ENGLISH 482
SEMINAR IN TEACHING ENGLISH I
FALL 2004
Dr. Fleda Brown
TR
Office: 314
Memorial 831-6749
Office hours: TR
fleda@udel.edu, www.english.udel.edu/brown/
Required Texts
Atwell, Nancie. In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing,
Reading, and Learning, 2nd edition (Boynton/Cook, 1998).
Milner and Milner. Bridging English, 3rd edition (Merrill,
Prentince Hall, 2003). This is the same book used in ENGL 483.
Wormser and Cappella. A Surge of Language: Teaching Poetry Day by Day, Heinemann, 2004).
Delaware English Language Arts Content Standards
http://www.doe.state.de.us/Standards/English/ELA_toc.html;
print the following
sections: Definition; Standards One through Four, Grades 6-8 and 9-10.
Delaware Professional Teaching Standards
http://www.doe.state.de.us/DPIServices/teacher.htm#standards;
print entire document
Delaware Student Testing Program, http://www.doe.state.de.us/AAB/DSTP_intro.html
http://www.doe.state.de.us/AAB/writing_report2003.pdf
“The Five-Paragraph Essay,” http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/1437/
“Outline of the Five Paragraph Essay,” http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/English/essay/
”The Writing Process,” http://www.csuohio.edu/writingcenter/writproc.html
“Writing a Research Paper,”
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/index.html
”Favorite Poem Project,” http://www.favoritepoem.org/
“Poetry 180,” http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/
Technology
Announcements and some student work will routinely be circulated on e-mail to
the UD class list. Please don’t ask to have your messages sent out
separately to a different account; check whatever account you gave the UD as
your e-mail contact. If that’s out of date, change it with UD technical
services so that it will be correct on the class list. Students will also
be asked to do research for the class on the Internet.
This syllabus is available on my home page (www.english.udel.edu/brown/),
which also includes links to English Education program information.
Grading
At the end of the semester, you will submit a final project demonstrating your
ability to pull all the course topics together into a coherent, useable set of
instructional materials keyed to the Delaware English Language Arts
Standards. This final project will count as 35% of your course
grade. The only possible grades for the final project are A, B, and “Do
it again.” A grade of B indicates that the material is good enough to be
used in a real-life secondary-school classroom, and you must display at least
this level of competency in order to complete the course successfully.
Throughout the semester, you will complete written assignments demonstrating
your ability to reflect on and make use of the material. Some of this
written work will be revised in a variety of small-group activities, and
all of it will be handed in for my preliminary comments. You will then revise
again before submitting it in a class portfolio, which will count as 65% of the
final grade. Instead of a final examination, the class portfolio also includes
a reflective essay showing specifically how you envision using the work from
this course in real-life teaching. (It would be a good idea to look at
the instructions for the class portfolio, which appear later in this syllabus,
before starting the first assignment. That would give you the option of
making notes for your reflective essay as you go along throughout the semester,
rather than leaving the whole thing until the end.) The only possible
grades for the class portfolio are A, B, or “Do it again.” A grade of B
indicates that the material is good enough to be used in a real-life
secondary-school classroom. You must display at least this level of competency
in order to complete the course successfully.
All out-of-class work must be typed. Since each written assignment will
be used as the basis for small-group activities in the class period in which it
is due, it is important to have the work completed on time. The grade or
score on the paper will be lowered for assignments handed in late unless you’ve
made prior arrangements with me. Grade will be lowered for mechanical errors,
such as spelling, punctuation, and so forth. In the unlikely event that a
student plagiarizes or hands in someone else’s work, the student will fail the
course and thus be disqualified from student teaching in the spring.
Attendance Policy
ENGL 482 is a seminar. Much of the learning takes place during class
conversation. You are required to attend every class. The only excused absences
are for serious illness or a death in the family. Except for dire
emergencies, absences will be excused only
if you call ahead of time. If you miss more than one class for any
reason, you must provide documentation for all absences after the first.
If you repeatedly arrive late or leave early, you will receive a warning and
then will lose points if the behavior continues. Please note that
repeated late arrivals, early departures, or non-appearances in student
teaching or in a teaching job are grounds for dismissal, so this attendance
policy is consistent with the course’s goal of developing the professional
attitudes and habits necessary for teaching.
