakespeare would have already have been addressed in an earlier lesson.

·         Students will need to be familiar with the vocabulary pertaining to summarizing and parts of a play such as: Summary, plot, storyline, theme, act, and scene.

9.      Assessment:

·         Students will work through the handout in class, turn in both the handout and group activity as well as participate in class discussion.

·         The handout and group activity are formative as they will be used to check their progress and receive feedback upon their return. 

·            This assessment will measure students’ comprehension of the overall plot of Romeo & Juliet and how the details determine the outcome. This connects back to the Common Core Standard, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text, as it allows students to analyze the development of the text and interact with the details to create their own outcome.

10.  Lesson Connections:

·        I considered some of the excerpts from Kelly Gallagher’s Readicide where he references finding the sweet spot of education. His ideas include allowing creative avenues for assessing understanding.  This activity is a way for the teacher to see if students have understood what they read without taking a formal test, but allowing them to interact with their peers and build something new that requires that knowledge.

·        Students will have completed introductory coursework on Shakespeare and a unit on Romeo & Juliet.  They will have read the play in its entirety and will be building upon prior lessons.

11.  Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks to Support Student Learning:

Introduction

·         I will have the objectives on the power point and will have students read the Common Core Standard and our class objectives out loud at the beginning of class.

·         I will introduce the lesson by going over the objective, reminding students what we have done, and going over the day’s agenda. 

Student Voice 

·         Student voice will be measured by their own reflections on their handout and by their contribution to the group assignment. The group activity is based upon student voice and requires students to come up with their own ideas and assessment of how the events of the text determines the outcome of the play.

Learning Tasks

·         The students will be given the assignment with an example to guide their group activity. The students will learn to analyze the outcome of a play/text based upon the causality of the effects and characters.

·         The directions for all of the tasks will be available on the power point and the handout.

·         Students will complete Section 1 of the handout based on their personal reflections on the play and will complete Section 2 of the handout with their classmates.  The students will learn to analyze a text based on the details that build on each event.  They will also learn to collaborate creatively on a group project.

·         I will be checking in with each group to see what areas of the text they understood, had questions on and where they will be changing the text for their story.  I will also be checking in with them to make sure they understand where the activity should be heading.

·         The introduction of the agenda and the initial task: 2 minutes

                        Section 1 of the handout and discussion with group: 5 minutes

                        Introduction of Section 2 and time for the activity: 8 minutes

                        Presentation of group activity:  4 minutes

                        Conclusion of Lesson: 1 minute

·         In our class of eight students, I will divide them into two groups of three and one group of two.  Ideally I would like to have groups of three or four for heightened group interaction and varied perspectives and to allow for differentiation through group make-up.

Closure

·         We will be able to reflect on the overall story of Romeo & Juliet.

·         We will be able to interact with the details of the text by re-writing the details and re-summarizing the storyline.

·         I would see this lesson as a small portion of a summative assessment at the end of a unit; a fun way to interact with the text while analyzing the plot.  I would do this lesson at the end of this unit to give students more input into a bigger assignment or paper that they would be working on.

12.  Differentiated Instruction:

·         I would use these activities to check for student understanding. I would also form groups in order to allow for scaffolding.  This task is meant to assess overall understanding of the text and breaks away from conventions to give students who have difficulties with writing assignments a way to demonstrate their achievement of the objectives. 

13.  Resources and Materials:

·       Outside of the textbook and Readicide, I came up with this idea with a high school student from Ferris.

14.  Management and Safety Issues:

·         Students will be prepared for a day of discussion and group work based off of our calendar.  They will be supervised in their discussion by the teacher and will be guided by previous rules for group work outlined previously in the term.

15.  Parent and Community Connections:

·         This would be an assignment as part of a unit that would have been communicated with parents due to incorporation of videos and segments of plays in the classroom.  Parents will be kept abreast of their student’s progress especially if there are concerns with the student’s understanding of the unit.

Book Talk--The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

By Suzanne Collins

1.      Text Overview:

In a post-apocalyptic society, there is division of the people of Panem, formerly North America, into districts ruled by the Capitol.  The Capitol is a modern city where the residents live in luxury by garnishing resources from the districts. The Capitol holds an event called the Hunger Games to punish and remind the Districts of their rebellion and of the Capitol’s absolute power. The Hunger Games require two tributes, a boy and a girl chosen at random by the Capitol, from each of the twelve districts to participate in a battle of survival and warfare until one tribute is left standing, all of which is televised and watched by the citizens of the Capitol and Districts.

In District 12, Katniss Everdeen becomes the female tribute by volunteering to take the place of her younger sister. Katniss is a hunter, strong-willed and is viewed as a strong contender in the Hunger Games.  As she travels to the Capitol from District 12 with her male counterpart, Peeta Mellark, the stark contrast between the poverty and bleak existence of her district and the lavish lifestyle of the Capitol leaves them awe struck. They begin a preparation process for the Hunger Games including interviews, training and an opening ceremony where it becomes clear that the tributes from the wealthy districts have long-term training in order to guarantee a winner.

