Lesson Showcase #1 : Teaching Readers
22 February 2021
(52 minutes)
Objective:
Students will learn a strategy to help them derive meaning from difficult poetry by systematically organizing their thoughts and important aspects of the text.
Opening:
After announcing the winners of the poetry competition, I will start with a brief discussion about what students do if they encounter a confusing line of poetry. My goal here is to get them to think about what they do when they’re reading a challenging text. I’ll actively challenge their strategies to soften them up and make them receptive to a new strategy.
Instruction:
I will begin by introducing them to “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. Instead of doing the typical reading format (I read, we read, they read), I’ll ask that they read it alone. While they read, I’ll ask them to underline five things they didn’t understand or things they noticed about the poem. And for each of the five underlined things, I’ll ask them to number and explain why for each one.
After they have collected their thoughts, I will teach a mini-lesson on a strategy for deciphering difficult poetry for meaning while demonstrating with the Hughes poem (Impression , Definitions, Important Words, Devices, Interaction, Theme) ("IDIDIT"). In this method, they will first give their general impression of the poem (gut reaction). They will then find definitions for any words they didn’t know the meaning of. Then, they’ll identify important words that stand out from the rest. These can be nouns, verbs, or adverbs as long as they communicate something important about the “action” of the poem. Afterwards, they’ll find literary devices (simile, metaphor, personification, apostrophe). Next, they’ll think about how the important words and literary devices interact with one another to create meaning (why certain words were used to convey certain meanings). Finally, they’ll identify a possible theme for the poem.
Closing:
After completing their analysis of "Harlem" with the "IDIDIT" strategy, we will come back together as a class in order to share our findings and conclusions on the Smart Board.
Lesson Showcase #2: Teaching Writers
11 March 2021
(52 Minutes)
Objective:
Students will more fully understand transition phrases as well as keeping focus within the context of an informational essay.
Opening:
We will open with a brief discussion about transition phrases, their purposes, and a critique of some of the transition words students were taught at the middle school level.
Instruction:
We will look at a sample informational essay that I wrote in order to demonstrate the importance of transitions. In the essay, places for transition words and phrases are expressed by blanks that we will complete as a class. For each of the transitions that are used in the blanks, I will have the student explain why they chose that particular transition and why it is more effective than simple transitions like "First", "Second", and "Third" in the case of a high school essay.
After completing and discussing all blanks within the essay, we will read it and check for any that sound off or that could be improved. Here, I want to emphasize reading over timed essays before turning them in. Many students have run out of time on previous Write Score administrations and I want to encourage them to reread and undertake some sort of revision, however minor, to conclude their writing processes.
Once this activity is complete, we will go on to look at different strategies for improving focus while writing timed essays. First, we will define focus as it pertains to timed essays and go over several examples of focus being lost during the course of an essay. We will emphasize the use of topic sentences and the use of a strong thesis in order to ensure that their essays retain focus and have logical continuity.
Closing:
To close the class, we will open a space for informal discussion concerning other points of concern for the upcoming Write Score. Students who have specific concerns when it comes to the test will be able to pose questions and ease their minds during this time.
Assessment Showcase: Differentiation
The Assignment:
After a unit on Romeo and Juliet, students were given a list of choices to demonstrate their understanding of the text in a presentable form. They were able to work either alone or with others.
Choice #1: Students create a costume book for at least two characters from the play. For each character, they will create five costumes for different events throughout the play. Afterwards, they will write a brief paper explaining which characteristics made them choose particular costume elements for their chosen characters.
Choice #2: Students will rewrite the ending of the play by altering one of the major choices made during the plot. After deciding on the choice that is to change, they will write the remainder of the play keeping that choice in mind. They are responsible for covering all the major elements of narrative (characters, setting, description, and dialogue).
Choice #3: Students will visually characterize one of the characters from the play by creating an action figure based on them. For the action figure, they are responsible for creating accessories and actions which demonstrate the characteristics of their chosen character and also for commenting on the importance of the character within the narrative.
Choice #4: Students will create a soundtrack for the play by picking different scenes and deciding on a score for these scenes. By commenting on the mood, tone, and atmosphere, they will explain why particular songs were chosen for events in the narrative.
Choice #5: Students will write a narrative speculating on the origins of the feud between the Capulets and Montagues. They will be responsible for including important narrative elements as well as original characters. In addition, they will be given the challenge of including a number of Shakespeare's characters into their narrative while keeping their characterization consistent.
Choice #6: Students will write, in play format, the events that transpire in the time that Peter and the Nurse struggle to find Romeo in the streets of Verona. They will include elements of Shakespeare's storytelling such as monologue, pun, and stage directions. Their constructed scene should continue seamlessly into II.iv. .
Choice #7: Students will visualize Shakespeare's Verona and draw a poster-sized map of their imagined space. In this space, they will plot different vital events from the play while imagining their spatial relationship to one another. Each event plotted on the map should contain direct quotations from the play as well as a brief summary of the action.
Reasoning:
By offering so many choices, the intention was that a diverse array of learners would each have the opportunity to demonstrate their learning through means with which they are most comfortable. Project options such as #2, #5, and #1 cater to students who would prefer expressing their learning through creative means. Within this, students are able to draw, write, and create physical objects in order to demonstrate their grasp of the text and the development of their reading comprehension skills. Other options such as #2 and #7 offer the opportunity to think directly about the events of the play in ways that engage physical and spatial thinking. These options offer an opportunity to reflect on the text itself rather than thinking about how to extend the experience of reading the text.
Overall, the project options seemed to cater to a wide selection of students. Almost all students were readily drawn to at least one option on the list.