Mini-Lesson Response

Mini-Lesson Reflection

            I think my lesson on An Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian on the theme of social issues for Native Americans in the text was a good lesson for 9^th grade students and went well. I wanted students to think critically on the text finding both themes of explicit racism (toward Junior form both Indians and whites) and themes of implicit racism such as alcoholism and poverty. Working in small groups, I was happy to see the students found these themes. I also think I successfully connected the lesson to the community for the students. This was helped by the regional text written by a local author. I was able to successfully allow students to connect the issues of the novel to reach world issues. This allowed me to promote some social justice within my classroom and allowed students to develop their own ideas, with a partner, in order to create new ways to solve social issues. This required students to think critically and implement problem solving in the real world. I think the main goals of this lesson were successfully met.

            If I were to redo this lesson there are a few things I would change. I would begin with having students change the learning objective into their own understanding. This helps students develop metacognition when they are participating in the lesson. I wouldn’t change the overall structure of the lesson, but if I had more time I would have students come up with more social issues in the book and more way to solve the issues in the real world. I would also take the time to get some informative articles for students to go over on both the social issues of Native Americans and of ways people are trying to help them solve these problems. This would bolster students confidence in their ability to attempt to solve social issues, since a lot of the ways they thought about solving the issues are a lot of the ways being implemented currently.  Finally, I would be more tactful when working with the group on alcoholism. There are a few reasons for this, there may be students that could have negative prior experience with alcoholism and I would need to be careful when talking about this theme in the novel. I also need to monitor that group, and every group for that matter, to make sure they have an appropriate response for solving the issue.

            For the feedback portion of the class period I was grateful to get both positive and negative feedback. I know that I could have displayed the object better for my students. If I were to fix this I would make them write the objective in their own words. Another issue brought up was having group selected, not student choice, although some people so this as a pro. My reasoning for doing this was to save time. I would keep it in my lesson because students need a lot of time to try to solve the problems of Native American issues. Finally, it was brought up that I could use more technology. When I was reflecting on the lesson I thought if I had more time I would get students an account from a Native American on social issues affecting them online. I think this would help with connecting them to the real world.

            Overall, this was beneficial to my development as a teacher. I enjoy teaching lessons to my peers and getting feedback from them, both as fellow teachers and their role-play as students. I learn about, not only the facets of my own instruction, but also its effectiveness. It is helpful information I can use when building lessons in the future. It helps me add to my teaching tool belt for effective teaching for myself and for my students. Mini-lessons are beneficial for us as students of education. It gives us practical knowledge that we can actively participate in and utilize, rather than simple studying of pedagogical skills, or discussion in the classroom, while those are still valid modes of learning, I always learn a lot more about myself from practice and critique. 

Forgot Research

Hello all I just realized I forgot to put the research for the basis of my lesson into my lesson plan so here it is.

The grounds for this lesson comes from the British Journal publication, "Social Justice, Educators, and Schooling: Some Philosophical Issues" this article states that we as educators have a responsibility to be the ones who help our students develop an understanding for social justice. If we do this than students will become greater citizens who are more likely to question authority and take a stand against injustice. We need to be the ones who help students give a working definition of social justice since it can be an ambiguous statement. It also opens up a chance for students to develop some critical thinking.

Alexie Lesson Plan

TPA Lesson Plan #___1____

1. Teacher Candidate	Tyler Schoening	Date Taught	3/6/15
Cooperating Teacher	Matt Messick	School/District	DPHS
2. Subject	AP English 1	Field Supervisor	Beth Philips
3. Lesson Title/Focus	Exploring Themes of Racism	5. Length of Lesson	20 min
4. Grade Level	9

6. Academic & Content Standards (GLEs/EARLs/Common Core)	RL.9-10.2: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support the analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
7. Learning Objective(s)	Using the text An Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, students will be able to discover the theme of racism present throughout the novel and analyze how it effects the story, by discussing the negative forces effecting the character and connecting them with real life Native American issues.
8. Academic Language	Theme Social Justice Culture Ethnic Identity Social Setting Students will first be asked to define theme briefly to make sure everyone has an understanding of what it is. As we progress through the lesson and come across the terms social justice, social settings, culture, and identity, I will give brief descriptions of each term.

