Teacher Work Sample

Mitchell Carnahan
EDUC 450 Colorado State University Spring 2014

SECTION 1: SETTING AND CONTEXT The typical learning environment at Thompson Valley High school is quite bland. Students seem to be learning in a middle class culture where a lot of them have iPhones and other big screen devices. As far as programs resources and activities there are multiple different kinds. The school has nearly 30 state-sponsored sports, which they say on their website that its the most sports programs north of 120th avenue in Denver. You can definitely tell they take pride in their athletic department with all the trophies and banners hung around the school and even in classrooms. There are also some really cool resources for students. One of them is the counseling area, where students can go to talk with a counselor about problems they may be having. We had an advising center in my old high school but it was never really for talking about problems, it was always academic talk. They also have a study hall center down the hall from the advising center where students can go during their off periods to work on homework. There are also many different after school clubs that meet. There are 20 clubs at the school which include National Honor Society, Japanese graphic novels, Harry Potter club, salsa, and even community service. These are great ways for students to connect with others who have similar interests outside of school. One of the most interesting clubs I heard about was a car club where students got to work on and build cars, and then also got to race a few on a track. The overall learning climate at the school is very positive and encouraging. Students seem to be inclusive and welcoming to new people and experiences. The school does hold a high standard for student athletes as far as eligibility goes, and this helps students keep their grades at satisfactory levels. I havent seen or heard any students really putting down anyone else or shooting down others ideas. I havent witnessed too much parent involvement in the school itself, but I have yet to attend a sporting event so that could change. The school does however have a lot of parent/volunteer opportunities that allow parents to get involved with things such as scholarship searching and school-to-career programs. The school is mainly white students with a 17% Latino population and 1% other. There are also 32% of students on the Free and Reduced Meal Program. The school estimates that there is about 2-5% of students that are homeless. Also Thompson Valley has the largest area of square miles to pull students from, so they have a wide variety of personalities and individuals in the school. What really caught my attention is that 50% of the student body is involved in some sort of sport. That to me is awesome and once again shows how much pride this school has for its student-athlete population. The mission of the school is Building for a new generation Building the skills to achieve each students academic/career goals; Building the skills to contribute to society; Building an understanding of cultural diversity; Building self-pride and selfconfidence; and Building a belief that learning is a lifelong endeavor. The specific students that I will be teaching are mainly 9th graders. I am in an English 9 class with Mr. Norton as my cooperating teacher and also in a Speech Communications class with Mrs. Goldberg. The speech class has mainly 9th graders but also a few upper classmen who had yet to take the course. The English 9 class seems to be a strong but silent type. Only till the other week did I finally see the talkative side to this class. Students mostly do the work assigned, but there is a handful of students that either dont show up or if they do show up they dont do any work. The students need to be pushed a

lot to get their work going. The teacher I have noticed asks them a few times to keep on task and get busy working. There are no students in the classroom with IEPs and no ELLs either. They all can read very well but they dont care for the stuff that they are reading. The layout of Mr. Nortons classroom is spaced awkwardly. Students are in rows of 3 on the right and left side of the room facing each other, so that the white board is to their left and the teachers desk is to their back right. Students have assigned seats and have made friends with the students around them. The culture of the class is very quiet. Students come in and start reading and/or writing and then they dont really engage otherwise. They do work in small groups from time to time but that usually ends up being friends grouping together and not getting work done. The learning environment I think is kind of a boring one. Students dont seem to be excited when coming to class, and are never eager to answer any of the questions. Mrs. Goldbergs classroom is almost the opposite. Students are excited to come to her classroom and she is equally as excited to see them. The students enjoy answering questions for her and even blurt out answers because they cant hold them in. The students are all fairly nice to each other, and they are supportive of new ideas as well. Overall the learning environment is very positive and encouraging. Students dont seem to feel too shy in that classroom. The desks are facing the front white board in rows of 6 and the teachers desk is up front. This feels more comfortable to me because students see where the teacher is at all times and the teacher sees them as well. When students have to work in groups they are eager to work with friends, and when they get put into random groups they still are just as eager to work with each other. Overall both classrooms have different learning environments and it is interesting to see how both compare and contrast. The work students have been doing in the classroom for the English 9 class has been pretty basic knowledge. Students have been reading a book called The Runner and then watched a film that was similar to the book and had to then create an essay comparing and contrasting the main characters. While watching the movie students had to fill out worksheets answering questions to show that they were paying attention. Also when they were reading the book they had worksheets to fill out chapter by chapter. It seems students already know grammar because I have yet to see them work on any grammar in the classroom. The students are not that great of spellers either. I have seen a lot of their writing and it is filled with errors in spelling, but not grammar. The upcoming unit they will be doing is Romeo and Juliet. They will be reading the play and also acting out scenes as well. I love this idea because acting does more than just telling. Mrs. Goldbergs class has been working on interpersonal and intrapersonal communication. A lot of the time spent has been on community building activities and also individual strength building. Students have done a few different intelligence tests to see what types of personalities they are. This helped them discover new friends in the class that were just like they were. The students also had to give their first mini speech in front of Mrs. Goldberg myself and 3 to 4 other students. This really showed me how shy some were and how confident others were. Both the classrooms I am observing are providing me with great learning opportunities. I can pick and choose what styles I like and dont like. I can adapt methods that I have seen my teachers use and make them my own.

