self-evaulation

Self-evaluation

This lesson unit was by far the hardest thing I have ever done in college. When it was first assigned, I thought it would be a piece of cake; boy was I wrong. I worked with my partner, Joel Crow, on this, and like Sean said, it was harder than working by yourself. However, when Joel and I got on the same page, we spent seven hour days in the library working on this unit plan together.  Our strongest aspect of our lesson plan unit, in my opinion, was the activities and texts that we had planned for the three-weeks. We picked very strong, strategic texts to match the literary device we planned to teach that day. I feel the short stories and activities we picked are directly aligned with the literary device that we had planned.

The weaknesses in our unit plan would be the time constraints with other classes and teaching that we had. I feel very strongly about our lesson plan unit, but if we had more time or no other classes, we could have made the lesson plan so much more detailed. For example, I would have loved to lit all of the big literary devices, and find a way to make it work. However, we decided on four major ones that we thought were the most important.

I learned so much during this lesson unit. I learned new things to include in my lesson plans form Joel, and I learned how much research teachers have to do to successfully teach a unit. The one major thing that I am going to take into my classroom after completing this three-week unit plan is it takes a lot of time and research to successfully plan a lesson. I also learned that planning a unit plan needs to be both fun for me and my future students.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Before I had read this book, I had heard a lot about it. Teachers and students alike told me how easy the book was to connect to since the author was local. I had always wanted to read this book, and I finally got the chance. When I first opened the boo, the overwhelming feeling of this being a story about the home-town boy overcame me. However, it soon left as the story got more and more interesting. Throughout the whole book, Alexie speaks with an honesty about him based on his personal experiences. This was very refreshing, as I thought this would turn into a story of playing the victim.  I know quite a bit about the Indian reservations that Alexie talks about as I have lived on an Indian reservation  until the age of seventeen when I left my hometown to go to Eastern Washington University.As far as my life growing up was on the reservation, I can fully agree on Alexie's claims about life on the reservation.The development and the evolution of Junior's character is something that I enjoyed very much about the book. I would love to use this story in my class for that very reason. I think this text would be perfect for a senior class. I would like to read some more of Alexie's books after reading this one to find the best way to implement it into my class. However, there are some things in the book that would be inappropriate for seniors to read in this book. I do, however, feel the text as a whole has a lot bigger meaning than those two instances, so I would for sure teach this in a class of seniors. Any grade lower though, I could not see myself feeling comfortable teaching this book to.

Night by Elie Wiesel

This was a very interesting story to me. It is both depressing and somewhat beautiful in a weird way. The way the author paints the concentration camps, and life seems so bleak and utterly depressing. I could only imagine how the author's life was like after being rescued from the concentration camps. I can't imagine the flashbacks from the pure evil and torture  the author must have endured. I found it quite strange, but while I was reading this text, I sympathized and felt bad for the young boy in the movie. However, probably due to his attitude, I did not feel the same way about the adult. Of course I did feel a little bit of sympathy for the adult, but I didn't feel it as hardly as I did for the young boy in the story. However, the speech at the end saved the story as a whole and it made me see the beauty of the story as well. I liked this story so much that I would consider teaching this to a high school class. However, I can see that due to the graphic nature of the text it could be pretty hard to get it passed. I do feel that even though the text is quite graphic, this is a story that the students could actually learn from. I don't see it getting past at all for a grade lower than seniors, so if I were to teach this text, I would teach it to high school seniors.

