2013-2014
Domain One Reflection: Planning and Preparation
I begin the process of planning and preparing material for September as soon as the curriculum is established for the year. First, I familiarize myself with the essential question and main text for each unit on the curriculum map. Once I have obtained the reading material that I will be covering with my students over the course of the year, I begin reading each of the required texts and put what I teach into practice by annotating as I read. While practicing close reading strategies, I focus on key teaching points that I aim to cover with my students. I also highlight any unfamiliar concepts, terms, or higher-level vocabulary that I feel my students may struggle with, and look for ways that I can incorporate them into class discussion. In doing this, I am prepared to guide student understanding in a more focused way. I begin to formulate ideas about questions that I want to focus on, writing prompts that will benefit overall student understanding of the unit, all the while building on writing skills, and discussion topics that relate to the material.
Once I have taken time to dissect the text, I begin to outline the unit that I am working on. I sit with a calendar and mark out the days that classes will be held and cross out days that school will not be in session. By doing this, I am able to formulate an accurate time frame for where lessons will fall throughout the unit. In preparing each unit, I spend hours researching the text and searching for ideas that will aid in engaging students in the material. I research the setting and time period for each text in order give students insight to understanding the context of the text. I also seek out ways to incorporate technology into my lessons as often as possible. Utilizing resources such as educational video clips, music lyrics, or outside websites for example, helps to build the students’ interest in topics, and encourage them to make outside connections with what is going on inside the classroom. I also search for reading materials to incorporate into the unit as another way to connect the world students live in with what we are studying in class.
After gathering some of this material, I begin planning individual lessons. I plan each lesson with a set of instructional outcomes in mind and prepare materials based on the lesson objective for the day. I plan each lesson to the minute to optimize learning time. I set allotted time for each aspect of the lesson including the Do Now, addressing the aim for the lesson, a group or partner work activity, and closure. I always plan lessons that are student centered in order to encourage students to work collaboratively with one another. This philosophy is rooted in the hope that students will become skilled at not only building positive working relationships with their peers, but that they will build confidence and become active members of society. Some of the other skills that I aim to facilitate students in developing are timing skills and how to be constructive self-motivators.
In order to assess student understanding I incorporate class discussions, reflective Do Now writing prompts, daily lesson closure, formative assessments such as quizzes, unit tests, writing samples, and summative assessments that include, a project, a summative essay, and a summative exam.
Once I have taken time to dissect the text, I begin to outline the unit that I am working on. I sit with a calendar and mark out the days that classes will be held and cross out days that school will not be in session. By doing this, I am able to formulate an accurate time frame for where lessons will fall throughout the unit. In preparing each unit, I spend hours researching the text and searching for ideas that will aid in engaging students in the material. I research the setting and time period for each text in order give students insight to understanding the context of the text. I also seek out ways to incorporate technology into my lessons as often as possible. Utilizing resources such as educational video clips, music lyrics, or outside websites for example, helps to build the students’ interest in topics, and encourage them to make outside connections with what is going on inside the classroom. I also search for reading materials to incorporate into the unit as another way to connect the world students live in with what we are studying in class.
After gathering some of this material, I begin planning individual lessons. I plan each lesson with a set of instructional outcomes in mind and prepare materials based on the lesson objective for the day. I plan each lesson to the minute to optimize learning time. I set allotted time for each aspect of the lesson including the Do Now, addressing the aim for the lesson, a group or partner work activity, and closure. I always plan lessons that are student centered in order to encourage students to work collaboratively with one another. This philosophy is rooted in the hope that students will become skilled at not only building positive working relationships with their peers, but that they will build confidence and become active members of society. Some of the other skills that I aim to facilitate students in developing are timing skills and how to be constructive self-motivators.
In order to assess student understanding I incorporate class discussions, reflective Do Now writing prompts, daily lesson closure, formative assessments such as quizzes, unit tests, writing samples, and summative assessments that include, a project, a summative essay, and a summative exam.
Domain One Artifacts
I have attached some of the introductory material that I used to teach William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Since the students were not familiar with the language of Shakespeare, we spent some time analyzing his use of words, as well as how to read and interpret Shakepearean Sonnets. Once the students understood sonnet form, we move into the text and students were then asked to analyze the Prologue, which is also written in sonnet form. I also included a formative assessment I gave to students, which requires them to compare two of Shakespeare's sonnets that we studied and discussed in class.
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