One strategy I saw my teacher Mrs. Goldberg use was just simple questioning. Instead of telling students how they did and how long their speech was right away, she asked them how they thought they did and how long it was. Students were so harsh on themselves which made it easy to give them confidence boosting compliments. Mrs. Goldberg also asked the other students in the group what they thought and made them give each presenter some positive and negative feedback. I want to use this in my classroom because I saw how it helped students realize they werent doing as bad as they thought. And when it came time to give them feedback they were relieved to hear such positive comments on their work. Thompson Valley High School is a unique place. It is full of diverse students that are constantly learning new things every day. Each classroom has a different culture/environment, and it is great to get to see these environments first hand. Overall Thompson Valley High School is a great place for students to grow academically and also find the hobbies and sports they love. Classroom Diagram

SECTION 2: THE LESSONS Teacher: Mr. Carnahan School: Thompson Valley High School Grade Level: 9-10 Date: 4/10/2014 Content Area: English Lesson #:1 of 1

Title: In-CREDIBLE Source Searching, Citing, and Evaluating

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson: (Write Content Standards directly from the standard) 9th-10th grade Common Core State Standards for Writing: 7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. 8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the search question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation. Understandings: (Big Ideas) When doing informational or research writing it is very important to know how to find credible sources, how to evaluate them, and how to cite them properly. If you use information from an online source, you must cite the source no matter what. Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of instruction, select applicable questions from standard) When are multiple resources NOT helpful? When a researcher is reflecting on information to use in a project, what is really happening in the thought pattern? Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets) Every student will be able to: (Create your own lesson objectives from the standard, follow the ABCD format, using student voice) Students can:Demonstrate understanding of searching for, evaluating, and citing credible sources on a 5 question quiz with an accuracy of 60% or higher (3 out of 5). Demonstrate understanding by participating in class discussion about searching for, evaluating, and citing credible sources based off inquiry questions provided by teacher.

This means: Evaluating sources, searching for credible sources, and citing sources correctly

List of Assessments: (Write the number of the learning target associated with each assessment) Closing Quiz (Learning Target 1 and 2) Class Discussion (Learning target 1 and 2)

Planned Lesson Activities

Name and Purpose of Lesson Should be a creative title for you and the students to associate with the activity. Think of the purpose as the mini-rationale for what you are trying to accomplish through this lesson. Approx. Time and Materials How long do you expect the activity to last and what materials will you need? Anticipatory Set The hook to grab students attention. These are actions and statements by the teacher to relate the experiences of the students to the objectives of the lesson, To put students into a receptive frame of mind. To focus student attention on the lesson. To create an organizing framework for the ideas, principles, or information that is to follow (advanced organizers) An anticipatory set is used any time a different activity or new concept is to be introduced. In-CREDIBLE Source Searching, Citing, and Evaluating This lesson is designed to help students understand what a credible online source is, how to evaluate its credibility, and how to cite the different sources found online.

35 Minutes Citing Sources PowerPoint, SmartBoard -Open up the lesson by letting students know about the assignment they will be working on later in class. Inform them that it will involve doing online research, and that means using credible and reliable online sources, and citing them as well. -Opening Question, What kind of sources should you use when doing an online research assignment? List student response either on SmartBoard. After discussing the sources the class came up with, ask them, what qualities do these sources need to have in order for you to use them to support claims and provide information on a topic? Be looking for credible, reliable, trustworthy, accurate, unbiased and balanced. Next explain the examples A and B about to be shown and ask students to read them silently. Then ask them which example they found to be more reliable and trusting. Why? After discussing the examples, reiterate that the sources we want to use need to be CREDIBLE, RELIABLE, ACCURATE, TRUSTED, UNBIASED AND BALANCED. (5 min) -Anticipatory Set (5 min) -After the hook, describe to class how there are a few steps in finding credible sources, and the first place to start is with the words you use in your search. Go over main points and also go over Key Words (slide 7 and 8). On slide 8 quickly have students pick out the key words from the sentences. What are the key words here?(5 min) -Move on to credibility. What is it? Why is it important? Then go on to describe how to know if a site is credible, and the types of credible sites. Then show the list of helpful sites to find credible sources. (slides 9-13) (5 min) -Once you have found credible sites to use the next step is to know how to cite your sources correctly so you dont plagiarize. (slide 14) Discuss with students why they think citing your sources is important in writing informational texts. Then bring up the slide with your reasons. (slide 15) What are ways to cite sources? We do it to not plagiarize and claim credit for work we did not do ourselves. Discuss

