For my lesson while Dr. Mortimore observed, I taught imagery and the five senses related to poetry. Overall my lesson went very well. I would like to think that 90% of it was me being a good teacher and 10% was because she just happened to observe the amazing class – with the kids who never yell out or do anything wrong.
My lesson began with a review of what we had learned the last time – this is how I begin every lesson. Then I had students begin imagery and we watched Sarah Buxton’s “Outside my Window” and students wrote examples of imagery that they heard in the song.
From there we made a foldable with the five senses and we read two poems from the text book. Students then had time to use the poems and put examples on their foldables.
When I created the lesson, I tried to accommodate many types of learning – I think this is one of my strengths. Students had a chance to listen to me, to their classmates, to poems, and to a song. They got to see lyrics on the board and drawings. They had to make a craft with scissors and markers – hands on. They had individual discussion, group discussion, and a whole class discussion.
My weakness, as pointed our by Dr. Mortimore, is not spending more time with the poems – like talking about their subjects and diving into them. I feel like this stems from two reasons. First, I’m afraid to ask students something that they won’t know then they will feel like losers and I’m afraid of asking them something that will be boring. For example, if I say “What does the tree symbolize?” and they don’t know, then they will feel dumb. And I’m afraid that if I do dive into the poems they will be bored with poetry analysis. Having said this though, today I came up with a great poetry analysis packet that we are going to do – totally ripping a poem apart and seeking themes and meanings. Also, my second reason for not going to higher level thinking is that my co-op has told me before not to push them too hard.
I would say the best part of my observation was Dr. Mortimore telling me that I had really good directions and that all of the students “got it.” Directions were my REALLY weak point during Methods and during my first two weeks. So, it feels good to have gotten something right!
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Jenna, I'm proud of the work you are doing so far. I can see why you might be intimidated to dive into teaching poetry. Teaching poetry can be very difficult. You need to trust that the skills you are teaching them: how to identify examples of imagery, for example, will transfer to their discussion of the poem itself. Start small. Don't feel the need to have them analyze every possible symbol. Ask them to identify and discuss the ideas that you just taught them. For example, "Find three words that are examples of sensory imagery in this poem. How do these words help create pictures in your mind as you read the poem?" Etc. Don't let fear get in the way. Roll up your sleeves. This is the work you have been waiting to do! I have all confidence in you.
ReplyDeleteJenna,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your lesson was well thought out and I liked all the attention you paid to different types of learners. That sounds like a lesson that I would have a lot of fun doing as a student. I especially like the foldable idea (I used a foldable frayer in mine) and the idea of a song. I had some issues in my lesson identifying critical thinking/higher thinking as well so I understand that one. I think this is something that a lot of us struggle with. Coming from the classroom which is all higher thinking/critical thinking I think it's hard for us to integrate it into our classrooms in all of our activities. I think that while we should aim to always have a higher thinking activity that it will take practice and time for us to be really successful with it. I'm glad that your first observation went to well. It's good to hear that your feeling confident in giving directions to students. I hope that your week and your next observation go just as well as this one. Have a good week!
I share the same fears as you, but I think that instead of thinking that the students will feel stupid if they don't know it, we should just view it as a great learning experience for them. If we don't teach them what a tree symbolizes, how can they learn? They won't know it in high school if they don't learn it in middle school.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to talk more with you about how you're teaching poetry--it seems like you have great ideas about how to teach it, and I think it would be helpful for me to hear more!
Keep up the great work!