Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Peace and War

Lesson Title Monday: True War Story

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Peace and War

Lesson Title Tuesday: Historical Lens Notes, “Tommy,” and Veteran Discussion

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Peace and War

Lesson Title Wednesday: Lab Work Day

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Peace and War

Lesson Title Thursday: “On the Rainy River,” draft journal

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Peace and War

Lesson Title Friday: Deconstruction Notes, “Spin,” “Dulce Et…”

Unit Title: Peace and War

Grade Levels:11^th/12^th grade

Subject/Topic Areas: Contemporary Literature

Key Words: war, critical lens, student choice,

Time Frame: 3 weeks

School District: Westerville City Schools

School: Westerville Central High School

Brief Summary of Unit (including curricular context and unit goals):

In this unit we’ll be studying contemporary wars and the literature that has been written about them, or in response to them.  This unit follows a unit on Women, Men and Relationships building on what students know about relationships and applying it to society at larger.  After this unit we’ll be moving into Utopia/Dystopia, which will focus on what happens when societies try to create a more perfect world after war has happened.  Our focus novel for this unit will be The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and our focus concept deals with analyzing texts through various critical lenses.  I’ve structured this unit such that we’ll be generally moving forward in time with our texts (starting with the World Wars and moving up through the War on Terror) and breaking them down in different ways to study them.  There is the opportunity for lots of student choice in this unit.  I’ve arranged it so that each student will write an analytical paper, do in-class assignments, and then choose from a variety of different projects to get the rest of their points for the unit.  I think it’s important students learn to analyze texts based on tried and true methods that will be used in college, but to also be given the opportunity to complete projects of their choice that will play to their strengths and allow them to make and express there own understandings of the unit.

Enduring Understandings:

• Great literature provides rich and timeless insight into the key themes, dilemmas and challenges of human existence.
• Every text is made up of smaller elements that help to contribute to the text’s overall meaning.  There are many methods for dissecting a text to determine the overall meaning.

Essential Questions:

• How can the study of genres and literary periods contribute to enjoyment of literature and to understanding commonalities in human experiences?
• How do different characters respond to and handle conflict and uncertainty?
• How do looking at texts through different lenses affect our understanding of a text’s meaning?

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Peace & War

Lesson Title Monday:  Opening & Saving Private Ryan Image Collection

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Peace & War

Lesson Title Tuesday:  Saving Private Ryan Image Collection

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Peace & War

Lesson Title Wednesday:  SPR Image Poem; New Critical Lens; Poem Threading

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Peace & War

Lesson Title Thursday:  The Things They Carried pre-write & read

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Peace & War

Lesson Title Friday: The Things They Carried Letter Writing

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Women, Men, and Relationships

Lesson Title Monday: Review Debate Format and Work Day

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Women, Men, and Relationships

Lesson Title Tuesday: Book Group 4 Meeting & Presentations and Debates

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Women, Men, and Relationships

Lesson Title Wednesday: Gender Issues Debates (Commercial Stereotypes)

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Women, Men, and Relationship

Lesson Title Thursday: Gender Issues Debates (Commercial Stereotypes)

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Women, Men, and Relationships

Lesson Title Monday:   Yellow Wallpaper & Andrea Yates

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Women, Men, and Relationships

Lesson Title Tuesday: Historical to Contemporary Comparison & Article Jigsaw

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Women, Men, and Relationships

Lesson Title Wednesday: Intro to Research for Debate & Book Group 3

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Women, Men, and Realtionships

Lesson Title Thursday: Writing Mini-Research Paper & Prep for Debate

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Women, Men, and Realtionships

Lesson Title Friday: Writing Mini-Research Paper & Prep for Debate

This week (March 15^th – 19^th) is my first week of taking over teaching.  I’m working with blocked Contemporary Literature classes period 1-4.  Because this week is OGT testing week it would not be a good week to observe me.  All periods are shortened and there is only class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for periods 1-4.

Unit Cover Page

Unit Title: Women, Men, and Relationships Grade Levels: 11/12

Subject/Topic Areas: Contemporary Literature

Key Words: gender, stereotypes, relationships, research, debate,

Designed by: Jan Krueger Time Frame: 3/8/2010- 4/1/2010

School District: Westerville School: Westerville Central High School

Brief Summary of Unit (including curricular context and unit goals):

This unit follows the unit on identity.  Students have learned about the process of coming into themselves, and will now move onto learning about what happens when two people come together.  After this unit students will move into the Peace and War unit, which is what happens when society forms relationships.  The focus of this unit is gender, gender stereotypes, relationships and how those things are evidenced in literature and society.  Within this unit they will read from various short stories and articles, as well as from a novel of their own choosing in book groups.  The unit will culminate with a mini-research project and debate on gender issues today.   I’m expecting students to have their worldview challenged during this unit.  We’ll be discussing how gender stereotypes through history have influenced the gender stereotypes of today, and how those stereotypes affect the relationships between women and men.

Enduring Understandings:

Questioning is at the heart of all learning.

Literature conveys the depth of human experience, reflecting diverse cultures and common heritage.

Essential Questions:

When questing for information, who or what determines the accuracy, validity and reliability of that information?

How does understanding our differences give a greater understanding and appreciation of the commonalities of the human experience?

Student Teaching Week 1: 3/15/19

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Women, Men, and Relationships

Lesson Title “Self-Assessment” & “Does Appearance Matter in Gender?”

Purpose/Goals

In this lesson students will self-edit and assess their own writing.  This will help them to understand what parts of their paper are present and well developed.  This will help them to learn what is valuable and important in a writing assignment.

For the reading, students will be accessing their knowledge about stereotypes of men and women in order to begin to apply their knowledge to a reading in order to make interpretations and examine the differing viewpoints that men and women have.

Objectives

I can:

• • Identify the different parts of my paper.
• • Apply what I’ve learned so far to a text, and allow that knowledge to affect my interpretation of the text.
• • Examine an idea or concept from multiple viewpoints.
• • Examine an author’s beliefs on a subject.

National and Ohio Standards

Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies

1. Apply reading comprehension strategies, including making predictions, comparing and contrasting, recalling and summarizing and making inferences and drawing conclusions.

2. Answer literal, inferential, evaluative and synthesizing questions to demonstrate comprehension of grade-appropriate print texts and electronic and visual media.

Reading Applications: Informational, Technical and Persuasive Text

2. Analyze and critique organizational patterns and techniques including repetition of ideas, appeals to authority, reason and emotion, syntax and word choice that authors use to accomplish their purpose and reach their intended audience.

5. Examine an author’s implicit and explicit philosophical assumptions and beliefs about a subject.

Reading Applications: Literary Text

4. Evaluate an author’s use of point of view in a literary text.

8. Evaluate ways authors develop point of view and style to achieve specific rhetorical and aesthetic purposes (e.g., through use of figurative language irony, tone, diction, imagery, symbolism and sounds of language), citing specific examples from text to support analysis.

Writing Processes

6. Organize writing to create a coherent whole with an effective and engaging introduction, body and conclusion and a closing sentence that summarizes, extends or elaborates on points or ideas in the writing.

