Stacie+Flower

Spring Semester 2012 Stacie Flower Reflection Assignment #1 January 28, 2012 Mini-lesson: Grammar EOCT Practice


 * 1) What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? My original goal for this mini-lesson was to lead the classes through the “Bell Work” at the beginning of the class. At this time, the class is working on EOCT practice tests, and today’s lesson focused on identifying convention errors in a written passage.
 * 2) Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? I was successful in reaching my goal. Students came into class to find the assignment already on their desks along with the Bell Work answer sheet that is used for an eight week period. Each class was given approximately eight minutes to read the passage and complete the questions. I took up the answer sheets before I went over the questions and answers with the students.
 * 3) What specifically went well with your lesson? I made a Microsoft Word document that was shown on the projector which helped facilitate discussion and explanation. The visual was useful because we were all looking in the same direction while we discussed the questions rather than students looking back and forth between their papers and me. Including the entire sentence on the visual rather than just the portion of the sentence referenced in the question also helped facilitate a productive discussion about the grammar issues being tested.
 * 4) What did not go well with your lesson? Why? After grading the papers, I realized that the students who needed the most help did not speak up during the discussion even though I asked if there were any other questions about each question before moving on to the next sentence. I am still learning names and students’ preferences about being called on in class, and so I chose to let the students volunteer their answers rather than calling on them directly. I also noticed that many of the students missed the same question in the same way. I wish I had known that when we went over the answers. Even without this additional knowledge, I believe that I fully explained the grammar convention in the question missed most often. However, I will reexamine this question again tomorrow with 1st period to make sure everyone understands the grammar rule.
 * 5) What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? After realizing that most of 1st period missed the same question in the same way, I did a brief teaching moment on that convention in the other classes before asking the students to begin the assignment. This adjustment helped, and fewer students missed the question as the day progressed.
 * 6) How does this lesson find its way into your unit and how well does this lesson scaffold and/or integrate into the next lesson? EOCT preparation quizzes are used twice a week as Bell Work, and so this lesson fits in very well with the overall plan. After grading the quizzes and identifying the students’ weak areas, I picked out the next Bell Work assignment and made sure that the next EOCT quiz addressed the same issue to ensure that today’s discussion helped clear the students’ confusion about the convention.
 * 7) What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? My coursework has taught me that grammar is best learned in context and that both practice and repetition are necessary to help students retain information in their long term memories. By grading the assignment before choosing the next assignment, I was better able to choose a 2nd assignment that was relevant and worthy of valuable class time.
 * 8) Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? I would use this lesson again. Admittedly, I am not the biggest fan of standard test preparation, but students must know how to take these tests, and they need the practice. Despite the reason for the grammar practice, I believe that students need a good understanding and working knowledge of conventions and grammar, and so I see time spent discussing their questions about conventions as time well spent.

Reflection Assignment #2 February 18, 2012 Lesson: "The Scarlet Ibis" / Cubing Activity Assessment


 * 1) What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? My original goal was to complete reading “The Scarlet Ibis” aloud with the class, introduce the next assessment in our current unit, model the assessment, and allow the students to begin working on the assignment.
 * 2) Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? I was successful in reaching my goals. Success was a multi-step process with this lesson. The class made plot predictions based on artwork and began reading “The Scarlet Ibis” the day before, so I began today’s lesson by quickly reviewing and asking if anyone wanted to change their prediction now that they had read a portion of the text. Next, the class finished reading the short story, stopping periodically to clarify meaning. After the class finished reading the story, I introduced them to the assignment through a “Paired Verbal Fluency” activity. The assessment for this portion of the short story unit has three parts, and the class did the verbal fluency activity in pairs for each of the three parts. The students had never tried this type of verbal exchange before, so I gave instructions and walked around the classroom monitoring progress. After completing the activity, the students were given time to begin working on the assignment. I continued to walk around the room monitoring progress and answering questions.
 * 3) What specifically went well with your lesson? I was very impressed with how responsive the students were to the “Paired Verbal Fluency” activity. I believe that the exchanges helped the students. After the activity, I felt that they had a better understanding of the material, the assignment questions, and how they felt about the themes in the text. The exercise took less than ten minutes of class time. However, it produced a much greater degree of comprehension than a standard class discussion which should translate into higher quality answers on the assessment.
 * 4) What did not go well with your lesson? Why? This day went really well. Students were doing the “Paired Verbal Fluency” activity for the first time, so there was a bit of a learning curve, but they were engaged and got better with each of the three rounds. The only thing I would have liked to have had was more time to work on the assignment while the ideas were fresh.
 * 5) What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? I did not attempt to do this exercise with my 3rd period inclusion class. The class is made up of 22 “regular” students and 11 “inclusion” students who come with a wide range of behavior and intellectual challenges. My cooperating teacher felt that it would be too difficult to maintain classroom control, and so I led a class discussion covering the short story before giving students the assignment. I did replicate the lesson in the other classes, and in each, the students responded well to the activity and seemed to enjoy the change of pace. In my own classroom, I would have attempted it with the 3rd period as well, but since I am only a guest, I nodded in agreement and moved on.
 * 6) How does this lesson find its way into your unit and how well does this lesson scaffold and/or integrate into the next lesson? The next lesson is a “work day” so that students may use the literary textbooks to complete their assignments. This lesson worked well in the short story unit, and it was a natural scaffold to tomorrow’s lesson.
 * 7) What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? I incorporated several theoretical principles from my coursework in this lesson. The first was a reading strategy; I had the students make predictions about the plot, read some of the text, and then make new predictions. The second was the “Paired Verbal Fluency” activity; I recently learned this strategy in my Methods and Materials for Teaching ESOL Students class. The third principal is incorporated in the assessment given to the students; the three part assignment requires students to use skills from 3 of the 4 Depth of Knowledge levels, touches on a variety of learning styles, and tries to facilitate connections between the text and students’ prior knowledge.
 * 8) Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? I do not know if I will ever be required to teach “The Scarlet Ibis” again, but I will most definitely use the “Paired Verbal Fluency” exercise again to facilitate conversation and further explore topics covered in class. In addition to the benefits from a “content” basis, the activity also allows students to practice their speaking and listening skills which is a Common Core Standard. The verbal exchanges with their peers helped students formulate ideas for their writing assessment and increased content comprehension; it was class time well spent.

