Lesson Plan 1, Phase II: Reflections on Implementation

Phase 2, Lesson One

Reflections with Amber! 

(Thus, the blog title. Get it?)

Good afternoon blog readers! My first lesson in ETC447 has been completed and taught to my peers in class, and everything went pretty swimmingly! They loved the beginnings of my three part poetry unit, (see prior post for lesson plan/write-up if you're confused as to what i'm talking about) and participated and listened very well pretending to be my third and fourth graders.

Now that the hard stuff is out of the way, it's time to look back on what i've done, and see what I can improve on for my second lesson and beyond. What happened, what went well, what didn't? Let's find out!

Instructional Decisions/Teaching (InTask Standard # 9): Discuss the implementation process and describe:

• What went well and what didn't go well during the implementation of your lesson?
• How well was the alignment to objectives and standards maintained?
• Describe any modifications made during the implementation of the lesson

My poetry lesson was very discussion based, with a lot of personal research time and talking as a group about what makes poetry what it is. I started off the lesson addressing the class and greeting them as their teacher, and telling them that (although we're all over 20 years old)  they were to pretend they were 8 and 9 for the next 30 minutes. We were friendly, and excited toward each other as we engaged in prior knowledge to draw on their background experiences with poetry, What particularly went well was my prior knowledge of the subject and personal experience with poetry that I could draw from and use in my discussion of the breakdown of the rhyming structure and different types of poetry. Having been an avid writer my whole life, I could draw from personal experiences to help me better explain poetry to my students, and to get them engaged with it as well. 

They were very interested in what I had to say, stayed on topic, and were eager to do their own research on hymnals (the earliest form of poetry.) What I also feel went well was my quick thinking when a student asked me if this was meant to be religious-- and i explained that while the poetry we were looking at was based on religion, that's what the people of the past thought and the reason they created poetry, mainly to tell stories and to worship Gods and deities. This was good to address from the beginning, to be sure my students did not think that I was trying to sway their religion, or lack thereof, one way or another. Religious matter in classrooms is always a touchy subject, but I feel that the way I described my justification behind it was very professional and well saved! I'd say the only thing that really didn't go well was that I had too much planned and wasn't able to get through everything I needed (which could be considered more of a good thing than bad!) I'll just roll over what was left over into the next lesson-- since poetry will consummate all of the sections of this three part teaching assignment in class.

It aligned to my objectives and standards maintained-- and I at least touched on everything that I hoped to in this first lesson even if I was not able to elaborate as much as I'd hoped and had to rush a bit at the end to fit everything in. Being a chatterbox like myself, it's easy to get excited whens students are engaged with what you're talking about and lose track of your time limit. I did not remember that I had to save time at the very end of the lesson to accommodate for the time they would need to fill out my teaching survey-- so I would need to remember for next time to save at least 3 minutes at the end for this purpose. During the implementation of the lesson itself, I would say this is the only real modification I had to make, was for time purposes.

Mechanics:

• What technologies did I use (for the teacher and the learner)?
• How were the technologies used (by whom and in what manner)?
• My lesson was within the correct time frame
• It was short because…
• It was too long because…
• The lesson was within the correct time frame because…

The technologies that I used as the teacher included keeping a running document on Google docs of my lesson that I could refer to as I implemented each step and moved forward with my activities. By having it in plain sight, broken down with the approximate time I should spend on each area of the lesson, it really kept me on track and proved to be my most beneficial tool. Additionally, the students were able to access a separate google document, which I emailed to them including the necessary links to each poem and activity we were going to do together. This way, as I directed, they could simply click along the links in order to pull up what we were on. Each student had their own mac computer, and followed along exactly as planned, and participated in the activities I had, including their own research. I walked around to assist them and provide commentary on what they were discovering.

My lesson was for the most part within the correct time frame, the only thing was that I had too much planned, as I stated before. However, this is not a real problem because it will roll over into the second part of my lesson! Looking forward to seeing where it goes and utilizing the other helpful online tools which will help my students learn even more about poetry and even make their own!

There's Pat, working so hard!

Assessment of Learning (InTask Standard # 6): Refer to Assessing Student Learning

• Include at least 2 digital artifacts that demonstrate what you or your students (peers) have created as a result of your lesson
• Describe your students' level of success in achieving the standards and objectives for your lesson based on your assessment
• Describe the level of success you had in teaching the lesson
• How do your individual reflections support this?
• How do the comments from your classmates support this?

Below I have attached screenshots of the results of my lesson found by my students. These "digital artifacts" serve as the proof of what my students worked on throughout the course of the lesson, and they absolutely achieved what I inteded for them to in this first lesson! We discussed extensively and I informally assessed whether or not through this they were grasping the material-- which they were! More formalized assessments will come utilizing my rubrics, but for now, here are key parts of our discussion with the hymnal pages they came up with from their own research.

Artifact - Student 1 Renee (http://www.songandpraise.org/here-comes-the-bride-wedding-march.htm)

“I think the parody of this is poem/hymn is funny, that’s my favorite part. I enjoyed seeing the difference in rhyming words between a silly parody of the wedding march and the original extended version that’s been passed down for generations." -Renee

This response from Renee was very helpful for me as her teacher to see what she learned from this lesson and serve in tandem to her artifact. She noted that although the poems were different, the structures and rhyming pattern were the same-- solidifying that she grasped the content.

Artifact - Student 2 Kiersten (http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/n/n143.html)

"I like this one, it's peaceful sounding and it can be sung as a song or read like a poem!" Kiersten connected that poems and lyrics are essentially synonymous and most poetry can be sung in accompaniment to music, just like the practice of people in ancient times-- showing she connected my anticipatory set of the lesson into her discussion and was engaged in the material.

Artifact - Student 3 Pat (http://www.allmusic.com/album/cool-hymns-for-kids-mw0001024934)

"Mine's a biblical song, and every ending word rhymes with the second phrase after that.  It alternates between the two." Pat really picked up on the rhyming pattern of this song he found "Amazing Grace", and is showing more advanced knowledge of poetry structure which will be touched on and taught in the next lesson. Pat expressed what he knew clearly through this, providing me with proof that he understood the content I taught, and he chose a different medium than the others and took initiative!

In conclusion, I believe that I had a very high level of success in this lesson! According to the feedback forms that my students filled out on google forms at the conclusion of the lesson, I was presented with glowing reviews, reflecting on how my enthusiasm was contagious and they could tell I really loved what I was teaching-- and I agree with them!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my future lessons and
Reflections with Amber! 
(shameless name plug.)