8. Use paragraph form in writing, including topic sentences that arrange paragraphs in a logical sequence, using effective transitions and closing sentences and maintaining coherence across the whole through the use of parallel structures.

11. Reread and analyze clarity of writing, consistency of point of view and effectiveness of organizational structure.

16. Apply tools (e.g., rubric, checklist and feedback) to judge the quality of writing.

Writing Applications

6. Produce informal writings (e.g., journals, notes and poems) for various purposes.

Assessment

Summative

Self-Assessed Highlighted Paper:

Students will be assessed on the thought and time they put into the assignment, as well as any constructive changes they make to their paper.

Formative

“Ugly Truth About Beauty”

Students will be writing down stereotypes they observed in Tootsie.  This will measure how much they remember about the stereotype discussion form the first day of the unit, as well as refresh their memory about what happened the week before to prepare for the reading and discussion for today.

Community Knowledge and Experience

Students will be drawing on their knowledge of stereotypes that they observe in school, their community, and society at large in order to build a basis for thinking about the texts that they’re reading.

Procedures

Self-Assess Highlighting:

1. 1. Show example of highlighted essay and explain what students will be doing, and what the different colors mean.
2. 2. Hand out papers, assignment sheet, and highlighters.
3. 3. Instruct students that if they find they’re missing something they’re supposed to be highlighting, to write it directly into their paper.
4. 4. Turn paper back into the tray when done highlighting and commenting.

The Ugly Truth about Beauty:

1. 1. Quick write on what stereotypes students witnessed in Tootsie, specifically regarding appearance.  Ask a few students to share what they’ve written.
2. 2. Pass out and read aloud “The Truth About Beauty.”  Stop occasionally to prompt for questions or discussion.
3. 3. Have a discussion comparing characters from Tootsie to the ideas expressed in “The Truth About Beauty.”

Closing Reminders:

1. 1. Tootsie Journal due on Wednesday
2. 2. Book Journal 2 due on Wednesday; remember to bring your book for Book Group.

Resources

• • Highlighters

• • Copies of highlighting assignment
• • Projector to show sample of highlighted essay
• • Copies of the reading

Applications, Connections, Extensions

Students will continue to build knowledge about stereotyping in order to be able to challenge the accepted assumptions regarding gender and relationships.  This will lead to a debate about an issue of their choice at the end of the unit.

Inclusive Instruction

The highlighting self-assessment assignment allows for students to use their visual strengths to make more sense of their writing.

Students with any level of knowledge will be able to interpret the text in their way and bring their knowledge to the class discussion.  Varying stereotyping across cultures will add an interesting and valuable aspect to the discussion.

Student Teaching Week 1: 3/17/19

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Women, Men, and Relationships

Lesson Title Book Group and “ The Story of and Hour”

Purpose/Goals

Students will be continuing discussing their novel in their book groups.  The groups are in place to give students an additional source and perspective to learn more about gender and relationships.  The group format allows students to engage in small discussion and bounce ideas off each other.

Objectives

I can:

• • Pose and respond thoughtfully to higher-level questions.
• • Use specific examples to support my opinion.

National and Ohio Standards

Acquisition of Vocabulary

1. Recognize and identify how authors clarify meanings of words through context and use definition, restatement, example, comparison, contrast and cause and effect to advance word study.

5. Determine the meanings and pronunciations of unknown words by using dictionaries, thesauruses, glossaries, technology and textual features, such as definitional footnotes or sidebars.

Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies

1. Apply reading comprehension strategies, including making predictions, comparing and contrasting, recalling and summarizing and making inferences and drawing conclusions.

2. Answer literal, inferential, evaluative and synthesizing questions to demonstrate comprehension of grade-appropriate print texts and electronic and visual media.

3. Monitor own comprehension by adjusting speed to fit the purpose, or by skimming, scanning, reading on, looking back, note taking or summarizing what has been read so far in text.

4. Use criteria to choose independent reading materials (e.g., personal interest, knowledge of authors and genres or recommendations from others).

5. Independently read books for various purposes (e.g., for enjoyment, for literary experience, to gain information or to perform a task).

Reading Applications: Literary Text

1. Compare and contrast motivations and reactions of literary characters confronting similar conflicts (e.g., individual vs. nature, freedom vs. responsibility, individual vs. society), using specific examples of characters’ thoughts, words and actions.

2. Analyze the historical, social and cultural context of setting.

3. Explain how voice and narrator affect the characterization, plot and credibility.

Writing Processes

6. Organize writing to create a coherent whole with an effective and engaging introduction, body and conclusion and a closing sentence that summarizes, extends or elaborates on points or ideas in the writing.

8. Use paragraph form in writing, including topic sentences that arrange paragraphs in a logical sequence, using effective transitions and closing sentences and maintaining coherence across the whole through the use of parallel structures.

16. Apply tools (e.g., rubric, checklist and feedback) to judge the quality of writing.

Writing Applications

2. Write responses to literature that:

a. advance a judgment that is interpretative, analytical, evaluative or reflective;

b. support key ideas and viewpoints with accurate and detailed references to the text or to other works and authors;

6. Produce informal writings (e.g., journals, notes and poems) for various purposes.

Assessment

Summative

Journal #2 and Write Chat:

These both function as a running record of students’ thoughts about the book they’re reading, and their ability to compose and prepare their thoughts ahead of time, and respond thoughtfully using what they’re prepared.

Formative

“Story of an Hour” Quick Write:

This will just count as a class work completion grade.  Their writing will give me a chance to see how they are making connections between the historical stereotypes and current issues in relationships.

Community Knowledge and Experience

Students will be bringing in their own knowledge of the book they’re reading along with their interests and interpretations of the text.  They will be given the opportunity to pose their own questions in order to engage in the text.

When reading “The Story of an Hour” students will be able to draw any knowledge from history that they have.  They will also be able to contribute based on their knowledge of relationships between husband and wife in general.

Procedures

Opening Reminders:

1. 1. Turn Tootsie journal into the tray.
2. 2. Take out second book journal.  If it’s not complete, students will be spending the group meeting time reading up to the required point in the book and writing their journal.  They can’t take part in the group discussions unless they’ve read and journals.  If there’s only one student available for the group meeting, they will complete the write chat on their own with the questions they developed.

Book Group Meeting:

1. 1. Have students get into their book groups and have someone get the groups’ book log folder.  I’ll be coming around to check to be sure everyone has his or her journal.
2. 2. Students will be engaging in a Write Chat to discuss the section of the book they read and wrote a journal on for this meeting.  Students will take turns posing the discussion questions they prepared in their journals, and then responding on the write chat sheet with thoughts and responses, using their journal and prepared passage for examples and support.
3. 3. Following the Write Chat student will fill out the log sheet and put all the materials back into their Book Group Folder.

Story of an Hour:

1. 1. Ask students if they know any background about husband & wife relationships in the late 1800s. If they don’t, I’ll fill them in to prep for reading the story.
2. 2. Have students get textbooks off the shelves and turn to page 358.  “The Story of an Hour.”  Read the story out loud as a class, stopping occasionally to check for understanding.
3. 3. Discussion:

• • Did Louise Mallard love her husband?
• • Do you think Chopin is blaming men, or women, or both for what is wrong with marriage?
• • Why did Louise Mallard die?

