Learning Letter

                This class has done the most to prepare me for taking over my own classroom. In my placement, I have only taught standalone lessons. This course provided me with my first experience in putting together consecutive lessons. I now know exactly what needs to go into a unit, and this will be invaluable as I prepare lessons and units for my future classroom. Book talks were useful as I was introduced to several interesting books that could be taught in my own classroom. It also allowed me to read a book that I thought was interesting and present it to the class. I will be exploring some of these books more and considering how I can implement them into my classroom. I also enjoyed the mini-lessons and the different topics we had to present them under (pop culture, social justice, etc.). This helped me think of ways to introduce texts to students in more interesting ways.

                Several of the theories and texts in the course were useful to me in developing my teaching style, and several of the ideas I utilized in my unit plan. I particularly like the ideas of shying away from multiple choice exams to test students’ skills and knowledge. Open-ended responses can ask for the same information from students, but ask them to use more skills to come up with the answer. It turns students away from memorizing information and encourages them to use critical thinking skills. I also enjoyed Kelly Gallagher’s book, discussing over-teaching of texts. In my own classroom, I plan to have a loose outline of when students need to have a text read by. I will give them guided reading activities to complete as they wish throughout the text. This way, students aren’t stopped at the end of every chapter to complete a comprehension quiz. Students are able to get into the flow of reading and connect more with what they read.

                This course has definitely changed the way I see myself as a teacher. Every course I take at Eastern adds some new information or teaching skill to my arsenal. This class has added the most to my arsenal throughout the discussions with fellow classmates. Seeing how my classmates would react to certain situations or their philosophy towards teaching shows me many different viewpoints on the subject, allowing me to choose which ideas I want to implement in the future. This class and the people in it have exposed me to the most opinions regarding education. Participating in this class has drastically changed my viewpoint towards teaching (in a good way), and I look forward to trying out these ides in my own classroom.

Minilesson Lesson Plan

TPA Lesson Plan #___1____

Course: ____ENGL 493___

1. Teacher Candidate	David West	Date Taught	November 18th, 2015
Cooperating Teacher	Tessa Delbridge	School/District	Medical Lake High School
2. Subject	English	Field Supervisor	Clive Gary
3. Lesson Title/Focus	Social Justice in “The Black Cat”	5. Length of Lesson	20 minutes
4. Grade Level	Twelfth Grade

6. Academic & Content Standards (Common Core/National)	W.11-12.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
7. Learning Objective(s)	Given the timeline and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat,” students will predict how the story would have ended today by writing an alternate ending to the story. This objective relates to the CCSS as students use outside sources to predict and make reflects on the text. The DOK for this objective is a two. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to say “I can use informational texts to support my analysis of a piece of literature.”
8. Academic Language demands (vocabulary, function, syntax, discourse)	Vocabulary: Social justice, domestic abuse, alternate ending, logical Syntax: Students will be displaying their writing skills as they write their alternate endings. Students will have write in full sentences in a logical way that connects the short story to the informational text.

9. Assessment

Formative assessment will be used in this lesson. After students read through the Crime Against Women timeline, they will discuss how it relates to the text. Students will use this information to write an alternate ending to “The Black Cat,” telling how the story might end if it was written in the present day.

10. Lesson Connections

During this lesson, students will write alternate endings to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat.” Candida Gillis says that this type of activity “can evoke memories, trigger the imagination, and stimulate experimentation with form and style. Also, students learn to write for different audiences. Students are accustomed to academic writing, so this assignment will introduce students to more casual writing. Gillis, C. (1994). Writing Partners: Expanding the Audiences for Student Writing. The English Journal, 83(3). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/stable/820930 This lesson serves to supplement the work students have already done with Edgar Allan Poe. This lesson will be touched upon in the following lessons as students continue to study the works of Edgar Allan Poe. This lesson will also ask students to call upon their existing critical thinking and reading skills as students predict how the short story might end in today’s society. These skills will also be touched upon in later lessons as students write alternate endings for other stories.

11. Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks to Support Learning
Learning Tasks and Strategies Sequenced Instruction: To start the lesson, students will be given some more detail regarding the narrator of “The Black Cat.” The narrator’s alcoholism will be discussed the most and how it influences the rest of the story. Students will then get a copy of the “Crime Against Woman” handout. Students will be placed into three groups and each group will read through one section of the timeline. Each group will share the key points of their time period. I will then relate “The Black Cat” to the period in which it was written and how women were treated. I will then ask students to consider how the story would unfold had it been written today. Students will work individually to produce an alternate ending to the story.
Teacher’s Role I will give students more information on how the events of “The Black Cat” are influenced by the narrator’s alcoholism.	Students’ Role Students will listen and pay attention through the short lecture.
Students will each be given a copy of the “Crimes Against Women” handout. They will be split into three groups and each group will be assigned a passage to read.	Students will split into three groups and read through their assigned section of the worksheet. Each group will then share with the class the main points of their section.
Students will be given more information on how women were treated during the period “The Black Cat” was written and how it is portrayed in the story.	Students will listen and pay attention through the short lecture.
Students will be asked to write an alternate ending to “The Black Cat,” considering how it would end if it was written today. I will walk around the class, monitoring students as they work.	Students will individually write an alternate ending to “The Black Cat.” At the end of the period, students may choose to share what they have written.
Student Voice to Gather Student voice will be gathered through the writing assignment. By writing an alternate ending with modern spin, students are showing that they can use the informational text to support their understanding of the text.

12. Differentiated Instruction

This lesson will be beneficial to kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learners. Students will read from the article, which will be helpful to auditory learners. Students can also read the article for themselves, benefiting visual learners. Kinesthetic learners will thrive during the writing part of the lesson.

13. Resources and Materials

Materials in this lesson include the Crimes Against Women handout. Students will need a piece of paper and pen/pencil and their copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s Complete Tales & Poems. Poe, E. A. (2011) Complete tales & poems. W. S. Scott. (Ed.) New York, NY: Castle Books. Swanson, K. (nd) Crime against women: a brief history of laws in the US. Retrieved from http://getinclusive.com/crime-women-brief-history-laws-us/

14. Management and Safety Issues

Students will be working in small groups for this assignment, so noise may be an issue. I will walk from group to group, and quietly remind a group to lower their volume or stay on topic. If any students has a hard time starting on their work, I will stand by them to encourage them to work. This is the idea of proximity. Getz, H. G., & Pierce, W. (1971). Relating Pertinence to Proximity. The Clearing House, 45(5). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/stable/30184218

15. Parent & Community Connections

To keep parents involved in what is going on in class, the class blog will be updated with the contents of the day’s lesson. Parents will be able to access this information as well as leave questions or comments on the post. Students may also write their parents informing them of this activity in their weekly “Letter Home,” describing the week’s events in class, as well as academic and personal achievements and goals. This lesson will help students prepare for any community discussion on the topic of domestic abuse or women’s rights.

Readicide

                Readicide is the second book I’ve read by Kelly Gallagher and I always look forward to what he has to say about education and the various activities he presents. Several of the ideas in Gallagher’s book really stood out to me. The first is the differences he shows between multiple choice questions and short answer responses. Although both can allow the student to get a similar response, students use and develop critical thinking skills when answering the short response question. Multiple choice only asks students to recall information, not using more complex skills.

                One part of the text I found interesting was seeing the correlation between time spent reading and performance on standardized tests. The more time students spend reading each day, the higher they score on standardized tests. Even reading recreationally will help students develop the skills they need to succeed. Students should be given more reading time and access to books in the classroom, as they may not get this at home. If my future school doesn’t offer SSR time, I will do my best to give students the reading time that they need. Not only will this help increase their test scores, it will help instill in them a love of reading that they will hopefully carry through the rest of their life.