Procedures (Include a play-by-play account of what students and teacher will do from the minute they arrive to the minute they leave your classroom. Indicate the length of each segment of the lesson. List actual minutes.) Indicate whether each is: -teacher input -modeling -questioning strategies -guided/unguided: -whole-class practice -group practice -individual practice -check for understanding -other

consequences of plagiarism. Ask students how they know if they need to cite a source. (slide 16). (5 min) -How do we cite today? Internet does it all for us. It is important to know that websites, journals and articles are all cited differently, so these websites come in handy. There are certain pieces of information needed though to use these sites correctly. (slide 17-18) Remind them that not all the information on the checklist will be available, but get as much as possible to be safe. (8 min) -Finally reveal to students the free citation sites that they can use for their assignment. Mention that their library website has a lot of good resources for them to use as well. Ask students if they have any questions over how to cite sources or how to evaluate a credible source. (Slide 19) (2 min) -Ask if anyone has any questions before closing activity -Closing activity (5 min) (slide 21) Closure Those actions or statements by a teacher that are designed to bring a lesson presentation to an appropriate conclusion. Used to help students bring things together in their own minds, to make sense out of what has just been taught. Any Questions? No. OK, lets move on is not closure. Closure is used: To cue students to the fact that they have arrived at an important point in the lesson or the end of a lesson. To help organize student learning To help form a coherent picture and to consolidate. Differentiation To modify: If the activity is too advanced for a child, how will you modify it so that they can be successful? To extend: If the activity is too easy for a child, how will you extend it to develop their emerging skills? Assessment How will you know if students met the learning targets? Write a description of what you were looking for in each assessment. After questions, ask students to take out a piece of paper and number it 1 through 5. Display the quiz on the SmartBoard and allow time for students to fill out the quiz. The quiz will be 5 questions long, and will cover assess whether students understand why they must cite their sources, evaluate credible sources and how to search for credible sources.

If students are having trouble coming up with types of sources to use, I can name them off and ask what they think of the source and if it is reliable. If it is too easy for them to name them, I can go deeper and ask students why they believe a source to be reliable.

I will know if students met the learning targets by the quiz given at the end of the lesson. If they got at least 3 of the questions right I will know they have an average understanding of the learning targets. Also I will know if they met the targets by hearing their answers to questions asked

during the lesson.

Lesson Reflection: This first lesson I taught was for Mrs. Goldbergs Speech Communications class. There are about 25 students in the class, and all are mostly 9th graders but some are 10th graders as well. The lesson I taught was on how to find credible online sources, how to evaluate their credibility, and also how to cite the online sources as well. Mrs. Goldberg wanted me to aim for around 30 minutes, but I planned for about 35. I was really nervous because I had timed myself at home doing the lesson and it was around 20 minutes long, but it ended up being completely different in class. There was a bit of pressure to not just lecture, but when you only have 30 minutes to give a lesson, there isnt much else you can do. I made a PowerPoint with basically three different sections to hit on. The first part I discussed with the class was what are the types of sources we use online? And I waited for responses from students and from there we discussed how it is that we trust these sources? Or do we even trust them? Overall the opening activity went really well too. I had example passages to read out loud and asked student which they thought was more convincing and why. This lead to a pretty good discussion on what makes a piece of information credible or reliable. Next we discussed what kind of sources there are on the internet. Students already had a good idea of what types of domains to use (.org, .gov, .edu). We looked at different reasons for why different domains were trusted and others were not. After discussing the types of domains and sources, we looked at how to cite the sources, and why you need to cite the sources you use. Students seemed to pay pretty close attention, but that was because Mrs. Goldberg helped me out and asked students to start writing down notes because it will help them later in class. I gave a little 5 question quiz at the end of the lecture because I wanted to see if students took away the main ideas of the presentation. If they took good notes or paid close attention then they finished the quiz relatively quickly. In the end I think it was a nice way to end the presentation and also to tell if they got it. One thing that Mrs. Goldberg suggested I work on was my wait time. There were multiple times during the lesson where I had to give time for students to write down the information, and I would get rushed by seeing students looking at me, so I would try to move on. Luckily it wasnt too short of wait time, but she still said it is something I could strengthen. The only thing I would really change if I could do it again was to add more wait time, but also maybe make my PowerPoint more exciting. I had a lot of bullets with information and not a lot of images to work with the words. In the end I think it went way better than I was expecting. I was so nervous about how short it would be but the students were actually really respectful and helpful by asking a lot of questions even when they seemed like they didnt want to. There was only one time that Mrs. Goldberg cut in to let the class know that she saw students with ear buds in and she was going to have a heart attack if people didnt put them away. I am happy with the way this turned out but just wish I would have had more time to add activities.