1. 4. Have students write 5-10 sentences explaining what they think would happen if this story were set in today’s time.

Closing Reminders:

1. 1. Bring books to class on Friday, because there will be some SSR time.
2. 2. Turn in quick-write response to “The Story of an Hour.”

Resources

• • Book log folder
• • Textbooks
• • Paper/pencil

Applications, Connections, Extensions

Students will continue to build knowledge about stereotyping in order to be able to challenge the accepted assumptions regarding gender and relationships.  This will lead to a debate about an issue of their choice at the end of the unit.

Inclusive Instruction

Student will be discussing a book that they chose to read with their group.  This makes it more likely that they will be engaged with their own interests.

Student Teaching Week 1: 3/19/19

Subject Area Contemporary Literature

Title of unit (of which this lesson is a part) Women, Men, and Relationships

Lesson Title SSR & “I Want a Wife”

Purpose/Goals

Both periods will have SSR time to prepare for their book group meeting next week.  Due to OGT, periods 3&4 will be cut short.  Period 1&2 will be reading “I Want a Wife” from the text in order to have another source to draw knowledge from during their additional time.

Objectives

I can:

• • Use appropriate comprehension strategies when reading.

National and Ohio Standards

Writing Processes

1. Generate writing ideas through discussions with others and from

printed material, and keep a list of writing ideas.

Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies

3. Monitor own comprehension by adjusting speed to fit the purpose, or by skimming, scanning, reading on, looking back, note taking or summarizing what has been read so far in text.

4. Use criteria to choose independent reading materials (e.g., personal interest, knowledge of authors and genres or recommendations from others).

5. Independently read books for various purposes (e.g., for enjoyment, for literary experience, to gain information or to perform a task).

Assessment

Formative

SSR:

Students will be reading silently.  This is to give them time in class to prepare for their book journal groups.  Allowing the time for SSR give students a better opportunity to get the reading done.

“I Want a Wife” Quick Write:

This will just count as a class work completion grade.  Their writing will give me a chance to see how they are applying the stereotypes we’ve been learning about to different types of writing and thinking.

Community Knowledge and Experience

Students will be bringing in their own knowledge of the book they’re reading along with their interests and interpretations of the text.  They will be given the opportunity to pose their own questions in order to engage in the text.

Procedures

“I Want a Wife”:

1. 1. Have students get textbooks off the shelves and turn to page 569, “I Want a Wife.” Read the essay out loud as a class.
2. 2. Discussion:

• • • What’s the purpose of the essay?
  • • Why write about wanting a wife?  Why not just write about what she has to put up with being a wife?

1. • 3. Quick-Write: students brainstorm as a class some type of person that they would like to have (school appropriate please).  They can then individually come up with 5 to 10 reasons why they would find that person valuable.

SSR:

1. 1. 1. Students will either be reading their novel for their book group silently, or be writing the journal for their next group meeting

Resources

• • • Book for SSR

• • • Textbooks
  • • Paper/Pencil

Applications, Connections, Extensions

Students will continue to build knowledge about stereotyping in order to be able to challenge the accepted assumptions regarding gender and relationships.  This will lead to a debate about an issue of their choice at the end of the unit.

Inclusive Instruction

Students will be able to read and work at their own pace for their independent reading book.  During the class discussion students will be brainstorming ideas together.  They will then be able to choose an idea that they like and elaborate on it on their own, in their own way.

Journal One:

I don’t get this stupid story.  I don’t know why we have to write about.  It’s not like I’m ever going to use this again.  I mean, for reals, who reads plays in their free time?  Isn’t that what movies are for.  Movies are great.  Especially when they’re for a book you’re supposed to read for class, but you can just watch the movie instead.  But this play we’re reading, The Miracle Worker, who cares?  Why is the story of Helen Keller even part of this class? Isn’t she dead, so why do we have to read about her?  Or if we have to know this story, and it is a play, then why don’t we just watch the movie?

I hate reading out loud in class.  And I hate listening to other people read out loud in class.  When George stutters his way through a sentence, how am I supposed to understand anything?  I wish we’d just watch the movie for this story.  Or if Mrs. B is going to make us read it, she should just read it to us.  At least then we wouldn’t have to listen to everyone else mess up every other word when they read.

Journal Two:

This story is kind of interesting.  I don’t think I’d read it out of class though.  It’s too hard to understand.  Miss B explains it too us though when we read.  But she makes us read out loud.  I don’t like that.  But the story is okay when she tells us what is going on.

Journal Three:

I’ve been reading the Percy Jackson series lately, and it’s so good.  I still want to go see the movie, but it won’t be as good as the book.  Movies are never as good as the book.  They get the characters all wrong, and always mess up the story line and the way it’s supposed to go.  I like seeing how other people see the book, but sometimes I wish they’d never make books into movies because of how much they ruin it.  I hope some of my friends will go with me to see it so we can talk about it and talk about how the book was better.  I like seeing how they change the story to fit in a movie format and always wonder why they leave some stuff in, but cut huge chunks of the story out.

I don’t know what I’m going to read next after I finish this last book in the series.  Maybe Mrs. B will be able to give me some ideas.  She normally has pretty good ones, but sometimes she wants me to read these dry, boring, classic books.  I normally give up on those after a few hours trying and just falling asleep.  I need action, and adventure, and maybe a little bit of magic in my books.  I want to be a hero like those characters, not some kid with a whole bunch of problems like some of the books Mrs. B recommends.  When I go to the library sometimes the librarians there have some good suggestions.  I like their better a lot of times because they’re not wanting me to read a book for school, but wanting me to read a book that they think is good.  Maybe I’ll join one of the book clubs there this summer.

Journal Four:

I’ve been having a hard time in my science class with all the reading Mr. H has got us doing.  I feel like I’m highlighting everything.  How am I supposed to know what’s important.  I wish he’d give us an outline or guided notes or something.  Then at least I’d know what was going to be on the test.  The worksheets he gives us to do in class are nothing but busy work because he’s too lazy to actually teach us anything.  Just wants us to read from the book and find the answers in there.

Journal Five:

We’ve been reading Animal Farm in class and at first I thought it was real boring and weird.  I was like, why are all these animals talking? And how do the humans even understand them?  Something like this book could never happen.  But then Mrs. F started teaching us about the Russian Revolution and I was like, whoa!  They’re telling like the same story.  And then Mrs. B started telling us about illusions or something like that.  It means when a story talks about another story in the story.  Anyways, she told us about that and I was like so Animal Farm is an illusion to the Russian Revolution and Communism and stuff.

And then, after we read the book we got to do this really cool project.  We each were part of an animal group and got use propaganda and bribes and stuff to get the other animal groups to vote for us.  We made posters and came up with slogans and stuff and we got to work for two whole days convincing all the other groups that we were the best.  I was in the pig group and we brought in bacon to give to people if they promised to vote for us.  Everybody loves bacon, so I think we’ll do good.  We find out who wins tomorrow.  I love it when Mrs. B and Mrs. F let us do hands-on projects like this.  I understand and like it so much better when we don’t just have to sit in our desks and listen, or fall asleep, while they talk at us.