                Gallagher mentions that many schools are doing away with novels in order to teach smaller texts and focus more on test preparation. To me, this is an injustice to the students. I don’t feel that standardized tests are the best way to assess a student’s knowledge as there are several varying factors. Schools push tests and test preparation so much because it seen as the way to judge the schools success. To be seen as a more “successful” school, many are doing whatever they can to help students pass the test, even if that means they don’t learn anything along the way. To sacrifice reading time in order to prepare for tests is something that benefits the school and not the student, which should be the primary focus of any learning institution.

I Read It, But I Don't Get It

“Readers of tomorrow must do more than memorize words. They must be prepared to analyze, validate, and ask the next logical question. They have to know how to think.” Though it was at the end of the book, this quote stuck with me. Many students today only “read” when they have to. The kind of reading they are used to doing on a daily basis is posts on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Although students are technically reading, they aren’t gaining or exercising any reading skills. Students need to be able to comprehend what they read, analyze it, and relate it to real life. Students won’t get this through reading tweets. This book had a lot of great ways to get students thinking about their reading and increasing their comprehension, as well as teaching them valuable reading skills.

Another concept of the book I liked is that you can’t just tell a student that they have to infer: you have to teach them how to make inferences. This could be an entirely new concept to many students, so telling them to make inferences is telling them to do something they don’t know how to do. It’s important to walk students through the process of making inferences the first few times, showing them how to scour the text to find the information they are looking for. They need to be taught how to connect the dots. This is a learned skill, not something teachers can simply tell students to do without any prior instruction.

I also like modeling for the students good reading skills. One thing Tovani did that I liked was continue to read even after students enter the classroom. This will show students how enjoyable reading can be, as the teacher doesn’t just put it down in the middle of a page. Students often model after their teachers, and reading would be a great thing to pick up. Also, it leaves me, as the teacher, more time to read.

A huge part of this book is opening students’ eyes to things that they didn’t know they know. Tovani asked students to do several things, and many students responded “I don’t get it.” However, after some prompting, the students ended up realizing that they know more about the concept than they thought they did. All students need some times is a little push to be able to understand the concept.

Social Justice

            Social justice, when referring to when it was first coined by Pius XI, refers to the “economic aspect of the common good . . . the use of property for the benefit of all men.” When working, wage-earners shouldn’t ask for higher wages then they need to survive. To support a system like this, economic institutions need to be put in place to regulate the distribution of wealth to stabilize an economy. This idea of “income equality” is one that would later be adopted by Karl Marx.

            From this definition, as well as other definitions and examples I have found of social justice, I see social justice as a form of communism. Wealth and property isn’t the exclusive right to the rich: every person has an equal right to all property, and all wage-earners have the same salary.  Money is a result of a working population, therefore the money should be equally spread among every worker.

            One issue with social justice is the institutions that distribute the wealth. In many cases, greed takes over, and the people in charge of distributing the wealth do so unfairly. The lower class gets oppressed by the ones who manage money and distribute goods, who take more than their fair share.

            A great way to teach social justice to students would be through a book many teachers already use: Animal Farm. In this novel, animals take over a farm and instill social justice: all the animals work their fair share and receive an equal share of rations. Until greed takes over. This would be a great way to teach students the things that go wrong when social justice is adopted by a society at large.

Montavon, P. A. (1957). Review: The Theory of Social Justice. The Review of Politics, Vol. 19(1). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/stable/1405045

Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom

            I once read somewhere that literature reflects history. I feel some points in this article reinforce this point. The article says that “Studying canonical texts is an important strategy for understanding the values and ideologies of dominant groups at various points in history . . . literary texts such as The Scarlet Letter and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn offered me insight into the American psyche than most texts on U. S. History.” History books may discuss more of what is going on in the world at a specific time, but it leaves out how different groups respond to these events/ideas on a personal and emotional level. Literature, although often fictional, gives a better idea of what people of the time felt and how they reacted to certain circumstances.

