Sample 6 Persuasive text: The best superpower to have is rewind Sample 7 Comparing texts: The thylacine Sample 8 Descriptive sensory poem: A walk in the bush This portfolio of student work includes responses to a variety of texts and the development of a range of written and oral texts. This unit builds upon students‟ current reading and writing experiences and introduces new skills: incorporating secondary sources into one‟s writing and writing in a more expressly persuasive manner. This unit plan uses the ERWC assignment template as its framework. Unit & Lesson Plans WWII Unit & Persuasive Writing Unit Calendar - World War II & Persuasive Writing The schedule for this unit has eight periods a week.
- Persuasive Speech Units. Schrader's Teaching Portfolio Analysis
- Persuasive Speech Unitms. Schrader's Teaching Portfolio Lesson
Overall, this unit was challenging to plan and a puzzle to teach, but I learned a lot from the whole experience. I planned out all the lessons the week before I began teaching them, which enabled me to have a solid plan going into the first week of teaching. That planning also made it a bit harder for me to adjust to how class actually went–– having students read in class, having journals interspersed through class time, not giving enough time to introduce the infographic, trying to get through the book quickly ––and adjust my plans. Towards the end, there were times that I scrapped a lesson plan and made a new one in order to fit the class, which is how teaching goes. I made it out alive and all the better for it.
While I didn’t love the content, planning and teaching this unit made me realize how different is approaching a book with the intention of reading it versus approaching a book with the intention of teaching it. When I read Anthem, I approached it as a reader. I finished it and thought, “Well, what do I do now?” As much as everyone rags on Common Core standards, they were very helpful for me to have a grasp on what to focus on in the book. I decided to focus on themes because my mentor did in previous lessons and the themes connected with many different parts of the book. They also were pretty obvious, so students were able to pick them out somewhat easily.
I would say my perspective factored into the planning of this unit a lot but not as much into the implementing of it. While my mentor gave me the jumping off point of themes, it was my ideas to use different texts, to use signposts, to explore imagery, and to use analogies in order to deepen student’s understanding of theme. I think it is important for students to be able to pick out a quote that really gets at the heart of something (a theme, a main point, an argument, etc) and explain how that quote shows that heart. It’s something that is difficult to explain to students (and difficult to grade them on), but I see it as an important skill. I also thought it was important to get at theme in a multitude of different avenues.I was able to push towards a more constructivist approach by pulling on “formal and informal knowledge” that my students had (signposts, analogies, understanding of theme topics) and making my activities more authentic (more group work in the classroom and online, researching on the internet, constructing their own society and doing a reflection) (Oakes 166, 2013). I was able to plan on and actually present theme in a bunch of different ways, thanks to thinking through UDL, so that one, the students and I wouldn’t be sick of the themes and two, students could understand theme in a way that made sense to them. It also has the bonus of showing students that theme isn’t regulated to quotes that specifically use that word (like fear quotes don’t have to have the word “fear” in them).
I also had students do research on Ayn Rand and look at the bias of websites and compare Anthem with “The Giving Tree” because of my perspective on Rand. The research activity was somewhat similar to a jigsaw, which is an effective way for students to take ownership of their learning (Woolfolk 408, 2013). Having students do research gets them more involved and learning, and having it in a group work setting where they compare notes allows them to be the expert. It also taught them how bias affects the information presented in contexts and practically how to find that bias on the websites they pulled from. I believe this is a vitally important skill with the information on the internet and the multitude of credible and non-credible sources out there. I also didn’t want to leave the core ideas of Anthem standing by themselves without any pushback, so I thought that students could make connections between Rand and her ideas in Anthem on their own and could connect between Anthem and “The Giving Tree” in class. I wanted to get across the idea that context is important for this book and that different authors have different takes on ideas, which obviously students know. However, as a student who was very open and very easily swayed by information given to me in a classroom setting, I know how easy it is to accept something taught to me as a fact. I didn’t want that to happen with this book.
As for teaching this unit plan, I was constrained by reading the entire book in class and students needing work time. I expected students to do a majority of the reading outside of class, because that was my middle school experience, but that did not happen. This put a time crunch on my lessons and as a result my lessons got paired down to the essential teaching material. I was still able to do a variety of activities but not push back on things the way that I planned to in my unit plan. I also was constrained by my mentor teacher just by the mere fact that it is her classroom and I do not have the authority to start pushing back where she doesn’t want to push.
I think the unit plan was effective overall. There was one infographic in particular (shown above) that showed a student’s growth in how they analyzed quotes from the beginning of the graphic to the end. That was a really cool moment for me, who had felt pretty insecure about how much the students actually understood what they were trying to do in explaining quotes. My mentor had them fill out a little check in forum towards the end of the unit, and most felt pretty confident about picking out good quotes to go with themes and explaining how the quotes and the themes connect. It was rushed, and the theme infographic unnecessarily complicated the lesson a bit, but as a whole I think students understood the book, understood the themes, and understood how to explain how quotes and themes connect.