Journal Six:

All this analytical stuff we have to do when we read in class is ridiculous.  No one does that when they read.  I don’t.  I just read.  I like reading sci-fi and fantasy series because I get sucked in and it’s like I’m there with the characters.  I like that.  My sister reads a lot of romancey books, like Twilight, and she doesn’t analyze them.  I mean, not that you could with girly books like that, since they’re so dumb, but even if you could, who would do that? If I’m going to read, I just want to read.

Critique and Analysis of

Literature and Society: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, Nonfiction

By Pamela J Annas and Robert C Rosen

Published by Pearson Prentice Hall (2007)

Recommended for college prep courses in high school

Can be purchased from sellers through Amazon.com

Summary of Materials

For our critique and analysis we’ve chosen to use Literature and Society, though we were only able to acquire the student edition of the book, and did not have access to the teacher edition.  This textbook is organized in five themes: Growing Up and Growing Older, Women and Men, Money and Work, Peace and War, and Varieties of protest.  These five major social issues or themes have selections from a variety of different genres (stories, poems, plays, and creative nonfiction).  There is also an alternate table of contents that is organized by genre, in case a teacher chose to organize her class by genre rather than by theme.

Each theme begins with a short synopsis of what the chapter will be about and essential question to think about while readings selections form the themed chapter.  The content of the textbook is arranged so that each selection of text has a brief biography of the author followed by the text, whether it is a poem, short story, novel, play, graphic novel, or non-fiction piece.  After the text there is a list of study and discussion questions, suggestions for further writing, and critical resources.  There are also short chapters on writing and reading specific genres.

Literature and Society is geared towards juniors and seniors and high school, but this textbook could be used for high-level freshman or as an introductory text in a first year college composition class.  The textbook has been used in a contemporary literature class, and could also be used in a general humanities course, American literature class, or even as a base text for a writing class.

Reasons for Selecting Materials

We selected these materials specifically because they were used in our fall placement school, so we’re familiar with the content because we witnessed them being used in a classroom, and got to test out using them ourselves in the classroom.  We thought it was very interesting to find a textbook organized by theme rather than by genre.  It allows students to more easily make connections between differing types of texts.

In critiquing the content of the textbook Literature and Society we hope to examine the versatility of the book.  We suspect that a teacher would be able to use this same textbook for a variety of classes.  Because there are varying themes, genres, and reading and writing skills the teacher could adapt any section of the textbook to use the selections provided to support student learning.  We also hope to discover the benefits of limitations of this textbook.  Because we both highly value student choice in our teaching, we will be examining how this textbook allows for multiple intelligences and varied learning styles.  The many genres and themes of this book should allow for students with diverse interests to find a selection that they both enjoy and can relate to.

We expect that through our examination of this textbook we will also gain an understanding of why the textbook is ordered the way it is, and the relationship between each section and the selections in it.  This includes trying to make sense of why the authors chose certain selections for each themed chapter.

Critique and Analysis

Teacher’s Perspective

Because we were not able to acquire a teacher addition of Literature and Society we will only be able to make educated guesses and assumptions about what the logic behind the organization of the textbook is.

Scope

Our particular target text includes a variety of language arts within each thematic chapter. Each thematic chapter contains four different sections: fiction, poetry, drama, and non-fiction. Within these categories, the text contains specific genres to exemplify the major themes within each chapter.  For example, the section on “Growing up and Growing Older” contains several short stories that focus on adolescents or young adults coming into adulthood through various experiences.

In order to aid students in better understanding the text the author’s have included a section of study questions to check for student comprehension after reading a particular text. These sections will assist students in further developing their reading skills and thinking deeper about the text.  Furthermore, there are writing activities at the end of each section to guide students in making a connection between reading literature and writing about literature in either a reflective or analytical manner.

Comprehensiveness

Unfortunately we were unable to get a teacher’s edition of this text; therefore we cannot discuss the range of ideas for teaching literature. However, the student copy includes supplementary resources at the end of each section and a Literature and Society webpage that can lead students and teachers in the direction of further reading. Ending each thematic chapter the text includes suggestions for final unit papers.

Flexibility

The preface of the text states that “though designed specifically for an introductory literature course, the book can easily be used in a writing course, for its five thematic sections and many suggestions for writing generate a wide range of formal and informal writing assignments; and its process oriented chapter, ‘Literature and the Writing Process,’ is detailed and thorough, even including a section on how to write essay exams” (p. xxix).

Support for Teacher Learning

On the Literature and Society webpage teachers can access a glossary of literary terms and learn about major schools of literary criticism. Teachers could use these materials to determine what would be the best manner in which to teach a certain selection or themed chapter as a whole.  While the materials are address to the students, the teacher can learn from these materials as well and scaffold their instruction in a student-centered manner.

Curricular Design Principles

The sequencing of this textbook is ordered by the concept of building bigger and bigger relationships in the world.  For example, the chapter “Growing Up and Growing Older” helps students to understand their relationship with themselves, or their self-identity.  As the chapters move on the relationships build to include interpersonal relationships between women and men, and how they interact in social situations, such as the workplace.  The idea of relationships continues to build when a group of people in relation to each other, a society, develops a relationship with another society.  This can lead to either war or peace.  After this interaction between societies people often push for a better world, leading to forms of protest crying out for equality.

Student’s Perspective

Appeal

We believe that students will find this textbook and its selections appealing because it begins with an examination of self.  That is appealing to them because it is easier to relate to than a large, overarching and complex subject, such as society.  The remainder of the textbook exposes students “to a wide and exciting variety of literature in a way that will consistently engage their interest and that will help them understand that literature is about the very things … that matter in their own lives.”

Appropriateness

It is appropriate material for the students in an upperclassman English Language Arts classroom because it not only contain canonical works, but also has selections from pop culture, and relevant and interesting non-canonical works that encourage high levels of thinking.  This is an appropriate textbook for college preparatory courses because it covers the themes and genres that will be required of freshman in college and provides writing opportunities that prompt an engaging literary analysis.

Variety

There are a variety of texts, authors, themes and activities provided in Literature and Society due to the way that the textbook is organized.  There are five thematic chapters and within each chapter there are at least four genres of text, including fiction, poetry, drama and non-fiction.  Each genre has any where from five to twenty different selections by different authors.  At the end of each selection there are opportunities for a study and discussion as well as a variety of writing prompts about the text.  This structure is sure to expose students to a wide variety of literature.

Student Choice

Because every chapter has a variety of different texts and genres of texts, and each selection has about five different writing prompts, there is an opportunity for student choice in both reading and writing.  Depending on how the teacher chooses to organize the course and how much freedom s/he chooses to give the students in their learning will determine how much student choice there actually is.    The range of writing prompts allows students to develop their own ideas and interpretations using a range of integrated writing assignments.

Logical Sequencing

The textbook is logically ordered through growing relationships between individual and societies.  The prompts for writing, however, don’t necessarily build on each other except for the final unit paper topics, which allow for the integration of multiple texts.

Conversational Topic and Design Principles

The discussion questions at the end of each selection of text provide opportunities for a compelling curricular conversation about culturally significant ideas and experiences.  They allow for students to reference their own lives in developing their understandings of the world around them.

