Grade 8
Teaching Subjects: English Language Arts and Social Studies. Co-teaching: Foods 8
PSII Professional Goals and attainments
Goal 1: Further explore the Programs of Study in my major and minor subjects
This marks the first time I am able to plan a unit and I want to create lessons that not only feature a unifying theme, but incorporate applicable and authentic GLOs and SLOS while still being meaningful to students.
Attainment
The ELA short story unit involved planning from a product (short story) and finding applicable SLOs. There were also opportunities to do mini units during Collage Week and the final days of my practicum.
In social studies, students explored 8.3 Worldviews in Conflict: The Spanish and the Aztecs. I introduced a product but did not see it to completion due to my practicum's length, so I planned from SLOs:
8.3.4 assess, critically, how the Aztecs were affected by the Spanish worldview by exploring and reflecting upon the following questions and issues:
• What were the key elements of the worldview of the Aztec civilization prior to contact with the Spanish?
•How did the Aztec civilization’s worldview influence the Aztecs’ choices, decisions and customs?
Goal 2: Differentiation
I want to apply what I have learned about exceptional learners and create assignments that take into consideration students' diverse learning needs, whether that by an exceptionality or acknowledging all styles of learning (visual, auditory, kinesthetic). I am particularly interested in tiered assignments and would like to offer students at least one of these during my practicum.
Attainment
This is an area that I wish to further explore in PSIII.
My classroom, like any other, is diverse. When students created "I Am" poems, I gave them the option to present in their own language, since language and culture makes up a large part of one's identity. The only requirement was that the written submission must be submitted in English. No students chose this option. During the creation of their short stories, one student strugged with the writing portion. I offered him a chance to create a graphic-novel-style short story in 12 comic-book-like frames that included dialogue as per the assignment outline. Again, the student did not choose this option.
When the class read short stories as part of this unit, the stories were either read aloud by the teacher or volunteer students, presented in video form ("The Hockey Sweater" by Roch Carrier) or presented in audiobook form ("The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe), to accommodate struggling readers and ELL students.
Goal 4: Authentic assessment
This practicum also marks the first time I am creating summative assessment pieces. My goal is to use a variety of "snapshots" linked to specific learning outcomes, to evaluate student learning.
Attainment
Formative assessment: One of the things I needed to work on in this round of teaching is closure of lessons. In my final weeks, I incorporated new-to-me strategies that not only acted as formative assessment, but gave students an opportunity to reflect — and digest — the information that they just learned. After one lesson, students wrote possible test questions on Post-It notes. In another, individual students volunteered review questions and the rest of the class answered them. Another closure had students create a web that drew on that entire week's lessons. I also read the picture book "You Wouldn't Want to be an Aztec Sacrifice! Gruesome things you'd rather not know" by Fiona Macdonald and asked students, as I read the story, to answer questions based on facts we explored earlier.
Goal 5: Cross-curricular connections
I want to create lessons that link across more than one Program of Study.
Attainment
Social studies and English Language Arts are natural cross-curricular fits because they both examine stories. In social studies, we read the picture books
"You Wouldn't Want to be an Aztec Sacrifice! Gruesome things you'd rather not know" by Fiona Macdonald and "The Rabbits" by John Marsden. This gave us an opportunity to explore point of view and narration, as well as theme and kinds of text that differ from a textbook. (ELA PoS: 1.1 Discover and explore; 1.2 Clarify and extend; 2.2 Respond to texts; and 2.3 Understand forms, elements and techniques)
Foods class also incorporates math when doubling a recipe, as well as GLO 5 in the ELA program of study, which emphasizes respecting others and strengthening community, and working within a group.
This marks the first time I am able to plan a unit and I want to create lessons that not only feature a unifying theme, but incorporate applicable and authentic GLOs and SLOS while still being meaningful to students.
Attainment
The ELA short story unit involved planning from a product (short story) and finding applicable SLOs. There were also opportunities to do mini units during Collage Week and the final days of my practicum.
In social studies, students explored 8.3 Worldviews in Conflict: The Spanish and the Aztecs. I introduced a product but did not see it to completion due to my practicum's length, so I planned from SLOs:
8.3.4 assess, critically, how the Aztecs were affected by the Spanish worldview by exploring and reflecting upon the following questions and issues:
• What were the key elements of the worldview of the Aztec civilization prior to contact with the Spanish?
