The competent teacher differentiates instruction by using a variety of strategies that support critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, and continuous growth and learning. This teacher understands that the classroom is a dynamic environment requiring ongoing modification of instruction to enhance learning for each student.
JFGLessonPlanCaesarAllegiance.pdfJFGLessonPlanEPL.pdfThis lesson plan was written for my Edu 454: Student Teaching Seminar: Contemporary Issues course at Trinity. This lesson plan was written and taught by me at Thornwood High School. During this lesson, we had a brief in-class discussion where I asked students on their opinions of the characters we had met up to the point where we were in the reading so far by providing several potential questions that students could consider as they told the rest of the class their opinions. Afterwards students had an activity where they categorized the 17 characters we met so far into one of two categories and they had to provide a piece of textual evidence and explain their reasoning behind their placement of each character into the category they chose.
This lesson plan shows that I can "monitor and adjust strategies in response to feedback from students" (5J). It also shows that I can "engage students in active learning opportunities that promote the development of critical and creative thinking" (5I). This lesson plan shows proof of this through my written reflection on how I would adjust the activity going forward if I were to have other students do this activity in a future class and I would adjust the way that students would perform the activity (since some socializing did occur, if I were to make the character list smaller I could change the activity from being a partner assignment to an individual one. The activity itself also proves that I can create an activity that promotes student critical thinking skills by having them provide evidence and explanations for their answers/choices made during the assignment.
By creating, teaching, and reflecting on this lesson I learned how to create an assignment that promoted the development and use of critical thinking skills by my students. During the teaching/lecture portion of the lesson I also learned how to ask questions that promoted critical thinking by engaging students in discussion about their thoughts on the characters in the reading. The questions asked of the students were questions that did not have a simple yes/no answer, but required them to explain their reasoning for their answers; I often asked follow-up questions after students gave an initial response in order to have them critically think about their answer and provide further explanations and make predictions about the character they spoke about.
This lesson plan was written for my Edu 454: Student Teaching Seminar: Contemporary Issues course at Trinity. This lesson plan was written and taught by me at Thornwood High School. During this lesson, we read together as a whole class a scene of the play Julius Caesar, had a lesson over Ethos/Pathos/Logos, and had an activity where students reread a portion of the text and identified all instances of Ethos/Pathos/Logos in addition to a pair and share where students discussed their thoughts on the Ethos/Pathos/Logos occurrences in the activity.
This lesson plan shows that I can "monitor and adjust strategies in response to feedback from students" (5J), "develop a variety of clear, accurate presentations and representations of concepts" (5L), and that I can "use technology to accomplish differentiated instructional objectives that enhance learning for each student" (5N). This lesson plan shows proof of this through my written reflection on how I will adjust the lesson and my own strategies going forward based on the feedback received from students during this lesson, and in the lesson itself I incorporated technology to not only teach the lesson and present concepts but also used technology for assessment/activities for the students own hands-on work with the concept taught in the lesson and the text read during this lesson.
By creating, teaching, and reflecting on this lesson I learned how to create and present material digitally through the use of a Google Slide presentation to assist with the lecture that was given as I explained the concept and had students answer questions verbally during a review of previous material covered in another lesson. In the reflection I identified a potential issue that occured with the plan itself (the due date/time allowed for students to work on the assignment) and I discussed a potential remedy for this issue moving forward.