Teacher: Mr. Carnahan School: Thompson Valley High School Title: Translateth That! Grade Level:9th

Date:4/15/2014 Content Area: English Lesson #:1of 1

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson: (Write Content Standards directly from the standard) 9th-10th grade Common Core State Standards for Writing: 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 9th-10th grade Common Core Stat Standards for Language: 4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 9-10 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies a. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a words position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. b. Identify and correctly use patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings or parts of speech (e.g., analyze, analysis, analytical; advocate, advocacy) d. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).

Understandings: (Big Ideas) When reading certain texts it is essential to be able to translate older languages into modern day language. The type of writing Shakespeare used is tough to comprehend and understand without proper translation. Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of instruction, select applicable questions from standard) How does text context assist in figuring out the meaning of unknown words when reading difficult text? How can you describe the importance of being able to find the meaning of unknown words in multiple ways?

Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets) Every student will be able to: (Create your own lesson objectives from the standard, follow the ABCD format, using student voice) Students can: Translate pieces of dialogue from Romeo and Juliet into Modern English by looking at context clues, identifying word changes/patterns, and looking up unknown words without the help of the book or the internet. This means: Being able to translate language that Shakespeare uses without direct translation from the internet; using context clues to determine word meanings.

List of Assessments: (Write the number of the learning target associated with each assessment) Complete Translation of sentences on slides (learning target 1) Complete Translation in different writing context of passage from Act 2 Scene 2 (Learning target 1)

Planned Lesson Activities

Name and Purpose of Lesson Should be a creative title for you and the students to associate with the activity. Think of the purpose as the mini-rationale for what you are trying to accomplish through this lesson. Approx. Time and Materials How long do you expect the activity to last and what materials will you need? Anticipatory Set The hook to grab students attention. These are actions and statements by the teacher to relate the experiences of the students to the objectives of the lesson, To put students into a receptive frame of mind. To focus student attention on the lesson. To create an organizing framework for the ideas, principles, or information that is to follow (advanced organizers) An anticipatory set is used any time a different activity or new concept is to be introduced. Procedures (Include a play-by-play account of what students and teacher will do from the minute they arrive to the minute they leave your classroom. Indicate the length of each segment of the lesson. List actual minutes.) Indicate whether each is: -teacher input -modeling -questioning strategies -guided/unguided: -whole-class practice -group practice -individual practice -check for understanding -other Translateth That! Students in this class are just getting introduced to William Shakespeare. They havent had the time to learn how to translate the language that Shakespeare writes in. This lesson is designed to teach students how to translate his writing into modern day English. 60-65 minutes Translateth That! PowerPoint Romeo and Juliet Act 2 Scene 2 Group Handouts -Begin class by posting the slideshow up on the projector. Have the first slide up with the writing prompt for quickwrite. Ask students to get out a piece of paper and pencil. Then display the slide asking the questions, How has it been so far reading Romeo and Juliet? What has been difficult? What has been easy? (10 min) -Allow up to 10 minutes of writing time for students to write down their in-depth thoughts on the play and how it has been going. -Once time is up, ask students to share some of their thoughts they wrote down. If it doesnt get brought up , be sure to ask about how difficult/easy it is to read the language that he writes in. (5 min) (Slide 2)

-After having discussed the difficulties of reading the play and how it has been going with everyone in the class, discuss how the language that Shakespeare writes in is very different from today, as they can see. (5 min) (slide 3-4) -Explain how in todays language when we form sentences we use the form of Subject, Verb, then Object , but Shakespeare did it a little different. Object-Subject-Verb. In order to understand his plays we have to understand his sentences. Go to slide that has the SVO-OVS activity on it. Explain to students that they are going to move the words in a few sentences around to see if the meaning changes. (10 min) (slide 5-7) -What they should see after doing 2 examples is that the meaning doesnt really change when the words get changed around in the sentence. -Now that we have taken a look at how to read Shakespeares sentences, we can take a shot at translating some simple sentences from plays. Display the Everything Old is New Again Slide. Have students translate the sentences on the slide into modern English as best they can. Once finish, do a

