MINI LESSON: REFLECTIVE ESSAY

"THE RAVEN"

PARODY AND VOCABULARY

 

What was successful about the lesson and teaching?

• use of differentiated instruction
• the video parody/ visual
• divided up the vocabulary words, less overwhelming
• room circulation during lesson
• double/triple check for understanding (objectives)
• provided word and stanza location within text
• communicated purpose of lesson
• anticipation of text

During the lesson I felt like I combined and merged the video, the vocabulary, and touched on popular culture in an organized and interesting way. I didn’t to leave the lesson at a low depth of knowledge level or at a single DOK level which was why I tried to combine the vocabulary (DOK 1-2) with the writing assignment and questions to consider assignment (DOK 3+). Using the video to start was a simple and engaging activity. The video occupied the student’s visual and auditory skills. They applied what they heard and saw by connecting it with what they had read (The Raven). The students then analyzed the use of vocabulary and engaged themselves with the text even more to help comprehend what Poe was saying. Everything we did was connected or was purposed to aid another activity or task involving the text.

Whenever I teacher I try to explain to the students the purpose beyond the lesson’s objectives. Why the lesson is necessary for things outside of the day’s tasks. With this lesson I tried to explain to students the importance of knowing the vocabulary used within the text is crucial to fully understanding the parody when it was watched. The students also were able to see how change has occurred linguistically within our syntax as humans between 1844 and now. I always wanted to know why we had to do lessons and demonstrate mastery of concepts when I was in school and was rarely provided with meaningful answers. Because of this, I always try and explain why we are doing what we are doing and why it is important to know and understand the concepts we are learning.

I thought that the general IDEA for the lesson was really successful. I am looking forward to being able to use this actual lesson and see how it works with a longer time frame. I think that the sequence of engagement or activities worked well to draw students in and then apply and connect tasks and topics with something, well, “more fun” like watching The Simpsons. I can usually find a visual video aid to pair with different materials or texts and therefore could just replace like-for-like if I need or want to use this same general format but applying it to a different piece of literature.

What would I do differently next time?

The mini-lesson and formatted plan that I had set up would have really worked well with more time. If I ever am to teach this lesson with a 20 minutes time allotment, there are several things that I would alter. The first would be to slim down the amount of vocabulary words I gave the students. Having 45 words to define given the time limit was really a terrible idea. I should have shorted it all up so that each group of students only had at maximum 2 or 3 words, if that. This would have given us more time as a class to discuss the words and allow students to fill in their vocabulary sheet more completely to help demonstrate the process of the lesson.

I would also change the way I communicated the lesson objectives to the students. On my TPA the objectives are lengthy and in the given, will, by format which, I have found can be confusing to everyone involved in reading the objectives, including myself. I would have liked to condense them into smaller I CAN statements and had them written on the board in place of the TPA objectives.

I also would liked to have been able to separate and move the students around more than they already were. This would have made it easier to separate the students into groups of 2 and cover more vocabulary words in less time.

I also noticed that I had written side notes on my TPA copy that suggested more direction and guidance through the lesson and when I felt crunched for time, those supplemental directions and reminders kind of went out the door. For example, I had written down to ask students to take notes while they watched the video for the sole purpose of listening and writing down words that they were unfamiliar with. I think this is a very important part of the lesson and necessary for keeping students attention on the film. I simply overlooked and forgot about it because I was rushing myself.

My biggest criticism of myself for this lesson was my management of time. I am so stuck in the habit of teaching 55 minutes versus 20 minutes that I placed myself to that format. Clearly this did not play out in my favor. I can see ways that I could have made this lesson work with the time constraints though. The adjustments really seem minor and easy to make.

Issues brought up during the feedback session?

• time management
• objective length of objective #2
• resource availability (dictionary/computer)
• shorten video
• explain material uses (high-lighter)

These were all issues brought up during the feedback session. I agree with the majority if not all of the feedback I received. Much of what was brought to my attention had to do with the time limit and lack of resources available at the time. With reference to the material use--- this comment is in direct relation to the issue I mentioned above about leaving out important instruction to engage students in during the video and throughout the class itself.

I had instructed the students to take a out a highlighter but never managed to tell them why or for what they needed the highlighter.

The length of the objectives in any lesson or TPA is something I continue to struggle with. It is being drilled into our heads that we need to have thorough and complete objectives with as much detail as we can seem to include. This being the case, objectives tend to be very long and detailed. I could have and should have prepared a shortened version of the objectives for the class that restated the TPA objectives in a simplified form.