Cheryl+Hunt-Clements

Dear Kim, Amy, Jenna, Elesa, Mary, Barbara, and Kevin,

It was great to see you last night in class. I hope you are having a terrific week.

Now that you are signed into Wiki, you may begin posting your reflections as well as your response(s) to another student under my name. If you wish you may link to your name as you add lesson plans or other neat items under your name that you wish to share with others!

For both this fall semester as well as in the spring, please post the following: (1) a successful lesson, (2) an unsuccessful lesson, and (3) one that you may have made adjustments to along the way or throughout the day as it was replicated. Also, (4) please respond to at least one other student’s posting. Due dates for the three reflections are September 25th (deadline extended from September 19th), October 17th, and November 14th. You may submit these reflections in any order that you wish. You may post the response to another student’s posting at any time by or before December 2nd.

When posting your reflections, please answer the questions in the order that are listed on the Wiki/course syllabus. Also, please let me know if your reflection is a SUCCESSFUL, UNSUCCESSFUL, OR ADJUSTED lesson, so I can give you the appropriate credit. Remember, there is no format for your response to another student’s posting – just comment on their reflection!

Hope all is going well for you. I look forward to seeing each of you in the next couple of weeks for your first observation and conference. Until then, don’t hesitate to email or call (770) 919-1072  begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (770) 919-1072  end_of_the_skype_highlighting    begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (770) 919-1072   end_of_the_skype_highlighting  home or (770) 401-0291 <span class="skype_pnh_container"><span class="skype_pnh_mark"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_highlighting_inactive_common"><span class="skype_pnh_textarea_span"><span class="skype_pnh_text_span">(770) 401-0291   <span class="skype_pnh_mark">end_of_the_skype_highlighting   <span class="skype_pnh_container"><span class="skype_pnh_mark"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_highlighting_inactive_common"><span class="skype_pnh_textarea_span"><span class="skype_pnh_text_span">(770) 401-0291   <span class="skype_pnh_mark">end_of_the_skype_highlighting  cell, if you have questions, concerns, or just need to chat about your internship!

Most Sincerely,

Dr. Cheryl Hunt Clements


 * 9/21: Kim's adjusted lesson**

1. What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? For my first lesson on Tuesday, I went over an “Anticipation Guide,” a pre-reading assignment for the novel we are reading in class, //The Cay.// It is designed to help students generate predictions about the text and build excitement to begin reading, and each question relates the future events of the text (blindness, being separated from parents, surviving on an island) to the students’ real lives. In its original format, the lesson is designed as just a worksheet for the students to complete individually, but I decided to turn it into a hybrid full-class/small-group activity. We would discuss the first two questions as a group, then I would divide the class into eight groups of four, we would move into the other workspace (we have an extra attached classroom set up for group work) where students in each group would work individually to answer one of the eight additional questions on their own. After working individually, each group would share their answers with one another and nominate one person to share the best answer with the rest of class. At the end of the period, each student would have heard an answer to each question, I would post each class’s answers to the blog, and they would have enjoyed time discussing their ideas related to the novel’s plot. My goal was to generate discussion related to the text, build the students’ interest in the novel, and give us a good starting point for reading the book.

2. Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? I felt that I was successful in reaching my goals. The students participated very well with the full-group discussion, and were willing to make predictions about the text based on the title and cover images. They also generated good ideas and answers to the questions for the small groups, and most were good about staying on task.

3. What specifically went well with your lesson? Even with its adjustments, this lesson worked well to build the students’ anticipation about the text. Multiple students asked if we could start reading the book that day, and they all came into class on Wednesday excited to begin reading.

4. What did not go well with your lesson? Why? One of the big problems I ran into was noise control. The kids were more than willing to work in groups, but doing so quietly seemed nearly impossible for them to handle. My first period, usually my quietest class, was extremely talkative, though they were good about bringing the volume down (temporarily) when instructed to do so. Based on these observations, I decided to change how I gave the class instructions for the lesson. In first period, I gave instructions after the students had moved into the other room. They were very chatty and distracted by the new environment, and found it difficult to listen to my instructions. Thus, the group work section did not flow as easily as I had expected. For second period, I gave instructions before students moved; students were quieter and more focused, which gave them a better understanding of the group work activity. I was pleased with how second period responded to the group work, as they did better with following directions. However, I still had problems with the noise level, and this group was less willing to quiet down when instructed to do so.

5. What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? My third period class is the chattiest of all, so when it came time to do the group work activity, I decided to restructure the lesson. Rather than moving into the other room, I kept the class together, assigned different segments of the class different questions to answer, which they then did individually. When it came time to share, I would call on two to three students per desk area rather than one per group. Though students did not have time to share their answers with their group before sharing with the class, I thought this worked the best. The rest of the class was able to hear more answers per question topic, the class as a whole stayed on task, and I was able to control the noise level much easier.

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 fit into the unit as an anticipation-building activity. Because we had spent so much time discussing the potential themes and topics of //The Cay//, students had more success following along with the plot and had a better general understanding of the significance of major events. They no longer saw the text as just a story about a boy who was separated from his parents; they identified with the boy, seeing his struggle as their own. They were more willing to participate in discussions about the text, and were absorbed in the story itself.

7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? This lesson reflected some Best Practices teaching theories, as reflected through the social, collaborative nature of the group work. Had I assigned this worksheet as it was originally designed, students would have worked individually and silently, only hearing other points of view if I asked students to share some of their answers. With the modifications I made to the worksheet, students spent time in small groups discussing their ideas and points of view, modeling the principles of a democracy by voting for the best response within their small groups, and taking part in an active learning environment.

8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? Assuming I teach //The Cay// again in my career, I look forward to teaching this lesson again. I still feel like I need to work on a way to organize the group work so as to control noise level, but that might be improved with age level and more structure. Even if I do not come across another opportunity to teach //The Cay//, I would want to create a similar lesson for each novel I do use. It works well to generate discussion about and anticipation for the novel; if I can make my students excited to read, it is a success in my book.

// 1. What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? // My original intent or goal for this lesson was to transition from our previous discussions on descriptive/sensory writing into the students' first major writing assessment, the Personal Narrative. This particular lesson was the introduction to the potential writing topics my students could chose from and was intended to help them begin their prewriting/brainstorming phase in the writing process.
 * 9/21 Jenna's "Unsuccessful" Lesson:**

// 2. Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? // I believe I was successful in reaching this goal as we did cover the different topics and the students did begin their prewriting stage of their Narrative pieces. I do, however, believe I could have accomplished this goal in a more effective manner.

// 3. What specifically went well with your lesson? // I began the lesson by leading a discussion of the Warm-up activity the students had begun working on when they entered the classroom. For this Warm-Up, the students were to take three simple sentences, each of which stated an emotion, and give particular actions to SHOW the emotional experience. A sample sentence was "I couldn't sleep." By soliciting students to share their list of actions, I was able to point out the strengths and weaknesses of certain answers, making it clear what actions truly painted a picture of the emotion and which ones fell a bit flat in descriptive power. I believe I was successful in eliciting a greater understanding of the power of descriptive details in some students who did not give adequate answers to the warm-up prompt as I helped them draw on their own physical reactions to being unable to sleep, hungry, etc, which they were then able to apply more successfully to the warm-up prompts. Some students, I noted, went above and beyond the assignment, giving me an entire paragraph or a whole scene depicting the chosen emotion. In this way, I was able to formatively assess which students were grasping the "Show, Don't Tell" mantra and which ones needed further guidance. This part of the lesson went remarkably well, so we moved on to the main task of the day: introducing and discussing the options for their Narrative Writing essays they would begin brainstorming that day.

// 4. What did not go well with your lesson? Why? // As I was shadowing my CT for this lesson, I had already observed her deliver the directions to the 4th period class and noted their seemingly immediate understanding and grasp of the different prompts and the expectations for the essay. There were three prompts given: "Memory Map" (detailing a memory recalled from your childhood neighborhood/house), "Map of My Heart" (detailing a person, place, thing, or idea of great importance to you), and "Show and Tell" (describing and explaining an object that is of great importance to you). While these are very basic descriptions of the assignments, they give a sense of the assignment and the freedom of topic that these prompts inspired for the students. After passing out a copy of all three prompts to each student, I began to emulate my instruction after how I had witnessed by my CT deliver it, but found that after I had explained each topic and the overarching expectations for the final product, I had almost every hand go up in the air as I moved about the classroom answering questions. Many of the questions were the same or similar in nature and I realized that I had failed to provide them enough of a model or an ample amount of examples as to how the prompts could be approached. I addressed some of the similar questions aloud, calling everyone's attention to the issue and making sure to resolve it for all those who had the same question, but still found that the students in this class period did not grasp the freedom they were being given in choice of topic quite like the previous period had done. I realized, upon conferring with my CT later, that the 5th period students simply needed the instruction to be approached in a different, more in-depth manner than the 4th period. We discussed how the techniques that work in one group of students fall flat with another and how you have to adapt your teaching strategy according to which set of students you are instructing, which become increasing more habitual as you learn your students and get a feel for how the different classes accept or struggle with a particular assignment. My CT assured me that even she has this problem at the beginning of the year as she is unaware of the particular needs of each class until she has used trial and error several times.

I came to learn that 5th period struggled with the assignment because I had failed to make it concrete for them. They needed me to demonstrate how to draw the neighborhood map on the board. They needed me to show them how simple the lines could be, how uncomplicated we expected the brainstorming drawings to be, and they needed me to emphasize that it was the final product, NOT the prewriting drawings that were most important in terms of complexity and completeness. I noted that most students spent the entire class period on this prewriting phase, either not making the most of their time by talking/being off-task, or because they were busy embellishing and coloring their drawings. Only a handful of students actually began their drafts during this lesson and therefore those students remained behind during class on Friday as well, a problem I should have foreseen.

// 5. What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? // In the future I will ensure that I give explicit, CLEAR instructions and examples BEFORE setting the students loose on the assignment as it was also clear that once the students had been given the assignment they did not readily heed any of the additional instructions I interrupted them, those issues that I discovered with my initial presentation of the narrative essay options while assisting the individual students.

// 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? // We had been transitioning into the Narrative Writing unit for a few days, using Warm-Up activities like the one I detailed above, and had given the students several creative group-writing activities working with nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, as well as a Popcorn Writing activity on sensory details. The students had taken notes and a brief quiz on the 6+1 Traits of Writing (ideas/content, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, and conventions). We were now ready to have the students move towards their first major writing assignment of the class in order to assess their understanding of these aspects of narrative writing.

// 7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? // The "Memory Map" option was adapted from a writing assignment I was given this summer in Dr. Levy's ENGL 7735 course that was met with great success by myself and my fellow students. The original assignment was created by Lynn G. Nelson, an educator and writer, and can be found in his book //Writing and Being//. Over the summer, we were encouraged over and over to use this prompt, and others like it, in our classrooms and it was my suggestion during the planning for this unit that we include it as an option. Nelson believes that teaching writing can avoid and prevent violence, and he is a great proponent of writing "from the heart"--telling and sharing our personal stories to provide catharsis.

// 8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? // I will certainly use this aspects of this lesson again, but will be sure to give explicit instructions upfront on what I am expecting from their brainstorming maps, even sharing my own map and final "Memory Map" piece with my students so they have a model to refer to. I believe that it is fair to rest a decent amount of blame for the unsuccessful aspects of this lesson on the construction of the different essay-topic options themselves as most of the student's questions dealt with technical aspects of what the prompt was asking them to do. The "Show and Tell" prompt was especially difficult for them and seemed to be attractive to the students who ended up behind on their drafting and revision stages as they spent a great deal of time on their drawings of their chosen objects. This particular prompt had been discovered on a website by my CT and she was copied verbatim onto the assignment sheet for the students, and I cannot help but believe that we should have anticipated some issues with its contents. I also believe that while we thought we were doing the children a service by providing them with three separate options for the essay, it might have been less problematic to assign ONE prompt, the "Memory Map," for example, which is entirely open-ended by nature. I feel now that if we had done this we would have been able to explain the assignment more fully, had far less questions, and perhaps been able to spend more time giving quality feedback and conferences with the students during their writing process, unhindered by the flood of separate, unrelated types of questions that each individual prompt seemed to inspire. I also think that perhaps the fact we gave students so many options could have overwhelmed them. There were so many decisions for them to make during that one class period: Which prompt do I want to chose? What memory/object/aspect of my heart can I write the best narrative essay on? How do I draw my neighborhood/object/heart? Essentially, I think we did ourselves a disservice offering so many options to the students. The students who chose to write the "Show and Tell" essay seem to have the weaker essays, across the board in the two classes. The other two prompts seemed to have spawned more creative and inspired writing as the memories are more vivid and descriptive details (a major component of our grading rubric) were utilized to a greater effect. Above all, however, I stand by the effectiveness of Nelson's theory and, by association, the "Memory Map" assignment, as I believe that the students embraced this topic with enthusiasm and creativity.

1. What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? The goal was to increase student awareness of adjectives as a method of improving their narrative essays. The previous day, the CT had introduced adjectives and at the end of that lesson, the students had to show basic understanding of the concept by producing a non-color adjective as a ‘ticket out the door.’This lesson involved a role-playing exercise. I brought in a number of “mystery bags” filled with various items “belonging” to a fictional missing person. The students were divided into groups of three and drew numbers to dictate what order their group could choose their “case” file. Pretending that they were the detectives on the missing person’s bureau, each group “signed out the case file from the evidence locker” – i.e. chose a bag - opened it and brainstormed for clues to the identity of the missing person, using only those items in the bag as evidence. After that initial session, they were asked to write down ideas that all members of the group could agree on concerning the age range, possible sex, particular interests, hobbies and so forth and any other identifying information (using adjectives as descriptors) that might held the police department find the person and solve the case. 2. Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? Based on the scores from the previous day’s homework assignment, where the average percentage of right answers was about 65%, the students’ understanding of what sorts of words are adjectives seems to have improved. This was a mini-lesson, which did not allow for immediate assessment since we are only in day two of a week-long series of lessons on adjectives and their uses in writing. However, I did have them write in their journals as a group and then checked the group leader’s journals to get an idea of their notations. Reading through these was very interesting, to say the least! 3. What specifically went well with your lesson? I think the kids had a lot of fun with their alter egos for the day! They seemed to be very excited about trying to guess who this missing person might be – after they got past the idea that there was no right answer. I think that so often teachers produce lessons where there IS a right and a wrong answer, so by the time they get to the sixth grade it is ingrained in them to look for a fill-in-the-blank so they can move on. I was specifically designing a lesson that required them to think outside the box – to think WAY outside the box into unfamiliar territory and I have to say I think they rose to the occasion beautifully. 4. What did not go well with your lesson? Why? There was, quite honestly, not nearly enough time to do this exercise justice. This class period is interrupted by lunch, which I thought might be an asset if it meant that they spent time during lunch discussing who their person might be, like “real” detectives. Based on feedback from the students and from their teacher, I think in some cases, this may have been the case. So, that was fine, but from the point of view of having interesting sidelines and tangents come up, it was frustrating not to be able to devote more time to exploring what real police departments actually do when they are looking for a lost person. 5. What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? Actually, this was a success of a sort. One of the students mentioned that she got it and then excitedly told her group that this was like an Amber Alert on the highway. I then said that “yes,” that was right. Police departments need very accurate information from witnesses who have actually seen a person abducted or have seen the getaway car, but in this case, no one appears to have seen anything. All we are left with is the missing person’s bag. Alas. But we can and should produce Wanted and Missing Persons posters, which would help the police get the word out.While they were at lunch, I went to the media center and cut poster sized paper, got out sharpies and had the tables set up when the kids got back to the classroom; in that respect, it was great that they were gone for a time in the middle of the lesson, because I would not have been able to adjust the lesson I had planned to include this little tangent if that had not been the case.As I say, I do wish there had been more time, but during the remaining ten minutes or so of class, they wrote out their posters, using as many descriptive words as possible. At this age they tend to just mimic other voices, but at least there were not as many nouns or adverbs shouted out as there had been the previous day!!Honestly, I think I would have actual posters on hand the next time with a spot for the cartoon/image of the missing person. That way I could bridge this lesson into the next one coming up the first of this week on media literacy and the use of adjectives by the print marketing companies.I also think that having an actual timer with a bell that dings would be more effective with this age group. I will find one that clicks off time before the next observation. 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? Since we have been doing a unit on parts of speech, over the course of about six weeks, we have gone through nouns and pronouns, verbs and now adjectives. We have done predicate nominatives and predicate adjectives, piggybacking on the lesson from Thursday. We are also doing narrative writing and photo stories, so the grammar and the writing tie in together in a tangible way.The next phase will be adverbs and then direct objects and indirect objects; since those are nouns as well, this part should go well. We are expecting to start expository writing about BUGS a week from Monday, which should be a wild experience with eleven year olds. My CT says that she has found that basing this upcoming unit on something creepy and yet thrilling has produced some crazy writing in the past, so I look forward to it. 7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? By using active participation in a task, combined with a group collaborative approach to problem-solving, the lesson hit a lot of the principals we have been studying. It was my intention that by framing the task in such a way that the students bought into the urgency of the assignment at hand, they would see that they were doing the community a great service in using their deductive reasoning skills to find some unfortunate, lost person! 8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? Yes, I think that this one is a keeper. It was hysterically funny to see one group declare, within about four minutes of opening their bag, that their lady was OLD, really, really OLD and to describe her as “somewhere between 65 and 72 (apparently the limit before one goes into ANCIENT territory), with cats (due to the box top for cat food found in her bag), interested in crochet (book and hooks found in the bag) and really tired.” When I questioned that last part, one young lady said, “of course she is tired. She has a magazine for a retirement home right here in her purse!” Priceless. ||
 * || [|hembreee] Sep 24, 2011 5:13 pm Reflection Assignment (Three Postings): ADJUSTED LESSON


 * 9/25: Amy's Adjusted Lesson:**

1. What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? This lesson occurred on Wednesday and the original goal for this lesson was to help students understand the final revision process. During the previous weeks leading up to this lesson students had been through several steps that were designed to help them create better narrative pieces of writing. This was the final step before they typed the final draft of their narrative stories. This lesson was supposed to guide and allow them time to prepare their papers for submission for a final grade.

2. Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? I believe in the end I was successful in reaching the goal, however I did make an adjustment in the period. Overall, the students responded to the prompts and reminders of what they had previously worked on in their stories and spent time analyzing their writing. They did a good job of understanding that this was the last time they would be able to work on this in class and the final draft would be due in two class periods. Most students were ready by the end of class to go to the computer lab the next day and type their papers. However, the real success will not be known until the final papers are compared to the rough drafts and it is noted whether or not they really revised their papers.

3. What specifically went well with your lesson? This was a lesson that I taught in 5th period after first watching my CT model it in 4th period. I think having three specific ideas for them to consider when they read back through their papers was a good way to give them focus. They were to look for the similes/metaphors they were required to have, the hook at the beginning, and their use of specific kinds of verbs. At the end of the class they were asked to raise their hands and share what they had revised or worked on during the period. I think this was a good point because it helped them hear from each other the sort of things they should be looking for and it encouraged them to keep trying to improve their writing.

4. What did not go well with your lesson? Why? While it helped to give them time to revise and even specific elements to look for, it was challenging to keep up with the number of people who wanted help with certain parts of their papers. I wanted to give each student with a question an equal amount of time and help, but it was hard to manage time. Also, while the 4th period had stayed on task during for the entire class time. The 5th period began to lose focus with time still left in class. It turned out to not only be challenging to give everyone individual attention but to also keep the class quiet. I found myself torn between helping students and staying on top of classroom management.

5. What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? The biggest adjustment I made to the lesson in the 5th period was to add an element of peer revision. When I noticed that many students were off task or thought their paper was finished, I decided to have them switch with a partner. They read their neighbor’s stories and then gave them feedback. This was not in the original lesson and it was a quick decision to have them pair up. I think it helped the students refocus during the last 10 minutes of class. I think I would have them do something like this again. Most of the students seemed eager to share their stories and help their neighbors. It also switched up the atmosphere of the classroom and made the revising more cooperative rather than just individual. However, it was difficult creating this element on the fly because I know it could have been explained more clearly and precisely. If I were to do this again I would direct them better on whom to switch with and be specific on the types of comments they should share with their peers.

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 was at the end of a unit on narrative writing. It was the second to last element before the students handed in a final story they had spent weeks working on. It took several elements and literary terms they had been learning and required them to put them into practice. It was also the last step in their rough draft/revision process. I think this lesson had been scaffold throughout the whole assignment and was the culmination of their time working on these stories. I’m sure this lesson will come up again when they move on to another mode of writing. I think these concepts and practices will only build as the year goes on and they continue to learn how to write and rewrite.

7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? While my adjustment was not part of the original lesson I thought it would be beneficial based on the ideas I learned in Dr. Levy’s Engl 7735 class where we work shopped pieces of our own writing with our peers. Sharing the revision process and peer feedback really helped me in my writing and I believed it would help the 5th period class as well.

8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? I would use this lesson again. However, I would put the peer review element in from the beginning and do a better job of structuring it. Overall though, I think having a specific and structured time set aside for preparing a paper for the final draft is a beneficial element in helping students not only understand but put into practice the writing process.


 * 9/25: Mary Kleparek Yoder/ Adjusted Lesson/ 1st Reflection**

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


 * To teach students the specific structures of formula poems. The formula poems included a triplet, quatrain, cinquain, diamonte, and a haiku. A worksheet was provided that explained the guidelines for each formula poem…For example, the sheet described a haiku as 1) A poem with three lines and 2) Most often all three lines rhyme. Lastly, examples were written on the board. **

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


 * Yes. However, I probably should have spent a little more time explaining the guidelines surrounding the diamonte poem. The first two classes had more questions about this particular poem structure than any other. **

3. What specifically went well with your lesson?


 * I related these poetry exercises to music, which seemed to encourage the class. I told them to have fun and experiment with words (I encouraged use of the thesaurus frequently), but to still follow the rules of structure…like the correct amount of syllables for each line, or the appropriate rhyming scheme, etc. I provided an example for each formula poem, which helped tremendously. **

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


 * Once again, the diamonte poem concept proved to be a challenge for many of my 6th graders. Although an example was provided, they still struggled. Unlike the other formulas poems, this one explored opposites. In their eyes, this required another step, which, perhaps, resulted in some intimidation. **

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


 * I explained the goal of the poem a couple of times and wrote out a simpler example on the board (next to the previous). I chose a “Night” and “Day” example, which students understood and loved! I reassured the other classes in telling them that other students had struggled with this formula poem, and that it was okay if it wasn’t correct the first time. This particular session was a time for practice and correction. **


 * This exercise also required that students use gerunds for two of the lines. Since students had continued to ask me what these were, I simply explained the “verb-ing” feature and its usage. Just like adults, kids need reminders. **

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 is beneficial simply because it allows students to practice with poetic structure, vocabulary combinations, unique phrasing, and above all, creativity. The lesson following this one is yet another poetry assignment, that being the “I am” poem. Students will choose one of three “I am” poem activities and complete them. This task, unlike the formula poem exercises, requires more individual thought and technique. Students aren’t just filling in a series of spaces with words, but actually writing out complete thoughts. At this point, students should have a stronger understanding of words and their impact in poetry. **

7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?


 * According to Burke’s __The English Teacher’s Companion__, poems “help us place ourselves in the world in relation to others. Mostly, however, they give us a different way of thinking about things” (203). I certainly agree with this notion, and feel it necessary to implement a series of poetry lessons into my curriculum. Some students may struggle with self-expression, and this is just one way of showing them how writing can help us see others more vividly, whether those be real individuals or characters in a class text. More importantly, they can discover something about themselves and their craft. **

8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?


 * Of course! I know now to be a little more careful in my description of the diamonte poem, and to explain the definition of a gerund should more questions arise. I love poetry, and believe it to be a necessary component in language arts because it not only addresses a student’s skill to read and write, but also their ability to speak (reading the poem aloud with classmates), listen (listening while others share), and view others’ works (observing how other students structure their poetry pieces).**


 * Barbara McClure- Unsuccessful Lesson**

Grade Six 1. What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? The purpose of this lesson was to teach students how to begin pre-writing by using neighborhood maps.

2. Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? Ultimately, I felt that I bungled this lesson and ended up having to re-explain it individually to a majority of the students.

3. What specifically went well with your lesson? The lesson was not a complete disaster. The students were engaged and focused. As I drew my own neighborhood map on the overhead, they paid attention and asked questions. Sometimes getting the students to pay attention is the hardest part but I did not struggle with that in this lesson.

4. What did not go well with your lesson? Why? Once I was done exhibiting a neighborhood map, I asked the students to make their own. At this point, I realized that things had not gone well. More than 2/3 of the class was confused about what to do. I did not really understand it as I had showed them how exactly how to do it. In reflecting on the lesson, I realize that I gave them too much information. Rather than asking them to simply draw a map and label interesting things that happened there, I told them that we were going to create the map in order to write personal narratives. The students, who were new to pre-writing exercises, thought that they should just start writing stories. For the rest of the class period, as I walked around the room, I had to individually explain the idea and assignment all over again.

5. What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? There are two things that I feel could have made this experience more successful. The first option is that I could have just given the assignment without explaining its future use. That is what my CT did in the other two classes. The students could not handle the amount of information I gave them because they had not experience or understanding of pre-writing. The method I would have preferred is to give a brief lesson on what pre-writing is. I did not know that the students were unfamiliar with the concept. I think that pre-writing is an important part of the writing process and would have liked to explain the concept to them before beginning the use of the map.

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 came at the very beginning of the lesson on narrative writing. We briefly explained what a personal narrative was and then began creating the maps. The lesson scaffolds well into the next lesson because it is used to begin writing their personal narrative. This is a way for them to come up with ideas for their piece of writing.

7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? This project is tied to the Personal Narrative project. They will use the neighborhood map to come up with ideas to create personal narratives. It’s also tied to the principle of pre-writing and the importance of brainstorming before you write.

8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? I will use this lesson again. As I said earlier, the students were engaged throughout the lesson. In addition, once I re-explained how to make the maps, they were excited and enjoyed doing it. It’s also a good way to introduce pre-writing to students who have no experience with it. Finally, I think that drawing from these childhood memories gets them excited about writing.

My intent for this lesson was to help my students learn how to revise their expository rough drafts by varying sentence structure/length, using action verbs, and including suitable levels of description. I also hoped to clear up student confusion about the different sentence structure and how action verbs function differently than state-of-being verbs.
 * 10/8: Kim's Successful Lesson**
 * 1) // What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? //

I think that I was very successful in reaching this goal. My students were asking all of the right questions during their workshop time, and worked very hard on adding description to their rough drafts. Many of them did not realize how vague their directions were, and my warm up activity helped them see how necessary description is for a how to piece.
 * 1) // Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? //

My warm up activity went really well. I began the lesson with having two students try to put my saddle back together, one following vague directions written for an expert in the field, and the other following directions written for a beginner. Students were engaged and excited, and could not wait to watch their peers try to complete the set of directions. There was a great sense of camaraderie in the room, and I have never seen these kids so involved in a lesson. Additionally, my worksheet worked really well to keep the workshop time structured, and gave students a list of what exactly they should be looking for in their writing. They were able to complete much of the assignment on their own with little guidance from me, which gave me plenty of time to help students who were struggling with different concepts. I caught many students answering their peers’ questions as well. In one class, there was a group of girls who were vetting their verbs together. They would ask one another whether the verb was active or not, and were having a great discussion about what makes a verb active. In another, students were helping each other fill out the worksheet, answering each other’s questions about the directions for the assignment itself. This class in particular is usually bad about asking me the same questions over and over again about how to complete an assignment, and seeing them working together and answering each other’s questions was a huge victory for me.
 * 1) // What specifically went well with your lesson? //

To be honest, I cannot pick out something that did not go well. Initially, I was concerned that so many students had questions during the workshop time, but I found that all the students were asking really great questions about the structure of their papers – asking whether this sentence would work better with a this or that structure, whether this verb was better than the other, etc. These classes rarely ask questions about the content, and I was pleased to see them caring about sentence structure and wanting to understand what the difference was between compound and complex sentences. One girl even found a compound-complex sentence in her paper (a structure we haven’t covered yet), and she had great questions about what structure that particular sentence would fit under.
 * 1) // What did not go well with your lesson? Why? //

As the day went by, I started to wrap up the students’ workshop time a little earlier. In the first class, I let them workshop until the bell, and it started to get wild toward the end. Students were finishing their work early, and had little to occupy them. When I brought the class back together earlier, the students felt a sense of urgency, and worked diligently during the workshop time, then contributed well to our discussion at the end of class about trends they found in their papers. This structure worked well in the last class as well.
 * 1) // What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? //

This lesson fit really well into our unit. Students had been working on writing their rough drafts for the past three days, and we had taught a mini lesson about action and state-of-being verbs earlier in the week. This activity pushed students to look at their rough drafts with a critical eye as well as put new concepts into use.
 * 1) // How does this lesson find its way into your unit and how well does this lesson scaffold and/or integrate into the next lesson? //

I touched on a concept from Noden’s chapter about rhythm in writing in our opening activity. I read the paragraph from pg. 56 (“This sentence has five words. This is five words too) to the class, and had a really good discussion about how varying sentence structure can add interest and music to a piece of writing. My students had never looked at sentence structure in this manner, and they seemed to really understand it with this example. We also looked at the verbs in the sentence, and the students saw how action verbs add so much more dimension and life to writing than state-of-being verbs.
 * 1) // What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? //

I absolutely will use this lesson again, preferably as soon and often as possible. This lesson would work really well with persuasive and narrative essays (as I had originally written it to use with our narrative unit). My students seemed to really understand these potentially scary concepts when presented in this manner, and I loved seeing them work so diligently to improve their writing.
 * 1) // Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? //