Beginning

There are no beginning lesson in the student edition of the textbook; however the first chapter of the book introduces them to literature and writing process, which includes note-taking, exploratory writing, drafting, outlining, revising, editing, and other skills necessarily for introductory English classes.  Though this may not create any interest for the following units of study, it does provide students with essential tools for succeeding in the classroom.

Endings

At the end of each thematic chapter there are a selection of writing prompts that will give students the chance to integrate what they have learned throughout the chapter and discuss connections between multiple texts.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Overall, we think this Literature and Society is a well-organized textbook that offers the freedom for teachers to adapt it for a variety of classes.  Because it has both canonical and contemporary literature selections and is organized in a coherent, thematic fashion, we think both students and teachers would find this textbook to be a pleasure to use in the classroom.  We would suggest using it for upperclassmen in a high school setting to give them the tools they need to succeed in college level writing courses.  We cannot comment on how the materials for teachers could be improved upon because we did not have access to the teacher edition of the textbook.

Critique of Curriculum Materials Powerpoint

School, Classroom Context, and Students’ Backgrounds

Central Crossing High School is part of the South Western City School District.  It opened in 2002, as the district continued to expand with an influx of immigrants.  At the freshman level, there are different levels of classes beginning with Sheltered classes specifically for ELL students, as well as Silver and Gold Dyad classes designating different ability groupings.  The school website states that the mission for their school “in partnership with the community, is to enable each learner to achieve excellence in a challenging, safe environment while promoting a sense of belonging and mutual respect for our diverse population.  Students will demonstrate proficiency in academic standards, including communication skills and technical knowledge, as the staff will work to advance life long learning for all students.”  This draws off of Dewey’s theories and makes sense due to the diverse population that they referenced.  The school averages around 1660 students in classes everyday, with 14% Black, 2.1% Asian, 5.5% Hispanic, 1.4% Multi-Racial, and 76.7% White.  They are diverse in other ways as well, with 35.5% being economically disadvantaged, 8.2% having limited English proficiency, 13.9% having disabilities (Central Crossing High School).

The classroom I am observing is a very different setup from the traditional classroom.  Dyad classes are arranged so that the teacher is actually instructing two classes at once, in a double classroom.  This means that there are two adjoining rooms that have an optional wall between them.  My mentor teacher and her team teacher, a social studies teacher, have opted to do nearly all their lessons jointly, meaning the wall is rarely, if ever, closed.  The arrangement of the desks is in rows, reflecting the teacher-centered orientation of the class.

The Silver Dyad inclusion class has an average reading level of about third grade, though it ranges from about first to eighth grade level readers.  I found through my survey that most of the students really do not like their English class, though in general they do see the use of taking English.  I have also found that they do not have much confidence in their reading, but do not know what they need to improve on (see Appendix A).   One of my mentor teacher’s goals is to, if not help the students enjoy reading, at least make it a task that is no longer so arduous.  One of the ways she works to accomplish this is by always doing all the reading for class out loud, this way students are not burdened with reading for homework that they would struggle to understand.  Something interesting that Heather has noticed is that her “stronger readers tend to not like writing, and [her] stronger writers really do not like to read” (Barnes).  One of the ways she encourages every one to read is through peer pressure.  When the class reads aloud students call on one another to read, and when called on, the student must read at least one sentence before calling on someone else.

The Silver Dyad class is an overview of different literary genres.  They have studied mythology, novels, short stories, and plays.  The reading focuses mainly on basic comprehension skills that will be required on the Ohio Graduation Test, as well as some deeper thinking analyses of texts.  The writing the class focuses on is also based on the OGT requirements.  They focus heavily on the five-paragraph essay, though they also do writing to learn activities, as well as fill out worksheets to aid comprehension and understanding (see Appendix C).

Your Role as Teacher in this Classroom

For my multi-day teaching lesson I taught “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, and had the classes focus on the term heritage and what it means in general, and what it means to them.  The first two days of the lesson we read the story aloud, and the teaching was presented mainly through a transmission mode of learning, with me asking recitation style comprehension questions intermittently throughout the reading.  I think I did this because I needed to be sure students understood the general plot and idea of the story before we could move into a discussion about the story.  The third day I acted as a facilitator for discussion, pushing students to deepen their understanding of heritage.  I was still more of a focal point in the classroom than I would have liked because the students were unfamiliar with the discussion format and so needed more direct support and scaffolding from me.

I did not have as good of a working relationship with these students as I would have liked.  I had a hard time remembering their names, and that was a huge obstacle to work with when trying to facilitate a discussion with reluctant students.  I was not as effective as I could have been in communicating the material to the students and creating a sense of urgency for them to learn it.  I also did not feel as though I had much in the way of power or agency with these students.  I think in part this was because I was treated as strictly an observer, rather than a teacher, so when I got up in front of the classroom, the students were already predisposed to disregard half of what I said.

This is a very different context than the one I experienced at Westerville Central High School in the autumn.  During that placement I had already developed a strong rapport with the students by working with them nearly every day, and so they worked well with me in my lesson.  They participated well with the short lectures, and then were excited about the writing assignment I gave them because it allowed them a lot of freedom to express their own opinion.  I think one of the issues with my students this quarter was that I did not know them well enough to choose content for my lesson that they could relate to.

Learning Goals – Plan Relations

For my lesson I taught “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, and had the classes focus on the term heritage and what it means in general, and what it means to them (see Appendix F).  The goals for my lesson were for students to develop an opinion on a text and be able to support that opinion with examples from the text.  I also wanted student to explore multiple perspectives when working through their opinion.

I began my multi-day teaching with an introductory activity about what the students’ names are, what they mean, and if they would change them.  We had a brief discussion around this introductory activity, leading into the concept of family names.  I then wrote the word ‘heritage’ on the board and as my pre-test, as students to write down what they thought heritage meant, or any guesses that they had about the meaning of it.  We then went on to read the story aloud.  My mentor-teacher has set up the class so that students do all reading for class in class and out loud.

As we read the story, I would stop the students occasionally to ask them questions about what they would read, or to clarify different points.  This was mostly done in a recitation format.  The first day I had the students do most of the reading, but the second day I decided to change my plans a little and I read the last part of the story out loud.  The students seemed to have a better comprehension of the story when I read aloud, versus when they read aloud.  On the second day, after having read the story I had time left over.  I had originally planned to engage students in a discussion, but changed my plans due to their inexperience having class discussions.  I instead had the class respond to a Dear Abby article regarding family heirlooms that related to the story.  We then talked about what they written as their response to this letter.

On the third and final day of my multi-day teaching I heavily scaffolded students into a class discussion around heritage and the different ways of valuing it.  I had students fill out a discussion web that forced them to examine both sides of an argument.  I used this graphic organizer as a way for students to gather their ideas together in a group before we moved into the discussion.  I was not sure how they would do speaking on the fly, so I gave them something they could fill out and reference in the discussion.  We then came together and used the points they came up with to support the side of the argument they agreed with, while I challenged them with points from the opposing side.

One of the big challenges I faced was discussion etiquette.  The students had never really participated in a class discussion before, and so they did not know how to act in a discussion setting.  They were talking about unrelated subjects while their peers were making contributions to the discussion.  This presented a challenge for me because the reason the discussion had worth was because it gave students a chance to hear multiple perspectives about an argument, but because the students were not respecting each other and listening to each other’s comments, then the purpose of the discussion was undermined.  There were a lot of good ideas that I could have built on had I not had to devote as much attention to classroom management and just struggling to hear the students myself.

Your Teaching and Your Students’ Learning

Description of How Your Teaching Unfolded

I began my multi-day teaching with an introductory activity about what the students’ names are, what they mean or where they came from, and if they would change them (see Appendix G).  We had a brief discussion around this introductory activity, leading into the concept of family names.  Students seemed quite willing to share, though their responses remained rather superficial. The idea was for them to do this activity with no inclination of how it would relate to the story, but in hindsight perhaps it would have been better to give them some background on that section of the story, and then had them write.

After this introductory activity I wrote the word ‘heritage’ on the board and as my pre-test, as students to write down what they thought heritage meant, or any guesses that they had about the meaning of it.  This was difficult for the students, as some did not even have a clue what it was.  I tried to give examples, but it was hard to do so without them latching onto my definition as the correct one.  We then went on to read the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker aloud.  My mentor-teacher had set up the class so that students did all reading for class in class and out loud.

As we read the story, I would stop the students occasionally to ask them questions about what they would read, or to clarify different points.  We engaged in some mini-discussion along the way.  These did not generally last long, but were useful in allowing students to explore the text.  I tried to focus my own speaking here on not guiding them towards a specific answer, but letting them develop their own meanings.  Most of the students did not seem used to this freedom, and were not sure how to respond.  The first day I had the students do most of the reading, but the second day I decided to change my plans a little and I read the last part of the story out loud.  The students seemed to have a better comprehension of the story when I read aloud, versus when they read aloud.

On the second day, after having read the story I had time left over.  I had originally planned to engage students in a discussion, but changed my plans due to their inexperience having class discussions.  I instead had the class respond to a Dear Abby article regarding family heirlooms that related to the story.  We then talked about what they written as their response to this letter (see Appendix G).  This discussion went really well, and the students got really into it, bringing in their own personal perspective.  They had a lot of great ideas, and I heard from students who do not speak up very often in class, giving me suggestions for how they would respond to this article.

On the third and final day of my multi-day teaching I heavily scaffolded students into a class discussion around heritage and the different ways of valuing it.  I had students fill out a discussion web that forced them to examine both sides of an argument.  I used this graphic organizer as a way for students to gather their ideas together in a group before we moved into the discussion.  I was not sure how they would do speaking on the fly, so I gave them something they could fill out and reference throughout the discussion.  The discussion web worked well, but there was some tension in the classroom at first when I had the student get into pairs, they did not want to work with only one other person, and then when the pairs formed groups of four, some pairs did not want to mix again.  The group mixing was an important aspect of the activity because it allowed the pairs to hear differing perspective and gain new insights into the text.  I tried to be firm with the groups about mixing into groups of four, but in some instances it was not worth the fight because they were doing the work, so I let them form bigger groups than I had originally planned.

We then came together for a whole class discussion and used the points they came up with to support the side of the argument they agreed with, while I challenged them with points from the opposing side.  This decision to challenge them on their points came as a result of the fact that there were only about 3 or 4 different points the class came up with and shared, so I threw those points back into the discussion, rephrasing them and asking students to refute them.  Often times, students had a good point to refute my argument on their discussion web (see Appendix G), and just had not shared it with the class.  This argumentative format allowed for more students to share what they had written and more viewpoints to be heard.  At the end of the discussion for my post-test, I again asked students what they thought heritage meant, and to tell me one new thing they would learned during the lesson (see Appendix F).

I think overall that this was an effective discussion as a beginning discussion with this group of students.  I think students got some good ideas from it, and learned at least that there are differing viewpoints, if not how to argue them quite yet.  When talking to students after my teaching they felt that they would learned something more about heritage, what it means, and the differing ways of appreciating it (see Appendix D).  They also said I did good job of making them feel like their opinion was beneficial to the class, and they felt safe sharing it.  One of the students mentioned that she was frustrated with the amount of talking happening in the room during the discussion.  Another student admitted that the story was boring, and that he slept through part of it, but enjoyed the discussion format (Students).

Analysis of the Video

I chose to use the whole class discussion section of my lesson for the video analysis session because it is a good sampling of how the all the mini discussions had a tendency to go.  There was great potential for students to explore their envisionment of the text, but due to the excessive amount of chattering I tried to push through the discussion because it seemed like a waste of time.  This was because the good ideas that were being voiced by the students were not being heard by their peers in the class, as so I tried to keep everyone as on task as possible, and as a result ended up short-changing the discussion (see Appendix H).

My teaching focused strongly on the assumption that multiple perspectives are useful.  I was trying to get students to consider how they might argue the other side of an argument.  This lesson, with more time, could easily have moved into a lesson on writing an argumentative paper, as students were learning to consider how someone might find fault with their argument.   I also tried to focus on putting questions at the center of the literary experience, but I found when I went back through my transcriptions, because I had given the students a question to begin with and had them focusing more on multiple perspectives, and how they could answer that question, they did not focus nearly as much on voicing their own questions about the text.  These are good examples of how I attempting to guide the discussion through a demonstration of Langer’s principles of envisionment (Langer 56-60)

The video analysis session with my peers was helpful in validating my own observations about my teaching.  Some helpful suggestions were provided, such as for the whole class discussion I may have found it more beneficial to put the students back in rows before discussing, rather than letting them stay in their groups.  This would have made it so there would no longer be any students who had their backs to me.  This problem of students not respecting each other or me with their talking could also have been mediated by outlining some guidelines before beginning the discussion.  This was something my peers pointed out to me that I had not even considered, but probably should have because I knew that the students were new to class discussions, and so would not already know what some guidelines should be.  Another improvement that I could make in regards to the talking that was suggested by my peers was to strive not to talk over students.  I am not sure how the discussion would have gone had I not talked over the students because the majority of them when talking were not discussing the assignment, rather their personal lives outside of school.  I suspect just standing at the front and waiting for the students to stop talking and pay attention would not have worked.  I think if I ad tried this strategy they would have been fine just continuing to talk amongst themselves.

One observation that both my peers and I made about my discussion was that I moved through it too quickly. There were instances where I could have asked students to elaborate on a point that they made, rather than moving onto the next group and asking for their opinion.  I am not sure how this would have played out because I had to do a lot of prompting to get the responses I did.  I am not sure students would have understood what I meant had I asked them to tell me more about their point.  I did a good job of taking in what my students were saying and responding accordingly to their points, as well as doing a good job staying on track with my lesson despite the distractions that my class was creating.

Analysis of Student Responses to Your Pre- and Post-Assessment

In order to make sense of and see patterns in my data, I conducted a series of analyses that began with looking at the differences in the responses in the pre- and post-tests that I gave (see Appendix B).  This test was just the one question asking students to tell me what they thought heritage meant.  For the pre-test I got a huge range of responses: some students already had a really good grasp of some of the meanings of heritage, and others simply had no idea, probably had never heard the word before I asked that question, and took a wild guess.

For the post-test I asked students to add or change one thing form their original definition of heritage, to show me what they had learned during the lessons.  I ended up having to disregard the responses form the first period class because I asked them to make the changes on their paper that I had handed back to them, and I only got back about 4 responses from the class of 30 students.  For the second period class I got many more responses back because I instead asked them to flip over the sheet they would already been working on and to write me a new definition for what they thought heritage meant, including any changes they thought they had from their previous definition.  I found that asking students to find a paper I had passed back early that class was one step to many for most of the students, and that they responded much better when I asked them to simply write on the piece of paper they already had in their hands.

Another method I used to analyze and make sense of my data was to examine the responses that students wrote down in their discussion webs.  I was specifically interested in seeing if students had nay points written in their discussion webs that had not been presented and discussed as a class.  I found that about half the students had additional responses that had not been shared with the class at large.  While this was disappointing in the sense that some students did not participate as much as they could have in the discussion by contributing some more viewpoints, it was also heartening in the sense that some students clearly were able to respond to the question without the support of the class.  The had ideas that differed from what the class talked about, and thus made some connections to the text on their own without my specific prompting.

A General Description of Findings

This report has been significant in helping me to identify where I am still struggling in my teaching and communication with students.  I have been able to focus, through my findings, on what areas need improvement because I have seen where students met or missed the mark on my expectations.  The purpose of my study becomes clearer and more significant when read in the light of other work (Langer; McCann et al.; Beach et al.)  I worked to facilitate an authentic discussion during out whole class discussion of the text.  Unfortunately the discussion fell a little short due to both the students lack of experience discussing, and my lack of experience facilitating a discussion by asking students to elaborate on the points that they were making.  I moved to quickly through the discussion and ended up cutting off what could have been an excellent authentic conversation about heritage.

My lesson centered around the concept of heritage: what it is, how to define it, and how to appreciate it.  I attempted to measure this in my pre- and post-tests when I asked students what heritage meant to them, and what they thought it was.  After my lesson students were better able to narrow down or augment their definition of heritage.  For example, Matt took ideas from the Dear Abby article and expanded his original definition to include the idea of inheritance.  Another student, Jessica, had originally described heritage by listing some of her family’s traditions, but then for the post-test narrowed her focus down to include the idea of inheritance (see Appendix G).

When I interviewed a sampling of the students about how they felt about my lesson, one of them said she felt like she learned more about what heritage means, and that there are “all different kinds of ways of valuing [it]” (Students).  I had hoped that they would get this out of the lesson.  I also hoped that would learn about valuing differing perspectives, as Langer mentions in his principles of envisionment, but in the interview the students did not explicitly mention that, though they did demonstrate it when filling out their discussion webs.  They did fairly well coming up with ideas for both sides of the question (see Appendix G).

Most of the students who completed both the pre- and post-test made some clarification or specification in their definition; however, there were many students, especially in the first period class, who did not complete the post-test.  I do not know if this was because they did not feel like completing the work, or if they did not know what to write down to expand or modify their definition.  Every group turned in a discussion and about three quarters of the class did not have anymore written down than what we had discussed in class, about a fourth of the class had a discussion with additional points that had not been brought up in class.  This shows that at least some were really giving thought to the multiple perspectives about appreciating heritage that are out there.

Reflection and Analysis

I think the most challenging thing about the two classes during my multi-day teach was the motivation.  It was hard to convince the students to do the work because they just were not interested and did not want to be at school.  I did not know them that well so I could not really cater to their interests, the best I can do is take what they gave me during a discussion, and run with it.

Getting the class to read and have on topic discussions was also difficult due to classroom management problems.  There were a lot of kids sleeping or with their heads down, and there were lots of side conversations going on.    My mentor teacher suggested that I start off class by warning the students that if they get too chatty, I may move them, or if they are sleeping that I may have them stand for the rest of the class.  It sounds like an excellent idea, but I do not know if I could follow through on those threats because I had never seen my mentor teacher follow through on any.  It is also hard to do much classroom management because I only know the names of a few students in the class.  I decided to use popsicle sticks with names on them for the second day of teaching to get students to participate, and that helped a little bit on that front.  My peers during the video analysis section suggested that when I have a discussion after doing group work to have the students arrange themselves back in their rows.  This way they would not have their backs to me and would be in the set-up they were used to for whole class time.

Another thing that I noticed while teaching was my level of comfort between first and second period.  I did not experience this last quarter during my multi-day teach because my mentor teacher last quarter only taught one of each class, so there was no opportunity to double up.  I found that after having done the lesson during first period, I was able to make some minor adjustments to what I was doing second period, and because I had already taught the lesson once, I was much more confident in my teaching during second period.  I asked slightly different questions, and asked the students to write down slightly different things between the two periods.

The students did seem to have a better grasp of the definition of heritage, what it meant to them, and the different ways of appreciating it after the lesson.  One of the student’s I interviewed after the lesson said she felt like she knew more about heritage now than she did before the lesson began (Students).  I also think the students learned about arguing an idea from both sides.  This was not something that I explicitly taught, but the further we moved into the discussion and the more I asked students to refute a point that I had made with appoint of their own, the more comfortable they got with the practice, and the quicker they were to argue with me and provide counter examples.

My mentor teacher thought I did fairly well with the lesson I had prepared, but that I need to know more about the students so that I can choose an adequate text for the class as a whole.  “Everyday Use” was a little long for the inclusion class, and I realized this after the first day of reading, but could not change my plans to incorporate a different text at that point due to school copy policies.  She also thought that I seemed a little uncomfortable during the lesson: I did not walk around much, and was hesitant to really get on students about not paying attention.  She also thought that I was really professional, prepared, and flexible when dealing with changing schedules due to the snow days (see Appendix I).

My cohort colleague noticed the same thing I did about my class being excessively chatty.  She thought I did well dealing with the noise level, and being firm about staying on track with my lesson and my expectations.  She noted that I could be explicit about instructions regarding group work than I was.  Mainly the issue revolved around the amount of extraneous chatter in the room (see Appendix K).

My university supervisor thought that my lesson went well overall.  She noted that I did well in providing a space for every student to have a voice and make connections to their own lives, but that I should think of strategies to actively engage students.  She thought I did good job picking an appropriate text for the students and grade level, as well as providing opportunities for students with multiple intelligences to excel, which is especially evidenced by some of the student work (see Appendix G).  I was also reflective in my teaching, and willing to make necessary changes between lessons (see Appendix J).

Implications of the Study

Given the opportunity to re-teach this lesson I would first have to better consider my students.  One of the main problems I found with my lesson was that the students had no interest in the story, and so discussion became difficult because students either did not pay attention during the reading of the story or could find almost no connections to their personal lives in the story.  If I were to teach a lesson again using this story and focusing on heritage, I would want to precede the unit with some knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement, and use that as a basis for discussing some of what happens in the story.

