Learning Letter

I think the works we've read in this course provide me with both a wide variety of texts to use in the classroom as well as a large selection of educational resources. In particular, Katie Brown's website will prove useful in finding entertaining and interesting lesson ideas. Since engagement is a common theme in the texts we've read (such as Readicide and I Read It But I Don't Get It), the games and activities she gave us access to seem to be a great way to promote student engagement.
The assignments we've done have also given me a good idea of how to develop appropriate and solid lessons. The unit plan in particular was an exercise in trying to figure out how to connect concepts and learning objectives in singular lessons to an overarching unit with larger goals. The mini lesson also helped me learn how to develop a unit with a small amount of time, and how to teach without a lot of time. Often times teachers will have to use less time than they'd like to teach a concept, so working in such a small amount of time was a development of my teaching skills. The feedback process was also incredibly helpful in showing me what I need to work on and what I do very well, which made the developmental process much easier for me.
My participation in this course gave me a foundation of pedagogical theory that will help me develop my lesson-planning and instructional techniques. While I still have to work on the cultural aspect of education, I have greatly improved in my ability to create lessons and activities for my students that are engaging and culturally responsive. While I do still have a lot of work to do, I think I've come a long way in regards to my abilities in the classroom. I'd say that even in my cooperating classroom placement I've become much more well-rounded as a student teacher.

TPA Lesson Plan - American Born Chinese

1.      Teacher Candidate: Carlos Santos

2.      Subject: English Language Arts

3.      Lesson Title/ Central Focus: Pop Culture Symbolism in American Born Chinese

4.      Grade Level(s): 9th Grade

5.      Length of Lesson: 20 Minutes

6.      Academic and Content Standards (Common Core/National):

RL 9.2 . Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

7.      Learning  Objective(s):

Given the text American Born Chinese, students will be able to identify the meaning behind the symbols in the Symbolism Worksheet, and how they connect to a variety of themes. This connects to RL 9.2 by asking students to see how the development of a story progresses in a graphic novel with the use of images as well as words.

8.      Academic Language:

Students will need to understand the words symbol, symbolism, metaphor, and theme. This language will ensure students are able to analyze images and determine a deeper meaning behind them.

9.      Assessment:

For this lesson, I will be using a symbolism worksheet. This will require students to observe a variety of symbols, and write down at least 5 words describing what they think is the meaning of the symbol. This will ask students to think about how symbols can develop the theme of a story, connect ideas to characters, and progress the story. The assignment will be worth a total of 25 points, one for each word for each of the 5 symbols.

10.  Lesson Connections:

Educator Trent Lorcher, in his "Literature Lesson Plan: Teaching Symbolism", explains that "symbolism allows people to communicate beyond the limits of language", which is an important facet of literature. With this in mind, the lesson intends to connect pop culture imagery with images from the text to promote student understanding of how images can have meaning beyond their surface definitions. This will build off of student knowledge of the literary elements. As my students will already be aware of the elements of literature, this lesson will be building on their knowledge of symbolism. This lesson would be building off of several previous lessons analyzing American Born Chinese for a number of literary elements such as theme, plot, allusion, characterization, and conflict. Ultimately, all of these lessons and this one would lead into a summative assessment essay in which they would be analyzing the text with the elements of literature in mind.

11.  Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks to Support Student Learning:

Introduction

To introduce the lesson, I will provide the learning objective on the board, explain briefly what we will be doing and what the daily assignment is, and then probe for understanding. I will then have students write an "I CAN" statement on the back of their worksheet. 

Student Voice 

By having students write their "I CAN: statement on the back of their worksheet, I will be able to review their understanding of the lesson. Then I will also ask a student to read their "I CAN" statement aloud to model what one should look like. After that, I would provide a link on the board to allow students to do further investigating on symbolism in literature, and then have them write it down in their notebooks. To ensure there is full understanding of the relationship between the objective and the assessment, I will ask a student what they believe the purpose of the worksheet is.

Learning Tasks

Explicit instruction will occur as I work with the students to define symbolism and then search for the meaning behind a variety of symbols. This will reinforce critical thinking regarding the student's reading of texts. Ultimately, teaching the students about symbolism will allow them to read a text and determine meaning beyond what is written. To ensure the classroom functions properly, I will have students begin the lesson by quickly looking at the worksheet, flipping it over, and then writing the I CAN statement on the back. I will then have students work with me to define symbolism, and then they will be allowed to work in groups to complete the assignment. 

Learning Activities
Students will seat themselves, retrieve a writing utensil, and receive the worksheet. They will write an I can statement after observing the learning objective, and will engage in brief question answering regarding the day's lesson. They will then work on the worksheet in groups. After they have completed the worksheet, they will come back together and share their responses.

Instructional Strategies
Once I have introduced the worksheet, I will place another image on the projector to allow students to observe me model the assignment. I will use a combination of prearranged answers and student voice to complete an example for them. The time estimates are 5 minutes to introduce the lesson, provide the learning objective, write an I CAN statement, and ask for examples, followed by 3 minutes for modelling, 8 minutes to complete the worksheet, and then 4 minutes for feedback.My key questions will be "what is symbolism?", "what symbols can you think of in your life?", and "how might symbols connect to the theme of a story?"
For grouping, I intend to allow students to work with elbow partners only, to minimize disruption from moving.

Closure

Once students have shared some of their answers from their worksheet, I will have reread their I CAN statement, and below it, write a number between 1 and 5, 1 being I still don't think I can, 5 being I totally can.

12.  Differentiated Instruction:

To ensure equitable instruction, I will provide an additional resource for students still struggling with the concept. I will also provide access to a variety of learning modalities, including visual learning (pictures, images), read/write learning (writing assignment), and auditory learning (speaking opportunities).

13.  Resources and Materials:

I will need access to the text, a projector, copies of my assignment, a whiteboard, markers, and erasers. Students will need a writing utensil and the text.

Howard, M. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2014, from http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/symbolism-imagery-in-literature-definitions-examples.html#lesson

Lorcher, T. (n.d.). Teaching Symbolism: How to Get More out of Literature. Retrieved November 30, 2014, from http://www.brighthubeducation.com/high-school-english-lessons/28791-teaching-symbolism/

14.  Management and Safety Issues:

To ensure safety, I will have students group with elbow partners to minimize movement around the classroom. I will also closely observe student interactions to prevent any conflicts to escalate. If certain students do not perform well together, I will allow them to work with different partners or individually, though this is unlikely.

15.  Parent and Community Connections:
To connect this lesson to the community, I made the decision to use pop culture symbols to encourage familiarity with the idea of symbols and to give students real world examples. To tie in parents, I will be asking students to talk to their parents about symbols that they might see at work, to show them how widespread they really are.