=Elesa's 2nd reflection - UNsuccessful lesson=

So, in view of this new information, I will now say that this first brush at poetry, teaching Shel Silverstein's numerous poems, was not nearly as successful as I had originally thought. Fortunately, I now have a better grasp on what IS successful with respect to a well-planned poetry unit. 1. What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? This was the introductory lesson for the poetry unit I will be teaching over the next three weeks. I decided to do a series of interactive lessons based on the poetry of Shel Silverstein, a poet the CT says this age-group has reacted well to in past years. I started with a reading of The Romance, which involves an unlikely pairing between an elephant and a pelican, who marry simply because neither of them has another animal whose name rhymes with their own. Odd, but appealing to sixth graders. The ending always gets a laugh when the kids realize that the offspring is…drumroll…a pellicant! So now each parent does have another animal that rhymes with it!The goal was a simple one: to introduce the children to poetry and to find out what they already know about poetry in general, so that the CT and I can tailor the lessons we have prepared for this unit to cover more ground depending on the current knowledge base of the students. 2. Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? I do think the lesson itself was had **moments of success**. Using the KWL format (asking the students what they already Know about poetry, what they Want to know about poetry and reserving what they have Learned about poetry for the end of the lesson or unit), I found that many of them already know that poems can either rhyme or not, that there are such things as free verse and that there are rhyme schemes, ABAB, ABABCDCD and so forth that are often found in rhyming poetry. They are universally familiar with Shel Silverstein and some of them knew that he died in 1999, roughly around the time they were born. They can name several of his books – A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Falling Up.Overall, I think I was successful in the introductory phase of the poetry lesson. 3. What specifically went well with your lesson? This class is formatted to have about a half hour mini-lesson, interrupted by lunch, and then we resume for another forty-five to fifty minutes, depending on the day. We had just enough time before lunch to read The Romance, twice, talk about the rhyme scheme and identify the words at the end of each line that do rhyme. We also had time to show contemporary poet, Kevin Young, []) reading his poem ‘Aunties”, which does not rhyme, but circles back upon itself to end where it started, with his Aunt clutching her purse, this time at the Pearly Gates, clutching said purse…just in case.After lunch we went on to two other Silverstein poems. The first was Jimmy Jet and his TV Set. I read that one slowly and deliberately so they could HEAR the poetry, rhyme by rhyme. I then read it faster, asking that they notice the musical qualities the poet was after, and then finally we read it together in choral reading style. I then asked them to think about what all of this meant to poor Jimmy Jet! They had interesting questions about some of the finer points in the poem: what is ‘vert’ and ‘horiz’, what is an ‘antennae’ and what are tubes? I likened the old tv sets to an Etch-a-sketch toy, which they are all familiar with. All of this did go well and I was left being grateful for some unknown group of fifth grade teachers who have apparently done a good job of paving the way for these middle-school students to learn poetry! 4. What did not go well with your lesson? Why? When we returned from lunch, we talked again about rhyming and I gave them a worksheet of rhyming words to fill out. This was not specifically assigned for homework, so we will have to get back to it later in the unit when the other classes do this exercise. I feel that I did not allow enough time for this part of the lesson and since it will not be collected or graded, the students may feel that this was a waste of time. I need to remember that unless there is a purpose to an exercise, it may be best left out of the lesson plan!I had planned to read another Silverstein poem – //The Crocodile and the Dentist//, focusing on reading it first myself, then reading as a group chorally and then showing them a clip available online. Unfortunately, the class computers had been removed the day before, a school holiday, and the new ones had not yet been delivered, so any computer activity was simply not possible. I also discovered that even though I had copied the video onto a thumb drive, it originated with YouTube and was, therefore, blocked by the school servers, so no //Crocodile and the Dentist!// Another thing that went particularly WRONG also had to do with the lack of computers.This particular group needs interactive learning, in my opinion, so I had prepared a series of fun web addresses for them to play with rhyming patterns, making their own poems and with games involving being able to recognize obscure words that rhyme. Since we are apparently in the middle of a computer upgrade, all of the classroom computers had been removed the previous day during the Columbus Day holiday, so none of that was remotely possible. 5. What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? Once I got to school Tuesday morning and realized that there would be no computer access, I immediately went to Plan B mode and fell back to what I would rather NOT do: make worksheets on the school copiers. Although I had a stack of these things with activities ranging from having the students write their own poem in the shape of a camel (fun!!) to two lessons on the differences between homophones and homonyms, the CT advised that since this was the introductory lesson, we might want to hold off on technical jargon for a few days until we could assess where they are in terms of prior knowledge. Going through the KWL process, it did appear that they know more than I would have given them credit for, which is terrific. Since I really do not like worksheets much at all, I decided to focus instead on leading discussions about the various techniques the two poets we had looked at so far have used – Silverstein with his conventional ABAB rhyming pattern, contrasted with Kevin Young’s ‘Aunties’ poem that does not seem to rhyme at all. The following day, we introduced this same group of poems to the first and second periods. The questions from that group were much more intuitive and so the CT drew an old-fashioned television set, complete with rabbit ears by way of explanation. Using the analogy about the Etch-a-sketch again, we expanded on the explanation of the vertical and horizontal knobs; one child asked where the volume switch was and whether they had remotes and expressed disbelief when the CT and I told them that we were their age before we had color television sets in our homes, and then only the one set! Reading over the Supervisor’s feedback, as well, I realized that I had missed several good opportunities to link the educational background of Kevin Young with President Obama – they share an alma mater at Harvard. The idea is always to point out that people who look just like you can and have gone on to the great colleges and universities in this country – and you can too! But first you have to do well in my English class!!! 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? Since we are on a three week unit on poetry and figurative language, and since this is the introductory lesson, it provided merely an assessment opportunity and a stepping stone to later lessons. We will be having them bring in their own poetry examples, both self-written and scoured from other sources. We will be tying the vocabulary they learned in the narrative writing unit we just went through with the additional terms associated with poetry – such as rhyme scheme, rhythm, meter, stanza, tone and mood. Although we are just at the beginning, it is a good start, I think and the students really seemed to enjoy the change of pace.I would like to bring in examples of music so that they can come to understand and appreciate the correlation between music and poetry – in many instances they are one and the same. In an age of the auditory and the visual, it may become important for students to learn to assess entertainment realistically and not know what appeals to them about a particular song or artist. 7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? The focus of this unit revolves around the Essential Question: how do experiences in life serve as a foundation for creative and expressive writing and thinking? We are just at the beginning of the Poetry Unit, but the lessons we have planned involve quite a bit of reading various types of poetry, from lullabies to social commentary by rappers to visual imagery involving nature. I have used Noden's //Image Grammar,// as well as some of the ideas in Blasingame's //Teaching and Writing// manual to structure activities around the sixth grade mind-set and to make learning poetry fun! 8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? Yes, I would definitely use the poetry of Shel Silverstein again. Although not initially a fan of his work, when my own children were in middle school, he does grow on you after awhile, in a weird sort of way. As an added bonus, the children seemed to genuinely love his work, universally and across the board, regardless of reading and writing level. It is hard to find something that a hundred different kids really do like, so yes, I will use his collection again to introduce poetry.I will say that I think the educational establishment has made a mistake, however, in embracing so much of the modern poetry, to the exclusion of the classics. There is much to be said for having to memorize long ballads and although there is nothing particularly wrong with the short, funny poetry I see in the literature book, to find that Walt Whitman and Edna St Vincent Mallay and Robert Frost are no longer studied strikes me as sad.In my own classroom I could see introducing Ozmandias when the social studies teachers are doing units on the ancient Egyptians since many scholars think this referred to Ramses II. And as a classmate pointed out earlier this semester, my interpretation of Frost’s classic line “two paths diverged…” was not the interpretation his high school teachers taught. Am I right or are they right? Both. The beauty of poetry, as I relayed to the students, is that there is no right answer! ||
 * [[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/i/user_none_lg.jpg width="48" height="48" caption="hembreee" link="http://www.wikispaces.com/user/view/hembreee"]] || [|hembreee] Sunday, 8:13 pm Reflection Assignment SECOND POSTING – OCTOBER 16, 2011This is an example of an **unsuccessful lesson.**
 * re: Elesa's 2nd reflection - UN-successful lesson**[|hembreee] 9 minutes ago I had originally posted this as a successful lesson. However, after teaching poetry for nearly three weeks, and teaching a very successful lesson on Halloween this past Monday, using Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven as the core poem for the lesson, I realize now that I planned way too much for too short a time period, especially given the slow pace that this particular class absorbs material.
 * re: Elesa's 2nd reflection - UN-successful lesson**[|hembreee] 9 minutes ago I had originally posted this as a successful lesson. However, after teaching poetry for nearly three weeks, and teaching a very successful lesson on Halloween this past Monday, using Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven as the core poem for the lesson, I realize now that I planned way too much for too short a time period, especially given the slow pace that this particular class absorbs material.


 * 10/17: Mary Kleparek Yoder/ Successful Lesson/ 2nd Reflection **

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

To introduce a unit on adjectives, not to mention allow students to experiment with various descriptive words.

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

Given the amount of time, I do believe it was successful. In previous lessons, students had already explored a series of adjectives in order to complete their formula and “I am” poems. Most are familiar with this part of speech and its function. However, this lesson allowed them to strictly focus on this feature of grammar and to incorporate their own individual creativity and preference. Students were instructed to draw their ideal bedroom and list on notebook paper the items included in the illustration. They were then asked to provide a list of adjectives describing each bedroom item.

3) What specifically went well with your lesson?

The class was engaged and excited to create their “dream” bedroom. Beginning a lesson in this way lets the student know that their personal preference and innovation are crucial to the assignment. More importantly, they feel inclined to continue the activity and experiment with descriptions. I reminded them frequently that these words needed to draw a picture in my mind. I wanted to visualize their ideas. Descriptions bring these items to life.

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

I should have provided more examples on the whiteboard. I did provide a drawing and a few words to describe a dog bed. However, that may not have been enough. Although many of these students know what an adjective serves as, others still struggle with the concept. A couple of students were listing sentence fragments or nouns that simply came to mind, which, of course, wasn’t what I needed from them. I wanted single descriptive terms.

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

As the day progressed I listed more examples of adjectives on the whiteboard. I had to remind myself that this age group strongly relies on visuals for full comprehension and appreciation. They’re going to be reluctant to list anything if they’re not certain what the assignment directly entails. They know to draw out a bedroom, to name all of the objects included, and to list some descriptions. However, I needed to more properly demonstrate the type of descriptions required.

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?

Soon, students will be introduced to the narrative unit, in which they will be able to write and identify several different pieces of writing---narrative, persuasive, and expository. The use of adjectives is essential to all of these writing formats. My students are beginning to see the kind of impact descriptive words have in a poem, novel, play, or short story. Adjectives make writing more enjoyable and convincing.

7) What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

Since students are going to become familiar with narrative, persuasive, and expository writing in just a couple of weeks, they must know the importance of descriptive writing and how it can benefit the reader. __The English Teacher’s Companion__ includes a segment titled “Generate Words for Writing,” which states that “this works best with verbs, adjectives, or nouns…It is sometimes helpful to put up a picture on the overhead or show a clip from a video” (124). Having a student refer to a visual allows them to gradually work through this process of description. They can focus on one feature at a time.

8) Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

I will. I know now to give my students more examples of adjectives and which terms they apply to. I liked this activity because it engaged my students. I believe it stresses the importance of descriptive words and the role they play in all genres of writing.

Barbara's Response to Mary's Successful Lesson
I think that this is a very interesting way to teach adjectives. I like the idea of having students design their dream bedroom and using adjectives to help the teacher understand what that bedroom looks like.

Like you mentioned, I think that this is a really great introduction as students move into the writing unit in your classroom. I actually think that this could be a great pre-writing activity for an expository piece. Students could write a feature article about a child that won a contest to design their own dream bedroom. This article would have to include the creative adjectives that students used in their pre-writing.

I also think that it’s great that you explained to students that adjectives help readers visualize things in a book or poem. Students at this age are used to having to name adjectives and find them but they don’t seem to know what they are used for. This is a good introduction to the important of specific description in writing.

Finally, I totally understand your mistake of not giving students clear enough directions or enough examples. I have done this multiple times. An idea or assignment will be so clear in my head that I fail to clarify it enough for the students. Then I spend the rest of the class walking around re-explaining the directions to individual students. It makes me incredibly frustrated with myself but I also believe that it is something we will get better at with practice. Overall, Great Job!!


 * 10/17 Jenna Gerlach's ADJUSTED Lesson: Second Reflection **

What was your original intent or goal for this lesson?

My original intent or goal for this lesson was to teach an introductory lesson on modifiers. This lesson was part of our “Grammar Boot Camp” unit and was designed to get the students to think about the way that dangling and misplaced modifiers affect how a reader interprets the writer’s words and images. This lesson was designed to teach the concept of modifiers in the context of writing by encouraging the students to visualize the image created by the misplaced or dangling modifier and then recreate that image on a piece of construction paper. The students were then to locate the misplaced or dangling modifier and correct the sentence to reflect the author’s true intended meaning.

Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?

I was successful in reaching this goal. I used many examples and animations on my PowerPoint to engage the student and used humor to explain the false meanings created by the dangling or misplaced modifiers. The students seemed to enjoy the discussion and I could tell that the lesson made them think critically about the choices they make as a writer by their questioning and careful consideration of the example sentences. I asked for a volunteer to demonstrate how to illustrate the misplaced or dangling modifier which was a great way to get the students involved in the lecture and prepare them for the individual activity that accompanied the lesson. My 4th period (the first time I taught the lesson) grasped this concept very quickly and were eager to get to work on the activity. My 5th period, however, took a little more coaxing and therefore I resorted to diagramming a sentence on the board for them to see exactly why the modifier was misplaced or dangling. The 5th period students simply had a more difficult time understanding exactly WHY the modifier was said to be misplaced or dangling and so I figured they could see it more clearly if I took a more direct approach. These students aren’t as familiar with being taught grammar in the context of writing and therefore needed the more concrete, direct, and “traditional” approach to considering why a modifier was in its incorrect location in the sentence. I switched gears with this lesson for 5th period in order to ensure that they understood the concept properly.

What specifically went well with your lesson?

Specifically, this lesson inspired a lot of discussion on behalf of the whole class. The examples from the PPT made the students laugh and helped them to see the ridiculousness that is possible if you do not pay attention to where you place modifiers within a sentence. I was very pleased with the level of involvement and participation in the lesson and had a lot of great opportunities to talk about why writers make the choices that they make when it comes to crafting a sentence.

What did not go well with your lesson? Why?

In 4th period I allowed a little too much lag-time in between passing out the sentences for the activity we were doing and letting the students get to work. There was a two-minute span of time where the students began to get off-task because some of them had nothing to do. In 5th period I corrected this mistake and passed out the sentences in a different manner and made sure I had the other students on-task by giving them instructions to put their name, date, and period number on the top of their construction paper and to study their notes taken from the PPT before beginning on the activity.

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

In 5th period I made the choice to further explicate the concepts of modifiers beyond the original structure of the PPT examples and activity. I could see a fair amount of confusion on the students’ faces and made the decision to diagram an example sentence for them so that they could help to see the parts of speech that make up a standard sentence and why the modifier was indeed out of place in the context of the specific sentence. In the future I will ensure that I have given my students enough practice with exploring grammar in the context of writing to ensure that they understand how I am asking them to think. I am not confident that my CT had previously taught them much of the grammar in the context of writing and perhaps nor had their 6th grade teachers. Therefore, my activity was a little bit above some of their heads initially and they needed me to diagram the sentence so they could see why the modifier was misplaced/dangling in a more traditional manner that they were familiar with.

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 was one of several “Grammar Boot Camp” lessons we taught over the course of two weeks. The concept of modifiers was placed after the students had mastered the simple and compound sentence types and after they had achieved renewed understanding of the difference between independent and dependent clauses. The modifiers discussion was integrated into the next couple of lessons as we moved into complex and compound-complex sentence types. We knew that complex and compound-complex sentences would be a concept in which the students would have more of a tendency to use misplaced or dangling modifiers, so we wanted to integrate that understanding into the culmination of our grammar unit.

What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

For this lesson I used a synthesis of concepts and ideas from Noden’s //Image Grammar.// We read and discuss Noden extensively in Dr. Levy’s ENGL 7735 and 7750 courses. Noden stresses the importance of teaching grammar in the context of writing and that we should emphasize the visual quality of words and grammar to get the best results with students in terms of understanding the principles and laws of grammar.

Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

I loved teaching this lesson and will definitely use it again. I think that the students really began to understand the importance of using correct grammar in their writing and having the students illustrate the misplaced or dangling modifiers helped them to see, visually, how words create and define meaning.


 * 10/17: Barbara McClure's Second Reflection: A Successful Lesson**

The goal for this lesson was to teach the students to recognize and understand the elements of a narrative.
 * 1) What was your original intent or goal for this lesson?

I feel that I was successful in reaching this goal. The students can now not only name the elements of a narrative but recognize them in texts and are using these ideas as we do our novel study.
 * 1) Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?

The students were engaged with the text that I used to illustrate the elements of a narrative (//The Emperor’s New Clothes)//, they understood the metaphor that I used to explain plot (a roller coaster) and they completed the assignment for the day successfully.
 * 1) What specifically went well with your lesson?

This lesson was by far the most successful lesson I have taught. I don’t generally struggle with keeping the students engaged but I do sometimes have a hard time gauging whether they truly understand the concepts that I am trying to teach. With this lesson, I collected the assignment and have referred back to the concepts repeatedly and feel that they were both engaged and understood the concept.
 * 1) What did not go well with your lesson? Why?

The main adjustment that I would make to this lesson is when it was taught. The Friday before I taught the students about the elements of a narrative, they turned in personal narratives that they had been working on for a month. I have been reading and grading those narratives for the last couple of days. It is obvious that many of them did not consider ideas like plot, characterization and setting while constructing their narratives. In the future, I would teach elements of a narrative before a writing assignment rather than saving it for the beginning of a novel study.
 * 1) What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson?

This lesson was part of the introduction to our novel study. My class is reading __The BFG__ by Roald Dahl. Before we began reading, I taught this lesson so that they would know what to look for as we read. I also provided them with a graphic organizer to track the elements of a narrative for __The BFG__ as we read the novel.
 * 1) 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 is tied to our novel study. I am asking the students to construct a graphic novel retelling of the novel we are reading. This project requires that they understand the essential elements of a narrative. They are tracking these elements on a graphic organizer and then will retell them as a graphic novel or comic book.
 * 1) What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

I will definitely use this lesson again. Even though the students enjoyed //The Emperor’s New Clothes//, I may use a different text. I like the idea of using a short children’s book to highlight the elements for the students. However, it was very successful. The students enjoyed the explanation of plot as a roller coaster. They have been successful in finding the elements in the text we’re reading and I think that, next time they write a narrative, they will be better writers.
 * 1) Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

10/21: Amy's Second Reflection (Successful Lesson)


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

The goal for this lesson was to introduce students to the next unit on persuasion. The intent for this lesson was to have students begin to practice and attempt to construct a piece of writing where the purpose was to get what they want. This was an introductory piece, so the point was not show all the elements of a persuasive essay but to simple have students begin to think of what it means to persuade. This lesson was a take on the three little pigs story. First I explained that we would be starting a new unit on persuasion. Then I read the story, //The Real Story of the Three Little Pigs// out loud and then gave them the writing assignment. They were assigned the task of pretending to be one of the three little pigs and then write a letter to the Big Bad Wolf asking him to not come blow his or her house down.


 * 1) Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?

This goal was successfully reached because the students were engaged in the topic and produced pieces that reflected their understanding of what it means to write to get what you want. I think this lesson was also successful because it was a fun topic that did not intimidate or prohibit them from being creative. After reading the letters they wrote I had a better understanding of who understood what it meant to give reasons for what you want and how to communicate with a specific audience


 * 1) What specifically went well with your lesson?

This lesson was engaging for the students during each stage. They enjoyed the story, looking at the pictures, it held their attention, and once they realized they had the freedom to come up with any reasons they wanted for the wolf to not blow down the pig’s house they had fun creating their letters.


 * 1) What did not go well with your lesson? Why?

This lesson was a little confusing at first for some of the students in ¾. I had not spent enough time explaining how stories can be rewritten. This meant some of them were confused about how they could write to the wolf and ask him to not come blow their house down. I realized that I needed to spend more time explaining the assignment.


 * 1) What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson?

When I gave the assignment after reading the story in the ¾ class I did not explain well how stories can be re-written for different effects. When I did explain this more in the 5th period class it helped them grasp the idea that they had creative freedom to reimagining the little pig story and write a letter to the wolf. This little adjustment went a long way in helping them understand what I was expecting from them and how they could come up with what they would write in their letter.


 * 1) 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 is an introductory lesson in a new unit and it will tie into future lessons. After they complete this assignment, the students will learn in more detail about the elements of persuasion. Specifically they will learn about the three appeals of persuasion. After they have studied these we will look back to their Mr. Wolf letters to see what appeals they were making or it they did not make any arguments or appeals, how adding some could make their letters better. All of this will help them when they begin to write their persuasive essays on non-fiction controversial topics.


 * 1) What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

I took the principle of scaffolding and using their own writing to learn how to write. While on this specific day they did not analyze what they wrote (that will come later) it was the first piece in the process. This lesson was not a stand alone activity but will tie in to later assignments and hopefully help the students better utilize the persuasive elements they are learning about in their own writing.


