Lesson Plan 3, Phase II: Reflections on Implementation

Phase 2, Lesson Three (Last one!)

Reflections with Amber! 

(Thus, the blog title. Get it?)

Good afternoon blog readers! My final lesson in ETC447 has now been completed and taught to my peers in class, and despite it being twice the length of my last 2 lessons, It went perfectly and served as a great wrap-up to the session as a whole. The poetry unit I chose to pursue as a whole could not have gone any better, and I can only hope that it goes as well with real third and fourth graders someday instead of my college age peers pretending to be that age!

Now that all is said and done, for the final time, I'll look back on exactly what I've done, reflect on the entire session, and determine in the future as a real teacher what can be done as a whole to improve upon.

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

What I particuarly think went well this time was having my same students from the prior two lessons! They were engaged, remembered what we talked about before for review, and were enthusiastic to see what my last lesson had in store for them. That really encouraged me to do a great job and keep up to their expectations!

We all were friendly, and excited toward each other as we engaged in prior knowledge to draw on their background experiences with poetry opening up with their hymnals from before and the research from prior sections. 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 helped me as it had before, but really my experiences with the technology we were using helped my students to catch on very quickly too.

They were interested in what I had to say during the recap, and stayed on topic as we moved into working with technology and doing their own research to create their own poetry! They were very eager to play with youtube in order to find their own instrumental tracks to combine their poetry to convert it into musical lyrics. Then, when they got to use iMovie to record what they had created, they were at first embarrassed but very quickly grew to liking the digital artifact portion of my lesson! I'd say the only thing that really didn't go well would be the wrap up at the very end. Everything went swimmingly until it came time to save the videos and import them from iMovie to a file they could email to me. i didn't take into account how long the computer would want to take to convert it into this type of file. We ran a little bit overtime by the time we got to filling out my surveys, but it ended up working out alright, ending at 10:55.

It aligned to my objectives and standards maintained-- and I hit everything that I hoped to in this final wrap up lesson. They got a great taste of what poetry is truly like, and got to create their very own works in the final hour! 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. Thankfully, this time I stayed very close to what I'd hoped. I really think they actually learned a little bit from me, which is really exciting to think this wasn't just an assignment for class, but actually something beneficial to my peers!

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

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. This time, they also used the first Google doc to work collectively in a student work area at the tail end of the document. This is where they utilized their time for guided practice together before they were sent off on their own to work independently.

Assessment of Learning (InTask Standard # 6): 

1. 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 from 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 intended for them to in this third and final poetry lesson! We discussed extensively and I informally assessed whether or not through this they were grasping the material-- which they were! This section used more formalized assessments with utilizing my rubric, and here are key parts of what they discovered using the poem generators as guidelines to create their own, entirely original works. They used the structures from the generator but their own original ideas both as a group, and independently-- following the directions for expectations as well.

Group Collaboration Free Verse Poem

(inspired from the song "Kiss the Rain", a piano track by Yiruma)

The directions I gave my students was to listen to the provided song, and come up with about 5 words which is what it reminded them of. I guided them with some examples, such as: piano,  movies, dance, sad, night time. This is what they initially came up with!

Kiersten: :’) empowered, yoga, water, blankets, memories

Renee:  relaxation, rain, ballet, storm, calm

PAT---  princess,sleep,disney,cold,forest

We then used these words to create stanzas of poetry, and organized them into an interesting free verse piece entirely revolving around their original title "Rain." This of course got changed at the conclusion, but served as a great way to show them the process of poetry creation does not have to be linear, and can go any which way they want!

Here is their creation:

The Princess in the Rain

I find rain relaxing.

Listening to storms in the distance calms me.

It often reminds me of watching ballet dancers

dancing gracefully across the stage.

I am empowered to relax and do yoga today

There is water falling from the sky outside

A perfect day to wrap myself in blankets

and reminisce on old memories

I play the piano all the time

In the movies, I sing and I dance

Sometimes, I feel sad

But only at night time.

The princess fell into deep sleep

she didnt make a peep

The forest was cold

She grew into mold

But Disney wouldn't let her die so meek.

Next, we moved onto independent study, and here is what each student decided to work on for the remainder of their time and my lesson. Each student submitted a text copy of the poems they created along with the video evidence of their recording complete with youtube instrumental or karaoke tracks!