Course Overview
This is the companion course to E483. The courses are intended to overlap in every way. In this segment, you will focus more particularly on teaching writing, but you will also study teaching poetry as literature (as well as poetry writing). The reason for the emphasis on this subject is that over the years, many English teachers have reported to us that their training is weakest in this area. In order to be a good teacher of poetry, one must “know” poetry better than the average English major—hence, in this course, you will consider the subject of poetry as well as the skills of teaching it. Further, the skills you gain in understanding and teaching poetry (both as writing and as literature) are most basic, having to do with core issues of how the language works, and will transfer readily to all other areas of teaching literature and writing. And most interestingly, poetry—with its musical nature—has been shown to be one of the best tools for reaching a culturally diverse student population.
You will learn in this course how to help students want to write (“creative” and non-“creative” writing), how to get them ready to write, how to help them to discover they have something to say, how to help them learn to revise, and how to evaluate their writing. You will read the latest experiential and “laboratory” research on teaching writing—including research on how best to teach mechanical “conventions” (grammar, usage). You will study the Delaware Content Standards to see how you may be expected to help your students advance their skill levels. You will write and revise lesson plans, keying your work to State Content Standards. And you will prepare and present short lessons to the class, to practice both planning and oral presentation skills.
Conceptual Framework: The goals of this course are to help you develop habits of strong intellectual attention to your subject, of reflecting on your pedagogical practices, of keeping up with current research to help you decide what will work best for you—indeed, to use all resources available—including a strong professional link with the community and with your peers—to help you solve problems.
Objectives
* Students will develop instructional materials using a variety of
research-based approaches. Emphasis will be placed on teaching
secondary-school students who come from varied backgrounds, live in a
pluralistic culture, and exhibit different learning styles.
* Students will plan instruction keyed to the Delaware State Content
Standards and the Delaware Professional Teaching Standards, including the
following elements: long-term goals and specific behavioral objectives
designed for diverse learners; motivational activities aimed at stimulating
pupil interest and emphasizing the relevance of the lesson to the pupils’ own
lives; varied instructional strategies focusing on student-centered approaches
to whole-class, small-group, and individual learning; skills-based as well as
content-based learning; the use of technology, non-print media, and community resources;
and multiple types of assessments. Students will also explain how the
motivational activities, instructional strategies, pupil assignments, and
assessments in each of their lesson plans relate to each other and accomplish
the objectives of the lesson.
* Students will develop instructional plans that will help
secondary-school students to apply their real-life experiences to written
composition; develop listening skills; speak and write for a variety of
audiences and purposes; use the writing process, including prewriting, writing,
revising, editing and evaluating; participate in cooperative and collaborative
learning environments; experience a variety of individual, small-group,
and whole-class approaches to instruction geared toward diverse cultures and
learning styles; apply knowledge of grammar and usage to written composition;
and write accurately, colorfully, and expressively in response to DSTP-style
prompts.
* Working individually and in groups, students will develop plans for
using a variety of descriptive, diagnostic, formative, and summative evaluation
strategies, such as portfolios, contracts, self-evaluation, AV presentations,
observations, and tests. Students will also develop appropriate
evaluation instruments and evaluate the effectiveness of particular assessment
strategies in different kinds of situations and with diverse learners. On
lesson plans written after discussing this material, students will state
explicitly how their proposed assessment procedures relate to the lesson’s
objectives, motivational activities, class activities, assignments, and target
state standards.
* As the culminating activity of the course, students will develop a coherent
plan for teaching a writing unit incorporating all the elements and standards
defined above.
* Students will present specific plans for conveying expectations and
assessments accurately, constructively, and sensitively to pupils and parents.
* In addition to reading research-based printed materials, students will assess
the value of relevant Internet sites, such as teacher-posted suggestions for
teaching various kinds of writing, chat rooms and online discussion groups for
teachers, and homepages of textbook publishers and professional organizations.
SCHEDULE AND WEEKLY
ASSIGNMENTS
A Surge of Language: While we are studying other aspects of teaching writing, you will read from this book every week. Each Thursday, you will turn in a one page response paper. The paper should answer some of the following questions: 1. What does the teacher hope to accomplish during these days? 2. What did you learn? 3. What did you especially like about the approach(s)? 4. What seems difficult or confusing? Do not simply summarize the reading. I will return your papers the following Tuesday with one of these designations: I=incomplete (not very complete or thoughtful response); G=good (adequate to good response); E=unusually brilliant response. If your paper receives an I, you must revise it. Otherwise, you may revise if you wish, and include your revision in the final portfolio. Occasionally, we will discuss these readings.