 * 1) Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

I would definitely use this lesson again. I thought it was a creative way to move from narrative to persuasive writing. The 7th grade students seemed to enjoy the idea of writing a letter to the Big Bad Wolf and creatively came up with reasons why the wolf should not blow down the pig’s houses. They were using many persuasive elements without even realizing they were. It was a good place to start the persuasive unit.

//** Elesa's Successful Lesson Halloween 10/31/2011 **//

Was I successful in reaching the teaching goals I had set for this lesson?

Actually, yes, this one went better than any lesson so far. We are at the end of a three week unit on poetry, so in honor of Halloween, this lesson revolved around the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. My goal was to reinforce the poetry concepts we have been studying; their unit test is barely a week away and this is their opportunity to shine against the other teams as each competes to outdo the other in average score. I do believe that the lesson was a successful one and that this is another piece in the overall unit we have designed to further their understanding of poetry as a genre.

As part of the introduction, I handed out a color photo of the poet, one of only a few known realistic images. He is disheveled, craggy-faced and looks quite a bit older than his late 30s. I then gave the students two minutes to write down anything the picture reminded them of, to try and guess who this might be and from what time period. They really seemed to get into the mood of the assignment, many asking for a little more time to finish a second paragraph. Then the ideas just kept coming from the students as they expressed their belief that this was a criminal of some sort, who lived during the 1800s (bravo!). In fairness, Poe did not appear at all well in the picture, so their thoughts were not wildly off base.

Then, building upon (scaffolding) the thoughts they had had initially, I revealed that this was the poet, Poe, and asked them to write down anything they already knew about this man (using the KWL approach - what do you know? What would you like to know? And ultimately, what have you learned?) The second period class knew quite a bit about the poetry and short stories of Poe...the Tell-Tale Heart, the Pit and the Pendulum and so forth, but third period knew very little. Another couple of minutes full of writing and then we talked about what is known about the life of Poe, the fact that his father abandoned the family and then nearly immediately died of tuberculosis, how his mother followed soon after (to tuberculosis as well) and how he was adopted by the Allan family - hence the middle name. His childhood was a happy one, by all accounts, until he had a falling out with his step-father, after his step-mother died of...tuberculosis. They were predictably grossed out at the idea that he married his young 13 year old cousin, and that she, too, died of....tuberculosis!

What specifically went well with your lesson?

With regard to the lesson itself, there were several instances where I felt the students really "got" the broad themes I was trying to convey, as well as several points where they did grasp the smaller ideas we have been teaching. Specifically, when we talked about the poet in the historical context of his time period, they seemed interested. As above-mentioned, the fact that they begin to link ideas we are talking about with those in their own lives is an indication of some higher level thinking going on; I saw that pattern of 'thinking outside the box' with several of the questions the students asked. My young astronomer in that class immediately put forth the idea that Poe might have been a carrier (bravo again!) and related her own story about being exposed to a fellow tenant with the disease and how she and her family are vaccinated so that they do not become carriers themselves. We then talked about the story that broke a few years ago of a young man who had been tested for various things prior to getting married, had then boarded a plane for his honeymoon in Europe and the mad man-hunt that ensued when his test results came back from the CDC showing exposure to tuberculosis, resulting in a quarantine of a planeload of angry fellow travelers! At every possible point, I try to bring these concepts to life for these children as I did for my own. Who wants to read dry, boring old stories written by someone who died more than a hundred and fifty years ago? BUT....any time they hear of someone with tuberculosis, they should now think about Edgar Allan Poe and about how life was so different from and yet so alike our own today.

We then moved on to the poem //The Raven//. I had had some concern about the outdated language used in this poem, so I had decided just to present five of the twelve stanzas. The first and second periods are better readers, and the second period, specifically, caught on to the idea that much of the poem was missing, although the third period did not, even though I numbered them (!!!). We read silently first, without the groans and complaints I got in first period, and then I read the five stanzas myself, with expression and pausing at the 'good parts.' Several of the children immediately said, "I don't understand" and "I don't get it." This learned helplessness is typical in this third period class, so we worked through the words step by step. I had asked that they note on their copies any poetic devices they see: repetition, onomatopoeia, personification, alliteration, simile and metaphor and to take a stab at identifying the rhyme scheme ABAC, etc. The sixth grade standards call for all of these concepts to be mastered by the end of the grade, so best done piece by piece. This group did really well, identifying at least one example of each.

I then used the doc camera to show them what I had come up with, which was easily three or four times what most of them had found. So we went through the poem for a third time, noting the places where we see rhythm, repetitive words and so forth. We talked about the stanza where the bird says "nevermore" for the first time and I found that the students thought his name was "nevermore." Hm. Time for lunch.

What did not go well with your lesson? Why?

During lunch, I sat with the students and we talked about why they were having so much trouble with these ideas. It turns out that the wording itself contributed to their lack of understanding, as I had feared it might. They did like the repeated words: rapping, tapping, napping, but were confused about what a __chamber__ could possibly be. During the twenty minutes remaining, I went back over the poem, writing out the modern day equivalent of the troublesome vocabulary so that we could get to the part of the lesson I really needed to cover - the poetry concepts. I know and the CT knows that we are not going to test them using ancient Greek texts, so the ideas are what are important, rather than the 19th century verbage.

Back to the classroom after lunch, armed with the new vocabulary translations, we talked about how language had changed over time. People in my childhood did not even have their own phones and I reminded them of the sub we had had from Macon who relayed a story of the party line phone system her family had had back in the late 1960s. Many of the students have seen //The Help//, so they have some visual understanding of those ideas as well. We then talked briefly about the new text lexicon (although I did not call it that) for Seniors, which uses shorted phrases for such things as 'I was at the doctor' or 'my blood pressure is high' or 'forgot to take my insulin.' No kidding! Such a thing exists and is an example of using language differently depending on who you are and what time period you live in.

Although I was able to recover somewhat, this is the part I think did not go as well as it could have done. I KNEW they would have trouble with the language and yet, I plowed on anyway!

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

During first and second periods, we had had enough time to go through all the same parts of the lesson, and still reserve time mid-way through, to see the five and a half minute parody of //The Simpsons// as Bart's sister Lisa reads //The Raven//. I realized that I should have reserved this as a treat for being **//__quiet-er__//** for first period because this group has springs in their seats and cannot wait to leap out and dash to the trashcan or erupt in noisy conversation with their neighbors at each transition. Since the lesson did involve some sharing of ideas with seat-mates at their tables, this transition issue I have had with them was predictable. But I did not reserve seeing the video as a treat and wished I had done so by the time class ended. Second period can also be talkative but they can be settled down and they do work quietly when the occasion calls for it. Knowing that, I followed the same format as first period, showing the video part way through so they could reflect now (KWL) on what they know, as a secondary assessment on their index cards. That format went well with this class. But as I started to think about how third period would react to the video, though, given the trouble they had had with some of the wording, I began to second guess myself. I then decided to change up the order and offer the video as the treat I wish I had used with first period....bad idea.

Due to the multiple questions this class asked and clarifications they seemed to need, we did not ever get to the video at all.....I was so-o-o disappointed and they appeared to be as well. They had decided that since I mentioned tuberculosis several times, then clearly Poe was the Narrator and his dead wife had clearly died of....tuberculosis. I really did not feel that I could leave it like that, even though there may be some truth in their interpretation. With poetry, there are no right answers. Period. It is open to what you as the reader think is going on and if they are left with the idea that aha, they have it....then they will lose out on a lifetime of noodling out hidden meanings. So, there went my reserved six minutes before class ended!

I promised to show the Simpsons the next day at the first of class, but due to another one of those constant interruptions schools seem to have, the next day was an in-service training day for my CT, so she had to take her laptop with her to the class. We now have a new classroom set of computers but the students versions are not equipped with the same software, so another day went by before the CT returned and we could show the parody at last. Finally! Amazingly, they seemed to understand NOW what Poe had been trying to say. I got all sorts of Aha! reflections from them on their note-cards, which really was encouraging.

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

With as much work as I put into this particular poem, yes, indeed, it will have a place within the poetry units of the future! I feel that it scaffolds very well and can be integrated well within the larger poetry unit, especially if the larger three to four week unit falls - as it does within the Marietta system - during the second quarter of the fall semester, smack dab in the middle of the Halloween season! We had been studying other poets, from the silly and fun Shel Silverstein to the social commentary of TuPac and other rappers. There are so many other good poets I would like to work into this unit, but, again, with all of the interruptions, it has been a challenge to do so.

What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

By using the Simpson's parody as a visual representation of the very poem they were reading in class, I am tying in some of the ideas we learned this summer in Dr. Crovitz' class, focusing the attention of the students on how differently we interpret something seen visually than that same thing read silently or even discussed orally in groups. There is just something more powerful about the visual image and I saw an immediate breakthrough in the understanding once these students saw the words acted out on the screen. I also referred to some of the ideas in Noden's Image Grammar to connect the poetic terms to their reflections, before and after seeing the parody.

Would you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

Yes, I would definitely use the writings of Poe again. Even with the 19th Century language gap, much of his poetry and his short stories lend themselves to the middle and high school audiences in such a way that there is already an interest level from which to build. Who doesn't like to be sort-of scared? And, as Lisa Simpson said, "maybe people were easier to scare back in 1830?" Within the larger narrative units, especially later in a school year, the imagery found in Poe's works can be studied and contrasted with other, more contemporary writers such as King (at the high school level, most likely).

Kim's Third Lesson -- Unsuccessful


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

My intent for this lesson was to review and reteach conjunctions and interjections with my students.


 * 1) Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?

Well, yes and no. I know that I completed my lesson, which would imply that I did teach my students about these parts of speech. However, I am not sure how well they actually learned the material.


 * 1) What specifically went well with your lesson?

Given that I was only told to teach this lesson the day before, I think the lesson went as well as it could have. All of my students took down important notes about conjunctions and interjections, which will benefit them when it comes time to study for their test on the parts of speech next week. I provided some good examples of each type of conjunction, and gave students the opportunity to practice what they had learned on some worksheets.


 * 1) What did not go well with your lesson? Why?

This lesson was painfully, dreadfully boring and unexciting. Because my CT told me I would be teaching this content the day before, I did not have time to create an involved and fun lesson. All I could do was use the Powerpoint she provided, try to modify it to the best of my ability, and give students workbook pages since I did not have time to put in for copies. I was bored while teaching the lesson, and the students were bored while taking notes, which does not create a positive learning environment. Additionally, because I did not have time to put in for copies to create fill-in-the-blank notes, we had to spend upwards of 3 minutes on each slide for students to copy down every single word in their notes. This lesson dragged on and on, and I never thought it would end.


 * 1) What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson?

I tried to encourage students to just copy down the important parts of each slide (definitions, common terms), but they insisted on writing every single word down. I also tried to inject some life into this boring thing, putting fun sound effects and animations onto each slide, but I think the lesson was past the point of being savable.


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

We were teaching a unit on the parts of speech, and each day was reserved for practice with one or two different parts of speech. The day after this lesson, I taught a lesson on adjectives and adverbs, which went a bit better due in part to having more time to create my own material. Students will be tested on all the parts of speech next week.


 * 1) What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

This lesson lacked any theoretical connection to what we’ve learned at KSU. It taught grammar completely in isolation, and required students to do drill and practice in their workbooks.


 * 1) Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

I will never, ever use this lesson again. While I will definitely need to review/teach the parts of speech in the future, I will work to find a better way to do it than in this format.

** 11/13: Jenna Gerlach’s SUCCESSFUL LESSON 10/18 (3rd Posting) **
1. What was your original intent or goal for this lesson?

My original intent for this lesson was to have the students complete an anticipation guide activity to set up our novel study unit of S.E. Hinton’s //The Outsiders//. The lesson was designed as a “Four Corners” activity and I had labeled each corner of the room with a laminated sign denoting the following opinions: “Strongly Agree,” “Agree,” “Disagree,” and “Strongly Disagree.” I had set up a PowerPoint presentation with a set of ten questions that dealt in some way with issues we would encounter within our novel study and asked the students to move themselves to stand in the corner of the room that best reflected their opinion of the question being asked. I then facilitated a discussion on why students chose the corners that they did. This was my very first day of sole teaching and I was so nervous that my students would be up and moving about, assuming they would become off-task and uncontrollable. I was pleasantly surprised by their behavior and engagement with the discussion.

2. Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? I believe I was very successful in reaching my goal. My students engaged in conversations and polite arguments with each other in order to argue their opinions. Students were connecting the questions to every day life outside of the classroom and were using evidence and support to defend their answers. Students were well prepared for our following discussions on the novel and I had several students actually bring up points that were raised by fellow students in this lesson later on in the novel study, showing me that they truly internalized and were able to recall our discussions from this lesson at a later date.

3. What specifically went well with your lesson?

I believe my students were the most engaged during this lesson that I have ever seen them. Students who do not normally speak during class or who are afraid to share their answers were raising their hands and participating in good-natured arguments with other students in order to assert and defend their opinions. The questions asked critical questions that my students all had opinions on and I was able to ask them further questions to have them dig deeper into their answers to think critically about the question at hand. I was also impressed with my classroom management skills during this lesson as my students were rarely off-task and listened readily to their peers for the majority of the lesson.

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

Honestly I cannot say that much did go wrong with this lesson. It was my first time teaching as the sole teacher and I couldn’t have asked for better behavior and engagement with the lesson. I will say that I did have two problematic students who would not stop having individual discussions and were disrupting some of the lesson. I think I handled it well, considering it was my first day as sole teacher, but now that I’ve been sole teaching for a month, I think I should have stopped the behavior long before I did at the time. I had a tendency to allow students too many warnings, but have since realized that you get the greatest amount of complacency when students realize that you are serious about their getting into trouble and that you are not handing out empty warnings that will not come to any consequence.

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

The main adjustment that I made between the periods is trying to move the conversation along in order to make it through more questions during the lesson. First period suffered from time management issues. The students were so excited about voicing their opinions and I was so thrilled that they were interested and engaged that we only made it through about three or four questions out of the original ten. Second period I tried to move the conversation along more and was able to get through around five questions. I never was able to make it past six questions, but truthfully I thought the conversations were beneficial and worthwhile and didn’t have the heart to cut students off in the middle of the genuine learning that I could see taking place. Time management is probably one of my weakest areas and a place where I have room for the most improvement. I tend to enjoy the discussion as much as the students do and sometimes don’t make it all the way through my lessons due to a reluctance to interrupt the students when they are taking charge of their own learning.

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 was an anticipatory lesson to set up our novel study. This lesson took place before students had read any of //The Outsiders// and before we had set up characters, themes, setting, or point of view. This lesson provided a foundational discussion on the themes, issues, and conflicts that the students would find once we began reading the novel and we used the questions and student answers from this activity in later lessons to help the students make personal connections to the plot and themes of the novel. The following day our lesson focused on setting up the time period that the novel takes place in and providing the students a background on the 1960s. The anticipation guide activity allowed students to already be familiar with the novel’s themes and character issues.

7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

For this lesson I tried to tie in the consideration of multiple cultures and the notion that our lessons should move beyond the classroom and try to speak to the real life situations and needs of our students. This lesson asked students to directly relate their personal lives to the anticipation guide questions, and demanded that they consider real life issues, problems, and moral ambiguity. The questions asked the students things like “Is murder sometimes justifiable? When?” or “Is it better to have book smarts or street smarts?” These questions did not have an “easy” answer and encouraged the students to draw on personal experience, beliefs, and opinions to answer the questions.

8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

I absolutely loved this lesson I think that this “Four Corners” activity is a really great way to get students thinking about their own opinions and it allows them to speak and think without penalty of having to write their answers down and commit to them or to be graded on specific answers. I thought the students really appreciated being given a voice and being allowed to respond to one another in a realistic, authentic way and was very pleased that students who were normally afraid to participate in class were eager and enjoying themselves. I will definitely use this activity again regardless of what specific novel I am teaching!

Amy's Third Reflection: Unsuccessful Lesson Dec. 2
The original intent of this lesson was to teach students about plagiarism, summaries, quotes, and paraphrases. This was the second step in the process of starting a multiple week research paper persuading one side of a controversial issue. The day after this lesson the students went down to the media center to listen to more instructions on how to use online research engines. To prepare them for this I wanted the students to know the differences between summaries/paraphrases and quotes and of course to be refreshed on the rules of plagiarism.
 * 1) What was your original intent or goal for this lesson?

I think in the end students did understand what plagiarism was and why they should not do it; that there are consequences and it’s stealing. And I also think they were able to distinguish between quotations and summaries/paraphrases. The distinction between summaries and paraphrases though did not really translate to them. They continually had trouble understanding how those two things were different. And, while I think they understood what plagiarism is, I’m not sure they totally understood how to cite sources.
 * 1) Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?

The fact that they students understood any part of what I was saying was a success. But generally the way I was instructing them was not best.
 * 1) What specifically went well with your lesson?