Once the games begin, Katniss encounters fires, wild animals, forms alliances, and faces combat in the game arena.  In the end, Katniss and Peeta are the last tributes standing and the co-victors of the Hunger Games as they made a gesture that they would rather both die than kill one another.  Katniss was the main perpetrator of the mutual victory, which was viewed as an act of rebellion, and in the end she realizes that she is viewed as an enemy of the state.

2.      Rationale:

I decided on The Hunger Games for a few reasons. First, I think it’s smart to capitalize on what our students are already reading and use it to generate excitement and interest in the classroom. It could be taught to high school students, I think it could be taught to most junior high students as well. Second, I think it’s a book that is easily accessible without being shallow. It addresses issues that are pertinent in today’s global picture as there are themes of oppression, equality, the value of human life, independence, political power/role of government, and the capability to enact change. Third, I think that it could be taught in conjunction with other dystopian novels, literature from other eras, or with an historical era to provide depth through comparison.

3.      Teaching Ideas:

1.            Many students have read The Hunger Games or seen the movie, which allows for a wide berth of options and differentiation. I think it could be an easy way to engage students in writing assignments based off of comparing/contrasting the book to the movie or in tracking as character development throughout the three books if you have students who want to read the other books in the trilogy.  Another option could be to compare characters or dystopian settings from another book such as Divergent, The Maze Runner, Lord of the Flies, The Lottery, etc. Students could have choices about how to make the assignment meaningful or challenging to them and as a teacher I would be able to help guide them to an appropriate choice.

2.            I see this as a good option to read as a parallel to history in understanding oppression, rebellion, and warfare states. The story of Katniss and the oppression of her District allows with parallels with Nazi Germany, Roman Gladiators, or even Boko Haram and current events in Nigeria.  The point would be use interest in the book to bring a humanizing factor to events that can feel impersonal.

3.            The Hunger Games could be used as a discussion point on American culture and society down to the microcosm of a junior high or high school. It could be used as a tool in teaching students to think of themselves in the context of their environment and in developing their own personal narrative.

4.      Obstacles:

One issue with teaching The Hunger Games is that it has been on the banned/challenged books list due to its violent content.   The argument can easily be made that our students are reading it anyway and seeing the movies, but in a classroom setting at least the nature of the violence can be addressed.  The description of the violence is not overly graphic or glorified, but is designed to be thought-provoking. The other issue parents tend to have is the lack of strong parents for Katniss.  Her father was killed in a mining accident and her mother was debilitated and depressed by his passing, which left Katniss to pick up the pieces for her and her sister.  The reality is that many of our students can relate to growing up outside of the typical family structure and Katniss’ perseverance should be a positive illustration and encouragement to students. Knowing that those are the objections and having reasons/lessons that show that The Hunger Games can be an effective tool in the classroom should be sufficient.

5.    

  Additional Note:

The Hunger Games is a great text to use because of its popularity. Finding a way to use what kids are already reading, what they want to read and what is speaking to them should be capitalized on to move their education forward. Many teachers are using it in their classrooms already and there are plenty of lesson plans and ideas available online.

Secondary Standards-Based Grading and Reporting Handbook

The section on zeros derailing a students overall grade is alarming. I can think back to when I was a student and all the differing methods and policies about late work and remember how depressing it was to forget an assignment, get a zero, and have the whole quarter ruined. We were talking about that in one of my other classes last week and brought it back to what we hope students are getting out of that assignment. Is it our job to teach them to turn their work in on time or to have them gain the skills or knowledge from their homework? It seems reasonable to dock their grade for late work, but zeros can be debilitating and do demoralize them for the rest of the term.

There are a few key ideas that I see repeatedly which are related to grades being clear and meaningful. Not only should the grading methods be clear to students, but to their parents as well. Parents should be able to understand the progress their child is making and how that is being measured. I like the concept of Principle 4 that states that not all information gathered should be graded. Parents will want to understand the difference between what is graded, what is not, and what factors are outside of that process.

Principle 5 is interesting to me because I feel like we always grade on an average. Typically,  it seems like bigger assignments are worth more points or weighted to be a higher percentage of the grade, but I don't think I've seen grades later in the quarter worth more just on the basis that they're later in the term. Bigger projects and assignments tend to be later in the term and usually incorporate several learning points from that unit or term, but you can say the same thing about midterms or end of unit tests. It would be interesting to weight grades more as the quarter went on to track a student's progress as they learn their teacher's expectations as well.  Sometimes it seems like a student would prefer to keep the grades specific to the assignment and not the time frame if they struggle with a particular unit.  For instance, if you struggled with a particular part of ninth grade science, like chemistry, and the rest of your semester/year went really well, then you wouldn't want that unit towards the end of the year to drag your entire grade down.

Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning

The practical examples of how to set up an assessment or evaluation of what the students' reading and understanding of a piece of literature are going to be easily applied to my classroom experience and unit plan.  I liked the criteria for classroom discussion and how it gave clear expectations of what that teacher expected from her students during discussion time. To me, it seems like I will want to find a balance between assessing my students critical thinking and engagement with what we are reading with some testing of the facts. I think about Tovani and how do we catch how much a student is truly understanding and the more varied the assessments in a class, the more opportunities we have as teachers to work with our students on finding their strengths and furthering the development of their weaknesses.

One thing that keeps standing out to me is the need to keep expectations clear to our students. As a student in junior high or high school, I remember a lot of my stress came from not knowing what to expect on a test, quiz or how I would be graded on an assignment especially early on in the school year. Another factor that I'm thinking about is differentiation. Even without ELL students or student with an IEP, there are different learning styles and proficiencies that should be thought about. We had a poetry exam my senior year which included writing our own poetry to show that we understood different poetry styles. Our teacher said she wanted us to have fun with it, but for me it was horrible because I'm not creative like that. For me, it would have been nice to have had some differentiation so that it wouldn't have weighed so heavily on our creativity and more on our knowledge of the differences between different poems. That being said, I remember a friend of mine thinking it was easy and she was happy about it. Finding some middle ground would have been nice, although I can recognize that finding that sweet spot is a balancing act and it will be hard (or impossible) to keep everyone happy all of the time.

Readicide

I enjoyed Readicide as a general guide to encouraging readers in the classroom. Where Tovani walked through specific students and scenarios, the theories presented by Gallagher are a great starting point for creating life-long readers.

The account of Chloe coming home and being frustrated by picking apart a book in class and wishing she were still in Australia where she would have been through four books in the same time frame is a great reminder that we need to support not only our struggling readers in class, but to support and encourage our student who enjoy reading as well. On page 117, he says we need to encourage fun reading, to do more reading in class, and to do it without grading it all the time. Teaching students to be good readers and to even enjoy it is life-changing.  Having the capability to read something and understand it fully and have the skills to apply it to your life is invaluable, not to mention the personal enrichment that can be gained from reading.

I thought Gallagher's take on reading the classics was interesting.  The idea that we develop cultural literacy and can share in that reading experience as a mode of communication is a departure from most of what I've been hearing lately.  Teaching in the "sweet spot" is a great concept that I would expect will serve me well when I get started teaching.  I don't expect to have a lot of control over what I get to teach initially, so having a teaching style that can help make any text palatable or accessible for my students will be a great resource. Referring back to what makes a classic valuable in finding what appeals to us in it as a teacher can be a great encouragement to students; the universals that are present are what make a classic a classic. Finding the balance of working through a text without over-teaching it is something I know I need to reflect on even as I am preparing my unit plan. I feel like it's easier to err on the side of over-teaching than to let students enjoy the text fully by keeping up a good reading flow.

TPA Format and EdTPA

In my overall career as a student who will someday be a teacher, I have only written and taught one lesson plan. The first time I saw the template I remember feeling pretty intimidated, but I was in a group with three other students who were familiar with the format and walked me through the process. After having one relatively successful experience definitely lessens my stress about writing and/or teaching lessons; however, I know there is a lot of room for improvement and that the edTPA is much more than a lesson plan.

In the lesson plan that I wrote last quarter, the only reference that I cited was one of my textbooks and there wasn't much thought on an overall teaching philosophy. I had ideas about how I wanted to do things, but I know that I didn't include as much detail as I should have and that detail should have included more than a mention of a textbook. Learning and implementing theories/theorists is something I need to get better at and more comfortable with. I want to be able to tell students why we're doing what we're doing in class and to have explanations for activities, assignments and readings, which starts with the lesson planning process.

The edTPA process scares me a little, mostly from observing the stress that I see in classmates who will be submitting theirs in the next few months, although I understand the purpose of the process.  It makes sense to have our teaching capability measured by our proficiency in lesson planning and enacting that lesson in class. I'll feel a lot better about the edTPA process once I start getting some classroom experience and can see how I need to improve or tailor my lesson plans to my classes.

We've talked a lot about differentiation in class, but that's not something I've had to actually do in a classroom setting. The hypothetical differentiation of a lesson plan to be inclusive to everyone in your class may be different than the actual needs of a class.  I keep hearing that every class is different and moves at a different pace and will have a different personality, which to me, means that I'll have to learn to differentiate my plans as the school year progresses. Time management or the amount of content to include in one class session is hard for me to get a good handle on for the same reason. Luckily, I'll get plenty of classroom time in over the course of the next year or so before I even need to stress about the edTPA to be thoughtfully preparing for my assessment.