NewsELA

In my Inclusive course, we learned about the app. NewsELA. As I develop my pedagogy, I am constantly thinking about how I can integrate technology into my lessons in meaningful ways. NewsELA is a great resource because it has thought- provoking articles for all reading levels. The students or instructor can choose the reading level they are at and the app. will alter the article's vocabulary or structure to meet that reading level. This is so helpful because there are always different levels in a class and this helps the teacher meet all of her student's needs in an efficient way. Students also are given choice and freedom when using the app. They can select what article is interesting to them and select what reading level is appropriate. This creates student autonomy. Also, the app. provides efficient ways to do formative assessments-- quizzes (at reading level) and written responses. I definitely plan to use this app. with my students!

Inclusive

In preparing for student teaching next semester, I am completing my final Education requirements-- Teaching Students in Inclusive Middle and High School Classrooms and Approaches to Teaching the Humanities. I am excited to be on the final stretch to completing my degree as an Education student, but I'm realizing how much there still is to learn, especially when it comes to Special Education. In reading the first texts and watching the first videos for my Inclusive course, I realized how much I don't know!

My education (K-12) as a student, didn't teach me anything about disabilities. In becoming a college student, I realized how much I didn't learn and how much was left out of my education growing up, which is one of the main reasons why I decided to be a History teacher. I want to make sure the stories of women and minority groups are told, which has been a major part of my developing pedagogy. Ironically enough, I didn't think to include disabled people as a minority group until I read "The Definition of Disability" by Deborah Kaplan and "We are not Aliens" by Priya Lalvani. Both of these articles have begun to shape my perspective on disabilities in concepts like, disabilities are socially constructed, social discrimination on the disabled is caused by the built environment rather than the actual disability, and the importance of teaching the history of the disabilities rights movement and discussing with ALL students what disabilities are.  Many students and teachers have expectations of what disabilities are without real understanding, like I did. But, after familiarizing myself with various videos showing the experience of those with disabilities, my expectations were proven wrong. For example, I watched the Youtube video "Born this Way," which showed adults with Down Syndrome living independently, which corrected a misconception that I had. I look forward to continue to confront stereotypes I may have throughout this Inclusive course.

My Path to Teaching

Prezi: My Path to Teaching

I made this presentation at the start of my Curriculum course this semester.  Since then, I have come a long way.  I feel that the end of this course represents the end to my path to teaching. I feel that now I am here, and am really starting to develop who I am as a teacher.  I now know the process of developing lessons, units, and an entire course.  My major take away is the importance of scaffolding. My lessons need to build on each other, so students can see a clear process to achieving an end goal.  I am ready for the next stages of my teaching journey!

Learning Plan: First Lesson, Literacy Lesson, and Tech Lesson

Unit Lessons

The following link includes my learning plan for three lessons of my unit. The first lesson begins with an overview of the war during 1941 and 1942.  The course is taught chronologically, so students should already have an understanding of the first two years of war.  Then, students will learn what the "People's War" is and why WWII was considered a "People's War."  To do so, students will participate in a reenactment. This is an example of criterion 3.2 and 4.2 because students are active and are making the concept come to life.  In the literacy lesson, I also address criterion 4.2 because the advertisement activity is a way for students to see how propaganda relates to their own lives. In my technology lesson, criterion 5.2 is addressed because students need to critically think about what they are reading, watching, and listening to. Students need to create, collaborate with their peers, and communicate their ideas when creating the piktochart.  Throughout my unit, I tried to address a variety of these performance criteria.  

Unit Plan

Unit Plan

Cumulative Assessment: Journal Project

Journal Project Rubric

The two aspects of my unit plan that I am most proud of are the way I scaffolded my unit and lessons and my use of formative assessments.  The major take-away from my Curriculum and Literacy courses this semester is that instruction needs to be progressive and prepare students to work towards a final goal or product.  Students should not be constantly graded.  Formative assessments are ways in which students can practice and prepare to demonstrate what they have learned.  For example, my cumulative assessment for the unit was a journal project.  Each week students handed-in one journal entry, not for a grade, but to receive feedback.  Students will not receive a grade until all five journal entries have been handed-in.  Constant feedback will become a key part of my future pedagogy.  The journal entries are not the only examples of formative assessments in my unit.  I have various exit-slips, discussion activities, presentations, and reflections to check-in with students and to be used to guide my instruction.

