}oanie Baiiy

Foims baseu 0nit

EB0C 141
I chose to uo this foim-baseu unit on poetiy. I chose this genie foi a few
ieasons. I leaineu thiee weeks ago that I woulu be placeu in Boovei Bigh School.
Aftei some investigation I founu my mentoi teachei teaches 9
th
giaue English anu
what seems to be 9
th
giaue help English. Nost of my lesson anu unit plans have been
uiiecteu towaius uppei classmen oi sophomoies. I figuieu that cieating a lesson
plan foi 8
th
giaueis might be a new challenge that might be applicable to my stuuent
teaching. Anothei ieason I ueciueu to uo this unit came fiom my tiip home foi
Thanksgiving. Nany of my family membeis teach in the Chicago Public Schools as
miuule anu high school teacheis. They all weie uiscussing how many of theii 8
th

giaueis anu 9
th
giaueis still ieau anu wiite at a 4
th
oi S
th
giaue level. I know that
Boovei has a big population of ELL stuuents, which may also affect theii ieauing
level. I ueciueu that even though the Common Coie Stanuaius I useu aie meant foi
4
th
anu S
th
giaue it may be necessaiy to incluue 4
th
giaue anu 8
th
giaue stanuaius if
theie is a laige enough uisciepancy among stuuents. Also, suipiisingly enough, the
only Common Coie Stanuaius foi poetiy that I coulu finu weie at the 4
th
giaue level.
So theoietically I may be able to teach this lesson to 8
th
anu 9
th
giaueis uepenuing
on theii ieauing level.
Anothei puipose I hau foi this unit is to wiite a shoitei unit of instiuction
that coulu possibly be useu uuiing the thiee weeks between Thanksgiving anu
Chiistmas. Thioughout my whole euucation I have noticeu that that time peiiou in
schools is stiessful to say the least. I figuieu that this is a goou unit that isn't veiy
stiessful but keeps stuuents engageu.
Ny oveiall goal with this unit is to intiouuce poetiy to stuuents. Keeping in
minu that poetiy may not have been taught to them befoie I want to expose them to
many uiffeient types. Nany times stuuents builu a ioaublock in theii minus about
poetiy. Aftei intiouucing them to poetiy, I want to intiouuce the iuea that poetiy is
not exclusive. Poetiy suiiounus kius eveiy uay they might not iecognize it. I also
want to intiouuce that stuuents themselves can be poets. 0n the last uay of the unit I
will have a wiap up uiscussion. I am going to ask them all of the enuuiing questions
one of them being "Who qualifies as a poet." I plan to let them uiscuss this question
then auu the fact that technically, the entiie class is publisheu poets. The final
summative assessment will compile the class's poems into a liteiaiy magazine that I
will uistiibute to the class.
Ny majoi summative assessment was an attempt to successfully uiffeientiate
stuuent leaining. 0n one of my fiist 0bB's I tiieu to assign a summative assessment
with too much uiffeientiation. I tiieu to have thiee uiffeient types of essays anu that
was going to be too oveiwhelming to giaue. I am stubboin though so I ueciueu to tiy
again. This time I hau stuuents uo a matiix assignment. Each iow is a uiffeient level
of uifficulty. The level 1 poems aie the easiei shoitei poems while level S poems aie
moie uifficult. Stuuents have to pick one fiom each iow, which will allow them wiite
thiee poems. Then the stuuents will tuin the poems into me anu I will select one of
the thiee poems to put in a liteiaiy magazine that we can give to the whole class.
The goal of the magazine is to have the stuuents see themselves as poets.
Ny biggest feai with this assessment is the iubiic. As I lookeu up uiffeient
poetiy iubiics online some seemeu veiy complicateu anu uetaileu. Some giaueu on
how many illusions anu poetic language stuuents useu. I iealizeu, the goal of my unit
was to builu stuuents confiuence in wiiting poetiy. I also want them to know that
poetiy is self-expiession. If I giaue these poems on the amount of uifficult language
they use, I unueimine all of my enuuiing unueistanuings. When I cieateu my final
iubiic I only hau thiee columns: one on foim, one on completion anu one on
paiticipation uuiing woikshop. That iubiic is not neaily as iigoious as my ones foi
wiiting analytical papeis but my goal was to get stuuents comfoitable with poetiy. I
think that my unit is still challenging but I am assessing stuuent effoit not whethei
oi not they useu enough illusions anu imageiy.