Closure Those actions or statements by a teacher that are designed to bring a lesson presentation to an appropriate conclusion. Used to help students bring things together in their own minds, to make sense out of what has just been taught. Any Questions? No. OK, lets move on is not closure. Closure is used: To cue students to the fact that they have arrived at an important point in the lesson or the end of a lesson. To help organize student learning To help form a coherent picture and to consolidate. Differentiation To modify: If the activity is too advanced for a child, how will you modify it so that they can be successful? To extend: If the activity is too easy for a child, how will you extend it to develop their emerging skills? Assessment How will you know if students met the learning targets? Write a description of what you were looking for in each assessment.

wrap around and see what students came up with. Look for different translations. (10 min)(slide 9) -We have a little experience now translating Shakespeares sentences into modern English, but lets take it a step further. Have students number off 1 through 5. Once counted out, have groups gather by the same number. Each group will be given the passage from Act 2 scene 2 Ln 880-910 of the play to translate. If they choose they can translate the passage into a different context of writing (text message, email, tweets, valley girl, country singer, rapper etc.) (Slide 10) -Once students have put together a complete translation, they will pick 2 people to read theirs aloud. Pay attention to how the translations differ. Be sure to thank them for sharing their work out loud. (20 min) After collecting their translations and quickwrites (all should be on the same paper) ask them if they think that Shakespeares language is long gone, and no longer in use today. Then display the Hip Hop or Shakespeare? Slideshow Display each slide, and then reveal who the person was that said it. After reading the different quotes, explain to them that although it seems like we dont use his language anymore, it has just change slightly, and how hip hop music is a way in which his language lives on today. (5 min)

If the activity is too advanced and some students cant decide how to translate into another context of writing, they can just write it in modern English. If it is too easy for them, they can pick another passage from the acts/scenes read and translate it themselves.

I will know if students met the learning targets by how well they translated their passages and sentences. I will collect the translations at the end. Also I will circle the classroom while they are working on translations and check to see if they are actually doing the work.

Post Lesson Reflection 1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize assessment data to justify your level of achievement) Overall the idea of the lesson was to get students to understand how to read and translate Shakespeares writing into their own words. They did a good job of translating sentences, but when it came to translating a section of dialogue between Romeo and Juliet from Act 2 Scene 2, they had some struggles. Out of the 5 groups that were formed to translate, there were 2 that actually finished their assignment. The other three barely got any translating done, mainly due to lack of focus and they just didnt care. I could tell they understood what I was getting at because they were able to translate the sentences given earlier in the PowerPoint with very few mistakes, but like I said when it came time to translate multiple sentences, they lost focus and started talking with their group members.

2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if you were to teach again? First of all I would change the amount of people in each group for the main translating activity. I think it was a good activity, and Mr. Norton said it was very well planned and a great idea, but this class just couldnt stay focused with groups of 5 students. I counted them off, and I think that should be changed too. Next time I would like to use some sort of color wheel or other differentiation idea to get students mixed with other groups and make sure they are working and not just messing around. I think ideally I would move down to 3 students per group, and maybe cut the amount of translating a little shorter than it was. Other than those changes I don t think I would make any others. Maybe try and come up with a different warm up activity to get them more focused on the task at hand, but overall I think it went well. 3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice, reteach content, etc.) For the next lesson I would envision more reading of the play itself, and also being able to translate what we read as a class without looking in their textbooks for the translating help. They did have a book that had the original writing on the left and a translated version on the right, so students had an idea of what to translate words into, but still just didnt seem to care. I think a good plan for the next lesson would be for students to act out their translations, and that could be a new translation, not the one from the previous lesson plan, and it could even be student picked.