NOTE: During the semester there will be at least three
POETRY READINGS. You are expected to go to one of them and write a one-page
response, which will substitute for your response paper for A Surge of
Language. Each extra reading you attend and write up will boost your
cumulative grade for these response papers.
Scheduled readings: Oct. 1, Lieberman’s Bookstore (
Nov. 9, on campus, Jeanne Walker
Dec.
2, on campus, Lucille Clifton
ALSO NOTE: Assignments are listed by the week instead of by the day. I will sometimes mention when assignments are planned for Thursdays, so you don’t have to prepare everything at once. However, since there is only one day between T and TR, you should plan to do most work for the week before coming to class on Tuesdays.
Please bring the relevant textbook(s) to every class meeting (It is not
necessary to bring A Surge of Language until Nov. 9.) All written
work must be typed.
Aug 31, Sept. 2:
Introduction to the course
Introduction to diverse learning styles, instructional goals and objectives,
taxonomies, the Delaware English Language Arts Content Standards, and the
Atwell chapters for next week’s class: assignments to groups.
Assignment for next week:
Surge of Language (hereafter
SOL), read Foreword, Intro., and up to Sept. 14 entry. Paper due next Thurs.
Read Bridging English (hereafter BE) Chapter 3, “Centering On
Language,” pp. 46-72. Be prepared to
discuss “Invitation to Reflection, 3-2.”
Read BE,
Go to http://www.doe.state.de.us/Standards/English/ELA_toc.html and print the
sections entitled “Definition” and
“Standards One through Four, Grades 6-8 and 9-10”; bring to next week’s class.
Go to http://www.doe.state.de.us/DPIServices/teacher.htm#standards
and print
the Delaware Professional Teaching Standards (entire document); bring to next
week’s class. Look at both documents to see how the standards apply to the
issues discussed in BE Chap. 3.
Planned for Thursday: Read the Atwell chapter you were assigned (Chapter 1, 2, or 3) and prepare approximately one page of notes to help you present this material in next week’s class. These notes, which should reflect what you consider most important about the chapter, will be handed in at the end of class.
[Like all written work in this course, the notes must
be typed. Since English teachers are open to severe criticism from
parents, students, and principals if our own writing contains mechanical
errors, all written work in this course must be correct in spelling,
punctuation, usage, and so forth. Take the time to proofread your work,
and if necessary consult the online grammar guides linked to the Writing Center
website
http://www.english.udel.edu/wc/resource/index.html,
the Writing Center itself,
or
your notes and materials from ENGL 183 for help with grammar questions. This
note will not be repeated on subsequent writing assignments for this course,
but it applies to all of them]
Sept 7, 9:
Discussion of BE Chap. 3.
In-class reading and analysis of
the
Discussion of developing goals and objectives that address the Content
Standards as they apply to grammar and writing skills.
In-class reading and analysis of
the
Discussion
of meeting the teaching performance standards through instructional
planning, reflection, and classroom practice.
Brainstorming on ways of using students’ real-life experiences and
interests for instructional purposes.
Planned for Thurs:
Take up SOL papers.
Meet with supervisors briefly (20 min.)
Small-group work to plan presentations on Atwell, Chapters 1,
2, and 3.
Presentations on Atwell; Hand in notes on Atwell chapter
Goals and objectives: discussion, practice
Assignment of types of writing about which to write objectives for next
week (business letter, persuasive essay, research paper).
Handout for next week.
Assignment for next week:
SOL, read rest of Sept. entries.
Write paper.
Read BE, pp. 405-407 on objective-based models. Read all of handout. Do the exercises connected with this reading (answers are given). This is not to turn in.
Write possible objectives for your assigned type of writing.
Read BE Chap. 11, “Inspiring Writing.” Be prepared for quiz on Thurs. to check your mastery of terms (portfolio, authentic assessment, developmental tasks, Britton’s categories of language functions, developmental stages of writing, process vs. product approach, etc.)
.
Sept. 14, 16:
Small-group work: For each
type of writing (business letter, persuasive essay,
research paper), develop one good objective for each category: cognitive (knowledge,
comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation), affective
(low level and high level) and psychomotor (low level, high level). Write them on the blackboard. Whole-class
discussion of objectives.
Modeling and practice in
correlating lesson objectives with the
content standards.
Thurs: turn in SOL paper
Quiz on BE Chap. 11. Discuss chapter.
Some sample student writing (on the overhead projector) to consider in terms of motivation, assessment.