9. Assessment

Students will be assessed formatively on their ability to remember the facets of the story that displayed the theme we will be studying. We will be doing small group and full class discussion. During this time I will be able to observe each student’s ability to articulate their knowledge on racism in the story whether or not it is stated explicitly or implicitly within the story.  Having the students discuss what they can do to change racism in their real lives will also help me see their understanding of the theme and their ability to think critically about how it appears in their lives.

10. Connections

Now that we have finished reading the novel this lesson will help students synthesize their knowledge of the story. It will force them to think critically about one of the stories major themes and make them put it in the perspectives of the real world. It will also build on the students growing ability of group work and collaboration we have been working on throughout the quarter. This lesson will lead into the final examination on the novel. Students will have to write a short essay on one of the key themes of An Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, using the discussion from this lesson they will be able to formulate their essays at the end of the unit. When we move on to later stories and novels in this class students will be better equipped to analyze theme and its appearance throughout the story.

11. Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks to Support Learning
Learning Tasks and Strategies Sequenced Instruction
Teacher’s Role I will begin instruction by asking students to define theme. I will also give a brief introduction of in which I will define the other words in academic language. I will engage students to come up with the different facets of racism that appear in the book. I will write as many as we can come up with on the board, so the students will be able visualize them as the lesson progresses. I will engage students in a discussion asking them if they think these issues are real in our own society today, and if they are as severe. I will then group students into small groups. I will prompt students to work in small groups to come up with a way to help Native Americans with one of the issues of racism we came up with on the board. I will return the class to full group instruction and ask each group to share their methods to help fix the issue of racism against Native Americans. I will write each groups ideas on the board.	Students’ Role Students will participate when prompted and write down any definitions they did not understand form the words I went over during the beginning of instruction. Students will work with the teacher and their peers collaboratively to come up with all the facets of racism that affect the society in the novel. Students will help develop a list of those facets of racism to be placed on the board. Students will respond with their opinions on how racism affects Native American in our current society and if the book is a good example of the troubles natives face. Students will work together to come up with a solution to one of the facets of racism we found in the novel. In small groups they will develop a way to help Native Americans to remedy racism and the issues they face to share with the class. Each group will share their own ways of fixing racist issues that Native Americans face in our society, and how we can help them stand up to those issues, to be written on the board.
Student Voice to Gather During the first set of full class discussion when we begin connecting each piece of the book to racist issues Native Americans have to face in the novel I will be able to develop an understanding for the students to be able to understand one of the themes where it is stated explicitly and implicitly throughout the book. Knowing where they picked up on the issues of race will help me plan for the next part of instruction and help me understand where each student stands on analyzing the novel. Using the later discussion on how we can fix issues of race against Native Americans in our own society I will be able to see if students have developed a level of understanding for the text that allows them to think critically and implement the knowledge the gained into their real world issues. This will help me understand their understanding of the core issues of the novel.

12. Differentiated Instruction

The students in advanced English 1 are the top 30 students in English coming up from 8th grade. Luckily, as far as instruction goes, there is not a huge difference in the skills and abilities of each student. There are no IEPs in advanced English 1 and there are also no 504s in the classroom. This story will mostly benefit auditory and visual learners. The auditory learners will benefit from the full class discussion and the discussion in their small groups. The visual learners will benefit from seeing the classes thoughts displayed on the board. This lesson on social justice was done to help the students develop an understanding for the themes of racism in the Native community in the real world. This is especially effective since the novel takes place where they live. This will help put the story into context.

13. Resources and Materials

Teacher Materials: An Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Whiteboard Makers Student Materials: Pen/Pencil An Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

14. Management and Safety Issues

The students in this class are generally focused. If they are off task in their groups the students may be moved from group to group to help maintain the flow of learning. Students who remain off task will be forced to write their response rather than work on it with the class. The topic can be somewhat controversial when talking about issues of racism. If the classroom gets heated I will remind students of democratic discussion tactics and how we should maintain a respectful classroom environment. There should not be any safety issues during classroom discussion. Most students will be safe during this activity though if some injury such as a fall or trip were to occur I would try to remedy it with basic first aid, and if it were to severe for that I would notify the school nurse or 911.