SECTION 3: DATA ANALYSIS The subject for this analysis is a 9th grade English class at Thompson Valley High school in Loveland Colorado. There are 24 students in the classroom and no ELLs. Students were beginning a unity on Shakespeare and were starting to read the play Romeo and Juliet. I wanted to see how students were handling the reading, and see if they understood how to read the way Shakespeare wrote. I recalled being a student in high school and having to read Shakespeare and was so overwhelmed because he wrote so differently. I predicted that students wouldnt understand the way he wrote, even though they did have a copy of the play that was translated. The lesson taught was on how to translate Shakespeares writing into modern day English. Through the presentation students did individual translations of simple sentences from different plays of Shakespeare. They also created their own sentences to rearrange the word order in and see if the meaning changed. The final activity was to get into groups and work on a complete translation of dialogue from the play between the main characters. I gathered their notes on the PowerPoint that included their individual sentence translations, and also collected their group translations of dialogue between the main characters. By looking at their individual translations and their group translations I can see if students gained an understanding for how to translate the language that Shakespeare uses and writes in. Through this lesson I hit a few different standards and a few different learning targets. The first standard I addressed was 9th-10th grade Common Core State Standard for Writing 4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience. Basically after the lesson students can use context clues to figure out word meanings, identify and use patterns of word changes that indicate meaning/part of speech, and verify what they think a word means by looking it up. Looking at the individual tasks that had to be done through the lesson, students did quite a spectacular job. On their own they translated the sentences from the PowerPoint, so this was my assessment of how well they translated all ready. By going through and reviewing their sentence translations, I was able to determine how well these students could read Shakespeares writing. The second standard addressed was 9th-10th grade Common Core State Standard for Language 4: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 9-10 reading and content, choosing widely from a range of strategies. This standard was addressed by the students getting grouped up and having to translate the multiple pieces of dialogue into modern day English. When taking a look at students individual translations, they were categorized into 3 groups. Students who got a score of 3 on their sentence translations were considered the students who got it, the students who got 2s were ones who sort of got it, and 1 was either they didnt do it or barely attempted. The results were 7 students scored a 3, 4 students scored a 2, and 6 students scored a 1. Basically what this tells me is that either a majority of students got it, or they just didnt attempt it at all. Usually there are around 24 students in the class, but that day there were only 17. So that means that almost half of the students in the class either scored a 1 or a 3. What this really shows me is that students either dont care about my lesson or didnt want to show the effort, or they understood it very well and were kind enough to put forth the effort I asked. I would say that most students that got a 1 truly didnt understand, but also this particular class isnt very engaging. I talked

with my match up teacher about them and he told me I did a great job on the lesson, but that the kids just never really engage themselves in the class work. Moving on to the group translations, students had a little bit different steps to take. Instead of working individually students were grouped in to groups of 5. In groups they worked together to translate the dialogue between Romeo and Juliet in Act 2 Scene 2, the famous balcony scene. When looking at students work, it was clear who did the translation and who didnt. There turned out to be only 4 groups that worked together as a group, others broke away from their groups and worked individually. 3 students put together individual translations, and out of those 3 only 2 were acceptable attempts. One student got only 3 sentences in and quit trying. As for the other 4 groups of students, they all worked a little better on their translations. Out of the 4 groups that worked as groups, there was only 1 complete translation. 2 other groups made it about halfway through and the last group only made it about of the way through the dialogue assigned. What this tells me is that students in this class tend to not work well together in groups of 5. There are some students who did this individually and succeeded, and others who did it individually and failed. What was most interesting was that the group of students who completely finished their translation was led by a student who had not been in class for the past 3 weeks. This student knew exactly what to do even though she had never read Shakespeare before or had to translate it either, I was truly blown away. I could tell as I circled the room that students both did the translation and took it seriously, or they were goofing off with friends in other groups and not helping their group at all. Overall though the lesson really showed me as a teacher how data such as what I have discussed can help you gather information about your students. After reflecting upon the lesson and how the data came out, I realized that there are a couple different areas of improvement to work on. The first area for improvement would be the explanation of the lesson. It seemed that students understood that we were going to be looking at Shakespeares writing, but were not too excited about the whole translating part. Instead of giving them a little more guidance, I kind of just threw them into the water and hoped they could swim. Luckily they were able to translate the simple sentences, but when it came to the group work they didnt seem to care at all. One strategy I could have used was a simple formative assessment of how they understood the task at hand. I never really gave them a chance to tell me if they understood what to do or not, and I think that if I would have taken the time to just ask a quick, quickly just give me a thumbs up or thumbs down on whether you understand what we are doing? Something as simple as a check for understanding survey could easily tell me whether I am explaining the task well enough for students to understand. By seeing who gets it and who doesnt will tell me how well my explanation has been for students. If I dont see enough thumbs up for get it I obviously need to retrace my steps and make sure I clearly define what students should be doing. Another area for improvement I could work on is the warm up activity. What I originally did was have students do a quickwrite on how the reading of the play had been so far. This was going to be my kind of pre-assessment to see where they were all at as far as being comfortable reading and translating. As much as I liked this idea as an assessment, it didnt really get students thinking about their struggles with the reading. One strategy I thought about using was the chalk-talk strategy. This way students would write their answers down, but also put them up on the board for the whole class to