            Another part of the article I support is the idea multiculturalism is more than reading works written by people of color or about people of color. I feel it would be more beneficial to do a multicultural reading of a text that doesn’t necessarily primarily focus on the various cultures of its characters. Many texts that focus on other cultures often stretch stereotypes and can leave students with a negative image of the culture, something that has the opposite effect of that text. Doing a multicultural analysis of a different kind of text would be more beneficial, as it also asks students to apply their critical thinking skills as they analyze the text.

            One activity the article used that I might adopt for my own classroom is using rap songs in a poetry unit. This would be a great, fun way to increase levels of student interest and engagement in the unit. Letting students pick their own song to match with a piece of poetry would be helpful as students get to exercise their creativity as well as critical thinking and analyses skills. Students may have so much fun with the assignment that they may not even feel like they are doing school work.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

            Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed tells of two different educational styles: banking education and problem-posing education. Banking education seems to be an extremely ineffective style. In it, students are treated as lesser than the teacher and taught only the things they need to survive. They’re not taught to think critically: most of their “education” is just being able to recall facts that the teacher recites. This style of teaching only works one way: teacher to student. There is no room for the students to collaborate with the instructor. Students aren’t even given any reasoning as to why what they’re learning is important. They are given only enough to survive and be exploited by the oppressors.

            Problem-posing education, on the other hand, seems to be a much more effective approach. The communication channel is opened up both ways so that students can collaborate with their teacher or challenge claims. Students are taught to think critically. As communication is two-way, students are also the teachers, creating teacher-students and student-teachers in the classroom. When students are taught, they are also given meaning behind what they are learning and how it is relevant to their lives or why it is important to history. This seems like a better educational approach as students are able to expand their minds, think critically, and gives students a better understanding of reality.

            Although the United States shies away from the banking education style (from what I’m aware), many countries around the world may resort to it in an attempt to control the population. Oppressors “dumb down” the population by feeding them information that they approve, not allowing students to think critically. By doing so, the oppressors ensure that they can remain in power and exploit the misfortunes of the oppressed. If educational standards in these countries were shifted to a problem-posing educational style, world poverty rates may decrease as people are able to rise above their oppressors.

Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning

                One thing that stood out to me in the “Secondary Standards-Based Grading and Reporting Handbook” handout was how much a zero grade can stand out. The student can be doing just fine in a class, miss an assignment, and then have their overall grade destroyed. This doesn’t give an accurate representation of what the student actually knows. While it would be helpful to the student’s grade and confidence, I think not including zero-grades should be implemented in a specific way: the student should be informed of the zero grade, and if it isn’t made up they will be told how it affects their overall grade. I had one class a few years ago where I had a few zero grades. They weren’t factored into my grade until the course was over. Suddenly my grade in the class dropped form an A- to a C. If I had known I had zero grades, I could have corrected this. Zero grades can be omitted from a gradebook, but the student should be informed so as not to have it affect their grade later.

                The other article, “Assessing and Evaluating Student’s Learning” discusses what types of assessment are beneficial to which types of teachers/students. Multiple choice tests focus more on recall and finding “right answer” while open-ended tests assess more understood concepts. In the classroom, I plan to use a mix of these. I will have a short part of a test be multiple choice comprehension tests, just to make sure that students have read the text and were paying attention to it. The bulk of the test will comprise of more discussion-based questions. Questions like these will “encourage students to formulate their won response, rather than recalling ‘correct answers.’” This will show how students understand a concept of the text and show that they can translate it and put it in their own words, demonstrating understanding.

California State University's Assignment Template

            I feel that this chapter had a lot of useful ideas for bringing writing into the classroom. One subsection I like is “Using Model Language.” Many times, students won’t introduce a quote in their writing as they were never told to do so. They just jump write into the quote. I felt this section was useful as it can show students not only that they have to introduce their sources, but also how to do so.