Assignment for next week:
SOL, read October entries. Write paper.
Read Atwell, Chap. 4-5. Fill out the “Writing Survey” on p. 494. (Retype
questions and type your answers). Make a list of your own writing territories,
also to turn in. Use p. 129 to inspire your list.
Print out and read all sections of
“The Five-Paragraph Essay,”
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/1437/ and
Five Paragraph Essays.pdf and Interior Design-Revision as Focus.pdf and
Muddying Boundaries-Mixing Genres.pdf
Sept 21, 23:
Discuss
Atwell, your lists, and your survey.
Small-group work on formulating activities and assignments to fulfill the
objectives for lessons on business letters, persuasive essays, and research
papers. Each group must
employ both teacher-centered and student-centered
strategies. Consideration must be made for students with
diverse learning styles.
Introduction
to the
For Thurs: Discuss the readings on Five-Paragraph essay.
Turn in SOL paper.
Assignment for next week:
SOL, read November entries.
http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/English/essay/
Write your own essay on the topic, “My philosophy on teaching the essay
form.” This will not be exactly your title, and certainly isn’t a thesis,
but should guide your thinking. Include personal anecdotes, if possible. Your
essay should be approximately two pages long.
Read (no need to print out) the
information about the DSTP at
http://www.doe.state.de.us/AAB/DSTP_intro.html.
Take notes as needed for your own use (not to be handed in), and be sure you
understand what this testing program is and how it works.
Go to http://www.doe.state.de.us/AAB/writing_report2002.pdf
and scroll down to
page 19 of the document, where you will find the rubric for scoring the writing
portion of the DSTP. Print that page. Then scroll down to page
31. Beginning on that page and continuing for the rest of the document,
you will find sample papers by eighth-grade and tenth-grade students.
Print those pages. Be careful to indicate on the Print screen that you
want to print only certain pages to avoid unnecessarily printing out the whole
document, which takes forever in that pdf format. There’s no need to read
the material for homework, as we will be going over it in detail in
class. Just print it and bring it to next week’s class, along with the
Sept. 28-30:
Discussion of the five-paragraph
essay structure, its advantages and disadvantages;
discussion of the effect of writing your own essay
on your understanding of the form.
Discussion of DSTP essays and rubric. Brainstorming on approaches to teaching the essay form to students of diverse backgrounds and learning styles, using prompts from past DSTPs. Your essays will be checked off as being handed in on time; You’ll keep your paper for another assignment.
Take up SOL papers.
Assignment for next week:
SOL, read December entries. Write paper.
Atwell, read Chap. 6 on Mini-lessons.
Write plans for a 5-minute mini-lesson
on writing conventions (see BE, Chap. 3) or on some aspect of any of your
readings in SOL. (These will not be
presented in our class. Presentation of mini- lessons
will be part of ENGL483. Here, you’re
practicing shaping material into useable
units.)
Read Atwell, Chap. 7 on Conferencing with students. Using the
essay you wrote earlier, do “Having a Writing Conference with Yourself,” pp.
247-49. Revise your essay. Bring in a single copy of the original
draft and three copies of the revised draft. Do not put your name on the
revised draft; just give it a title you’ll recognize as your own.
Oct. 5,7:
Small-group work with mini-lessons, to make suggestions for revision. Development of a peer evaluation sheet for mini-lessons (written on the
blackboard). Mini-lessons are recorded as completed and returned to you for revision.
Review of Content Conference Guidelines (Atwell, pp. 224-29) and of Conventions (pp.255-258). Working in pairs, read each other’s essays and develop conference questions/topics based on the Atwell chapter; write them legibly and include the name of the reviewer. Student A, acting as the instructor, conducts a conference with Student B about Student B’s writing. Student B then provides Student A with feedback on his/her effectiveness in that role. Then the students switch roles. If time permits, each of you will go through this process with at least two different partners.
Take up SOL papers.
Assignment for next week:
SOL, read January entries. Write paper.
Revise your mini-lesson. Revise your essay based on feedback in conference(s).
Read BE, Chapter 12, pp. 313-330, 340-350). Make a list (only a list) of the approaches/techniques in this chapter that you find particularly important or intriguing to you.
Oct. 12-14:
Hand in your mini-lesson plans. Discussion of mini-lessons and of conferencing. Do they work? Strengths and weaknesses.
Real student essays on transparencies to talk about grading. Lecture on teacher editing and grading of essays. Practice in class. Take home a student paper to comment on and “grade.”