Graphic Canon

The Graphic Cannon is amazing. I had never seen nor heard of it before this class. Since discovering the book, I have used it in my own class to help struggling readers, and it seems to help them a lot. I see the Graphic Cannon as a good thing, but there are some drawbacks. For example, The book largely is picture based. While I understand that this will help an enormous amount of students who may be intimidated by all the words on a page of a novel, it still could be confusing to students who need a balance of words and pictures. The Graphic cannon is a great teaching source. However, I do feel there should be more of a balance of text and art to make it more relate able to students. I do plan to use this in my class, however. There are students who struggle greatly with vocab words, keeping track as we read the text as a class, pronunciation of certain words, etc. So, this is a great resource. I do feel that students should, at some point, be able to understand the words in a text, given that they do not have an IEP or 504 plan, of course. I did really enjoy this text though because I didn't have to paint the picture of what was going on in the text in my head. It was literally already painted out on the page, so I really enjoyed that aspect of The Graphic Cannon. Overall, I really enjoyed this text, and I could see how it can and will be very helpful in my future classes. It is a great text, and a great teaching resource overall.

The House That Usher Built- Poe

Department of Education College of Arts, Letters and Education 312 Williamson Hall Cheney, WA   99004

TPA Lesson Plan #__1___

Course:

1. Teacher Candidate	Connor Crim	Date Taught	3/5/17
Cooperating Teacher	N/A	School/District	EWU
2. Subject	English/Literature	Field Supervisor	sean agriss
3. Lesson Title/Focus	Theme/ analysis	5. Length of Lesson	20 minutes
4. Grade Level	7th  grade English.

6. Academic & Content Standards (Common Core/National)	CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.3 Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
7. Learning Objective(s)	Given my lecture and the group discussion on Poe’s story, “The Fall of The House of Usher”, students will be able to analyze the text and determine how symbolism plays a part in discovering and discussing the overall plot of the story.
8. Academic Language demands (vocabulary, function, syntax, discourse)	Analyze Explain Discuss Discourse: Students will be discussing and explaining their analysis of the text discussed in class in pre-determined groups. They will then discuss their findings in a larger whole class discussion.

9. Assessment

Formative assessment: Students will work in groups and decide what the symbols in the story represent and how it connects to the overall theme of the story.

10. Lesson Connections

1. After my lesson, students will successfully be able to determine how symbols in the text directly affect the theme of the story, and how there are many, many different themes in the story, depending on the person’s interpretation. 2. In Sharon A. McDade’s article “Case study pedagogy to advance critical thinking” McDade talks about how important it is to teach students how to analyze text, and to understand the theme of a text to understand the text as a whole,  not only in literature but in all disciplines of study. According to McDade, being able to analyze text allows students to have a deeper and richer understanding of the text as a whole. However, she says, that there is a proper way to teach students how to analyze texts depending on what discipline we are discussing. Some classes may require a class discussion, while others may require a deep, careful reading of the text, or a mix of the two may be required. McDade, Sharon A. "Case study pedagogy to advance critical thinking." Teaching of psychology 22.1 (1995): 9-10.

11. Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks to Support Learning
Learning Tasks and Strategies 1.    Students will take their seats and wait for role to be called. 2.    Instruction will begin. Opportunities for questions to be asked will be presented frequently to the students to ensure they completely understand the instruction material (10) minutes 3.    Students will be broken into groups after the instruction period has ended to discuss their thoughts and interpretation of the story as a whole.(10 minutes). 4.    Student discussion will end, and students will to returned to their seats for a final group discussion of the story (5 minutes). 5.    Students will write a page analysis of the story (5 minutes). 6.    Class will be released and students will hand In  their papers to serve as an exit task.
Teacher’s Role: 1.    I will point out and make sure that every student knows the learning objective of the day 2.    I will begin instruction 3.    I will allow multiple opportunities for students to ask questions if and when they have any 4.    I will break students up into discussion groups after the lesson portion of class has ended. 5.    I will constantly be monitoring the students in the class to make sure that they are on task 6.    After 10 minutes, I will ask students to return to their seats. 7.    I will introduce the students to their exit tasks 8.    I will dismiss class and collect all exit slips.	Students’ Role 1.    Students will sit in their seats. 2.    Students will have their notebooks and a pencil and be ready to take notes during my instruction. 3.    During instruction, students are expected to raise their hands if they have a question. 4.    Students are expected to remain respectful and on task during their discussion with their pre-determined groups. 5.    Students will finish their exit tasks for the day. 6.    Students will pack up once the announcement is given that they may begin to pack up. 7.    Students will hand me their exit slips as they leave the classroom.
Student Voice to Gather Students will discuss their analysis of the text. They will then write a page analysis of the poem to serve as their exit task. This will be handed in to be as they leave the classroom.