ENED 6475L Practicum III Spring Semester 2012 Stacie Flower

Reflection Assignment #3 Literary Analysis 101: Lesson 1

1. What was your original intent or goal for this lesson?

My goal for this series of lessons was literary analysis. For this particular lesson, I wanted students to work with a short story and identify plot elements, literary devices, and figurative language.

2. Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?

I was successful in reaching my goal for this particular lesson. Before giving students the assignment, I modeled everything being asked using a text that the class had previously studied. As a class, we went through “The Most Dangerous Game” and identified the plot elements, theme, tone, setting, and examples of figurative language. I modeled citations and punctuation for in-text citations and had the students work in pairs as we identified literary elements in the short story. Every student had the opportunity to speak in class and there was ample time for questions.

3. What specifically went well with your lesson?

The most successful part of my lesson was the way I modified it for my inclusion class. All students were given a graphic organizer that mirrored the actual assignment, but the inclusion students had most of the information on their graphic organizers filled out when they received it. This extra information freed them up to listen, participate, and ask questions as we went through the material.

4. What did not go well with your lesson? Why?

Analysis is a very abstract concept for 14 and 15 year old students. I told the students from the beginning that these were challenging topics that take practice. I think the same can be said for teaching the concepts. With more experience, I am certain that I will be able to teach analysis more clearly and better help the students make connections. I also think that while a short story is by definition “short,” the students may have done better if they had already been exposed to some of these concepts using poetry or essays. I was not in the school when these units were taught, but I’ve been told by my CT that analysis was not discussed and identification of the literary devices was not a major component of the units.

5. What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson?

My honors classes finished the modeling example for “The Most Dangerous Game” in one class period. My regular class and my inclusion class took two days to work through the same material. The honors students were more familiar with figurative language types and were able to identify plot components such as conflict and climax more quickly. I took the time in the regular and inclusion classes to thoroughly review the terms and offered examples of each before asking the students to work together to find the elements in “The Most Dangerous Game.”

6. How does this lesson find its way into your unit and how well does this lesson scaffold and/or integrate into the next lesson?

This lesson integrated very well into the overall lesson scheme. Being able to identify the various literary elements on the assignment is a necessary component of writing a literary analysis which was the overall goal of this part of the unit. The students could not possibly write an effective literary analysis without being able to identify plot elements, figurative language examples, and other literary devices that support their thesis.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px;">7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px;">For this lesson, I used the theoretical principle of scaffolding by working with elements today that are essential for the larger summative assignment. I also used the Georgia State Standards and new Common Core Standards to ensure that I was covering everything required for 9th graders. I pulled skills from my technology course when I made the supplemental power point, and I used knowledge from my Diversity Class when I differentiated the graphic organizer for my inclusion students.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px;">8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px;">I will use this lesson again, but I would not structure the series of lessons in the same way. If I were planning the curriculum rather than following my CT’s lead, then I would have started working with the identification of these literary elements much earlier in the year. I would introduce the analysis portion earlier as well. I think the students would have done a much better job analyzing a short story if they had already practiced analysis with other genres such as poetry and persuasive essays.