Teacher-check, to see that assigned list from Ch. 12 is completed.
Beginning discussion of BE Chapter 12.
Assignment of research paper readings.
Hand in SOL.
Assignment for next week:
SOL, read January entries. Write paper.
Write comments and grade on student’s paper, based on Delaware Writing Rubric.
Read BE, pp. 337-340.
Print out useful sample portions of the material on the website you were assigned:
http://webster.commnet.edu/mla/index.shthtml
(See Thegateway.org for others)
“The
Writing Process,” http://www.csuohio.edu/writingcenter/writproc.html
or “Writing
a Research Paper,”
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/index.html
Picture
yourself preparing to teach a unit on the research paper based on the
material
you read, and answer the following questions in writing:
1.
How much time will you allow for working on the research paper, from
the day
you first introduce that unit to the day the students hand in their final drafts? Will you have your students
work on the research paper
full-
time during that period, or will you
intersperse it with other activities?
2. Make
a numbered list showing the class periods you will teach during the
time
the students are working on their research papers. Next to each
number,
write a few words indicating what will go on during that class
period
(e.g., “Work in the school library on data collection” or “Hand in
index
cards.” If you plan to do other things while the students are
working
on their research papers, just write “Nothing on the research
paper”
to indicate class periods that will be entirely spent on other things.
3.
How will you handle the selection of topics for the research paper? If
you
will give the students a list of topics from which to choose, how will
you go
about selecting the topics to put on the list? If you will allow the
students
to choose their own topics, what guidelines will you give them?
4. Will each student write his/her own research paper, or will students
be
allowed/encouraged/required to work in groups? If each student works
alone, what
guidelines will you give the students regarding permissible
interactions? In other words, will they be allowed to talk to each other
at all about their papers?
Oct. 19-21:
Hand in your comments on student papers for my comments, along with all conference notes (be sure it’s clear who was responding to whose paper).
Small-group
work: students who used each online source will prepare a brief but
informative
presentation describing it to the rest of the class
Presentations of online
sources
Discussion of similarities
and differences among the approaches students
would
use to teach the research paper: length of time allotted, etc.
Brainstorming
to think of other decisions a teacher would have to make
before
beginning to flesh out a unit on teaching the research paper.
Lecture on
the multi-genre research paper.
Hand in responses to the
questions assigned for this class.
Hand in SOL papers.
Assignment
for next week:
SOL, read March entries. Write paper.
Choose a site from the address below
that you like. Write two sentences about what
it is and why it seems useful to you. Send these to me on e-mail.
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE?archives/evalguid.html
Print out and read the sample
rubric for scoring persuasive writing that appears at
http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/departments/oipd/mspap/writing/SRubWTP.pdf
Read
Atwell, Chapter 9, “Valuing and Evaluating.”
Bring
the rubric for scoring the DSTP to next week’s class.
Oct. 26-28:
Return of your essays, with my comments, to prepare for your final revisions.
Discussion of the various
philosophies and rules for grading student work
represented
in the readings, including Atwell.
Discussion
of using rubrics to score student writing
Assessment
of the various rubrics read for this class
Discussion
of the art and science of writing rubrics
In-class
reading of sample papers written by secondary-school students
Group
scoring of one or two sample papers according to the DSTP rubric.
Hand in SOL
papers.
Assignment
for next week:
SOL, read April entries. Write paper.
Revise your essay. Place your
revision in your portfolio, along with all drafts, and comments by other students.
Using
the DSTP rubric, grade five secondary-school student papers. Bearing in mind the principles and examples
provided in Chapters 7 and 9 of Atwell, write comments
on each paper.
Write brief
answers to the following questions:
1. How
long did it take you to grade these five papers? Why do you think I’m
asking
this question?
2. Was
the rubric satisfactory? If not, how would you change it?
3. Assuming
that the papers you graded were representative of the entire
class,
identify two areas of weakness that you would plan to address in
future
lessons.
4.
Recalling the various instructional strategies discussed in BE and Atwell,
briefly
explain at least one strategy you would use to remediate each of the
weaknesses
you identified.
Hnnd in SOL papers.
Nov. 4:
Small-group work to compare the
grading of each student paper
Discussion
of grading policies and standards, setting high but reasonable
expectations and
communicating them clearly, composing rubrics that
accurately
represent the basis for assessing student work, adhering to rubrics
once they have
been distributed
Discussion of how
to remediate identified weaknesses, including deciding when to use whole-class instruction and when/how to
work with individual students.