12. Differentiated Instruction

Students who are visual learners, along with the rest of the class, will be presented with a text of the story, (which they should have) that we are discussing, and easy to follow rules for their exit task. Auditory learners will be able to listen to the lecture as I talk and explain the major points and take notes while doing so.

13. Resources and Materials

1.    Paper 2.    Pencil 3.    Notebooks 4.    “The Fall of The House of Usher” short story

14. Management and Safety Issues

Students will be aware by this time that during class discussions, they are required to stay on topic and remain respectful to one another. Students will be instructed and expected to move into their pre-determined groups in a respectful manner while not disturbing other groups and other students. To make sure that students move into their groups in a safe fashion, I will be observing their activity as they move into groups to ensure the safety of myself and the other students.

15. Parent & Community Connections

At the beginning of every larger unit, a permission slip/informative sheet is sent home, which tells parents and guardians what we will be learning in class. This slip is to be signed by the parents and returned to the teacher.

Poe's The Haunted Palace, The Black Cat, The Cask of Amontillado, Fall of the House of Usher, Evening Star, A Dream and A Tell Tale Heart.

The haunted palace by Poe is a great and creepy poem. The palace is first described as a happy place, almost like a king's palace. Everyone is dancing and partying. Sounds like fun, right? Well, not so fast. This is Poe. As it turns out, the place was attacked by some evil forces. I liked this part of the poem because I like creepy stories. All of the sudden, the palace turns to a real life house of horrors.I loved this poem. I remember reading it Freshmen year, but I totally forgot this poem. It was a great, creepy, and overall great poem. It is one of my favorites by Poe.

The Black Cat by Poe was another great read. The narrator kind of creeped  me out. He has a very strange love of cats and dogs.The narrator's poor wife has to deal with the narrator's weird love of animals as he introduces many of them to her. Soon, the narrator becomes a drunk, comes home, and dig one of his cat's eyes out. Eventually, the cops burst into his house and find a cat's skull. This was a weird read for me. Poor cat.

Fall of The House of Usher by Poe has to be my favorite. That is why I choose it for my mini lesson.A man named Roderick writes the narrator and tells him to come to this really creepy house. You think the house is creepy outside? Just wait until you see the inside of the house. Roderick's sister, Madeline, dies, comes back to life, attacks Roderick, and he dies of fear.The narrator is so scared that he runs out of the house. As soon as he gets outside, the house collapses. This poem is an amazing piece of literary art. It is my favorite Poe piece that I have read.

Evening Star by Poe was another amazing read. We learn quickly that it is night time. The moon is big, the stars are bright. The moon even controls him. However, we soon learn this is a woman. The narrator happens to be this woman's slave.However, he becomes happy as he gazes off into the stars, which represent the woman. So bright and beautiful  but just out of reach. The imagery in this poem is very powerful. It is a very beautiful poem from Poe. Which is weird since I am used to reading creepy stories and poems from Poe.

A Dream and a Tell Tale Heart by Poe was the last of the readings, and i'm very happy that I got a chance to read it.We don't know the narrator, but we soon learn that the narrator has killed an old man.The old man is scared of something, and he begins to cry. Before the old man can cry out, he is killed by the narrator. The police come. They fully expect to not find anything. However, they hear a sound from under the floor that the narrator hopes that no one heard.The old man demands the police rip up the floor because the old man is still alive. The old man lays out a tale of the murder. This was a very interesting read to me.The narrator gets close to the old man, but he still kills him in the end. This kind of creepy writing seems to be very prominent in most of Poe's writing. This was a very interesting read. I;m glad I got a chance to read it. It got me a lot more interested in Poe.