The failure of this lesson was in the method of its delivery. I pretty much just lectured the whole time using a power point and then showed a video to reinforce what I had said. Students did have a graphic organizer to fill out as I went through the power point but I think based on the questions students raised afterward that most of this went over their heads or was delivered to them too quick and too much at one time.
 * 1) What did not go well with your lesson? Why?

When teaching these topics again I would spread them out more. I would put plagiarism in another lesson all together. Then for summary, paraphrase, and quotation I would like to break them up into three different mini lessons. This way after each concept I could stop the power point, give students an example, and then have them practice using each concept. Had students been given the opportunity to use what they were being lectured about, I think it would have cut down on the confusion, and given them practice before they were expected to implement these concepts in a major assignment.
 * 1) What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson?

This was another introductory lesson in the persuasion unit. After this lesson the students went to the library and learned how to research controversial topics on search engines. Then they spent several days researching their topic and creating notes and bibliographies. This lesson was supposed to prepare them for this research phase of the persuasive paper process and help them understand how to organize the information they found. I think the time with the media specialist helped reinforce what they learned in this lesson but it will be interesting to see how it all translates to their final drafts.
 * 1) How does this lesson find its way into your unit and how well does this lesson scaffold and/or integrate into the next lesson?

Using the graphic organizer was an idea I had received from my coursework. I thought it would help them engage with the material and stay on task. While I do think it helped them follow along, for the goal of having students use summaries, paraphrases, and quotations in a research paper it was not enough. Also, I include technology in my lesson by using power point.
 * 1) What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

The content of this lesson I will use again and I would probably use the power point and graphic organizer again but I’d vary the way I use them. Instead of teaching the content only in a lecture format I would add moments for the students to practice summarizing and paraphrasing and quoting. This would a more effective way for students to learn how to apply the research they find in their persuasive papers.
 * 1) Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

=
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Kim, I thought it was very interesting that you reported having taught a lesson on conjunctions and interjections and found yourself unsuccessful teaching them to your students in isolation. It is so frustrating when you are not given adequate time to prepare a worthwhile, engaging lesson, particularly when you are then forced to teach grammar concepts in isolation. I know through your other posting on this wiki and through our discussions that you have regularly made use of Noden's //Image Grammar// text and made every attempt to encourage teaching grammar in the context of writing in your lessons, so I can imagine how frustrated you must have been to witness a rushed grammar lesson go down in flames. I witnessed and was required to teach grammar in isolation several times in my own classroom and can attest to the sheer boredom of both myself and my students, not to mention that I wholeheartedly contend that grammar in isolation helps to further the students' opinion that "Language Arts is boring," "the least interesting of all the subjects," or that they just feel plain "bad" at writing or reading. I truly believe that teaching grammar in isolation proliferates these feelings and opinions and I found myself very angry any time that my CT had me teach grammar in isolation because she insisted that it "was the only way to do it." The truth was, come to find out, that the other 7th grade LA teachers at my school agreed that teaching grammar in the context of writing was too time consuming and was "hard" on the teacher. It required more creativity and more planning and demanded that they actually be up and teach their students for longer periods of time. Now, my CT is an awesome teacher, but I must admit that I noted a tendency towards laziness when it came to teaching grammar. I truly don't think she is aware of the kinds of great conversations and activities that can happen when you teach grammar in the context of writing. ======

=
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The point is that I understand your frustration and boredom with this kind of teaching. I also know, since we actually presented in Levy's class on unconventional approaches to teaching conjunctions and interjections that you DO have some GREAT ideas for teaching grammar in the context of writing! I think half the battle is being willing to be creative with the concept and also being willing to try and to fail. A lot of what I learned through this internship process is that you truly do not know what will work and what will fall flat until you've tried and fallen on your face a few times. Sure it is not fun, necessarily, but this is a learning process and we learn by making mistakes :) ======

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Elesa's Response (4th posting) to ** 10/17 Jenna Gerlach's ADJUSTED Lesson: Second Reflection **

Jenna, I appreciate your willingness to try teaching grammar some other way, any other way, than in the isolation Dr. Levy detests so much! It is great that 4th period got it and I also have a similar class to the one you describe for 5th period. While I am not sure whether they truly did not get it or are exhibiting learned helplessness, the result is the same for the teacher, right? So, you had to diagram the sentence! Actually, I will say that I was impressed that you were able to think quickly on your feet and come up with a plan B this way! You COULD look at this as an opportunity to reach out to your visual learners! Hmmm.

When you said that the power point provided a good way for the kids to actually SEE the ridiculousness of misplacing modifiers, I can relate. We have not used power points very much this semester and I really cannot see why not, since the realm of the visual is where this age group actually lives!

I, too, have had real trouble with transitions so I am interested to see that other people have to adjust their next class period to avoid having wasted time and disrupted classrooms. When asked "What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson?" I see that you rearranged your lesson to teach using the diagramming right up front. I think that this is why it is so difficult to do what the college wants us to do - my kids cannot spell, they cannot use words correctly, and yet we expect them to be able to know what a third period possessive pronoun is? I see nothing wrong with diagramming....it appeals to the visual learner, the auditory if you talk while you write and gives some of the wiggly worms in the class the chance to come up to the board and show their stuff.

Sounds like a great lesson overall!

**Barbara's Adjusted Lesson Plan**
What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? The goal for this lesson was to teach students to recognize the different types of sentences.

Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? A couple of students understood the concept and successfully completed the assessment at the end of class, but for the most part I discovered that the class did not have the necessary scaffolding to learn this idea.

What specifically went well with your lesson? The students were very involved, participatory and engaged with the lesson. They tried their best to understand the concept. They understood that authors use various types of sentences to create interesting writing because I showed them the different types of sentences from the novel we were reading at the time.

What did not go well with your lesson? I made some very bad assumptions regarding this lesson. I assumed that students would be able to identify subjects and verbs which is a necessary component of identifying sentence type. Because most of the class did not have this skill, I had to keep reminding them what a subject is and what a verb is. Learning these concepts on top of identifying sentences was too much for the students to handle—especially when sentence type is already such a confusing concept for students.

What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? In the future, I will do a pre-assessment to make sure that students have the necessary information and scaffolding they need before I teach this lesson. If they do not already have a grasp of subjects, verbs, clauses then I will prepare mini-lessons to review these concepts before moving onto sentence type.

How did this lesson find its way into your unit and how well does this lesson scaffold and/or integrate into the next lesson? The lesson was taught to meet the standards required in my county before the nine week checkpoint. Students were expected to know sentence type by this point. I tried to integrate it into the novel study by using examples from the book and creating a handout using the biography of the novel’s author. However, ultimately it did not truly fit into the current unit. (You do what you have to do some days.)

What theoretical principle did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? I tried my best to show students that they needed to understand this concept to make them better writers. Because of the circumstances of this lesson, it was not as relevant as my coursework has taught me that it should be.

Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? I will probably not use this lesson in this exact format again. I would be more likely to teach this as part of a writing assignment than a novel. However, the concept of this lesson and the PowerPoint presentation that I created will likely be used again in the future if I teach sixth grade in the future.

Amy’s response (4th posting) to Barbara’s unsuccessful lesson:

Barbara, I applaud your desire to use some of the strategies we practiced in Dr. Levy’s class. I think this is a great place to start. It is probably expected that when we begin to apply these different methods in our classes there would be some room for adjustment. I think it would be good learning experience as a student teacher to figure out how these activities are going to fit with our teaching styles and students. It is worthwhile to find out how exactly to word an explanation for a concept like the neighborhood map that students probably have not really experienced before. I do hope that you use this again because I since it did capture their attention and you could easily worked out the kinks.


 * 12/2: Mary Kleparek Yoder/ Unsuccessful Lesson/ 3rd Reflection**

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

I wanted to teach my students how to construct a “snapshot” writing piece, an activity which encourages students to “show” a scene through detailed writing rather than simply “telling.” Initially, I was excited about this lesson because I completed a word photo, an activity strikingly similar to the snapshot exercise, over the summer.

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

Yes and No. Basically, they recognized how descriptive writing (i.e. sensory details, descriptive words, etc.) can enhance writing and how these descriptions allow the reader to visualize a scene. However, they had much difficulty capturing a scene on their own. They’re so accustomed to writing stories, which consist of a beginning, middle, and end. This is an exercise that focuses on concise writing.

3) What specifically went well with your lesson?

They understood the benefits of descriptive writing. They also practiced using details that were only relevant to their scene. In other words, they understood the difference between necessary details and those that strictly take up space.

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

Students were not engaged. Perhaps I should have shared my own word photo (a second reference would have been helpful). My example would have been easier to follow for a 6th grade audience, and more importantly, the scene I “show” is the moment my husband proposed to me. This would have kept them interested in that the piece relates to a special moment in my life. Students are SO interested in our personal lives! Also, the design of the lesson could have been better…I talked, students listened. The handout was a helpful resource, but not enough to keep students engaged.

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

My word photo would be implemented in the lesson. I also would have written more detail examples on the whiteboard. These students need visual references and constant reminders of what’s expected of them.

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?

Students have been exploring the various elements of writing for a while. Setting, character, and action are primary focuses in the “snapshot” activity. This exercise is interesting though because it encourages students to create more focused writing.

7) What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

According to Burke, “when I build furniture, I first establish the needs and the parameters of my project; having done this, however, I must begin to visualize what I want the piece to look like. Writers need to do the same” (//The English Teacher’s Companion// 158). This ability to visualize is essential for effective writing. I constantly tell my students that without descriptions and appropriate examples, the piece is lifeless.

8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

I consider the “snapshot” to be an important activity because it emphasizes the need for descriptions in writing. It also allows students to practice more precise writing. My lesson, however, needs some changes: Include my own word photo in the beginning discussion and provide more examples on the whiteboard.


 * 12/6: Mary Kleparek Yoder's Response to Barbara’s Successful Lesson (4th Reflection)**

One thing I’m sure we’ve both discovered throughout this process is that lesson arrangement is of the most importance. I’m referring to your response that addresses how you may adjust the lesson for future classes. It’s interesting how you recognized that without better knowledge of the narrative terms, the writing produced wasn’t exactly what you desired. I’m sure the students handed in wonderful papers, but you noticed that such elements as plot and setting within the writing weren’t emphasized as well as they could have been. I’ve done this so many times! I ask myself on occasion why I didn’t explore a topic or set of rules beforehand.

I applaud your story choice for the lesson. What better way to explore these elements of a narrative than through Hans Christian Anderson’s masterpiece “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” This piece is also appropriate for a middle school audience in that such themes as vanity, fear, and conformity are present.

Awesome lesson! J

__

** 1/24: Barbara McClure's Unsuccessful lesson (1st Reflection) **

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

The intent of this lesson was to teach the students about frame stories and folk tales using //The Fisherman and the Jinnee.//


 * 1) Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?

Not at all. The students refused to participate in the lesson. I originally intended for the class to read the story allowed but was unable to get volunteers to read or cooperation from the class at all. I read for a bit. I then tried to get students to read. They would not. I read for a bit more. I then tried to get students to read again. Again, they would not. Because of this, I ended up making the class read silently. My originally intent was to review the handout that my CT created for the story as a class but again, the students would not participate. I tried to lead a discussion on the answers and engage them about the story. They would still not participate. I was not going to stand in front of the class and give them all the answers so I just collected and graded them.


 * 1) What specifically went well with your lesson?

The only thing that I would consider successful about this lesson is that it took up the entire class like it was supposed to.


 * 1) What did not go well with your lesson? Why?

The students were not engaged or interested in the lesson or the literature. They were not motivated to participate or succeed. Most of the worksheets I collected were less than half filled out. They do not understand why they need to learn these things and therefore will not do the work.


 * 1) What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson?

I would not use this assignment in my own classroom. I would not use this piece of literature as it is, by its own nature, uninteresting. I would not use a handout to teach frame stories and folk tales as I believe it is something that can be taught in a more engaging way using video examples and dialogue with the students.


 * 1) 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 is part of the “India, Africa and Middle East Unit.” It stands alone completely and does not scaffold or integrate with the unit at all except that it uses a piece of Middle Eastern literature from the textbook.


 * 1) What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

I did not create this lesson. My CT asked me to teach her lesson plan. It does not tie into any principle that I can think of from the coursework.


 * 1) Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

I will not. It was not engaging. The students were uninterested and bored. They still cannot explain a frame story or recognize aspects of middle eastern folk tales. I do not think that the literature was a good choice for this group of students and I do not think that the worksheet was anything more than busy work.

1. What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? My goal was to teach the rhetorical devices of ethos, pathos, and logos through a study of a clip from the film //Patton//.
 * 1/27/12: Kim's Successful Lesson (1st Reflection) **

2. Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? I was successful in reaching this goal. My students had struggled with recognizing ethos, pathos, and logos in revolutionary writing, so I decided to approach the concept from a new angle. After discussing the clip, my students had identified every rhetorical device or technique from the speech that I had highlighted, as well as some I had missed.

3. What specifically went well with your lesson? My students were much more engaged with the material than they had been before. They enjoyed how the General Patton character delivered his speech, and were held captive by the words. The students identified many different moments in the speech that appealed to ethos, pathos, and/or logos, and also identified rhetorical devices such as bandwagon, repetition, parallel structure, etc. Not only did they identify pathos in the speech, but they also were able to identify which emotion Patton was appealing to and why he wanted to appeal to this particular emotion.

4. What did not go well with your lesson? Why? Because many curse words appear in this clip, I had to send home a permission form with my students for their parents to sign. Every student but one returned the form, so the last student had to sit in the hall for this lesson. Though I gave him an alternative assignment, I wish that he had been able to be in class for the analysis.

5. What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? I only have one section of American Lit, so I did not have any opportunities to adjust the lesson. If I did, I may have pushed the students further and asked them to journal about the use of rhetorical devices in the clip. Through our discussion, I was able to hear from just over half the class, but I was not able to gauge the other students’ understanding. A journal topic would give me a better way to measure how much each student learned from the lesson and what I need to reteach later.

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? We are studying the Revolutionary period in American Lit right now, which focuses heavily on speeches, political pamphlets, and persuasion. The students will be completing a persuasive project this coming week, in which they pick a modern advertisement and analyze the rhetorical techniques and devices present in the ad. This lesson gave students the opportunity to practice these skills on a work that was more modern than the Franklin, Paine, and Wheatley works we had been reading previously.

7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? This lesson pulled in analysis of visual rhetoric, which was learned in Crovitz’s 7741 course.

8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? I will certainly use this lesson again. I love the speech, and the students enjoyed analyzing it almost as much as I do! (They particularly enjoyed the cursing in the clip, which was a strange little motivating factor, but I'll take it.) This lesson was a good break-through moment for our class, as I was finally able to see evidence of understanding. I expect this lesson to work well in any persuasion unit.


 * 2/4/12: Kim's Unsuccessful Lesson (2nd Reflection) **


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

I intended to use James Thurber’s short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” to teach my 9th graders about humor and point of view can advance the theme. I also assigned a movie poster activity similar to Crovitz’s book cover one, in which I told students that they were movie directors, and they had to choose one of the four example posters to use for advertising the movie. They should base this decision on which poster best reveals the theme of the story.


 * 1) Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?

Sort of. My students did a good job identifying the theme of the story, but they really struggled to see and appreciate the humor, which made it difficult to understand how the humor then advances the theme.


 * 1) What specifically went well with your lesson?

My students grasped the theme of the story quickly. They worked well in groups, and many presented a solid argument for why their poster was the best.


 * 1) What did not go well with your lesson? Why?

Because humor has changed so much since the time this story was published, they did not think the subtle humor in the story was funny at all.

They also struggled with the movie poster assignment. In the first class, I allowed students to pick which poster they liked best from the selection. Of the class of thirty-two students, fourteen picked the first poster, fifteen picked the second, one picked the third, and two picked the fourth. The two small groups ended up working together on their analysis and created a great argument, but the two large groups did not work well at all. The group that picked the first poster was very clique-y, and there were three sub-groups that worked together while ignoring the rest of the group.

Once it came time to present, the two large groups did not have well-developed arguments. They made surface connections to the text, but did not relate the posters to the theme.


 * 1) What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson?

In fourth period, I let students pick groups of four, and had each of them pick one of the covers to write on. After writing about the posters individually, everyone who chose the first poster had to work together, everyone who chose the second poster had to work together, etc. This ensured that every poster had equal representation while students were still able to choose which poster they liked best. While the groups worked better in fourth period, the analysis was still very shallow.


 * 1) 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 was part of our short story unit, and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” was the second story we read in class. After we finished studying all of the stories as a class, students were assigned a short story project, in which they were assigned one of four short stories to study individually. They had to find the theme and analyze how any three literary elements advance that theme. I designed this study of “Walter Mitty” to develop students’ understanding of theme and how certain elements can support theme.


 * 1) What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

This lesson pulled in visual literacy, as students had to relate a picture to what they read in a text.
 * 1) Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

I may use this lesson again, but only after I have figured out the kinks. I need to select new posters so that there are not one or two obvious favorites/easy answers, and I need to work on how I teach students to analyze and support theme.