Hand in graded papers and responses to the questions assigned for this class.
Hand in SOL papers.
Assignment
for next week:
SOL, read May/June entries.
Write paper.
Read Atwell, Chapters 11-12. Write the first two pages of your memoir.
Write a lesson plan for teaching one poem. One poem only, one period only. This activity might not take up a full period. That’s okay. Follow standard lesson plan format. List all discussion questions you would ask.
Nov. 9-11:
Graded papers handed back, with my comments, for inclusion in your portfolio. You may revise your comments.
Read beginnings of memoirs. (You are not obligated to read yours aloud if you don’t want to). Discuss the assignment of memoirs, short stories, their requirements, and grading issues. In class, together make a rubric for these. Small-group work with lesson plans, so that you can revise.
At last, begin discussion of the SOL readings you’ve been doing all semester.
Assignment for next week:
Go to http://www.favoritepoem.org and to http://loc.gov/poetry/180. Write a longish paragraph describing your favorite aspect of each, and how you might use the site in your classroom. While you’re at it, look for other good poetry sites. Mention any you particularly like.
Revise your poetry lesson plan.
Begin assembling your class portfolio.
Nov. 16-18:
Turn in your lesson plan to my office, for my comments, along with your paragraph on poetry websites. No class this week. Work on revising your portfolio and completing your final project.
Nov. 23:
Your poetry lesson plans returned for final revisions and inclusion in your portfolio.
Sharing of poetry lesson plan ideas.
Discussion of poetry issues in SOL. Evaluation, motivation, etc.
Assignment for next week:
Revise
poetry lesson plans and put all versions in your portfolio. Continue work on final project.
Nov. 30, Dec. 2:
Hand in class portfolios.
Work in pairs: peer editing of final projects; each student will work with at least two other students.
Dec. 7:
Class
portfolios returned
Small-group peer review of final projects.
Hand in final projects. Evaluations.
CLASS
PORTFOLIO INSTRUCTIONS
Rationale
The purpose of the class portfolio is to consider, not each separate assignment
in isolation, but your classwork in its entirety. Usually, throughout the
semester, when you complete a written assignment, it will first be discussed
with other students. After you have made revisions, you will hand it in
to me, and I will return it to you the following class period with written feedback.
You will revise the assignments again in accord with these comments and include
the original draft, the first revision, and the second revision in the class
portfolio. You will be graded on both the adequacy of your original draft
and the effectiveness of your revisions.
Since the written assignments in this course serve as the basis for small-group
work during class, it is very important to bring in each assignment on the day
it is due. For that reason, even if the class portfolio is handed in on
time, the grade may be lowered if you were late with the original drafts of the
assignments.
Format
Your class portfolio should be presented in a three-ring loose-leaf
binder. All assignments and revisions must be typed unless they were
handwritten in class.
Contents
Unless otherwise indicated, the dates listed here reflect the date on which
each assignment was made, not the date on which it was due. Your class
portfolio should include all of these items, arranged in the following order:
1. Nine
one-page papers on A Surge of Language plus at least one review of poetry reading.
2. Notes on Atwell, Chapter 1, 2, or 3 (Sept. 9)
3. Possible objectives for business, persuasive, or research paper (Sept. 14)
4. Quiz on BE, Chap. 11 (Sept. 16)
5. Writing survey and list of writing territories (Sept. 21)
6. Original
draft of your essay (Sept. 28)
7. Revised
draft of your essay following your self-conferencing (Oct. 5), including all annotated copies of the
revised essay following the in-class student conferences
on Oct. 7.
8. Mini-lesson plans. (Oct. 12)
9. List of
approaches and techniques from Ch. 12 (Oct. 14).
10. Answers to questions on
teaching the research paper (Oct. 19)
11. Graded
secondary-school student papers and answers to questions on grading (Nov. 4)
12. First two pages of your memoir (Nov. 9)
13. Lesson plan for teaching a poem (Nov. 9), with later revisions
14. Paragraph on poetry websites (Nov. 16)
15.
Reflective essay written for this portfolio according to the directions below.
Reflective Essay
The first step in writing the reflective essay is to think about all the
various topics covered in this course: diversity of student backgrounds and
learning styles, state standards, goals and objectives, teacher-centered and
student-centered instruction, mini-lessons, writing workshops, set inductions,
lesson plans, unit plans, multiple ways of assessing students, techniques for
grading papers, and Internet research. It would be a good idea to go back
and skim over any of the readings that are not fresh in your mind, along with
any notes you may have taken.