I tried to make sure each lesson built upon each other and that within each lesson there was evidence of scaffolding.  For example, when looking at primary and secondary sources, I first explained what the difference was and asked students to categorize different examples. Then, I modeled how to read a primary source before I asked students to try on their own.  In my unit plan, I think I demonstrate my understanding of the importance of building on student skills, meeting criterion 4.2.  I think I organized the entire unit and each lesson in a non-overwhelming way.

Brown Girl Dreaming Workshop

Tonight I was fortunate enough to attend a workshop on Brown Girl Dreaming, sponsored by Integrating Art, Social Studies, and Language Arts. The workshop consisted of a number of engaging activities.  We began with a theme brainstorm of the book, in which we were asked to turn and talk with a partner and think about the themes we noticed when reading Brown Girl Dreaming. As a group, some of the major themes we noticed were identity, family, friendship, place, education.  Afterwards, four poems from the book were recited, and we were asked to keep them in mind for the rest of the workshop.  There was then a brief lecture on free verse, so we could understand Woodson's writing before we could write our own.  This transitioned us into a free verse activity. My group was assigned the theme of friendship.  We were given different images to trigger our thinking, then we created our own free verse poem in small groups.  To break up the session, we played the game Zip Zap.  I think this was a good way to get us up and moving before we continued. After the game, we did a tableau activity, in which we created a still scene of each other's free verse poems.  Finally, we had time to reflect.  We created a group mural about what the book made us think about and then created a free verse poem about ourselves.

I thought these activities were a really nice way of getting us to think about the book.  I'm definitely going to add some of these techniques, like the tableau, to my strategies tool kit.  I also enjoyed how we had time at the end of the lesson to reflect.  I think this is crucial to every lesson.  All learners need time to process new information and think about the activities they just participated in.  The workshop was a perfect example of a lesson that designs approaches that engage.  There was a nice balance of discussing in partners, small groups, and with the whole class, reflecting individually, writing, drawing, getting up and moving.  I was busy and engaged the whole time, but it never felt overwhelming.

This is the free verse my group wrote based on the images we saw and from what we remembered from the theme of friendship in the novel. 

This is from reflection.  We added images and words to the class mural based on the themes of the book.  The papers next to the mural are our free verses about ourselves.

Vocabulary Lesson

Vocabulary Lesson Plan

Video of my lesson

In my vocabulary lesson, students learned the term "propaganda."  In the World War II course I have created for my unit, students will be looking at wartime propaganda, but before they can do this, students need to know what propaganda means.  For my mini-lesson, students looked at modern advertisements for chips, milk, and Lucky Charms in small groups.  They were asked: What is the purpose of the advertisement? Who is the advertisement targeting? What strategies did the advertisement use to appeal to its audience?  This activity connected the lives of my students to WWII propaganda.  Just like advertisements, propaganda has a purpose, a targeted audience, and a number or strategies to create a successful campaign.  After each group shared with the class and we made connections between advertisements and propaganda, students did an exit slip that gave students the actual definition of propaganda, asked students to write the definition in their own words, draw a picture, use the term in a sentence, and rate their understanding of the term.  Based on these exit slips, my lesson was successful.  Students demonstrated a clear understanding of the term.

To improve, I would start with the definition of propaganda.  In the feedback I got from my peers, they thought the connection between the advertisements and the propaganda was a little unclear.  I think I should have started with the definition and how it relates to advertisements instead of doing this after the activity. This was similar feedback that I received from my Berlin Wall lesson.  Clarity is something I need to work on while studying to be a teacher.  Even though it makes sense to me, this doesn't mean it makes sense to my students.

I connected my lesson to criterion 3.1 because I understand the importance of social learning.  I had students make observations about their advertisement in small groups before sharing with the class.  Students bounce ideas off of each other and often prefer speaking with each other, rather than the teacher talking at them.  I also connected my lesson to criterion 4.2 because I made the vocabulary term accessible and meaningful by relating propaganda to something my students see in their every day lives.

Here are examples of the exit slip students completed: