TPA Lesson Plan

    Eastern Washington University has adopted an adaptation of a lesson plan template from the University of California for teacher candidates to use. This template requires a lot of thinking and writing but is a tool to teach student teachers how to think about lesson planning. By the time students graduate, they will have written several lesson plans using the TPA. Though they may not use the TPA, specifically, again in their teaching careers, the TPA trains teachers how to think and what do consider when making a lesson plan until it is instinctual.

     When considering a unit, the teacher needs to know the demographic of their classroom and the culture of the students being taught and even their parents. Personalities and personal hardships both effect how a classroom operates each day. Teachers also consider individual student needs when planning the specific activities for each lesson. Instruction should begin with standards to which goals and objectives are related. One thing teacher candidates learn is that learning activities and instructional strategies should be based on research and thoughtful planning. The teacher is held accountable to use best practices. Teacher candidates write what my school calls a “Learning Target” so each student knows what they are learning. Teachers need to explain the core vocabulary used and how the target relates to their learning.

     Some things that I personally need to work on in my lesson planning are assessment and making connections between the objectives and activities to the assessment and learning goal. One question is, “How will you record what you see and hear.” So far, I do not have an ongoing file on my students other than the gradebook. I am not too good at keeping details of what they have learned individually in my head. When students take assessments, every question should be aligned with an objective. Students should be able to really show what they have learned. Furthermore, students may not understand that the activities they do help them learn skills we will look for in their assessment. We want to see them to see the line of improvement in their skills as we work on assessing them.

Mapping a Route Toward Differentiated Instruction

"Mapping a Route Toward Differentiated Instruction" by Carol Ann Tomlinson

     Differentiated instruction takes place when students work at different speeds and levels. Tomlinson suggest that the traditional method of teaching all students the same thing, at the same pace is not necessarily helpful for all student to learn. Her first step to differentiated instruction is to have the end goal in mind. To have successful teaching, students need to have new understanding and be engaged in what they are learning. Just because a teacher gives students different amounts of time to finish an activity or uses different activities that allow movement, creativity and choice, does not mean the teacher is creating differentiated lessons. The lesson must always have the end goal in mind and the students should know what that goal is so they can link their activities to long term learning. Just because the students are engaged or having fun does not mean that they are gaining deeper understanding. I worry about this in my future classroom. I believe teachers need to find creative ways to engage students and provide them with different strategies to learn. One way to do that is use games. If I am not careful, I will use games or fun projects because I want my students to be happy, but they will not further student learning.

      The differentiated lessons begin with key concepts students should know by the end of the unit like "culture". Then teachers use principles like "how cultures are shaped." Next the teacher defines facts and terms students should know by the end of the unit and the skills they should have such as interpreting historical data. Finally, teachers use essential questions to engage student interest in their learning. These questions can be about how the topic is related to their lives. Teachers can differentiate instruction in different ways. One is that student work can be directed by their personal interests. Another is that differentiation depends on the students' readiness. Teachers can give different resources and levels of support depend on their level of understanding and skill. Finally, the instruction depends on the teacher's assessment of student progress. Throughout instruction, the teacher can introduce different strategies like differentiated groups or differentiated graphic organizers to assist in learning at different levels of readiness. I had not previously thought of differentiation this way. I thought of it more as giving the students who work faster another task to work on when they were done. Instead, departments work together to set the key concepts, terms and skills students need to have in order to move on. The teacher creates lessons that engage different levels of skills and understanding, not speeds and not just different activities keep students from calling the class boring.

Double-Entry Diary from Tovani

Double-Entry Diaries

Direct Quote and page Number                                                                This reminds me of…

1.       “Someone is chasing me. ‘Stop! Thief!’ I run.” (1)      When Aladdin runs through the streets because                                                                                                                      he stole food

2.       “At last we plunge into a dark hole” (2)                          In Maus, some people hid in the garbage holes.

3.       “Soon it won’t be ladies chasing you” (2)                       In Maus, in Auswitz there were female KAPOs

4.       “Runt is good.” (5)                                                                   In Newsies, Jack decides the new guy’s                                                                                   little brother would help them make profits selling                                                                                          papers because he is small and cute

5.       “He reached down and fingered the yellow

Stone hung around my neck… ‘I always had it’” (7)   In Anastasia, the princess does not remember                                                                                    who she is but has a necklace since before her                                                                                                          memories.

6.       “Stupid. Stupid. They take everything. Just to

take it” (13)                                                            The boys remind me of Oliver Twist because                                                                                       they steal money and valuables as a game.

Quote and page                                                                       I visualize….

1.       “He was dragging me, running. He was much

bigger.” (2)                                                                                 the person is a bully like                                                            Goyle in Harry Potter.