•How did the Aztec civilization’s worldview influence the Aztecs’ choices, decisions and customs?
Goal 2: Differentiation
I want to apply what I have learned about exceptional learners and create assignments that take into consideration students' diverse learning needs, whether that by an exceptionality or acknowledging all styles of learning (visual, auditory, kinesthetic). I am particularly interested in tiered assignments and would like to offer students at least one of these during my practicum.
Attainment
This is an area that I wish to further explore in PSIII.
My classroom, like any other, is diverse. When students created "I Am" poems, I gave them the option to present in their own language, since language and culture makes up a large part of one's identity. The only requirement was that the written submission must be submitted in English. No students chose this option. During the creation of their short stories, one student strugged with the writing portion. I offered him a chance to create a graphic-novel-style short story in 12 comic-book-like frames that included dialogue as per the assignment outline. Again, the student did not choose this option.
When the class read short stories as part of this unit, the stories were either read aloud by the teacher or volunteer students, presented in video form ("The Hockey Sweater" by Roch Carrier) or presented in audiobook form ("The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe), to accommodate struggling readers and ELL students.
Goal 4: Authentic assessment
This practicum also marks the first time I am creating summative assessment pieces. My goal is to use a variety of "snapshots" linked to specific learning outcomes, to evaluate student learning.
Attainment
Formative assessment: One of the things I needed to work on in this round of teaching is closure of lessons. In my final weeks, I incorporated new-to-me strategies that not only acted as formative assessment, but gave students an opportunity to reflect — and digest — the information that they just learned. After one lesson, students wrote possible test questions on Post-It notes. In another, individual students volunteered review questions and the rest of the class answered them. Another closure had students create a web that drew on that entire week's lessons. I also read the picture book "You Wouldn't Want to be an Aztec Sacrifice! Gruesome things you'd rather not know" by Fiona Macdonald and asked students, as I read the story, to answer questions based on facts we explored earlier.
Goal 5: Cross-curricular connections
I want to create lessons that link across more than one Program of Study.
Attainment
Social studies and English Language Arts are natural cross-curricular fits because they both examine stories. In social studies, we read the picture books
"You Wouldn't Want to be an Aztec Sacrifice! Gruesome things you'd rather not know" by Fiona Macdonald and "The Rabbits" by John Marsden. This gave us an opportunity to explore point of view and narration, as well as theme and kinds of text that differ from a textbook. (ELA PoS: 1.1 Discover and explore; 1.2 Clarify and extend; 2.2 Respond to texts; and 2.3 Understand forms, elements and techniques)
Foods class also incorporates math when doubling a recipe, as well as GLO 5 in the ELA program of study, which emphasizes respecting others and strengthening community, and working within a group.
on-campus artifacts
It starts with i.d.e.a.s.
PSII marked my first time unit planning. In C&I for Majors Language Arts, we learned the IDEA method of unit planning:
I-intentions/objectives/goals/outcomes (WHY)
D-display/resources/texts/video and film (WHAT
E-evaluation (HOW WELL)
A-activities/strategies (HOW)
S-stuff (socio, psycho, political, cultural, historical, philosophical considerations)
When asked to create a mock unit plan from a text, my group chose “Bridge to Terabithia” by Katherine Paterson. In about 30 minutes, this is what we dreamed up:
I-intentions/objectives/goals/outcomes (WHY)
D-display/resources/texts/video and film (WHAT
E-evaluation (HOW WELL)
A-activities/strategies (HOW)
S-stuff (socio, psycho, political, cultural, historical, philosophical considerations)
When asked to create a mock unit plan from a text, my group chose “Bridge to Terabithia” by Katherine Paterson. In about 30 minutes, this is what we dreamed up:
The Red Tree
As part of the Teaching Literature Circles assignment, my group explored three texts: The Crazy Man by Pamela Porter, The Red Tree by Shaun Tan, and How Smudge Came by Nan Gregory. A common theme is that hope springs eternal. Our after-reading activity consisted of students (in this case, classmates), looking under their chairs to find a red paper leaf that we'd taped there earlier. Students wrote a positive hope or dream for their fellow classmates on their leaves, which were displayed on the classroom's Red Tree, similar to the one in Tan's picture book. I had the opportunity to use this activity in a classroom setting in PSII after we studied Tan's The Red Tree in ELA.