As you know by now, you didn’t learn this material for the purpose of
regurgitating it on a test. You learned it in preparation for real-life
teaching, starting with the classes you’ll teach next semester.
Accordingly, this reflection invites you to engage in some synthesis and
application. As you picture the classes you’ll teach in the spring, how
do you see yourself putting all this material together to form your style of
teaching -- what you’ll present to your students, how you’ll present it, what
you’ll invite them to do, what you think they’ll get out of it? There is,
obviously, no single right way to address this topic, but do avoid a
generalized response along the lines of “X was very useful. Y was very
useful. And I really liked Z.” How, specifically, do you see
yourself putting together the various things you’ve learned and using them for
your students’ benefit? Of course there’s no need to cover each and every
topic we discussed in class, but your response should provide a good sampling
of your plans to bridge the gap between learning something as a student and
applying it as a teacher.
The essay should be approximately 3-5 pages long, but length is not a major
factor -- feel
free to run longer or shorter if necessary.
_______________________________________________________________________
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE FINAL PROJECT
This assignment is your chance to demonstrate your ability to incorporate all the elements you worked on this semester—goals and objectives, classroom activities, evaluations, and so forth—into a coherent design for teaching a particular type of writing. Because of the emphasis that today’s schools place on state testing programs, you are being asked to focus on writing that directly addresses the relevant skills through the essay, the memoir (see Atwell, Chapter 11), or the research paper. (We could use the poem as well, but you’ve just completed a lesson plan on the poem). Choose one of these genres as the subject of your final project.
Plan a coherent week’s
work on this genre. The week may be enough to complete the topic. If not,
you’ll explain (see below) how the week fits into the rest of the unit. YOU MAY
USE THIS AS A WEEK OF YOUR UNIT PLAN FOR 483,
1. Find at least three websites that offer effective help in planning
your week. Students who elect the memoir may use the Atwell chapter and
at least one website that is not related to Atwell. Students who elect
the essay or the research paper should not use the websites we discussed in
class. The material you print out from the websites should be included
with your final project.
2. Complete the Lesson Description Form (attached).
3. Write lesson plans for ONLY ONE WEEK, following the Directions for
Lesson Plans sheet (attached).
CRITERIA FOR GRADING THE FINAL PROJECT
* Includes all the elements listed in the
instructions.
* Relates to the secondary-school students’ interests
and experiences.
* Takes diverse learners and varied learning styles
into account.
* Includes a variety of teacher-centered and
student-centered activities.
* Includes class discussions that are not limited to
recitations of factual material or to
question-and-answer interactions between
teacher and students.
* Uses a variety of methods to assess whether students
have met the objectives.
RUBRIC
FOR GRADING THE FINAL PROJECT
Do It Again:
Fails to meet one or more of the criteria listed above.
Is,
in whole or in part, inadequate for use in a secondary-school class.
Contains
significant or numerous mechanical errors.
Is
sloppy or disorganized.
B: Meets all the criteria at a level that is
adequate for classroom use.
Contains
few, if any, mechanical errors and is neat and well-organized.
A: Meets all the criteria at a level that is
adequate for classroom use.
Includes
particularly creative, varied instruction/assessment.
Is exemplary in
its organization and completeness.
A ONE-WEEK WRITING
PROJECT
LESSON DESCRIPTION FORM
___________________________________________________________
Take as much space as you need to complete each item on this form.
Please fill out this form for the secondary-school class to which you will
teach the lessons you’re designing. Even if you plan to use the lessons
with more than one class, select one of them for purposes of this class
project.
General Information:
Name:
Secondary school:
Class year and level:
Number of class periods per week:
Length of each class period:
Class Description:
Number of students in the class:
Are there either mainstreamed special education students or gifted students in
the class? Explain.
Describe the class in terms of student diversity, such as gender, race,
background, academic motivation, divergent learning styles, and anything else
that should be considered in determining appropriate instruction.
Are there any issues with your cooperating teacher that are relevant to this
project -- for instance, does he/she either require or forbid the use of
certain methodologies? (Note: If it’s possible to fulfill all the
requirements for this project while also honoring the cooperating teacher’s
preferences, that’s fine; as an example, if the cooperating teacher wants you
to do vocabulary drill every Friday, you can either incorporate that into your
writing instruction or simply do it before or after you teach the writing
portion of that day’s lesson. If, however, the cooperating teacher’s
preferences are incompatible with the requirements of this assignment -- for
instance, if he/she forbids the use of computers, peer editing, or small-group
instruction -- you’ll have to ignore that for purposes of this unit plan.
It’s understood that when you teach the lessons this spring, you may have to
make adjustments. (Bear in mind, though, that no matter how adamant the
cooperating teacher may sound at this early date, when you get to know each
other better and a relationship of trust and mutual respect has had time to
grow, he/she may allow you more flexibility than you’re now expecting.)
Is there another instructor, such as a TAM instructor, in the room? If
so, what will be his/her role in this unit?
Project Rationale:
1. What is the topic of your project: the essay, the memoir, or the
research paper?
2. What are the goals of the project? That is, when students have
finished the entire project, what will they know, or what will they be able to
do, that they do not know or cannot do now? Please be specific. For
instance, “Students will improve their organization” would be too general,
whereas “Students will be able to formulate clear thesis statements that are
relevant to the assigned topic and sufficiently narrow to be covered in the
essay format” would be excellent.
3. What state content standards will the project fulfill? Please do not
simply list them by number; write them out. The list will probably be
quite long, since it should include all the standards that will be met anywhere
in this project, even if it is in only one lesson.
4. Identify the four standards that are most central to this project: the
ones that will appear on almost every lesson plan. Mark these standards
by typing three asterisks at the beginning of each of them.
5. How will this project help to prepare students for the DSTP?
6. Overall, what makes you think that this particular project will meet the
needs of these particular students?
Project Description:
1. What relevant instruction will this class have had before beginning this
project? For instance, are you doing remedial or advanced work after the
students have already been taught the five-paragraph essay, the memoir, or the
research paper, or are you introducing it for the first time?
2. How long will this project take?
3. Will the writing project be the only thing students will do, or will they
work part-time on other things (such as reading literature) in between?
It is not necessary to identify exactly what else the class will be working on;
the purpose of this question is simply to impel you to be precise about the
amount of class time you are allotting to this unit.
4. If this project is part of a larger unit (as it very likely will be): (1)
Write a brief week-by-week summary of what the students will accomplish in this
unit, (2) Indicate how that week’s instruction will address one or more of the
unit goals, which you defined in the previous section. The students may
not meet the goal completely by the end of that week, but you should indicate
clearly what progress the students will make toward it. (Be sure that by
the end of the entire unit, all the goals have been met.)
5. Briefly describe the types of class activities the
students will engage in and the assignments they will do for homework that
week. Be sure that all assignments and activities address the goals of
that week’s instruction -- that is, stay focused not on filling a week’s worth
of time but on making sure that the students are learning what they’re supposed
to be learning. Third, indicate how you will know whether the students
have made the progress they were supposed to have made toward fulfilling the
goals of the unit. You should use a variety of assessments, such as
informal class polling (“Does everyone understand?”), teacher-monitored
small-group work, class recitations and discussions in which students are
called on at random, and journal entries as well as more traditional
evaluations, such as quizzes and graded homework.
6. There should be at least one instance in which your students will use the
Internet. (Assume that the school or the public library has computers for
the students to use if they do not have them at home.) You don’t have to have
this Internet use in your lesson plans, necessarily, but student Internet work
should appear somewhere in your discussion of what the students will achieve in
this unit.
DIRECTIONS FOR LESSON PLANS
1. Use the lesson plan form you’re used to using in ENGL483.
2. The length of each period and the number of periods in a week should
correspond to the schedule of the school in which you will student teach.
3. The plans you write do not have to be for the first week of a unit,
although it may
be.
4. The goal(s) for each lesson should be one or more of the goals you
defined in the
project outline (the form you filled out). The objectives should show
what portion of those broad goal(s) the students will master as a result of
today’s lesson.
5. Each day’s lesson plan should conclude with a listing of the
6. The first activity of each lesson plan should be a set induction.
7. If a major activity of the lesson is a discussion, include a few
sample questions or
topics. If it is small-group work, be sure that the instructions for the
group work are clear. Do not, for instance, simply say, “Students will
work on their papers in small groups.” What, exactly, will they do?
8. It should be clear in each lesson plan what the students are meant to
get out of that
day’s lesson (objectives), how the activities will meet the objectives, and how
you will know whether they have done so. Each objective must be met by at
least one activity, and the lesson should include no activities that are
irrelevant to the objectives. Similarly, the evaluations should
correspond to the objectives and activities.