What was your original intent or goal for this lesson?
As part of a continuation of the Twain unit on naturalism and realism, most of the team are teaching Huck Finn; my CT, however, has taught a different Twain novel - Pudd'nhead Wilson - for several years and so we were just beginning this study when I joined her class in January. It occurred to me that, like Kim, the language and the humor associated with this time period is largely lost on this generation of students. So, I decided to create an activity listing fifteen of the most important quotes or passages from the book - chapters 11-15 - and ask the students to re-write the phrases using language they would actually use today. For example, one of the sentences states that "the //nest// of the Sons of Liberty //had not a sober bird in it//." We had discussed the fact that this group is an advocate for alcohol in their town, as opposed to the Anti-Rum Party. The two groups square off politically and feature prominently in the social events of the town, in a sort of on-going prohibitionist debate. Re-written, the sentence might look like "everybody at that party was drunk!" The first effort to teach this lesson went fairly well, in 4A block; however, it became obvious that I needed to divide up the groups myself to avoid the stronger personalities dominating the discussions and leaving someone out entirely. The students in that original block were asked to rewrite five of the fifteen sentences and then form groups of four to five people; they were then to choose two to three of the rewritten sentences to use as examples when they reported to the class at large. What initially happened was that in some groups there was only one sentence anyone had in common due to the fact that some students only got through three of their five and others 'collaborated' and ended up with the same choices. Hmmm. Time to re-think. It seemed that even with some level of confusion, the students did "get" the lesson I was trying to get across - that __language changes over time__ but that __it is still possible__ to use context clues and word attack skills, and dictionaries (!) __to figure out what an author is trying to say__. Twain uses slave dialect liberally and that, combined with so many words these kids have never seen, strung together in close succession, makes some of this book very difficult to follow. As the teacher said, she has to resist the temptation to stop every third word and translate. So, it was encouraging to see that they did show interest in this exercise - even the ones who normally //sleep// much of the period away. The grouping was not successful. By letting the students choose their own group mates, I found that we had two groups of two and two groups of six rather than a more evenly divided class of six groups of four, as I had planned. I also did not realize how important it is to ask them to return to their seats before they send the spokesperson up to speak! As long as they are in'group mode,' they will talk and text and pop in the ear buds and there goes the learning! Once the team teacher pointed that out, I changed the way I ran the lesson for the next three groups on B day. For the three classes the following day, I changed the format, added five more sentence or phrase choices for a total of twenty, took three of those sentences from chapter sixteen since we began class that day reading sixteen aloud (to cement the importance of the new information) and lengthened the time period the students had to work on their individual re-writes from fifteen minutes for five sentences (4A) to twenty minutes for three sentences. We then divided into pre-arranged groups, smaller ones this time, of four to five students per group. I also simplified the instructions and put them in bold type at the top of the first page and deleted the underlining I had used the previous day. I thought that by showing them what was the most important clusters of words it would make it easier to focus. No! Some students then tried to translate word for word, only focusing on the highlighted wordings to the exclusion of the general idea of each sentence.....Once in groups, they were asked to choose two of their four sentences to present. Statistically speaking, the math then works. Four sentences per group. Each person chooses three of the four. As a group they choose two...so the odds are pretty good that everyone will have worked on at least one of the group's two sentences. Right? The last thing I did was to ask everyone to restore the desks to their positions and return to their seats. That really went well and I was surprised that in 2B, each spokesperson (sans one_ made the courageous step of standing in front of the class to read their interpretation of Twain's archaic passage! Yeah!! Actually, my CT likes this approach and says that she will use it in future, which is encouraging. I will likely continue to adjust and tweak, depending on the specific students. I did notice when I was grading their work that two of the hundred kids re-wrote the sentences...word for word, using Twain's words....I will have to talk with them both on Wednesday, our next B block day, and see what they thought they heard me say. I also want to know how they managed to slip past me as I walked around checking work and how their group mates did not discover their errors...  In terms of scaffolding, we will go on to finish the book by the end of this upcoming week and will then have time for both the novel study test and a graded practice essay using the required writing test format they will see later this spring. I hope that the basic concepts of this novel and the relationship between characters and their setting, between their own natures and the upbringing they have experienced (nurture) and the ongoing discussions about the morality of one group owning another, will be so cemented in their brains that they will all do well on both their test and their naturalism essays. There have been so many books and articles we have covered that I am at a loss to pinpoint one. I know that someone talked about the importance of rewriting for clarity, but whether that was Blasingame or Noden, I just cannot say. I do know that this follows a tried and true Hembree family principle - called Sydney speak. My second daughter has always had a problem with scientific vocabulary and concepts, so from middle school on, I have pre-read her chapters and written notes using Sydney-isms. When she reads about the organic chemistry lesson involving fluorine, chlorine or bromine ( far right on the periodic table), she should think of her classmates in high school who would date anybody just to be able to say they were not going to the dance alone. [all of these elements lack only one electron and will do ANYTHING to get that missing electron!! Yes, I think anytime you can make learning fun rather than having kids sit in class listening to the teacher read, you should go for it. To her credit, the CT has recognized that since we apparently must get through a Twain novel for naturalism, and since the kids truly have such trouble with the dialect, she will take the time it takes in class to read the story aloud. But, a change of pace now and then does seem to have woken them up!! Next, I am going to bring in glass strips like you use in biology class and have them take their own thumb prints so we can see them projected on the SmartBoard to see the differences between their right and left hands and between their thumbprint and that of their neighbor....[this figures into the final court scene and the climax of the story.]
 * Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? **
 * What specifically went well with your lesson? **
 * What did //not// go well with your lesson? Why? **
 * What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? **
 * How does this lesson find its way into your unit and how well does this lesson scaffold and/or integrate into the next lesson? **
 * What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? **
 * Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? **


 * 2/7/12 Jenna Gerlach's ADJUSTED LESSON (1st Reflection) **


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

The original intent of my lesson was to provide a grounding activity to get students thinking about their own understandings or experiences with morality, specifically what it means to be "honorable" in our society, or "honorable" in a personal sense. The activity was framed through the use of the Alligator River scenario-based text. The lesson was a gateway activity to springboard a novel study of Nathaniel Hawthorne's //The Scarlet Letter//. The goal of the lesson was for the students to begin thinking about their attitudes towards morality and how those attitudes are mediated by popular culture or society in order to prepare them for the attitudes and experiences of the characters in the novel. Additionally, this lesson was designed to spur peer discussion and an understanding of how to argue respectfully and responsibly with fellow students.


 * 1) Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?

I believe I was successful in reaching my goal. The activity spawned a wonderful discussion and my students were engaged with the scenario-based text. The students were formatively assessed through the use of a handout on which the students were required to rank the characters from the scenario in order of most to least honorable according to their actions. Additionally, the students were assessed the following day through the creation of a paragraph in which they defended their choice of most or least honorable character and then had to respond to two other classmates opinions. Student responses demonstrated an engagement with the scenario and an understanding of how to argue their opinions effectively and responsibly.


 * 1) What specifically went well with your lesson?

I think that the discussion that was inspired by the activity was the best aspect of this lesson. I was very pleased and surprised by the responses and thoughtful commentary that my students were able to give both during directed responses and during their responses to their peers. My students typically have trouble maintaining a lengthy discussion on any topic and rarely argue with each other, becoming passionate about their own opinions or validating their own beliefs. I was very pleased that this activity encouraged students to be honest, be themselves, and communicate eagerly with each other. Students that never speak up in class were raising their hands eagerly and defending their position with vigor. I would love to recreate the level of involvement of this lesson in future lessons.


 * 1) What did not go well with your lesson? Why?

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">This lesson was first given to my 2nd block class on a Wednesday. This class was the most eager and most involved with the lesson. My collaborating teacher was displeased with the length of the lesson (it ran from bell to bell) and felt that it was too much work for the students. I will admit that the activity was designed to have students switching from individual, large group, small group, back to large group instruction. This was to help break up the activity into chunks to keep students involved and engaged without become bored. I will say that by the end of the block some students attention was waning and they were less engaged with the activity than they had previously been. But we have 90 minute blocks. I am not of the belief that students should be sitting idle for ten to fifteen minutes at the end of the block.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">When I taught this lesson again for 3rd block, on the following day, my CT had me cut a large portion of the activity, particularly a majority of the discussion and the accompanying graphic organizer, as well as the small group aspect of the lesson. As a result, the class finished early and had around 20 minutes at the end of the block during which they had nothing to work on and were allowed to be off-task. I was disappointed that the two experiences with the lesson were so different and had such a different level of participation and interaction on behalf of the students.


 * 1) What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson?

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The adjustments that were made were on the behalf of my CT. While I, somewhat unhappily, agreed that perhaps the graphic organizer or the small group aspect of the activity could be dropped, I was not satisfied with the reasoning behind the adjustment of the lesson. I am always happy to receive feedback on my lessons and welcome making adjustments. As a result of teaching the lesson a first time to 2nd block, I realized, for instance, that I needed to have a direct set of guiding questions to move the debate along and ensure that I was scaffolding the discussion to arrive at the distinctions of morality that I desired my students to grapple with. As far as the adjustments that my CT suggested I make, and therefore the changes that were made, were not, in my opinion, good adjustments. The lesson lost much of its student-centered importance and took away a large chunk of the scaffolding that had helped inform the 2nd block students' responses during class discussion and, ultimately, their responses to each other.

This was a gateway lesson to our novel study of //The Scarlet Letter//. The lesson was accompanied by a writing assignment on the following day during which the students constructed a paragraph in defense of either the most or least honorable character in their personal character rankings. This lesson was intended to provide the students with a introduction to the concept of "morality" and to get them thinking about their own impressions and attitudes towards the concept. This lesson was designed to help the students grapple with the morality or immorality of the characters within Hawthorne's text over the course of the next two weeks.
 * 1) 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 directly uses the Alligator River gateway activity first presented to me during ENED 6414 in the fall. The MAT program has stressed the importance of using scenario-based activities or performance tasks to assess students knowledge or understanding. This semester, during ENED 6475, we are directly studying the use of scenario-based activities in the secondary English classroom. Additionally, this lesson integrates the notion of "student-centered" learning in the classroom, allowing for students to find value in their own conclusions and prior knowledge.
 * 1) What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

I will most certainly use this lesson again. I taught the lesson with enthusiasm and passion and felt that my students really responded positively to the activity. Since this lesson, my kids have brought up the lesson in casual conversation, or have mentioned it in conjunction with our study of //The Scarlet Letter//. When I use this lesson again, I will probably revert back to the original lesson, being sure to give the concepts and discussion the attention and time needed to fully develop them with the students. I will also create a list of discussion prompts to serve as guiding questions for the discussion.
 * 1) Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

What was your original intent or goal for this lesson?
 * __ Elesa's UNSUCCESSFUL LESSON Reflection #2 __**

This lesson was the follow-up to the one I posted under Adjusted. Wrapping up the novel – finally – on Pudd’nhead Wilson – a Mark Twain naturalism/realism story set in the pre-Civil War era of Mississippi – the final court scene involves the protagonist unraveling a baby swap from twenty years ago, based on fingerprints he took of the infants both before and after the swap. In class discussions, what became clear is that although the modern day students know about fingerprints, many have never actually seen one up close. So, during planning period one day, I went up the chemistry lab and borrowed a box of glass lab slides and a jar of antimony. I wanted graphite, but the chemistry teacher did not have any on hand, so I settled for antimony, which is a metallic element. I ran through the exercise I planned to teach a couple of times the day before and it looked like my lesson would go off without a hitch.

Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?

Technically speaking, I would say that some of the students actually ‘got’ the idea that everyone has a different fingerprint, that a person’s right and left hand prints are different from each other and that even a pair of twins have different signatures. However, since there was only the one me teaching the lesson, and since this involved quite a bit of one-on-one personal interaction with each student volunteer, even though it really did not take much time to take the print itself, I found right away that the majority of the class used this as an excuse to check out of class early and talk with their friends for the remainder of class.

What specifically went well with your lesson?

For those who participated, I would say that they got a ‘hands on’ lesson recreating exactly what the main character had done in the story. My intent had been to bring the drama of the court case home to the students so that it became more than just a bunch of words on a page, written by a famous dead white guy from over a hundred years ago. Unfortunately, I have not figured out how to conduct class where only a few of the students can actively participate at a time.

What did not go well with your lesson? Why?

During my prep time, I discovered that the slides break easily if the student presses down too hard to make a print. Because these can then become little weapons (!) I altered my original lesson to require that the students who were willing to have their prints taken had to come up to the desk at the front of the classroom one or two at a time and take the print carefully. As I said, this then let the rest of the class off the hook, in a way, and although the group who had participated and their immediate friend circle – did come up to the SmartBoard to see the results projected from the doc camera I had borrowed from the media center, much of the class were no longer engaged.

The other thing that did not work well was the step involving sprinkling the antimony metal onto the wet prints. That had worked well for me the previous day, but during class we found that the metallic dusting created a sheen that made seeing the whorls and loops of the fingerprints hard to see. The autofocus part of the doc camera also seemed to want to focus on the shiny clumps rather than on the fingerprints.

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

One of the students began to experiment with her own fingerprints and she found that by using water on her fingertips rather than the method described in the book – running a hand through one’s hair to ‘pick up the natural oils,’ she got a much clearer print. We also experimented with placing the clear slide, without the metallic dusting, onto a piece of colored construction paper, and found that her method worked much better than either mine or the character in the story. At the end of the day, we stopped using the metallic compound for dusting our prints and I was able to process the students’ prints much faster and include many more of them.

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

I really like this sort of hands on teaching technique; I will have to figure out how to do this in smaller groups of willing participants in future. I wonder if I split the class into four groups to begin with and had the other three work on something else, in rotation, if that would work better. I have always had trouble with transitions from one activity to another and this was a huge case in point. Although by the end of 4B, the fourth time I had taught this lesson, I would say that over half the students actually stopped talking and seemed interested to see the differences in the fingerprints we had displayed on the SmartBoard, and I will say that only a few students missed this particular question the following week on their end of unit test, so perhaps more of them were paying attention than I thought initially.

This was actually the end lesson for the novel, so in terms of scaffolding, the next several lessons involved reading other realistic and naturalistic works – Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Dickinson poem – Because I Could Not Stop for Death – The Story of an Hour – that sort of short story. We have basically beaten naturalism to death in an agonizingly slow and painful way, so I am sympathetic to the students’ reluctance to talk about this any more!

What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

My attempt has been to create a more constructivist classroom than is normally found in the on-level classrooms at the high school where I have been teaching. As researchers like Piaget and Kelly found, “A productive, __constructivist__ classroom, then, consists of learner-centered, active instruction. In such a classroom, the teacher provides students with experiences thatallow them to hypothesize, predict, manipulate objects, pose questions, research, investigate, imagine, and invent. The teacher's role is to facilitate this process. ”

Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

Yes, having learned some of what works and what does not, yes, I would use this approach again. I continue to struggle with how to motivate students to take out their ear buds – as an aside, may I say that whoever decided that kids could use their own music devices in class might want to consider a new career in a field less damaging to future society (!) Giving kids a choice to listen to the parents’ monotonous speech, from a Peanuts cartoon, or listen to Adele croon away singing their favorite song? ….Duh!


 * __Mary Kleparek Yoder (Adjusted Lesson)__**


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

To review Acts I-III from Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” in my 1st period class. Students had just returned from Winter break, so I figured that a quick review of the first three acts would benefit our continued reading of the text. In order to do this, I provided each student with a small white board and dry-erase marker. I asked questions from the packet and students responded. Once this task was completed, I presented a short PowerPoint for Act IV. We then began reading scene 1 of Act IV.


 * 2)** **Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?**

Not exactly. Students did respond to my questions. However, they became a little bit confused at my delivery. In other words, PowerPoint slides listing the actual questions would have helped tremendously. Students would often forget what I asked…AND sometimes I would accidently ask a question without reminding students to write their answers on the white board. Plus, I asked too many questions, which resulted in loss of focus.


 * 3)** **What specifically went well with your lesson?**

Students responded positively to the white boards. Resources like this are pivotal for student engagement. Also, any review is better than no review.


 * 4)** **What did not go well with your lesson? Why?**

Students needed the questions to be written out in some form in order to keep up with the review. My delivery (verbal) may have come off a little bit scattered and confusing. They would occasionally ask their neighbor what the previous question was while I continued on with the review. Also, I gave EACH student a white board, which may not have been the best idea. Some students were drawing pictures on their boards instead of following the discussion.


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

I did not have the time to create a series of PowerPoint slides for my questions. Instead, I took a few questions out of the review for the sake of time and student focus. I also watched HOW I phrased myself. I needed to say things like, “Now write the answer to this question” instead of simply asking a question. When you ask students a question, it’s natural that they’re going to respond out loud, which is distracting for a review session. Lastly, I arranged the lesson where pairs of students shared a white board. In doing this, I received more feedback and individual attention.


 * 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?**

Shakespearean works are a challenge for most of these students; therefore review is essential for full comprehension. Plus, my students had the previous week off. I had to gradually, not to mention effectively pull them back into this text in order to move forward.


 * 7)** **What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?**

It’s imperative we offer our students variety. In providing them the white boards, they are able to review in a non-traditional way. The task requires that students engage with one another and, more importantly, contribute to the lesson.