Artifact - Student 1 Renee 

Turtle

Hard shell like rock

Moves slow across the Earth

Eating grass at all times of day

Slowpoke

Cat

Fur black as night

Pounces on his victim

Sleeps throughout the rest of the day

Vicious

Student Renee selected to complete the Cinquain poems, meaning she must complete TWO of different subjects. She followed the directions set forth by me resulting in a good "grade" for that portion, while at the same time adhering to the structure of a cinquain and writing on her favorite subject, animals! She did a great job and followed it up with her video recording after a little practice:

Artifact - Student 2 Kiersten 

Artifact - Student 3 Pat

MOO

The little calf was cute

he couldnt moo for he was mute

he continued to grow

but grew real slow

until the day came he was turned to stew,,, oh shoot

the fire place glows

warming the midnight cool air

keeps me cozy yea

Student Pat selected to complete a Limerick poem and a haiku poem. Although he changed up my pre-determined requirements, he still followed the directions set forth by me resulting in a good "grade" for that portion, while at the same time adhering to the structures of the poems he chose. He also did a great job and followed it up with a rather silly video recording.

In conclusion, I believe that I had a very high level of success throughout not just this lesson, but the whole unit! 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! I'm thankful that the feedback reflected what I did in the first as well as second lesson and now third that the responses were good.  It's been such a blast getting a true taste fo teaching before it's time for the real deal!

Thanks for reading all this time, there will maybe be one more post before we're over and done with for the semester! But you all have been great, and this has been...
Reflections with Amber! 

(over and out!)

Lesson Plan 3, Phase 1: Write Up/Time and Action

Lesson Plan - Blog Phase 3

I. RATIONALE:

Conjuring the Spirit: Victorian Poetry, Culture, and Technology

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/vp/summary/v041/41.4linley.html

II. OVERVIEW

Grade Level: 3rd Grade

Subject(s): Writing/English

Topic of Study: Poetry Unit

Time Allotment: Wrap up/ Guided Practice/ Independent Practice, 60 Minutes

Standards: Writing standards Strand 3: Writing Applications.  

Concept 5: Literary Response

Literary response is the writer’s reaction to a literary selection. The response includes the writer’s interpretation, analysis, opinion, and/or feelings about the piece of literature and selected elements within it.

PO 1. Write a reflection to a literature selection (e.g., journal entry, book review)

PO 3. Write a response to a literature selection that connects:

1. Text to self (personal connection)
2. Text to World (social connection)
3. Text to Text (compare within multiple texts)

Objectives:

• Students will review all types of poetry, and determine which that they like the best and use the templates from generators to create their own as a group, then multiple independently.
• Student will acknowledge the importance of music in the creative process and how it makes you feel certain things and sets mood and tone of the piece.
• Students will share their work and recieve feedback from their peers as to how they are similar or different from the poems we read together and explored before.
• Students will learn how to use iMovie and Youtube both together to accompany and enhance their poetry which they wrote.

Reflection: Assessing Prior Knowledge and Planning Instruction Students, prior to this lesson, just like before, will need to know how to read, and hold conversation with the teacher. It helps if they have experience in listening and speaking english, and have heard poetry or rhyming words before. Prior knowledge and experience be assessed verbally through reflecting on what happened during the last lesson. Students will HAVE to have participated in my first introductory lesson in order to follow along with and understand the final lesson where they create poetry all on their own. I will use this information in the planning process to help me determine the level that my students are at, and adjust how the final part/lesson of this three part unit will go. This will allow me to see what students will need more work on, paired with the data I receive from the closing activity. The content should be taught at this grade level because along with it being a specific standard, the students at age 8 and 9 will be old enough to grasp the abstract concepts that poetry embodies, and allows them to be creative in their own way and make their own piece. The objectives that I have for the lesson DO align with the standards because poetry is a direct standard for third graders in creative writing, along with other things! The lesson be taught in the course of the school year near the beginning, towards mid semester. This is because poetry is a big concept that can be learned at the start of the school year, and carry them through the rest of it-- while implementing other creative writing tools along the way, so by the end they will have a collection of their multiple types of works combining with technology, other forms of creative writing, and other positive skills which can build off of.

III. IMPLEMENTATION

Procedure:

• (See Assessment breakdown for more detailed procedure)
• Open up with activating prior knowledge and talking about what they remember about types of poetry from before. Do you remember what the first type of poetry is? Hint it had to do with religion! Hymnals! Do you recall what you did last time?