see, and that way we can discuss in depth some of the struggles they have with the play. I think this would help with the sharing aspect as well. When I first asked students to share what they wrote down, no one raised a hand. It was like pulling teeth. I had to call on students who I could clearly see had written stuff down, and asked them to read what they had. Some I could tell were very uncomfortable, and I didnt want to make them feel that way. The whole chalk-talk method I think is a great way for students to just share one main idea or point from their writing and as a class we could discuss different points brought up, instead of having to listen to students read their whole quickwrite. What I will hopefully be able to measure is the amount of student participation in sharing their ideas. Like I stated earlier, this class doesnt like to engage, so hopefully by having them share only one idea from their writing I think would help students open up a bit more in class. Improvement will be measured by the amount of students that decide to share their thoughts and opinions on the quickwrite topic. One last area for improvement would be, of course, classroom management. While doing the group work I circled the room to help students with questions and also to monitor progress. The number one question I was asked was, why do we need to do this. I was caught so off-guard by this and didnt know how to respond. Students could obviously tell I didnt have a straight answer and I think this lead to them not caring whatsoever about finishing the assignment for me. I felt as though because I had watched my match up teacher, and he doesnt really punish students for not doing their work other than not giving them points, that I did the same thing with students. I walked around and saw some of them goofing off and would kindly ask them to get back to the task, but of course as soon as I walked away they would go back to goofing off. I know that I could definitely be more critical when asking students to please finish the task and help their group with the work. This will just take practice to get used to. As much as I tried to keep students focused on group work, they would eventually go back to chatting with other groups and leave the work to only a few members. One other way I think I could manage the class better is by assigning smaller groups. It seemed that having 5 people in a group was too much for students to handle. The students who worked individually on their translations were the ones who did really well, because they werent being distracted. Overall the help with the classroom management next time the groups should be no larger than 3 students, and they can go into the lab if they choose as to get away from other students that might bother them. By doing these modifications I hope to see more students completing the entire translation and actually working together as a group, instead of students not helping and only letting a few people do the work. Only one group actually finished the translation, so measurement could be the amount of groups that finish and present their translation to the class.

SECTION 4: MODIFICATIONS, ADAPTATIONS, ACCOMMODATIONS The class that I chose to look at for this assignment was Mrs. Goldbergs class room. They are all mainly 9th graders with a few upperclassmen in the room as well. When I first asked her if there were any students in the classroom that had IEPs or 504s I was amazed to find out that there were actually quite a few. I was amazed because in our 350 practicum at the middle schools it was pretty obvious who was on IEPs or 504s, but in the high school environment I couldnt tell whatsoever. The class is very respectable to each other and also Mrs. Goldberg. They can get a little rowdy but whenever Mrs. Goldberg or I give them a look they will usually get back to work or back to their seats. They dont really have too many special needs. What I have witnessed in class is that students need solid directions and examples before being let loose to do their own projects or assignments. So far the class has been focusing on interpersonal communication, and has been working a lot in groups. This was interesting to think about after I had found out about some of the students on IEPs. One student doesnt work well in groups because she is very emotional, so Mrs. Goldberg allowed for her to work on her own if she wanted, and even allowed her to work in a different room that was right next to the classroom. There is one gifted/talented student in the class I observe but Mrs. Goldberg didnt go into detail on that. I have noticed though that Mrs. Goldberg always tries to have some sort of activity that gets students up and moving, because there is no way they can just sit there for 90 minutes and take in everything you lecture on. One interesting aspect Mrs. Goldberg and I discussed was how her classroom seating was set up. Instead of having really long columns of seats, she has wide rows, so that there really is no back of the room seats where a lot of students think they can go to check out from class. Instead she has tables in the back where students can sit, but if the class is small enough she makes everyone sit at a desk. What really was cool to see was that Mrs. Goldberg had 9 seats in the front of the classroom. She was telling me how this works for other classes where she has multiple students with IEPs, and she modifies for them by having them sit in the front row. She said this works really well because when they sit in the back, they tend to zone out and not want to participate, but when she has them sitting in the front row so they can stay focused, they will tend to participate more and be more likely to do the assignment given. I just taught my first lesson on Thursday and it was only 30 minutes long, so there wasnt much room to do any activities other than lecture and give a quiz at the end. One of the scenarios I have come up with to help modify and accommodate is for the student I spoke of earlier that has the emotional disorder. On her IEP that I got to see I was able to see what modifications can be made to help her in class. Say we were doing a project where students have to work in groups to design a perfect city, and they are grouped based on what color personality they have. Now this student with the IEP is somewhat able to work in groups, but some days she just wont want to do anything because she is so emotionally overwhelmed. So in order to accommodate for her needs and modify my lesson, I could have this student go to work on their assignment by themselves in the computer lab connected to the classroom. One other modification that can be made for this student is allowing extra time for tests, or even allowing the student to make up a missed test because they were having an emotional breakdown. These ways would help the student calm down and just focus on their work.

