My second lesson was about literary devices, and how students could make their writing more effective. I had the students analyze pieces literature and asked them to group the pieces as they saw fit. I noticed that the lesson was a little too open-ended (as working with literature often is), because the students picked up on some of the themes I wanted, but also picked up on other important elements that I didn't think to focus on.
Teaching an indirect lesson was a challenge in itself, because I haven't really been exposed to the process, and it was hard to come up with the lesson plan. I was able to reach the 35-40 minute range, but I felt like I was doing nothing for a lot of the time. It was hard to create a lesson for four students that I would in theory teach to 20+ students. The timing and questions would have worked better if I had few groups to keep checking on.
I was much more prepared for this lesson, but I noticed that I looked/sounded really nervous (way more than the first lesson), which I thought was strange. When I was actually nervous, you couldn't tell, but when I was comfortable I seemed nervous. I also realized that I sound a lot less professional than I would like. I was often speaking to my class as if it was my peers (in this case it was) but I know that I will have to be more formal (less um's!) and actually study my topic in great depth.
Other than these small set backs, I think the lesson went pretty well, and I hope I can refine my language when I start teaching in high school classes!
Jessica, I thought you did a great job with your lesson. I really liked the Literary Devices sheet that you handed out. It was very helpful and informative. The examples on it made everything a lot more clear to me. I also thought your activity was very engaging. It definitely forced Jamie and I to think very hard about how we wanted to categorize everything. We probably changed our patterns up about 10 times because we kept coming up with new and different ideas, which is really the goal of a lesson like this. The only thing that I would suggest is to differentiate between the quotes a little bit more. We struggled to notice similarities at times, which stalled our progress. I think this could ensure that the activity moves along smoothly. However, I thought the lesson was extremely effective. You did a great job of checking up on the groups and making sure we were on the right track, which was extremely helpful. Overall, I thought you did a phenomenal job! I can tell that you are going to make a really great teacher :)
ReplyDeleteJessica,
ReplyDeleteThere were a handful of strong points about your lesson. First, I think the creativity and originality of it was effective. In my limited experience, when students are asked to do something they are not used to doing and something that is almost like a game, they tend to respond to it positively. I think the fact that your lesson was unusual acts in your favor because I think that it will capture future students’ attention and keep them engaged. Also, you did a wonderful job helping guide student learning. My partner and I were struggling with the activity, but the feedback you gave us helped us complete the activity. On the same token, the feedback you gave us was not so revealing that you told us the answer. Nice job!
One suggestion I have for you is making the categories you want students to sort the different pieces into more obvious. Even after we went over the answers or, possible answers, I felt like the categories you sorted the poems into were a bit ambiguous because you had different types of poems in the same categories. Perhaps making the categories more straight forward would help make the activity less confusing in the future. For example, you might have three poems that would fall into the category “Shakespearian sonnets” because they are all written in that form. Another suggestion I have for you is making sure that students have the firm background knowledge they need in order to complete the activity. To get the same categories that you had, we had to know different types of poems and poem structures. For example, we had to know what slant rhyme was. Not all students had this background knowledge and thus, the activity became difficult for them. Perhaps next time you could pass out a worksheet with descriptions of different types of poems and poem structures on it. This would provide less prepared students with a point of reference to scaffold their learning.
Overall, I enjoyed your lesson. I liked the way that you assured us there was no one right answer as well. I think it is important for students to know that. Keep up the great work. -Catherine
Hi Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI thought you did well with your lesson. I thought "How do good writers communicate effectively?" was a great challenge question to be explored. I also liked how you explained why understanding literary devices is important, both for our own writing and understanding the writing of others. The activity itself was creative and really made us think -- as Spencer said, we changed ours around several times!
The activity itself was pretty challenging, and I could tell that you noticed both groups struggling a bit. I think this could be tackled either by providing exampled that are a little more obvious (and maybe then more of them, so it still takes us time to get it figured) -- or as Catherine said, making sure that your students have established the prior knowledge needed to be able to move in the direction you want them to. But I think you did well when moving between the groups by asking guiding questions, reminding us to read things aloud, and yet taking care not to reveal anything.
I also liked how you explained that there is no wrong way to group things, because literature can be interpreted in more than one way. That is an important thing for English students to know. The sheet you handed out on Literary Devices is very informative and would be a great reference tool for your students to have. Great job!
Jamie
Hi Jessica!
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice that you seemed nervous at all. I think that you did a great job. You're right that your activity did seem pretty open ended, but I think that overall, that's what we needed in order to think critically about the pieces that you gave us.
I agree with Jamie in that I also thought that it was great that you noted that there is no "wrong" way to group things, because good literature is quite open to interpretation. I also liked how you told us to read things aloud and really listen to how things sound.
I really appreciated how you shared your own groupings after our activity was completed. I also liked how you had both groups share their thoughts. It was interesting to see how others grouped the literature in different ways.
The explore aspect was a bit frustrating just because we weren't super secure in what we were supposed to be doing. I wasn't 100% sure what you were aiming for. I agree with Jamie's suggestion of perhaps giving a painfully obvious example of what you're looking for, and then giving the students more difficult ones so that they still struggle a bit (I think a challenge is good), but they know what you expect.
All in all, I loved your topic and I liked how you let us explore it. I think you're going to be an insightful and creative teacher and that your future students are going to learn so much from you. Wonderful job. :)