-Have students open links found on the blog (posted as photos from the second generator) leading them to their past work and MY past work. Read these aloud again, practicing the techniques they learned last time. Pace themselves, take deep breath before, and think about which words need emphasis.

• Look at first poem generator’s concrete/abstract nouns, etc. structure, then the second photos of their group work before. *PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO KEEP THIS TAB OPEN SO THEY CAN CROSS-REFERENCE THE STRUCTURE OF THE POEMS FOR WHEN THEY WRITE THEIR OWN. THEY FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE LEFT SIDE EXACTLY.

• “Today, as our final day, we are going to start creating our own poetry from scratch, instead of just reading other people’s poetry or using a generator!”
• Modeling: Re-read them a poem that I wrote myself in high school-- to show them how to properly pace themselves and let them pick up on the rhyming pattern.

(Teacher will turn on youtube inspiration music at this point!)* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR7KErA5bqY

• Work on Collaborative poem FIRST before released on their own. All will open the google doc and type out 3 ideas for the subject of the poem, as a group they decide which to choose as their topic. Use the music playing as inspiration*Doing a rhyming free verse together, 2 or 3 stanzas so they get the idea.*

• Encourage them as they are going to do the same thing this time! Read over inspiration article link to get their brains flowing and help them get creative and figure out topics.
• Decide which approach they are going to take to the digital artifact, read them off the choices and clarify what is expected with each. (Following directions for structure)

• *Once we get to the recording portion* RE-TIE IN FROM THE FIRST DAY WITH HYMNALS AND LYRICS, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC, HAVE THEM LEARN TO USE IMOVIE AND PICK AN INSTRUMENTAL TRACK OF THEIR CHOICE, (PLAY FROM YOUTUBE IN BACKGROUND) AND HAVE IT AS THEIR FINAL PROJECT. ADD ANY EFFECTS THEY WANT TO GET THEM FAMILIAR WITH USING IT AS A PROGRAM.

“The reason I played you music when we worked together was to inspire you in a certain way, now it’s your turn!”

-After all is submitted and evaluation completed, thank them for their participation and wrap-up with how I hope they learned to love poetry as much as I do.

Technology Integration: (described throughout this lesson write-up, mostly iMovie and Youtube instrumental track researching)

Differentiated Instruction:

• Gifted- Allow students on top of what’s given to perform their own independent study and put together a “poetry journal”, a collection with table of contents with their favorite types of the poetry we covered, and then some! Allow them to share with teacher and class their findings. Additionally, for the independent writing, students can choose to create ALL forms of poetry or do more if they so choose.

• ELL - Simplify the types of poetry used to avoid confusion with big words. Keep level of poem close to grade level and avoid complicated patterns such as olde English, anything Shakespeare, etc. Possibly have them write an equivalent poem in English, then their native language to help them with their translation.

• Cognitive delay- Students will be able to work in pairs discussing the types of poetry. Will break into think-pair-share groups with the person next to them and walk each other through their thought process. Student may choose to complete haiku as this is the easier form of some poetry or a free verse-- but still allowing them choice as long as they complete the equivalent amount of work as their peers.

Reflection: Designing Instruction (InTask Standards 7 and 8): Why are you using the instructional methods you have described? I'm using these particular instructional methods to help students be more hands on with poetry than in my prior lessons. While the first time around was an introduction and students only got a brief taste of the structural layout of what makes different types of poetry work, the second time they explored on their own with my guidance, now they get to start from scratch and build a poem all on their own! This is my attempt at scaffolding, in hopes that by the ending one hour lesson, they will be able to travel off on their own and produce their own poetry from scratch. But this middle lesson in the three lesson poetry unit I've designed offers them a way to create their own with generators and integrate different types of technology to help them become more independent and emerge with their very own, original work of poetry. How do the instructional methods align with what you know about best practices (think about your methods classes)? As I mentioned before, what I'm practicing directly here is scaffolding and guided practice for my students. This follows just about every successful format for lesson plan writing that I've talked about in my methods classes so far and allows me as the teacher to get a grasp of where my student are with the material before I allow them to branch off entirely on their own. I start off providing a lot of support, then slowly back away allowing them to take control themselves-- scaffolding! How are you engaging students in creative and higher order thinking? I've engaged my students in creative/higher order thinking by not only asking their opinions about the poetry pieces that were read (my poem) but WHY they think it made them feel the way that it did. My words, and the words of other poems, have made them feel emotions, but why do they think that is? This gets them engaged in thinking about the emotion and purpose behind what is being written, which will hopefully then reflect into their own writing! Every word should have a purpose. Now they are using even higher order thinking by taking mood into account and tone, to select youtube instrumental videos which they feel accurately reflect it.

