Megan

Klein

Final Reflection

A) Understanding of Practice

Differentiation is a concept that is extremely important to me in education. It
is imperative that teachers realize that students are individuals, and therefore learn
in unique and personalized ways. It is unfair to students to teach in a single way
because it privileges some students, while putting others at a disadvantage. Over
the course of my experience in the classroom thus far, I have observed
differentiation in a variety of formats that allow for each student in the classroom to
perform to the best of their ability. Differentiation can be as simple as giving
students the opportunity to speak with a partner before sharing out with the whole
class one of the most important parts of differentiation is simply being aware of its
need in the classroom. I view differentiation as being equal in importance to
establishing a positive classroom environment. If students feel comfortable and
challenged in an appropriate way, then they will be more likely to work and
participate in class.

In my lesson plans, I differentiated for students in a variety of ways.
However, I believe that the most powerful way that I differentiated instruction was
through incorporating visual media in the classroom. For one of the lessons, rather
than having students read a poem individually, I showed the students a video of
slam poetry. This not only engaged the students because they were unfamiliar with
it, but it also allowed me to differentiate instruction for the English Language
Learner in my class. Because he speaks and understands English fluently, it was not
a challenge for him to watch the video. However, if he had to read the poem, he
would have most likely struggled with reading comprehension which would have
caused him to feel uncomfortable participating in class.

Assessment is another concept that is incredibly valuable in the classroom.
My perception of assessment has changed greatly over the course of the year
because like differentiation, I have realized that there are many ways of
accomplishing this in the classroom. In regard to assessment, the most important
aspect to me is allowing students the opportunity to improve. Assessment is
meaningless if it provides students with a score and no chance to work on
improving and developing their skills. Students need consistent formative
assessments throughout lessons in order for both the teacher and the students to
assess their understanding of a topic and determine their comfort level in moving on
to the next task. This also requires teachers to provide consistent, thorough
feedback on these assessments so they are aware of each individual students
progress in the classroom. I have learned that assessment does not have to be
written; rather, it can involve the teacher asking the class to give a thumbs up if they
understand, or a thumbs down if they would like more practice. The purpose is not
to put a grade in the grade book it is to give students the chance to improve their
skills so that they will demonstrate progress, and even mastery.

In regard to assessment in my lesson plans, I think that my strongest form of
assessment was through journaling. I feel very confident in using journaling as a
form of formative assessment for a variety of reasons. First, having students journal
in response to specific prompts or activities holds them accountable. Since students
are being graded on the completion of their journals, they have to write something
down. If I were assessing these students in a whole-class setting, it is easy for
students to slip through the cracks and get away with not participating. Second, this
allows for quieter students to express their concerns with me on a one-on-one basis.
Some students simply are not comfortable approaching the teacher or other
students for help, so journaling ensures that these students still have comfortable
opportunities to ask questions or ask for help.

Technology is most likely the concept that I have changed my mind about the
most. Initially, I was very hesitant to incorporate technology into my lesson plans
because I felt that it had no place in the English classroom. However, since planning
this unit, I have realized the value of technology as a way of differentiating.
Providing students with verbal or visual media is extremely beneficial for students
that may struggle with reading comprehension because it gives them a different way
to approach the work. It allows them to participate in the discussions or activity
without making them feel uncomfortable or pressured to keep up with their
classmates. Technology also has a place in the classroom in the form of allowing
students to research material on their own. It can be really helpful for students to
learn how to research information on their own instead of receiving it from the
teacher because it teaches them that they are active participants in their learning
and that they are capable of discovering the answers for themselves. This gives
students agency, and makes them feel like they are important parts of the
classroom.

When reviewing my lesson plans, I realized that I had incorporated more
technology than I had initially planned. I had the students watch a 15-minute clip
from a documentary, which I think is really interesting. Students do not typically
watch documentary-style videos in an English class, so I think this was a great
opportunity to appeal to students who tend to be more interested in subjects such
as history. It also appealed to students who do not enjoy reading and writing
although they still had to respond to the documentary in their journals, it felt like
less of a task because it was in response to something they were interested in.

Another area of strength regarding technology in my lesson plans was having
students watch a video of slam poetry. This is very engaging for students because
they are able to see the emotion in the poem, which is something that many students
struggle with when reading poetry they simply cannot comprehend what the
poem is saying. This was a great opportunity to spark discussions and thoughts
about gender and privilege for students, and open up the floor for multiple different
students because it was easily understandable throughout the class.