2.       “I gave him my name. ‘Stopthief.’”  (3)                          A pre-teen who never knew family, only                                                                                                        stealing for food.

3.       “He took me to meet the others. We were in

a stable.” (4)                                                                  a bunch of raggedy dirty kids but warm enough.

4.       “’Tonight you sleep on the floor,’ he said.

‘Tomorrow I’ll get you a bed.’” (9)                                    Uri treats Stopthief like a little brother. I can                                                                                                see Uri patting him on the head.

5.       “We walked to the shopping district, where

the big stores were.” (10)                                                    the big department stores in Chicago.

6.       “And then a woman in a fox fur came down the

aisle and reached over the seats and drew down

the window on Uri’s hands.” (14)                                     an awful woman like the witches on Hocus                                                                                                                  Pocus

Quote and page                                                                       I wonder….

1.       “He stared at me. ‘Who are you?’” (3)                            is the narrator a girl or boy?

2.       “The boys who were not smoking were

eating... All sorts of other things glittered

in the pile.” (5)                                                                Did the boys steal items so they could sell it?

3.       “’A tiny smelly stupid Jew’” (6)                                       will the other boys accept him and make him                                                                                                              important in their group?

4.       “’A Jew is an animal. A Jew is a bug’” (7)                        Why doesn’t he say what a Jew really is?

5.       “A strange music filled the air: the sirens’ wail

And the thump of exploding shells.” (14)                      Are they near a battle front? Why can they hear                                                                                                       war?

6.       “We smashed into a restaurant, plowed through

a field of red tablecloths…” (15)                                         Will the Destruction hurt the restaurant                                                                                                owner or is it abandoned like the barber shop?

                       

Quote and page                                                                       I am confused about….

1.       “Sometimes it is a memory in the middle of

The day as I stir iced tea or wait for soup…”                  Is it a delusions, a memory or past life?

2.       “Jackboots?” (2) “What’s a Jew?” (6)                              Why doesn’t he know what Jews and                                                                                                       Jackboots and artillery are?

3.       “’We’re in for it good.” (7)                                                   What exactly do they think they are in for?                                                                                                                  Poverty? Death?

4.       “’Strawberry babka’” (7)                                                       What is strawberry babka?

5.       “’A Jew is an animal. A Jew is a bug’… Others

cheered and clapped.” (7)                                              Why are they celebrating being as low as bugs?

6.       “’You’re a Gypsy, ain’t you?’… I nodded.”                     Is he really a Jew or a Gypsy?

So far I’ve learned that this book is about homeless Jewish boys during a time of war. I predict that the boys are near Germany and will be captured as Jews. This story is about poverty, war and racial identity.

“I Read It, But I Don’t Get It” by Cris Tovani

According to Tovani, there are two types of bad readers: those that are “resistive readers” who know how to read but choose not to and those that are “word callers” who can read words but struggle to create meaning out of them. In elementary school, children are supposed to learn how to read and decode words. In middle school and high school, we are supposed to teach our students the techniques to get meaning out of their reading.

Yesterday, I led a reading group of students who had missed a day and needed catching up. The purpose of the reading was to find the similarities and differences between Lois Lowry’s “The Giver” and our world. I started second period by having them create a mental image of what their neighborhood looks like. What are the families like? Then we talked about what we were looking for in the reading. I read aloud as they followed along. Then we stopped to discuss during several parts of the chapter. I could tell that the students had varying levels of experience with thinking about what they were reading as they read it. Discussion of ideas really helped them comprehend the text.

In another case today, a student was behind the rest of his class because of absences. He asked me to read the text for him (of course I didn’t) because he did not want to read it. He knew it was a good book but he just didn’t feel like doing the thinking himself.

My students may not understand that they are learning skills and changing their brains as they read, but they do understand that reading is a process. We are continually paraphrasing, defining, and discussing. Tovani suggests that we discuss with our students our own processes of how we reach conclusions in our readings. And then we can teach them to do the same with their texts by marking them. We should continuously model for them what it means to connect the text to prior knowledge in order to make sense of it.

"A Response-Based Approach to Reading Literature" by Judith Langer

     Langer first differentiates between two forms of instruction or purposed of instruction. In discursive orientation, students are looking at content for specific information. In literary orientation, they look at the larger world of a work of literature and the parts that make up that world. Their understanding of the text is not guided by questions with correct and incorrect answers but their own questions which prod interpretation. This concept reminds me of our responsibility to allow children to explore. Teacher's want to make sure their students learn and feel that they need a structure in the classroom. If a student learns through individual or group determination, is that less valid than the teacher leading the student to specific conclusions? Often we think someone is wrong in their opinion. As a teacher, we assume students are not looking at all of the evidence or are not thinking critically about their answers. In any argument, both parties rely on different pieces of valid evidence to support their conclusions. So why does a student have to come to the teacher's conclusion. How are they supposed to learn to be explorers and inventors if they are taught to only reach the conclusions of others and never reach beyond that?