IV. ASSESSMENT

• Brief Overview: USE I MOVIE TO FILM THEM READING THEIR CREATED POEMS ALOUD.

GOOGLE DOCS ALLOW STUDENTS TO COLLABORATE ON FIRST MINI-POEM TOGETHER, THEN USING WHAT THEY’VE LEARNED, THEY TYPE OUT AND CREATE THEIR OWN AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS DOCUMENT (CAN USE THE IDEA ENGINE FOR INSPIRATION) BUT THEN WRITE THEIR OWN INDEPENDENTLY. THEY PICK A TOPIC THEY’RE INTERESTED IN, GIVE THEM IDEAS, NO LIMITS-- THEN ONCE DONE WILL RECORD THEMSELVES READING IT ALOUD WITH MUSIC THEY SELECT.

(THIS IS THEIR ARTIFACT.)

Procedure:

• As the instructor, for the final portion of this poetry unit and lesson, we will verbally review the different types of poetry, and If the students do a satisfactory job of re-activating their prior knowledge from other weeks and remembering what the terminology is we will move onto having them create their own.

• for guided practice, students will work on one FREE VERSE poem together at the bottom of this document

• The students will complete their required independent poetry writing under my guidance and help for approx. 30-40 minutes.

• Upon completion of their poems, students will utilize iMovie and youtube movie instrumental tracks to accompany what they think works best for their types of poetry. Give them a few examples of movies that would work well, or orchestra music. *Practice key searching to find exactly what you need!*
• “Be sure to ask yourself before you decide which track, does this track fit my mood of my poems? How does it make me feel?”

• Have students rehearse to themselves first, one or two times, before recording it to submit for final credit.

• Instructor must be sure to save 5 minutes at the conclusion for students to fill out the final online evaluation form.

Instruments:

Rubric for this final section, writing poetry themselves: http://csrms.pasco.k12.fl.us/wp-content/uploads/csrms/2013/04/Poetry-Rubric.png

-iMovie program installed in Mac Computers. Will save to desktop to email submit to me as their digital artifacts along with their text form of their poems.

• Students will be graded based on their effort, fulfilling all length requirements (stated below) and following the structural format of the poetry engine.

Student Independent Practice Options

The requirements (due to length) are as follows:

• If Student Selects Haiku: Must complete THREE of different subjects
• If Student Selects Cinquain: Must complete TWO of different Subjects
• If Student selects Limerick: Must complete TWO of different subjects
• If Student selects Free Verse: Must complete ONE comprising of at least 4 stanzas, 4 lines a piece in whatever rhyming pattern they want.
• Student may select to do TWO DIFFERENT TYPES of their own choice equating to the same amount of work.

Reflection: Planning Assessment (InTask Standard # 6): How does the assessment align with the standards and objectives of this lesson? How does the assessment demonstrate that the students have been successful in learning the content? How does the assessment demonstrate student engagement in higher order thinking? How does the assessment demonstrate that individual student needs were met?

IIV. MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

This diagram will prove useful when breaking down the structure of poetry and determining the difference between these and narrative pieces which we are all familiar with.

• Poetry Inspiration (To be read aloud before they are released to begin to write)

http://writersrelief.com/blog/2008/03/poetry-finding-your-inspiration/

• www.youtube.com
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR7KErA5bqY (River Flows in You  for Guided Practice)
• iMovie
• http://reflectionswithamber.blogspot.com (for poem structures breakdown. See left hand sides of photos or feel free to visit the website again at: Poem Generator 2: (http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/poetry_engine.htm#)

Reflection: How does your lesson meet each of the ISTE NETs Standards? How does your lesson meet Standard 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity ? How does your lesson meet Standard 2: Provide Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments? How does your lesson meet Standard 3: Model Digital-Age Work & Learning? How does your lesson Meet all four elements of Standard 4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility by: advocating, modeling, and teaching safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.

Student Collaborative Work Area