B. Understanding of my Development as a Practitioner:

A. Make informed selections from a range of diverse print and electronic texts
for use with adolescents based on student interest, literacy backgrounds, and
relevancy to conceptual content (IRA/NCTE 1, 2, 9)

I feel that I have made progress towards meeting this objective because I am
much more comfortable exploring diverse literature and incorporating it into the
classroom than I was previously. For instance, I chose to include an excerpt from
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian in one of my lessons for this unit
plan. Before taking this course, I might have avoided including a text that has
challenging themes and language like this one so that I could avoid having to spend
time discussing touchy topics with my students. However, I shaped my lesson plan
around establishing a respectful classroom environment and opened up a discussion
about difficult vocabulary that was used in the excerpt. I learned that it is important
to expose students to diverse literature such as this novel because it encourages
them to think about issues that they may not have considered before, such as the
power that a single word can have when used in a certain way.
I also feel much more comfortable incorporating electronic texts in my
classroom. In my unit plan, I included a short video of a boy reciting his poem,
which is an effective way to engage students in texts in a unique way. Rather than
having students read the poem, they were able to watch and listen to the emotions
from the poet himself, which was a valuable experience for students who struggle
with reading comprehension.

B. Teach students a range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate,
and appreciate texts through whole group, small group, and individualized
reading/writing workshops. (IRA/NCTE 3, 5, 11)

I feel that I have made a huge amount of improvement towards this objective
because I feel extremely comfortable involving students in a variety of work
settings. In many of my lesson plans, I have students work individually and then
move them into discussions with their base groups. I really enjoy having students
work in groups because I think it allows for students to hear a variety of different
perspectives and interpretations of a piece of work. It also allows the students who
are less comfortable speaking out in whole-class discussion time to participate in a
low-pressure setting. In one of my lesson plans, I had students participate in a
graffiti discussion, which involved students working individually, but in groups at
the same time. The students were required to write their thoughts on a large piece
of paper with a question on it silently and then move to the next station with their
base groups. This allowed for students to remain in a sense of community, but it
held them accountable for writing down their own thoughts.
 In another one of my lessons, I had students participate in a writing
workshop. The students spent the class period writing their personal narratives
individually, but I gave them the freedom to talk with their peers and ask for
assistance if they needed help. This was valuable because it allowed students time
in class to process their writing and receive assistance if necessary, rather than
having the students take all of the work home.

C. Goal Setting for Student Teaching:

E. Develop a principled approach to responding to diverse students work and
guiding editing and assessment of their texts. (IRA/NCTE 9, 10)

I definitely would like to improve in this area because I struggle with
consistency when it comes to editing and grading papers. It is extremely important
for me to provide quality feedback to each one of my students, but I find it
challenging to do so when students produce such unique work. I am hoping that I
will experience more English Language Learners in my placement than I did in my
488 placement this year because this will give me experience working with students
that need different kinds of help than most of the other students in the class. I
definitely plan on researching specific ways to approaching editing because
although I value consistency, I think it would do students a disservice if I assessed
their work in the same way without taking their individual strengths and
weaknesses into consideration. I would also like more experience working with
rubrics because I do not feel confident in my ability to create a rubric that students
will understand or follow. I want to practice making a rubric that is broad enough to
take students individuality into account while still being specific enough that
students can see the specific requirements for each section of the assignment.

D. Create opportunities for students to create texts in response to varied
audiences and purposes. (IRA/NCTE 4, 5 12)

Although I feel comfortable having students participate in discussions about
diverse texts, I do not feel comfortable having students create their own texts. The
majority of my lessons involve students writing in their journals or responding to a
particular text or video, so I feel comfortable with reflective writing. However, I
struggle with helping students create their own texts, such as their own poetry or
creative stories. In order to fix this, I would like to incorporate more modeling into
my student teaching. Modeling is an aspect of teaching that makes me extremely
uncomfortable because I struggle to explain exactly why I do the things that I do
when writing, so I would really like to have more practice with this. In order to
improve, I also plan on watching videos like the video of Nancy Atwell creating
writing territories with her students so that I can have an idea of effective ways to
model writing for students. I also would like to vary the forms of writing that I have
my students do. As I mentioned before, I am comfortable having students
participate in reflective writing, but I think that it would be beneficial to incorporate
different types of writing into journaling and other reflective writing activities, as
well. I would like to have students respond to particular pieces by writing in unique
forms such as a poem, so they will have a wider variety of writing products.