The other scenario I thought of was having a student that has a hard time understanding directions given. This student is actually in my class with Mrs. Goldberg, and I cant recall the reason he has an IEP other than, like I said, he has a hard time understanding and comprehending the directions for assignments. A way to accommodate and modify for this student would be to allow for discussion of what to do one on one with the teacher. By doing this the student is able to ask any questions that he/she didnt want to say in front of the class or was too shy to ask their friends for help. Hypothetically if I did another lesson in this class I would have to do a few things to help modify for this student. Instead of calling this student out directly to come talk to me after the other students have started working, I can simply walk by and just check for understanding and restate the point of the assignment in more general terms. If the student really needs help I could make a handout with the basic ideas for the assignment on it, and helpful hints on what to do when stuck. One modification that Mrs. Goldberg told me about was pretty interesting. She had a student on an IEP that would get overwhelmed by multiple choice questions. This particular student also was an ELL so that didnt help out either, but what she did was pretty simple and it helped out big time. On the multiple choice tests the student would go with a Para to take the test. When the student would go to leave, Mrs. Goldberg would let the student know that none of the answers to the questions were C, so instead of having 4 answers to choose from, the student then only had 3 options left to choose from. She said that this small modification helped this student greatly. I just thought it was amazing that something as small as eliminating one of the answers could help out a student so much.

SECTION 5: REFLECTION AND CRITIQUE Over the past semester it is easy to say that I have learned a lot about myself both as a student and as a future teacher. Probably the most crucial thing I learned from teaching my lessons with my classes was that wait time is everything. The one piece of advice I was given by both teachers was to work on wait time. I find it very hard to stand up in front of the class and just stare back at them waiting for an answer of some kind. I realized that by taking more wait time it actually pushes students to give me a response. I felt so awkward just waiting there, but after long enough I felt like I broke the ice; I had demonstrated that I want an answer no matter how long it takes. I feel very comfortable in front of students, which is mind blowing to me because I was so nervous at the beginning of the semester. Even back at the middle school practicum I felt very nervous, but after getting to know both my classes I was able to find my comfort zone with them, and our relationships flourished from there. I realized that when planning my lessons I tend to get distracted by too many ideas. I stress about trying to make the perfect lesson every time, and it makes me second guess all my original ideas. Over the semester I worked on trying to collect my thoughts and stay on one single idea for a lesson, instead of always trying to hit a million targets with one stone. I also learned that lessons arent always going to go as planned, and you have to be ready to improvise. I found this to be quite easy by just being myself around my students. When something didnt go as planned I had no hesitation in gearing us back to the task. My philosophy has definitely changed over the semester. I use to really push the idea of making content relevant for students, and I still am a huge supporter of this idea. However, I learned that I need to push further than just making the content relevant for students. I learned that I need to show students how to apply what we learn in English to their lives, and that may not be now or in a year from now, but the skills you learn in English class with help you throughout your life period. I believe that Education is something that is forever changing. Each year there are no types of students and new styles of learning to be adapted. I think as a future teacher it is my job to always be changing the way I teach. I want to always be encouraging students to question and explore new things. The only way I believe students can truly learn is to feed their hunger of curiosity, but we also should make them curious. I learned with high school students you really have to work to get them interested in the topic of choice. You need to not only show the relevance but explain how it will benefit them later on in life or even later on that day. A goal I want to achieve over the summer is to build my comfort with creating lesson plans, and not stressing out about trying to make the perfect one every time. I hope to build this strength by working with current teachers and fellow classmates on creating new lesson plans in a timely matter. Another goal I would like to achieve is to work on classroom management. Over the summer I really want to narrow down what my class guidelines will be. I want to have a comfortable and safe atmosphere without risking productivity and learning, and I am still not sure how to balance that out. Overall this semester has opened my eyes incredibly wide on how amazing teaching can be. I am so excited to student teach in a high school setting because of the experiences I had this semester. This class was such a positive influence on my education and my attitude towards my career and am thankful for opportunity.