15. Parent & Community Connections

Parent: Students have been updating their reading with their parents throughout the unit. At the end of this lesson they can let their parents know that we have finished our reading of the novel and are now discussing its key issues. They can ask their parents if they know anything about the local Native American tribes in the area or if they have done any work with them. They could also ask their parents if they know anything about Native American issues that students could later share with the class. Community This is a great lesson for the community. Students could go to local schools (both native and public), tribes, public offices, and any other resources that work with Native Americans.  They could do some research to see how modern racism effects these communities and what is being done to help these people out or what is being ignored that should actually be focused on.

Never Let Me Go Page 2

• Rationale

             I chose Never Let Me Go because it connects so well to students lives. It is a coming of age tale that most young high school students can relate to. I would probably teach it to 10-11th grade students. They would most likely identify with the characters and their inner-struggle to remain close friends through the troubled years of puberty and sexual discovery. I also find that the book is quite complex; it leaves a lot of from for students to be asked some serious ethical/philosophical questions which could spark great conversation if prompted correctly.

• Obstacles

            There is quite a bit of sexual discovery in the text. Although their are not overt pornographic scenes that are descriptive in nature. The characters often talk about sex casually, the speak about partners, looseness, they browse pornographic magazines, etc. These themes would be very troublesome for parents. I would like to say that I could persuade them by saying their students are going through the same issues, however this could get me in a lot of trouble since most parents want to ignore that aspect of their child's lives. It also may be difficult to talk about the issue of cloning and the ethics of it. Although this debate has left mainstream medium for the time being undoubtedly many parents will still have an opinion on the issue and I am sure a good amount will be negative. Due to the sexual themes I don't think this book will ever pass a school board, administrator, or parents to become part of curriculum, although it is an amazing modern piece of literature. At least not in the districts I am familiar with.

• Teaching Ideas

           1) My first teaching ideas was to have students to an anticipation guide with the story. The first section is very ambiguous about what is actually going on in the world. Students could attempt to analyze that as best as they see fit with the minimal amount of information the author gives. This would open up to good discussion about why students think the author omitted parts of the novel from them when we begin discussing the harsh themes of the book.

          2) I would create a structured controversy for students to discuss the ethics of cloning. Placing students into groups of four I would make them role-play as medical researchers, organ transplant patients, religious protesters, and human rights activists. This would spark great discussion about the rights and wrongs of cloning. Leading students to argue for or against it. They will build arguments based on articles they have read about cloning and then have a discussion between the two for groups and two against. Finally, it would culminate with a debate between the 2 sides.

         3) My final thought was to have a simple film analysis. The film is both good and bad for the book. It omits quite a few things that are very important to the story, but it portrays the human emotion of the characters in an amazing manner. Having students analyze, compare and contrast, and write a summary of which they think is better and why, would be a great way to help them develop multiple interpretations of a work of fiction. It would also show that movies aren't always worse than the book and vice-versa allowing students to give an opinion on either work.

In short, I would love for each of you to read Never Let Me Go Kazou Ishiguro is an amazing author who has a way with language I have had yet to encounter. It is one of the best books to come out of the 00's and I think there is a place for it in the classroom. It connects with students lives better than most books I can think of which will keep them engaged and wanting to read, but it also has incredible themes that will make readers question their own beliefs and philosophy. Truly, a great piece of literature is one you can connect with on a personal level, but one that also forces you to be critical of yourself. 

Standards Based Grading Response

I have some experience with standards based grading although I cannot remember the criteria at all. I just remember parent/teacher conferences in elementary school. All of my scores were based on a 1-4. There were no zeros, but like I sad I don't remember much more than that. I have always liked the idea of standards based grading for numerous reasons that I will attempt to fit in here.

First of all, standards based grading seems to be the most beneficial way for students, parents, and teachers to evaluate students progress toward objectives. We can clearly say, here is what we are shooting for, this number is based on how close you are to achieving the objective. A five means you are proficient. Let's move together toward making that a five. Giving the parameters of what matches a 1-5 will help students know what they need a work on to achieve their goal to become a 5 in this standard. We will then know when to move on with instruction. While an argument can be made for grades doing the same thing, let's speak on grades and what it means to students.

