As I begin taking total control of the classroom, I am also
taking on the responsibility of an additional prep. I have fully taught one
unit by myself and am preparing for two units simultaneously at the moment. My
CT has been a huge help in the beginning stages of planning, providing me with
several resources and ideas for fun and effective class activities. Currently
in the honors class, I am having students create a PicCollage showing the
events that occurred during the time period of the novel (1940s). In order to complete
the PicCollage, students first had to complete a Webquest to find information
to include in their PicCollage (Smagorinsky 39). Since these are honors
students, some of them tend to over think things and I have found that a smile
and nod often gives them the nudge necessary to take an idea and run with it.
One example of this is when students researched the 1940s, I asked them to
identify a major event from the time period. All students were able to identify
that WWII occurred during this time, but were looking for a more specific
event. When they raised hands and asked if they were on the right track, I
often smiled at them and occasionally pointed at something on their screen
saying “that’s interesting”. It was hard not to tell students directly, “yes,
that is what I want”; I wanted them to figure things out and do the research
and learn from their findings. I feel that this will help students “draw on
prior knowledge to connect with new knowledge” throughout our unit over A Lesson Before Dying by Gaines (Smagorinsky
183).
For the regular sophomore class, I am compiling a unit over
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night comedy.
Currently, students will be taking notes and completing web quests over the
life of William Shakespeare. My CT suggested that rather than having a long
drawn out lecture over the material, students would do better by completing
projects about the time period and play writer and would ultimately take more
from the lessons. I have taken her advice, and am looking forward to seeing how
students do with these activities.
With the guidance of my CT, my units seem to be shaping up
nicely. I have yet to begin my Twelfth
Night unit with the regular sophomore class, but the enthusiasm from the
honors students this afternoon has boosted my confidence. I look forward to
seeing what my students can come up with and am excited for their final
projects.