However, if I were to again teach a lesson focusing on multiple viewpoints, I would change the story I used all together.  One of the things my mentor teacher mentions in her evaluation was that “Everyday Use” was a little bit long for the inclusion class to be reading in that short amount of time (see Appendix I).  I need to work on remembering that not all students are at the expected reading level, and that event he reading level within the class varies.  Therefore, I need to work on overcoming the assumption that students should all be able to read and understand a text I am presenting, and find ways to better support them in their learning.  I would probably use a text such as “All of Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury instead.  It has the same opportunities for students to examine multiple viewpoints and debate various aspects of the story, but it is also short and at a lower reading level, which would probably cater more to the students in the class.  It also is a story about students, and presented in such a way that students would be able to better relate to it.

The students did seem to learn about heritage from my teaching, as is evidenced by their pre- and post-tests.  They also came up with many good points from both Dee’s and Maggie’s points of view regarding heritage and appreciating them, and thus were learning how to see an argument from multiple points of view.  One of the things that I found difficult about this lesson was what to do about absentee students.  Because we were reading the story aloud in class, and students are not required to reading at home, I did not know how to involve a student in discussion who had not read the story, or how to include them in the class beyond summarizing the story, or having them read silently while the rest of the class worked.

I found doing teacher inquiry in my classroom for this field experience to be a beneficial learning experience because I was able to carefully analyze where my teaching fell short, and where I succeeded in helping students to learn.  I was able to support and supplement my examination of my own teaching by analyzing it through the frameworks and lenses provided by Langer, McCann et al., and Beach et al.  This helped me not only to see where I need improvement, but ways in which I can focus and guide my improvement to better help and support students in their learning.

References

“Central Crossing High School.” Southwestern City Schools. 22 Sep 2008. Southwestern

City Schools, Web. 25 Feb 2010. <http://www.swcs.k12.oh.us/Schools/High

%20schools/central_crossing__high_school.htm>.

Barnes, Heather. Personal interview.  14 Jan. 2010.

Beach, Richard et. al., Teaching Literature to Adolescents. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum

Associates Inc., 2006.

Langer, Judith A., Envisioning Literature. Columbus University: Teachers College Press,

1995.

McCann, Thomas M., et. al., Talking in Class: Using Discussion to Enhance Teaching and

Learning. National Council of Teachers of English, 2006.

Students, MDT focal class.  Personal interview.  18 Feb. 2010.

Appendices

Appendix A: Student Survey

Appendix B: Pre- and Post-Test

Appendix C: Interview Questions for Mentor Teacher

Appendix D: Interview Questions for Case Study Students

Appendix E: Materials and Handouts

Appendix F: Lesson Plans for Multi-Day Teaching

Appendix G: Student Work Samples

Appendix H: Analytic Memo

Appendix I: Written Response from Mentor-Teacher

Appendix J: Written Response form University Supervisor

Appendix K: Written Response from Cohort Colleague

In my multi-day teach winter quarter I had students access some of their prior knowledge when I had them consider why a sibling who went off to college or to join the military would want to come home again.  Because I had helped them access their prior knowledge and experience, I was then able to help them apply that knowledge to the current aspect of learning.  This was in line with criterion C₂, helping to making content comprehensible to students.

Another way I worked to make content comprehensible to students was by varying my teaching strategies to appeal to a larger number of students.  One of the ways I did this winter quarter was by varying the format of my lessons, such as reading aloud, lecture, recitation, small group work, and whole class discussion.  I also appeal to students’ multiple intelligences by allowing them to write or draw their answers to some of my questions.

In autumn quarter I communicated to my students a sense of relevancy by showing them an example of a Twilight parody involving Buffy the Vampire Slayer in my multi-day teach.   I also used Smart Board technology as a way to reach students with varied learning styles.  This use of pop culture and technology allowed me to appeal to students in a variety of formats that they might be more familiar and responsive to than traditional lectures.  By bringing relevant content into the classroom I was working toward making the content more comprehensible to students.  This fits in with criterion C₂.

Making discussion both meaningful and authentic will help encourage students to extend their thinking, the requirement for criterion C₃.  One of the ways I did this in my winter quarter multi-day teach was during the Dear Abby response letter discussion.  Students were interested in the controversy that this article presented, and felt like the discussion was a low-risk environment.  In my interview with one of the students she said she “felt safe talking in class, and like no one would make fun of her for what [she] said.”  One of the ways I worked to make students feel safe was by having them work first in small, heterogeneous groups.  In the winter I had them mix partner sets before our whole class discussion in order to hear new ideas from their peers, and in the autumn I had student work in groups on the poetry strips project.  The group work allowed students to hear other ideas and engage with their peers in order to expand and extend their thinking.

In my multi-day teaching winter quarter I used a pre- and post-test to monitor students’ understandings of the content, as described in criterion C₄.  I was able to see how students’ understandings had changed over the course of the lesson, and was able to use the pre-test as a means of formative assessment in order to make minute changes to my plans in order to accommodate students.  I also used a discussion web to help scaffold my students into a whole class discussion format, which they were unfamiliar with.  Another aspect of criterion C₄ that I address in this lesson was adjusting learning activities as the situation demands.  I had originally planned to go into a brief discussion of the text the class was reading on the second day of the lesson, but decided that my students weren’t ready to do that yet, and so I make a quick decision to instead use a related Dear Abby article for them to write a response to.

Having students write a response to this Dear Abby article wouldn’t’ have happened if I hadn’t already had it planned as a possible back-up plan, which is one thing teachers can do to use instructional time effectively, meeting criterion C₅.  Because I had a good idea of what I needed to accomplish in my lesson, and had planned back-up options in case the students got done early or weren’t ready to move forward with the plan, I was able to be both prepared and effective in my teaching.

Our attitudes determine our accomplishments. Recent emails about shared

studio spaces, male-female dynamics, creative progress etc., showed us those

who see the glass half empty and those who see it half full. Could it be, we

wondered, that the half-empty folks were destined to have emptier and

emptier glasses, while the half-full folks were bound to have fuller and

fuller ones?

Could there be truth in such a simple and timeworn concept?

Maybe it’s the time of year–dark days in the Northern Hemisphere (right now

our Down Under subscribers are generally upbeat). Anyway,  a lot of

negativity is out there. Okay, so maybe it’s tough being an artist, but

maybe we need to delude ourselves that it isn’t tough at all–like it’s a

joy, a privilege, an opportunity to enrich those around us, and a lot of fun

to boot.

Psychologists tell us we tend to believe what we say, especially when we

chant it over and over. It doesn’t seem to matter how unlikely the stuff is

either–actions following words is one of the hazards of speaking, writing

and thinking.

Here in the dark days of winter are a few words that might just keep your

sunny side up:

Have a decent ego; cultivate self-esteem and individualism.

Keep an open mind; there’s more than one way to do things.

Focus on your processes; that’s where the joy comes in.

Be kind; it never hurts to give to others, even praise.

Be innocent; have a childlike–not childish–approach.

Be thankful, even for the smallest of blessings.

Be a perpetual student–be curious and seeking.

Filter your priorities–and don’t suffer fools.

Be creative. It’s the highest form of life.

Honour and respect time; it’s the main gift.

Be optimistic; the opposite holds no charms.

Develop good habits–they will develop you.

Be thrifty–waste not, want not.

Work to please yourself.

Be hard to please.