STEP 3
·
To what
extent were you were expected to follow a scripted curriculum, or add your own
ideas to a curriculum that already exists, or create a unit that is entirely
new?
o
I was
expected to use the Oakland Writing Curriculum as a guideline, but I could add
my own ideas to the curriculum. The unit I created was based off of the writing
curriculum, but I threw in a lot of different ideas and created graphic
organizers on my own.
·
What
was unproblematic and/or challenging about planning a unit in this context?
o
I found
it very helpful to have the curriculum as a guideline and I was able to use it
for ideas if I wanted to. Some of the ideas and lessons didn’t line up with
what I wanted to do, so I had to create them on my own, but it wasn’t
challenging because I already had an idea of what I wanted to teach.
·
What
obstacles did you face? How did you overcome them? Consider issues that may relate to developing
your professional identity, developing strong teacher-student relationships,
constructing relevant curriculum, or assessing students in meaningful and
productive ways.
o
Students
weren’t motivated to write at all, which was an obstacle because I had to
somehow create a fun and engaging writing unit that the students would enjoy.
Since the students are very opinionated, I thought that this lesson would be
fun for them and would give them a chance to share their own ideas on a topic
of their choice, but it was much more difficult than I had expected. I was able to overcome this by following my
MT’s lead and creating a news show that would report each day during writing time,
focusing on the students’ opinions and support statements.
·
What
enabled you to be successful?
o
Help
and guidance from my MT was very encouraging and allowed me to be successful
because she would always give me ideas and suggestions. Since she has been
teaching this group of students for the past two years, she has gotten to know
them very well and knows what types of activities/teaching styles work best for
them.
· Also review the ideas you discussed in
your reflections on your three lessons for Inquiry Two (what your students
learned, what you learned, what you would do differently), and think about your
unit as a whole.
·
It was
nice that I was able to make changes as I went along on my unit plan, because I
made changes on a daily basis. The main change that I made was creating
examples and modeling the writing process for my students. This is the change
that had the largest impact on the overall success of my students’ learning and
their essays.
·
Did the
unit proceed as you expected? Why or why not?
o
For the
most part, the unit proceeded as I had expected. As I said earlier, there were
some things that I had to change, but I followed my outline that I had created
and incorporated the same ideas and lessons that I had in my lesson plan. The
lessons that I adapted were simply edited in that I added more details so the
students would have a better understanding of what they were supposed to do.
·
What
surprises or “aha moments” did you experience?
o
When I realized
how graphic organizers help the students to gather and organize their ideas
o
Now,
students will share their opinions and will begin by saying “I have an opinion
that…” and they will explain using support statements during our discussions
o
After
reading the students’ essays, I was very surprised to see how well they turned
out because their writing has grown a lot throughout this unit.
·
What do
you still need to learn about teaching in this target area, about developing
your 'core practice' and about teaching literacy in general?
o
How to
make writing more fun, engaging, and interesting for the students
o
How to
help students develop basic writing skills and mechanics in their writing
o
When to
correct spelling mistakes that students make
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