     Langer's work with teachers has focused heavily on helping literary students, "to arrive at their own responses, explore possibilities, and move beyond initial understandings toward more thoughtful  interpretations." (5) As students learn about literary styles, they focus their attention on making interpretations and understanding perspectives. In discussion, they have to learn to trust their own instincts and to ask for clearer explanations from others. They learn how to trust their hunches and impressions (part one) in order to discover deeper meanings and applications (part two) of the texts they explore and take a "critical stance." (part three) (7) Teachers learned to allow learning to be lead by the student's questions and ideas. Teachers need to provide students with the room to be thinkers on their own and in groups. In my classroom, we use literature circles a few days a week. As we read a book, I facilitate discussion. Although I know how to lead a discussion at a college level, I find it difficult to not ask questions to get my students to particular answers. I want them to notice all the details I notice that create a whole idea. Instead, I think they rely on me to get them to say what I want them to. I hope that my questions act as a building block to help them read the literature critically, to find the parts that make up the whole. As I work on asking more open ended questions, I hope my detailed question prepare them to think in a way that can support ideas about the world they are exploring.

“Promoting Social Justice in an Urban Secondary Teacher Education Program” by Monica A. Medina, Anastasia S. Morrone and Jeffrey A. Anderson

      According to the authors’ source, Novak, social justice is “inspiring, working with, and organizing others to accomplish together a work of justice… that primarily involves the good of others.” (208) In a broader sense, social justice is taking into account the background and experiences of others to work toward accomplishing a goal that is for the good of others. I think of this like a treaty. One “tribe” has it’s own experiences, traditions and knowledge than another but they both have a problem. Even though they are different people, they use their combined past experiences, traditions and knowledge to make the best plan for both groups. They do not ignore the other’s situation or culture but use it to enact justice.

      Students may have similar experiences within an area and culture but diversity (of various forms) makes conflict overall. Morrone and Anderson taught preservice teachers how to use reflection and knowledge about the area and conditions their students live in to make decisions. Preconceived ideas about a type of people or students do not help the teacher teach nor help the students learn. Those ideas need to be worked past in order to make any progress. Instead, teachers need a clear idea of where their students come from. They need to research the communities and perspectives of the students. Students should feel safe and understood in the classroom, not alienated and bossed around.

      Social justice instruction should be relevant to the lives of the students. You may want to give an urban classroom a book about farming because it is diverse but it may not really be relevant to them unless the main character has some experiences the students can relate to. Students need exposure to multicultural instruction and they need to be taught cultural sensitivity along with that. Say a class watches “Hotel Rawanda.” They are presented with a conflict from a completely different culture. Some of the students in the classroom may have experienced warfare and genocide similar to that in the movie. Learning about another culture teaches students compassion asks them to think critically about their own situation and how the world should be.

"Critical Pedagogy and Popular Culture in an Urban Secondary English Classroom" by Duncan-Andrade & Morrell

I am currently working in an urban school with a reputation for low achievement and crime. My students are not that different than students at other schools but their culture is established by their poverty and the education of their parents. Some of my students' parents used to read to them as kids. Some of them can get help with homework at home. Most do not have those opportunities. They ask why they have to do projects and they resist authority. They see school as another place where they are told what to do.

Duncan-Andrade and Morrell worked in an urban high school near a rich high school. Their students did not even have books to take home from their classes while the rich kids got a new expensive stadium. Duncan-Andrade and Morrell worked with their students on a project of self-discovery, multiculturalism and social justice through literature and popular culture. They used typical works such as "The Odyssey," "Beowulf" and Shakespearean plays to ask their students to look at the "others", "outcasts" or the "have nots" in varying societies over time and space. Their research into multiculturalism had more to do with how they taught than the material they used. Instead of only giving the students materials that some would say would enrich the students' lives past their expected experience, these teachers did not feed them information but helped them draw conclusions about texts from their own experiences in their own cultural practices. Poetry could be compared to rap. An epic tale related to their actual lives and how society lives. Students were asked to look beyond the conventions of text and see how people really relate to one another. They call this "the knowledge production process." (188)

One tool the teachers used was Stand and Deliver (1987 film) about a poor and culturally diverse school with a teacher that worked past the conventions of education to make successful calculus learners out of failing algebra prisoners. I think that using a movie with students in a similar context can help those students relate the ideas they are developing from their texts and other media. They can see how to question their own situations and make solutions.