Grades are an issue in all of our lives. As a student I am worried about my grades and how it will effect my future, as are my students with their grades. As a teacher I am worried about my own instruction when my students get bad grades, as are their parents. The difference between traditional grades and standards based grading is the latter can be changed. Let's say a student gets a C on an assignment on their final. That C shall be stuck there and it will be a grind to get the grade back up. Now lets same come finals that student reaches a 3 in their standards based grade. We can grow that three to a four or five and the students doesn't have to worry about making up for that three like they do the C. Standards based grading removes a lot of stress from the students, which they desperately need since students are becoming busier and busier creating more stress.

Standards based grades are easily to analyze on a student to student basis. Most of my students are at a 2 with this objective lets you know that you can get them up to a five. It helps us build what we need to work on and what we can move on to. It builds a mastery focused classroom, rather than a grade focused classroom. This builds for an environment focused on learning and achieving goals, which makes for better students and better teachers.

Assessing and Evaluating Student Learning Response

Two of my greatest downfalls currently in my learning to become  a teacher are wait time and creating assessment. Creating assessment is an incredibly difficult and a daunting task. I also do not get much practice when it comes to creating assessment. I have only created assessment a handful of times and it wasn't too difficult. I am not sure if I am good at it or not, but every time I have created it it has been the most difficult part of my lesson plan. This article has been pretty helpful for creating assessment for me. I like the idea of making it relevant to the students. As we have been saying, this is the most important thing we most keep coming back to. Making students learning relevant to themselves and helping them find out how they learned it is arguably one of the best skills to teach them, not only to keep them interested in learning, but to make them better at it. I love her ideas on all of them being response based and written out to assess students understanding of not only simple terms, but also bigger concepts like tackling major ideas from novels. However, I find one issue with this that maybe I do not understand. The amount of time it would take to create, read, properly asses, give useful feedback, and understand each student’s ability enough to change instruction to help them would be incredibly time consuming. I know that this is the best way to help our students and that is what we should always be striving for, but I feel like the amount of work that would be spent going into evaluation could hinder time building dynamic, engaging, and relevant lessons for our students. This would be a great task for teachers who are well set in and understand their unit and lesson plans to a T, but to someone like me, a new teacher still developing strategies, developing myself, and trying to maintain a relationship with my students this amount of assessment would take up a lot of time I spend doing those activities. I will however keep this in mind in my future assessment creation. I will learn a lot more from my students writing than responses to multiple choice or fill in the blank. It will be a great resource to help build my assessment tool belt. 

Readicide

A lot of what Kelly Gallagher was saying in Readicide really struck close to what is currently going on within my district. Deer Park is going through a lot of SBAC preparation with their students, so that is basically all the English Department has been preparing for. We are making a lot of students read informational text over and over and drilling them with continuous note taking strategies and response development. It has become so bad that the moment I tell students we will be doing circle charts their is an audible grown heard around the room. I am sure the English department is committing Readicide with their students and that the students a growing a hatred for reading. We definitely aren't making "expert citizens" a concept I really liked on page 13. I find it really hard to teach students like this. They immediately become disinterested in the articles I give them and no matter what I seem to do to try to make it exciting the either 1. don't do the work or 2. go through the motion and don't synthesize anything they are reading. We have also phased out a lot of our literature instruction, which is something much easier to get the students into reading. Although many claim to hate reading literature they often enjoy the stories we read and are way more engaged when it comes to these texts. We were about to begin moving into a new novel, but students are not doing SBAC prep and we have to either push our novels back or completely remove them. My master teacher was going to allow me to teach the unit of Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck is my favorite American author),  and let me know a few days ago it may have to be cut for test prep. I understood, but was sad I'd miss the opportunity to teach one of my favorite authors to my students. This brings me to my final point on Readicide. The practice of teaching to the test, or test prep, not only negatively effects students, but also negatively effects good teachers. A lot of the passion we had coming into the subject gets taken away for test prep, which we can be passionate for for our students, but it often feels false or disingenuous. A lot of our love for reading and literature gets pushed out for writing and preparing for tests day to day to try to make some higher power happy, meanwhile students are frustrated, disengaged, and left behind. Students that display these struggles make us as teachers feel like we are not doing our job correctly leading people like me to be less confident in my instruction, lesson planning, and student interaction. In short, a student that passes a state test frustrated, annoyed, and hating English, is less valuable to me than a student who fails that same test, but loves reading and writing and comes from an environment where they want to work on those skills to improve and do better next time.