 * 8)** ** Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? **

I certainly will. Of course, I will implement those changes stated above: questions presented on PowerPoint slides, less questions, one white board for two-three students, and watch how I phrase the review question. I always review material with my students. Let’s say we are about to begin Act III of “Julius Caesar”. I would quickly recap the events of Acts I and II simply because it gives students a helpful foundation.

**Barbara McClure: Response to Mary: 2nd Post**
One thing that I have definitely learned during this student teaching experience is how important it is to be clear. I have totally made the mistake of assuming that students could follow along in a discussion without cues. However, like you, I have discovered that this is not true. I even use PowerPoint slides to explain simple assignments to students and clarify deadlines and whatnot. I guess that students just drift out and then when they come back, I find myself re-explaining something I have already said five times. I like that you focused on making sure the students understood this difficult text and that you acknowledged the struggles that we face when students have a break from school in the middle of the text. It can already be a struggle to engage students in works like //Julius Caesar//. Having to re-engage them offers a whole new set of challenges that I never imagined.

I also believe that recapping texts is very important for students. In my class, I ask the students to tell me what happened in the story all the time. Right before we start reading each day, I ask them to tell me what happened the day before. While we are reading as a class, I will frequently stop them and ask "What just happened?" to make sure that they are following along. I think that a lot of times, as experienced readers who actually love to read, we forget that a lot of students don't have reading strategies and don't know how to look back and explain what happened. This also helps to keep students on task as they are waiting for me to call on them and ask them what happened.

__**Mary Yoder (Successful Lesson)**__


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

My overall goal was to introduce the Julius Caesar ABR (Alternative Book Report) assignment to students. Two handouts were provided in class. One sheet listed the 10 writing project options students could choose from, and the other explained specific guidelines / minimum requirements and rubric categories for the assignment. Once we covered all of the material presented, students were encouraged to ask questions regarding the final ABR product. I then asked if anyone in the class already knew which activity they’d potentially like to pursue. The final ten minutes of class were spent examining the literary devices segment of their Julius Caesar packets.


 * 2)** **Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?**

Yes. As a class, we went through each option on the ABR handout. I shared various examples students could use for the assignment. The point of this writing project is to see that students understand the Julius Caesar text. I enjoy handing out activities like this because students are given variety. They choose whichever activity appeals to them, and although the projects vary, the same guidelines apply to all. I made students aware that content from the text and historical information from an outside source MUST be implemented somewhere within their ABR’s. Students appeared enthusiastic, especially since they’re given a list of creative writing options.


 * 3)** **What specifically went well with your lesson?**

The handouts I provided were very detailed, offering step-by-step instructions and fairly basic guidelines. Students completed their research paper unit a few weeks ago, and although I advise them not to approach this assignment like a research paper, I do ask for some similar elements. For example, the top left corner (first page) of their ABR must include first name, teacher’s name, subject, and the date. The instructions are clear, and students are familiar with this format. Also, I encouraged students to ask questions regarding the ABR options, and tell me which project they may be interested in.


 * 4)** **What did not go well with your lesson? Why?**

Students were a bit talkative. Then again, their conversations related to text content and ABR choices. I embraced this. Students were sharing ideas with one another, which needs to be encouraged in all classrooms.


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

I’m not sure that I would change anything about my delivery. However, I am in the process of making some changes on the guidelines / minimum requirements handout. Instead of requiring students to write three pages, I am only asking for two. Their time to complete this report is limited, and I don’t want to rush their writing process.


 * 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?**

Students just finished reading Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar”. Instead of assigning a traditional unit research paper, I chose to have students create a non-traditional book report. This showcases students’ understanding of the text, while using creative features (i.e. newspaper articles describing the text’s climactic events, personal letters exchanged between characters, obituaries revealing character traits, etc.) An activity like this encourages critical thinking and creative contributions. This authentic assessment highlights students’ individual interpretations of a text.


 * 7)** **What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?**

The ABR assignment appeals to various types of learners. This form of differentiation provides many options, which offers students a number of ways to acquire, dissect, and analyze the given content.


 * 8)** ** Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? **

I will. This activity reveals to me if students understand what they read, and it allows them to use a more creative format for writing. Many students loved the ABR concept, but there were a few who actually preferred the more standard form of writing. I actually sat down with each of these students and re-examined the ABR options with them. Together, we formed project ideas that fit their learning styles, but still met the criteria.


 * 3/8 Jenna Gerlach’s UNSUCCESSFUL Lesson (2nd Posting) **

The original intent of this lesson was to expose my students to Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention” as a part of our Age of Reason unit. The goal of the lesson was to have students summarize and decipher Henry’s speech and be able to pick out instances of rhetorical appeals and devices Henry used to persuade his audience.
 * 1) **** What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? **

I was not very successful in reaching my goal. I chose to first read the speech on a Friday, which became an issue when, on Monday, the students had completely forgotten almost everything about the speech. I had my students listen to an audio version of the speech, which proved to be both beneficial and problematic. Some students obviously enjoyed listening to the speech and appreciated being able to hear the passionate tone with which the speech was given. On the other hand, many students did not follow along in their textbooks as I instructed, and therefore the actual meaning and words of the speech were nearly lost on them entirely.
 * 2) **** Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? **

As I stated above, the use of the audio version of the text was beneficial. I believe it helped greatly to hear the tone of the speech and the sheer passion that Henry would have spoken with in detailing the need for independence from England. I think that I worked very hard to help my students summarize the speech and put it into language my students would more readily understand. This would have been more effective had I anticipated the many difficulties my students would have with the language prior to designing my lesson and if I had chunked the reading into more manageable chunks for summarization purposes. I could have used the audio in chunks as well, which would have been much more effective at helping my students understand the importance of Henry’s speech.
 * 3) **** What specifically went well with your lesson? **

As this was my students’ first experience reading a text from the Rationalism time period, many students had difficultly understanding Henry’s wording and I do not feel that I equipped them well enough to encounter the language of the period. I had not anticipated just how slowly I should have taken the reading of the speech. It would have worked much better to chunk the speech into manageable sections and spend some time summarizing it piece by piece instead of all at once, at the end. While the students understood the rhetorical appeals and devices outside of Henry’s text, they found it difficult to pick them out once they got bogged down in the language of the speech.
 * 4) **** What did not go well with your lesson? Why? **

First of all, I should not have tackled this speech on a Friday. The students did not retain the information I gave them during class and Monday became a re-teaching day in which I essentially repeated Friday’s lesson all over again. In the future, I will take the weekend break into consideration when planning my lessons involving difficult texts. Secondly, I will chunk the information into more appropriate and manageable sections for my students to tackle.
 * 5) **** What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? **

This lesson came towards the beginning of a unit on The Age of Reason time period. I began the unit with a look at ethos, pathos, and logos in modern advertising in order to help situate my students in a contemporary understanding of the rhetorical appeals. After spending two days discussing rhetoric in print advertising, we moved into looking at rhetoric in speeches. For this part of the unit, I had students watch a ten-minute clip of President Obama’s 2008 Inaugural Speech, then gave them a printed version of the speech’s text. I had students work in groups of three to find five instances where Obama used each rhetorical appeal. The students did very well with this activity and so I moved us along to Patrick Henry’s speech, which ultimately took up three class days. This particular lesson I am writing about was the first day of our study of Patrick Henry. On subsequent class days I gave a graphic organizer to help students organize the purpose and important details of the speech. After our study of Patrick Henry’s speech, we moved into a study of The Declaration of Independence and its importance to the historical and cultural identity of the United States.
 * 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? **

I decided to use an audio version of the text, per many of our discussion in both ENGL7741 (Media and Technology) and our Methods courses in which we discuss the merits of using technology and media in our classroom. Also, I was making an attempt to appeal to both audio and visual learners by having students both listen and read along with the text.
 * 7) **** What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? **

I will definitely spend some time tweaking this lesson before I try it again. I think that Henry’s speech is an important text that students can become engaged with if they are given the proper support needed to encounter the language and sentence structures of the time period. I want my students to understand where American government and cultural heritage comes from, particularly since American lit is often taught during the 11th grade, a time when many students are at or near the voting age. I found that my students appreciated being exposed to important documents like Henry’s speech, particularly when it was framed in a way that seemed important or valid to my students’ personal lives.
 * 8) **** Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? **

3/10 Kim's ADJUSTED lesson (Third posting)
This lesson was intended to deliver the background information about Shakespeare, Elizabethan England, drama, etc.
 * 1) What was your original intent or goal for this lesson?

I was successful in sharing this information with all of my classes, but in first period, it was a very dry, boring delivery. I was bored, the students were bored, and they were not very involved.
 * 1) Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?

My students received the necessary background information, learned about Elizabethan England, the culture of theaters at the time, and Shakespeare’s history.
 * 1) What specifically went well with your lesson?

It was so boring and uninvolved. When I reached the meaty, exciting section – Shakespeare’s influence on the English language – my students were very unresponsive. They didn’t seem to understand just how much Shakespeare contributed to the language we use 500 years after his time.
 * 1) What did not go well with your lesson? Why?

In my second 9th grade class, I encouraged my students to get more involved with the lesson. I asked them questions about each slide that forced them to use higher-level thinking and call on prior knowledge. For example, after learning that literature, music, and the military flourished under Queen Elizabeth I’s rule, I asked the students to explain why this might have occurred. They had to connect to what they’ve learned in history, make assumptions, and think deeply about what they just learned. When we got to the slides about Shakespeare’s effect on English language, I asked students to write a story using at least three of the phrases he coined and at least two of the words he created. They had a lot of fun with this activity, wrote creative stories, and could not wait to share their writing.
 * 1) What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson?

Interestingly enough, my second class has demonstrated a much deeper connection with //Romeo and Juliet// than the first throughout this unit. They are much more involved in discussion, they recognize humor that first period overlooks, and they do not seem to struggle as much with the difficult sentence structures. I wonder whether this is because they had to connect with the language from the beginning, or if it’s because they are actually awake by the time they come to me… It’s been very interesting to watch this difference between the two classes.

This lesson was used to introduce students to the historical context of //Romeo and Juliet//. They will be completing a newspaper assignment next week in which they write advice/gossip columns and feature stories about the play, and include historically relevant classified advertisements. Student will have to call upon what they learned in this presentation in order to create the classified ads.
 * 1) How does this lesson find its way into your unit and how well does this lesson scaffold and/or integrate into the next lesson?

We frequently talk about not just standing and lecturing, but rather involving students in discussion during lessons.
 * 1) What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

====I will use the modified version of this lesson again. It’s a good, quick way to introduce the content to the students. I am also interested to track the discrepancy between my current two classes’ understanding/connection to the play by seeing if a similar delivery next year will create the same result.====
 * 1) Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

**Amy's Response to Kim's Lesson (4th Post):**
Great job Kim. I understand those moments when you are in middle of a presentation that is suppose to be way more interactive than it turns out to be. I think you did a great job by stopping to ask specific questions the next time you delivered the presentation. I think that students often surprise us with how much depth they can deliver when thinking about these concepts if we just give them the right questions. Great job.

3/11 Kim's Response to Mary's Adjusted Lesson (4th Posting)
Mary, Your review lesson sounds like it was a lot of fun! I remember that when I was a student, I always looked forward to getting to write on the board, so having my own personal white board was such a treat. Students often enjoy getting to "play" with these boards, so that's a good way to get them involved and participating. I liked how you noticed how you could improve your phrasing of the questions and prompts. Often, fixing the "small" things like phrasing makes the biggest change in how a lesson goes. Having students work in pairs rather than individually was a neat change as well. That's a good way to boost discussion and ensure that the students remain on task -- there's 50% less people with markers in hand! :) Great job. Kim


 * __ Elesa's SUCCESSFUL LESSON (3rd posting) __ **

1. What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? This lesson was near the beginning of the Modernism Unit I have designed for the 11th grade American Literature classes. The goal has been to incorporate unusual tactics into the lessons to make them more interesting - hopefully - for the students. This particular day I was doing the long short story entitled "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall." This is a prime example of a stream of consciousness story, told both by the dying grandmother and her thoughts and memories, as well as actual interaction between her family members gathered around her bedside. The first time I presented the story, we had read it together in class and with all of the jumping around between characters, the students became lost. So, I copied the story and cut the lines apart so that everyone had a few lines...and we did the story as a play. 2. Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? Technically speaking, I would say that some of the students had actually ‘got’ the idea associated with stream of consciousness, prior to that lesson; however, by the time we ran through a reading of the 'play' version - all 151 speaking and narrator/thoughts/memories parts, everyone GOT IT. Since my goal had been to emphasize the four types of writing techniques we see in the Modernist literature - with stream of consciousness being one of the 'biggees', I think this went well. 3. What specifically went well with your lesson? For those who participated - we did have one student in each class put his head on the desk and 'lose' his part (!) -, I would say that they got a ‘hands on’ lesson recreating the story in play form. I divided the story into speaking parts of roughly four to ten lines apiece, depending on the class size and made sure that recurrent characters had all of their person's parts. What was interesting is that just as in real life, there developed an 'attitude' between students as they spoke the parts of the mother and her 'dutiful' and aggravating daughter, and between the mother and her doctor and priest! 4. What did not go well with your lesson? Why? Even with all of the excitement in class, there were several students who fell asleep and missed their part of the story. I had numbered the parts, one through 151, and that required that I keep up with the next group to be sure the story flowed...it was somewhat tedious, but I had it down by the fourth time a class did the lesson! 5. What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? After the first reading through in first period, I realized that the story will flow much better if I choose several students who actually like to read and who read well...for the longer character parts! Of course, that makes perfect sense, but I realized when you do an intense lesson like this, choosing the right people for the parts is very, very important. 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? I really like this sort of hands on teaching technique; I will have to figure out how to do this in smaller groups of willing participants in future. I wonder if I split the class into four groups to begin with and had the other three work on something else, in rotation, if that would work better. I have always had trouble with transitions from one activity to another and so had decided to do this lesson as an entire class rather than to divide the class into groups to do the play. By the end of 4B, the fourth time I had taught this lesson, I would say that most of the students actually stopped talking between themselves - and most did not even text as we did the play - and seemed interested to see how the story unfolded. 7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? My attempt has been to create a more constructivist classroom than is normally found in the on-level classrooms at the high school where I have been teaching. As researchers like Piaget and Kelly found, “A productive, __constructivist__ classroom, then, consists of learner-centered, active instruction. In such a classroom, the teacher provides students with experiences thatallow them to hypothesize, predict, manipulate objects, pose questions, research, investigate, imagine, and invent. The teacher's role is to facilitate this process. ” 8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? Yes, having learned some of what works and what does not, yes, I would use this approach again. I continue to struggle with how to motivate students to take out their ear buds – as an aside, may I say that whoever decided that kids could use their own music devices in class might want to consider a new career in a field less damaging to future society (!) Giving kids a choice to listen to the parents’ monotonous speech, from a Peanuts cartoon, or listen to Adele croon away singing their favorite song? ….Duh!

Also, although I will use this lesson again, I will take more time with it the next time - more prep time - and make it easier for ME to follow the lines person to person so it flows more like a play. The other thing I belatedly realized is that many, if not most, of these students have never been in a play per se and therefore do not understand stage directions and voice inflections and such.


 * 3/22: Jenna's Successful lesson (3rd posting)**

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

My original intent with this lesson was to teach the rhetorical device of parallelism, or parallel structure. My goal was to have my students not only understand of definition of parallel structure, but to have them engage with the rhetorical strategy authentically through the creation of a poetry piece that effectively used parallel structure to communicate the theme.

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

I was much more successful in reaching my goal than I had initially believed I would be. My students completely surprised me with their enthusiasm for being given a writing task and, considering that most students recorded in their anticipation prompt that they had not previously been taught parallelism, the students took to the task with eagerness and creativity. The poems that my students turned in at the end of the block demonstrated a clear grasp of the concept and revealed some very remarkable writers in my class whose talent I had not previously been aware of.

3. What specifically went well with your lesson?

I began the lesson by showing the students a clip of Rod Sterling's introduction to "The Twilight Zone." After playing the clip, I showed students the text of Sterling's introduction on a PPT slide, underlining where he uses parallelism. Although students were not completely aware of "The Twilight Zone" as a pop culture icon, the students found it helpful to hear the parallelism being used in a context familiar to them--the TV show. I then showed students a whole host of examples from movie tag lines--another context with which the students found familiar to their interests and experiences. At this point, the students began giving me examples, of their own accord, of parallel structures they were familiar with in their own experiences--songs, movies, TV shows, etc. After this discussion, I modeled for the students a sample paragraph I had created around a particular topic--the teacher's salary--that used parallel structure to explain the teacher's salary in terms of comparisons and contrasts. The sample paragraph was essentially a quote from the movie "Lord of Illusions" which follows a similar structure to "The Twilight Zone" intro. For both my example and the task I would give to the students, I simply removed the main images the quote used for comparisons/contrasts and replaced them with blanks that were then filled in with comparisons and contrasts befitting the salary of the teacher, written in parallel structures. Once the students were given the task--and some broad topics from which to choose--I set them to work creating their own poems based on the format of the sample paragraph. What was interesting was that most students chose to select a topic of their own creation and did not simply work off the topics I gave them. The topics my students created were far more interesting than the ones I had created and I was so surprised at their ingenuity and creativity. What was most surprising to me was the fact that my students WANTED to write and were excited about what they had written. Generally my students moan and groan when a writing task is given to them, but this time they accepted it with little fuss and as I walked around the room during the work session, I noticed how many of them were engaged in "writerly" conversations with fellow students about how to phrase something, brainstorming potential topics, and sharing work that they had already written. By the end of class, each student in my 2nd block had handed me their poems and all but two of them eagerly asked me to read them aloud to the rest of the class. The students all applauded and gave comments on each others' work--often even making comments like "That was so amazing, whose was that?" and "I wish I had written that!" It was a writing teacher's dream come true.

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

The only aspect of this lesson that did not go as planned was that some students, namely the two students who did not ask me to share their poems, simply copied the work of another classmate. As I allowed the students to use each other as resources for topic generation and brainstorming, it was perhaps too easy for them to then just copy each other's thoughts and ideas with one person doing all the work and the other simply tagging along for the grade. This is always a danger when assigning group work, but I had made it clear in my instructions that each student was to turn in their own, unique poem, and had floated around the classroom enough during the creation of the poems that I was well aware who had created the work and who had simply copied it.

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

After 2nd block, I made the adjustment to allow for a brief 5 minute brainstorming period in which they could bounce off topic ideas with a partner before working independently on their own poems. This seemed to lessen the possibility of students copying from one another as they were not working in pairs for the duration of the task, but rather only for the initial "invention" phase.

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 was a continuation of a small unit on rhetoric and rhetorical appeals, which fit inside our larger unit of study on the Age of Reason/Rationalism. Our Rationalism unit encouraged the students to look at texts such as The Declaration of Independence and Patrick Henry's "Speech to the Virginia Convention" from the perspective of their rhetorical significance and power. Discussing parallel structure was one of the many rhetorical devices that the Rationalist period used and is still a prevalent rhetorical strategy used in speech and advertising today. Ultimately, the students were asked to recognize parallelism in a speech given by President Ronald Reagan on their Age of Reason unit test.

7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

For this lesson,I wanted my students to not only be able to recognize it in speeches and common advertisements, but also to grapple with creating parallel structure for their own reasons in order to recognize its power as a rhetorical strategy. This is a common discussion we have during our MAT courses as we are encouraged to have our students produce authentic texts of their own creation so that the concepts are instilled in them on a deeper level of understanding than the simple recall level. Having students actually write using parallelism, for their own purposes on their own topic, helped to ensure that they 1) had a deep understanding of the rhetorical strategy and 2) could effectively recognize AND use the strategy in their own writing.

8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?

I will absolutely use this lesson again. My CT was so pleased with the results I was able to achieve with my students that she asked to be able to observe me teaching it to the class during 3rd block so that she could emulate the results the following year. I was most impressed with the creativity this lesson allowed my students to put forth and as this was one of my first chances to have my students write "creatively," I was ecstatic at how they rose to the challenge and truly gave their all--even those students who typically choose not to turn in or complete assignments.

Elesa's comment on Jenna's lesson:

I, too, have been told that the students will not write and that they do not LIKE to write. However, just as you have done, I have pushed the envelope a little bit to see for myself if this is in fact true. I was encouraged to see that your kids, too, come up with creative ideas on their own and that those ideas are often better than the ones we have planned for them.

To test the "they will not write" hypothesis, I bought small 4x4 writing notebook journals from Dollar Daze - an online clearance outfit - for about 80 cents a book; this particular set was apparently printed by National Geographic and has endangered species on the front - which the kids fought over and traded (!) to get their preferred animal. The first day, I had them write a simple "Who Am I?" piece and was surprised to see that many of them wrote not only the one page I had assigned but page after page. I patterned this after the stream of consciousness theme from Modernism we have been studying and told them that next year with the Common Core standards, they will be doing quite a bit more writing - hope that is true!

Kudos to you Jenna for having your kids write and write and write!

Towards the end of reading the play //Oedipus: The King//, I wanted to have a discussion with the class regarding free will and fate. I wanted the students to seriously consider whether they believe that people have control over the things that happen or if things just happen to them. I especially wanted the students to apply this discussion to //Oedipus: The King//
 * Barbara McClure: Successful Lesson**
 * What was your original intent or goal for this lesson?**

I felt very successful. I created a courtroom in the classroom, divided students into prosecution, defense, and jury and had them debate whether Oedipus should be punished for his actions even though it was prophesized that these things would happen. It was a very productive debate and the students used the text to defend their arguments. I was thrilled.
 * Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?**

Each student was engaged in their role in the lesson. The students repeatedly referred to the text, fate, and free will. I was shocked at how engaged the students were. As an assessment, I had them write short responses defending their position in the case. The assessments were well thought out and representative of the text.
 * What specifically went well with your lesson?**

There were a couple of times where students veered from the text and made things up. This made me a little nervous at first but most of the time, the information that they created fit well with the characterization from the text.
 * What did not go well with your lesson? Why?**

In the future, I think I will actually give the students more time to prepare. They did a great job staying on task and really focusing on the work. I was not expecting that so I kept group preparation time to a minimum.
 * What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of the day to replicate the lesson?**

This was the final part of the unit on //Oedipus//: //The King//.
 * 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 was all about using Essential Questions in the real world classroom. My essential question was “How much control does man have over his own destiny?” This lesson allowed me to have a discussion with students about this essential question while ensuring that they understood the text.
 * What theoretical principal and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?**

I definitely will. I actually plan to use the trial format with texts other than //Oedipus//. It worked well to check for understanding, engage the class, and discuss real world matters.
 * Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?**

Barbara McClure: Adjusted Lesson

Barbara McClure: Adjusted Lesson

My original goal for this lesson was to teach students the basic literary terms for Greek literature. The lesson plan and notes were given to me by my CT and I was asked to present them to the class. It was intended to be done before the class read //Oedipus//.
 * What was your original intent or goal for this lesson?**

No. Students did not initially grasp the terms and could not relate them to the text or other examples. The presentation provided was dull and students were not engaged. However, upon seeing that students still did not understand the terms after reading Part 1 of Oedipus, I decided to present them again. I created a PowerPoint, incorporated examples from Part 1 of the text, and added videos from pop culture.
 * Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?**

During the second presentation, the students seemed more interested. Now that they had two different texts (Oedipus and the pop culture references) to relate the terms to, they seemed more willing to try to learn them. Going forward, they were able to identify these terms in the text more frequently.
 * What specifically went well with your lesson?**

The original lesson was just not engaging enough for the students. On top of that, students had no context for the terms. Having never read Greek literature before, they couldn’t apply it to that and without examples, they were just lost.
 * What did not go well with your lesson? Why?**

I added videos, pop culture, and text examples to make the lesson more relevant to the students. I also rearranged the timing of the presentation and moved it towards the middle of the reading.
 * What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of the day to replicate the lesson?**

It was originally in the beginning of the unit. When I re-taught it, it was more towards the middle. I think this worked better as students were able to apply it to parts of the text that they read before and then have the information going forward.
 * 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 adjusted lesson considers that students need to feel that information is relevant to them in order to feel motivated to learn it. The original presentation relied on memorization and felt out of context.
 * What theoretical principal and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?**

I will use lessons similar to this again. I don’t know how important it is that students know what hamartia means but if I do find myself needing to teach it, I will definitely use video and text examples.
 * Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not?**

3/28 Jenna's Response to Elesa's Successful Lesson (4th posting)

Elesa,

I love that you gave an example of how to teach "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall." I have been considering using it for our Memory text set in Rish's class, but have been weary of its length and its difficult narrative structure. I really love the idea that you had to cut the story up and issue parts, like a play, to your students. Sounds a lot like the Reader's Theater that Dr. Harrell was explaining to us! I wonder if you might incorporate some ideas from that into this lesson in the future. I know you said that the students had a difficult time with the story, so maybe it would be helpful for you (and some willing teachers!) to show them how the reading/acting would look and the kinds of decisions that your "group" would make in order to accurately represent the narrators in the text (i.e. who speak what and why). It might be a good way to have the students come to their own realization about the stream of consciousness/multiple narrators issue.

I really love that you wanted your students to do a "hands on" lesson with this piece. It really is quite long and I can see the students becoming easily frustrated with what is really quite a great story. I think it's a good idea to assign the longer parts to more engaged, more interested reader....although we can't always pigeonhole "poor readers" or "uninterested" students into small, "blink and you miss them" roles. They need to have opportunities to shine, too. Maybe there would be a way, with your own students in the future whom you know their interests and personalities, to assign the roles in such a way that the speaking roles would be significant somehow to those students. Maybe they get to tell a really interesting part or a part that relates to their personal interests in some way--this may be difficult with this particular story, I know.

I'm really glad you shared this lesson and I love the ways that you are able to, to borrow your word, "trick" your students into learning. I have not yet taught a Modernism unit, but I can only imagine how difficult the idea of stream of consciousness can be to students. Did you ever think of trying song lyrics for SOC? Or a piece from Mrs. Dalloway? I know Woolf can be difficult, too, but the way that Mrs. Dalloway prepares for the party and her mind is constantly moving to many things might be a better lead-in text to SOC than the "Weatherall" piece. But overall, love the lesson that you had and so glad you were successful with it!


 * Mary Kleparek Yoder/ Unsuccessful Lesson **
 * 1) What was your original intent or goal for this lesson **
 * To introduce archetypes (situational, symbolic, and character) to my 10th grade students using a PowerPoint presentation. **
 * 2) Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? **
 * Partly. I explained, in great detail, the components which make up situational, symbolic, and character archetypes. I provided students with examples to help them better understand the concept. These examples came from a variety of genres: film, novels, short stories, myths, etc. And the PowerPoint was certainly helpful in that students had a series of visuals for reference. They also seemed to understand the definitions included in the presentation. However, it was too much information to cover in one class session. **


 * 3) What specifically went well with your lesson? **
 * My PowerPoint was thorough and provided all of the necessary information regarding archetypes and their role in film and literature. Students understood that archetypes are used in all stories, and although we recognize them in various genres, we don't frequently discuss those symbolic, situational, and character patterns. **
 * 4) What did not go well with your lesson? Why? **
 * I only had three days that week to cover an introduction to archetypes. The plan was to do a brief introduction Monday and then have students complete an archetypes handout accompanied with the Shrek film Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Friday would be furlough days. The reason my CT had it arranged this way was because the following week students would begin The Hunger Games. This unit would focus largely on archetypes and their usage in the novel, so an introduction to this literary concept was necessary. The Monday lesson felt rushed, and there was far too much information for students to take in. **

Mary Kleparek Yoder/ Response to Barbara McClure's Adjusted Lesson
 * 5) What ad **** justments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? **
 * I covered situational, symbolic, and character archetypes in one class. Next time I will devote one class session to one archetypal feature. **
 * 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? **
 * As I mentioned previously, a class lesson/ introduction to archetypes was imperative because the main focus of the next unit was archetypal features in The Hunger Games. Although students will explore these components further in the future, it helps to give them a general idea of what's to come. **
 * 7) What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? **
 * I chose a presentation that appeals to all learners, particularly those who learn best with images. I also chose to implement examples, film and literature, that students were familiar with. They especially responded well to the movie examples. For example, Star-Crossed Lovers: Titanic, Twilight, Romeo and Juliet, etc. Hero: Superman. Creature of Nightmare: Freddy Krueger, Jason, etc. **
 * 8) Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? **
 * I will continue to use my PowerPoint segment. However, I will not try to cover situational, symbolic, and character archetypes in one class session again. I've learned throughout this experience how to better manage my time and lessons for more effective learning. **

I have been in similar situations where the lesson I had prepared for students turned out not to be enough for them to truly grasp the concept. I thought your idea of providing students with text examples, pop culture features, and videos was certainly effective. At times, students require a PowerPoint presentation in order to better understand more complex terms or concepts. This format provides images, sound, and, more importantly, material that is relevant to students' lives. Students also appreciate variety in their learning. Your choice of including both the Oedipus text and pop culture references is a wonderful strategy for student motivation. Awesome job!!

Amy Rambo 4/23: Post #1 Successful Lesson:

This semester I really tried to vary my instruction and give students more time for in class discussion. The lesson that I took students through that went really well was a mini lesson that connected an activity from a previous day and helped me better explain the concept to using textual support to back up a claim about a text. This lesson was also one that I did on an observation day when my University Supervisor, Dr. Hunt-Clements came by.
 * What was goal or intent?**

This lesson was successful because of the participation I saw from students and the quality of the discussion they were having. It also allowed me to bring up the idea that there can be multiple interpretations of a text and that there must be clear evidence to support a claim for it to be taken seriously.
 * Were you successful?**

Not much, although I would end the lesson differently if i did this again.
 * What was not successful?**

To start I will need to explain what the students did in the lesson prior to this one. I had them look at a painting by Renoir that can be found one this wiki page and then I gave them the following instructions:
 * How does this lesson find its way into your unit and how well does this lesson scaffold and/or integrate into the next lesson? **

On a separate sheet of paper answer the following questions about the picture…

For each answer you give you MUST give at least two SPECIFIC references to the picture that support the answer you gave.

Who are these people?

What are they doing?

What happened ten minutes before this picture was taken?

What happened one hour after this moment?

Pick two people in the picture and write three sentences about their relationship.

Then students turned these in and I looked them over and realized that not many of them used examples from the painting that helped support the stories they were creating for these people, so I knew that it would be important to discuss this in class. I handed back the papers they had turned in and I went around the room and asked different students what they had written about. Several students gave some creative answers, but each time I asked, “why do you think that? What about the painting makes you think that was happening?” And eventually the students began to pick up on the fact that I wanted them to be specific in the parts of the painting they were talking about the back up the claims they were making. This was a really fun discussion and one that the students really go into. Many students who usually do not willingly participate in class discussions were voicing their opinions and giving some interesting interpretations.

Yes but I would probably want to have students re-write or write reflection on what we discussed in order to better ascertain how much each student understood the next time I did this activity. However, based on the writing they produced later in the unit in which they analyzed either //A Raisin in the Sun// or //Of Mice and Men// I think they understood what I was saying that day because the analysis they gave was deep and interesting and well supported by the text.
 * Would I do this lesson again?**

Amy Rambo: Unsuccessful Lesson (Post 2) 1. What was the goal or intent of this lesson? This lesson was supposed to help students better understand the quality of essay they should write for an essay contest on what principles and character laws shape who they are. 2. Successful in reaching the goal? How? I was not really successful because the way I went about this really did not grab the students’ attention and I had to fight throughout the lesson for students to stay awake. This was not the best way to present a good essay to students. 3. What went well? At the end of the day the students did hear and read what a quality Laws of Life essay is so that was good, but it could have been better. 4. What did not go well? First of all I made the mistake of not giving the students the essay but merely having it on the screen up front. Then projecting it lead to the light being turned off and this then lead to many students sleeping or putting their heads down. While this was bad enough, I then read the essays to them, which further allowed them to sleep since I was focused on the screen. So, when it came time to discuss why the essay I showed was successful and good, maybe one or two people answered and the rest did not really contribute at all or seem to know what we were talking about. 5. What adjustments will or did you make to replicate the lesson? I would give students copies of the essay so they could follow along and write notes on the page. Then I would not turn all the lights off. If I did this lesson again I would have students read rather than myself and I would stop them and point out good sections and what works during the first part and to let them know the type of characteristic’s I’m considering successful and good. Especially if this is early in the semester, as this lesson was. 6. How does this lesson fit in the unit? This was the first major writing assignment, the Laws of Life essay, and this lesson came in the middle of the unit. The students had already chosen the laws and completed a questionnaire in which they had to write little paragraphs about things that matter to them. This lesson was suppose to scaffold them into writing the rough draft by allowing them to see a great essay so they know what kind of essay they should be writing. 7. Will I use this lesson again? Absolutely I’ll continue to show students quality work. Next time though I will change how I present the work.

Amy Rambo: Adjusted Lesson (Post 3) 1. What was the goal or intent of this lesson? Go over the answers to a vocabulary lesson from the day before. 2. Successful in reaching that goal? Yes and no…because while I was able to go over all the answers it was questionable whether anyone actually paid attention or changed them if they missed them. 3. What went well? The answers did get covered. 4. What did not go well? I was using the “I read the question or prompt” and then wait for a volunteer to give the correct answer model. This day no one wanted to answer and it was wasting a lot of time waiting for people to respond. 5. What adjustments did you make? This lesson I was able to adjust because I was repeating it in two classes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning class is usually really responsive and energetic but not this day. So in anticipation of a sluggish afternoon I switch up the format. I had a student that I knew was usually talkative and distracting and had that person come up and lead the review. I stayed at the front to keep things going and to offer any needed extra information but this really helped get the students more engaged. 6. How does this lesson find its way into your unit? This type of lesson is a weekly staple in the classroom. There is a week long vocabulary unit every week that the students are responsible for covering and this took place in the middle of one of those weeks before the end of chapter vocabulary quiz. 7. Will you use this lesson again? I’m not a big fan of this type of vocabulary instruction but as far as having a student come forward to lead part of a class or lesson I would definitely do that again because it really engaged the students.