            Another section I found useful was Revising and Editing. “Rhetorical Analysis of a Draft” had some great information and things students should look for when revising their own and their peers’ papers. Often times, when students hear “edit your papers,” they think only of surface edits: spelling, punctuation, grammar, and conventions. This helps give students things to look for when making revisions to their paper, which will ultimately result in stronger writing. I recently taught a lesson that used many of these same ideas. Students had written rough drafts and were getting ready to peer review them. Before students traded papers, I had them look at a sample paragraph and discuss the changes they would make to them. Most of the changes were stylistic errors instead of helping to improve the content. I showed them some ways to help improve the content of the paper and handed out a worksheet with questions on how to improve the content of their peers’ papers. This made students look more in-depth when editing their drafts.

            Another idea this section presented that I felt would be useful is both the teacher and student keeping index cards to track changes to each draft. When many students edit and revise their paper, they do so to the original document. Because of this, students are unable to see what they started with, only what they ended with. By seeing how writing progresses, students are able to see common mistakes they make and ways to improve them. Writing will improve over time as students are able to cut out editing time as their first drafts are of better quality. 

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Instruction

                I feel that common standards are a good thing as all students learn the same basic principles needed to thrive in today’s world. While I agree with standards, I disagree with standardization, particularly among curriculums. Just as no two students are the same, no two teachers are the same. Department-, school-, or district-wide curriculums may seem like a good idea in theory, but is difficult to pull off. Teachers have different teaching styles and interests and use this to teach their students. If all teachers are forced to teach the exact same material in the exact same way, teachers can lose a lot of the passion they put in to crafting a lesson. Teachers need to be allowed to put their own spin on the material they present to the classroom.

                Teachers can still help their students rise to the standards without being standardized themselves. The Common Core State Standards illustrate the concepts students need to comprehend. Teachers can create their own curriculum in order to teach their students these skills. As well as adding their own spin to a lesson, teachers can help individualize to their students. Like Kyle’s issue in the article, classroom have varying levels of diversity. Some students may learn in specific settings or through different teaching styles, and standardized curriculums don’t allow for this. Teachers can vary their curriculum in a way that is beneficial to all students’ learning and still make sure that the common core standards are introduced into the classroom.

                As for the standards themselves, one thing I like is how standards remain mostly the same through grade levels: Standard W.9-10.1 and W.11-12.1 both say that students should be able to “Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.” Although ninth and twelfth grade students are asked to know the same concepts, they are required to know more about them. Students are introduced to the same standards year after year, but each year gain a deeper understanding of them as they expand on their previous learning.

Discussions in a Democratic Society

                This chapter made me think of previous courses I took that were mostly discussion based. I feel that this is one of the best learning styles as multiple viewpoints are presented. Oftentimes, students may present perfectly valid viewpoints that the instructor hasn’t even thought of. Also, these type of lessons/courses are more engaging and have a more lasting effect on students. I have always paid more attention to what is going on in group discussions over just the instructor lecturing the whole room. Discussion allows for more two-way communication, whereas just lecture is mostly one-way. Students are able to ask clarifying questions of the instructor in a lecture-style environment, but they are only exposed to a single viewpoint. By being exposed to multiple, diverse viewpoints, students can increase their critical thinking skills by exploring how they all tie together or clash with each other.

                One part of the chapter that explored the downsides of discussion-based learning that I thought was interesting was how quieter students might not contribute as much to the conversation. One way I would try to circumvent this in a classroom would be to introduce the discussion topic to the class and have them individually write out their response and opinion on the topic. After every student has responded, I would then open up the discussion to them. Now that each student has their own answer, they may feel more inclined to share it with the class and compare it to other students’ opinions. If these students still choose not to volunteer, I could call on random students to share their viewpoints when the discussion starts to die down, so as not to cut in too much. Since they already have an idea written down, they won’t be as flustered and put on the spot.

                I also liked what the chapter said about the different dispositions, particularly autonomy. Discussion are important for being introduced to a wide array of opinions and viewpoints, but that doesn’t mean a student’s personal opinion has to change. In fact, being exposed to more viewpoints can help a student stand by their original statement. The student now has more viewpoints with which to compare theirs to and can use that to strengthen their argument. While there may not be a right or wrong solution to the topic being discussed, holding on to one’s own viewpoint while still considering and incorporating others’ can help increase understanding and learning.