Five-Minute Teach Guidelines

What is the purpose of a Five Minute Teach?

Five-Minute Teaches will
give you the opportunity to teach the class in a supportive environment and to receive constructive
feedback* from your peers on your teaching
give each student in class an opportunity to experience a variety of activities appropriate for high
school teaching
provide an experiential way to engage content with Common Core State Standards
allow me to observe your pedagogical skills prior to your student teaching
give you practice for your lesson plans and collaborative unit of study
provide simple lessons for you to utilize in your future classroom
What do I do?
All 5-Minute Teaches are scheduled for 2/10/15. This week, you will sign up on a Google doc
for the category for which you will teach. (Feel free to make up your own or use other
resources.)

You will have FIVE MINUTES to teach (timed).

Actively engage the class for the majority of those five minutes. Obviously, what
you can do in five minutes is limited, but it is long enough to start something and to give us
a taste of your teaching style.

*After each 5-Minute Teach, the class will take a few moments to offer constructive criticism. A
protocol will be used for constructive feedback.
Teaches 1-3: Reading Literature
Teaches 4-6: Informational Texts
Teaches
Teaches
Teaches
Teaches

7-9: Language
10-12: Writing
13-15: Listening
16-18: Speaking

What do I turn in?

The week you teach, you will turn in a report (no longer than 2 pages, dbl-spaced) that includes:

Title of the activity, source, and rationale for selection

A description of how this activity might fit into an entire lesson or unit and what
knowledge, skills, and processes are addressed

The procedural steps used in conducting this activity. Make copies of this page and distribute
them to the class with any materials necessary for lesson (# of students enrolled: 21), or
email to the class via Edmodo by Monday.

Submit your 5-Minute Teach to Edmodo the week you teach, along with the materials and
resources you used.
Submit a reflection within a week after your Teach. In your reflection, please answer some of the
following questions:
o What are the strengths of this work?
o What do you know about ______ (e.g. a
Weaknesses?
specific topic or skill) that you did not know
o What would you work on if you had
before?
o How did you get "stuck" working on this
additional time?
o How has your presentation style changed
task? How did you get "unstuck"?
o A skill I couldnt perform very well but now I
since last year?
can is ....

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What is one thing you can improve upon

here?

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One thing I still need to work on is ....

I will work toward my goal by ....

The Teach itself will be evaluated on your preparation, presence, purpose, and class
engagement (i.e. did you ask the students to do something?). The written portion will
articulate your reasoning and reflection.

Sample Five-Minute Teach Write-Up

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Title: Reveling in Connotation and Denotation
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Source: Writing from the Senses by Michelle Y. Burke

Standard:
Identify the standard that your lesson addresses.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.5.B Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar
denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute).
Rationale:
The rationale justifies the lesson according to Common Core Standards and the Components of an
Effective Lesson.
This lesson meets the 8th grade Language standard 5B by asking students to identify various words
and phrases that mean the same thing: pass the salt. Here they learn that different words can have
similar denotations. The second half of the lesson asks strategic questions in order for students to
start thinking about specific associations, or connotations, for the brainstormed words/phrases.
The goal is to get students to think about words in a more nuanced wayto notice how different
words carry different weights and can be used strategically for specific effect.
In terms of the Components of an Effective Lesson, this would be an Introduction to a lesson about
language within the context of close-reading, writing, or literary analysis.
Discussion
The discussion is an exploration of the value of the assignment, suggestions for implementation,
and alternative uses or adaptations.
The value of this assignment is that its a quick, easy way to teach or review connotation and
denotation. It takes no longer than ten minutes of the class period, but by the end of the lesson,
students are starting to think about the nuances of language. An additional value is that the lesson
can easily be used at the start of many types of reading and writing lessons.
I would implement this activity at the start of a lesson about writing poetry. After introducing the
idea of connotation and denotation, we would read a short poem and analyze some of the words for
their layers of meaningconnotation. In the last part of class, students would use the poem we
read in class as a model for their own poem. The focus during writing would be on choosing words
with texture and nuance. Ideally, we would end class by sharing and discussing the poems we wrote
and the words we chose.
There are many other words or phrases one could use besides Pass the salt. Consider doing this
activity numerous times during a unit on figurative language, for example, Each time students
complete this activity, they do it for a different word or phrase. The first time might be pass the
salt. The second time around could be for the word, childish.
Another alternative to this activity is to have the class read a short poem and replace one of the
poets words with something of a similar denotation. The question might be, how does this affect
our understanding? How does it affect the sound and rhythm of the poem?

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o Procedures
o Procedures offer a step-by-step break down of the lesson for others to follow.
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1. Students have two minutes to write down as many complete sentences as possible to convey the
concept: Pass the salt.
2. After two minutes, ask students to share whats on their lists.
3. Point out the limitless possibilities with sentence structure and word choice to express one simple
idea.

4. Offer a brief explanation of denotation (dictionary definition) and connotation (figurative

meanings/implications)
5. Express how all these phrases carry the same denotation, but not necessarily the same
connotation. To make this point clear, ask questions about the brainstormed phrases like, Where
might one expect to hear? How might you describe a dinner party where someone says? How
old would you expect someone to be who says?