As I rode home with Justine after a particularly bad day for both of us, we both agreed that while this unit plan and class in general has been a lot of work and really tough at times, we have both learned a lot. I have learned firsthand that sometimes you don’t get to do all the cool things you planned, and the cool things that you do get to do the students complain about. I was pumped about the infographic, but students were complaining about how it was hard and “Why couldn’t we do it on Google Slides?” They had a valid point and it taught me how I cannot assume that every student is not going to be as excited or curious about new things as I am, particularly with technology. I also learned how difficult it is to remember all the things you want to do in class. There was one day that I taught the students and sent them off on an activity only to have my mentor say, “Weren’t we going to show them an example?” I then had to disrupt the students, have them focus back on me, show them the example, and then go back to working on their activity. The first hour you teach is always the guinea pig with secondary education. In pedagogical strategies, I learned that my dreams of always having deep philosophical discussions about literature all the time are just not possible, especially for middle schoolers. I needed to adjust my expectations and design a diverse amount of activities so all students were engaged in my lessons and learning in a way that works with their strengths.
Personally, I learned that getting in a classroom didn’t make me completely certain about teaching like I had hoped it would. I have loved being in a classroom, planning and teaching lessons, and getting to know my mentor teacher and students, but it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. It was difficult trying to navigate the awkward power dynamics that come with being a student aide in a classroom, but I worked it out by messing up a few times along the way. It was frustating when students didn’t respect me because I was a new face and someone younger than they expected, but the days I effectively asserted myself felt huge.It was different being in a public middle school and having to say the Pledge of Allegiance every day, but I learned how my faith still intersected with teaching in a public school. I got down on myself for not getting things right the first time but finally realized the huge learning curve that all teachers have to go through. Sitting in a classroom and leading a classroom is far from being two sides of the same coin.
I found myself flummoxed at comments that I previously imagined myself pulling students aside for and addressing, comments that revealed the racism, sexism, classism, and homophobic attitudes that still persist today. I learned that using my “privilege responsibly to help [my] students achieve academic success while retaining their cultural identity and language” through teaching that challenges “structural policies that undermine the academic success” is harder than I expected, especially in day-to-day classroom interactions (Oakes 58, 2013). But as I watched a 7th grader call out her classmate who retorted “All Lives Matter” to a piece on Black Lives Matter, I realized that structuring my curriculum, my teaching, and my influence in schools around advocating for the oppressed is vitally important. I was not able to do that much in this unit plan, which disappoints me, but it taught me the real importance of infusing both social justice and Christianity into my lesson planning and in my teaching.
Sources:
Oakes, J., Lipton, M., Anderson, L., and Stillman, J. (2013). Teaching to change the world. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.
Woolfolk, A. (2013). Educational psychology (New International 12th ed.) Tamil Nadu: Pearson Education.
Summary:
This unit will focus and historical fiction fromWorld War II as well as propaganda of the times and persuasive writing ingeneral. World War II is a pivotaltime for our country, and the background knowledge students’ gleam from thisunit will aid them both when faced with various texts independently and consideringcurrent events that affect them daily. It is a very emotional war for soldiersand citizens alike, and this will allow students to connect with the texts westudy as we consider how empathy, or lack thereof, played a role in the outcomeof the war.
As a class, we will be looking at various pointsof view of the war through leveled classroom novels, articles and artifactsconnecting to World War II, and various persuasive techniques that were used inWorld War II that students can utilize in their own persuasive writing. Studentswill build their reading comprehension skills through guided reading andliterature circles, analyze and practice persuasion techniques, and wrap up theunit with a persuasive speech that will connect to their novels and bepresented to their classmates.
Relationship toCurriculum:
Students will focus onseveral key areas of our curriculum. In reading, we will key in on theintegration of knowledge and ideas by making connections between all threenovels, non-fiction articles, and various primary sources from World War II. Inwriting, we will center on persuasion, both commenting on propaganda of WorldWar II and creating persuasive speeches. This final project will link toimportant speaking and listening skills when students present and respond topersuasive speeches where students are free to choose the point of view, thelistener, and the issue they tackle.
Persuasive Speech Units. Schrader's Teaching Portfolio Analysis
Impact of the Unit:
Students will analyze the impact of war oncivilians and soldiers as well as the legacy the outcome of war creates. Too often, students have a hard timestepping outside of the bubble of their lives and empathizing with the issuesand problems of other people. By considering how other youths dealt with thehorrors of World War II, students will consider and debate not only thedecisions characters and people of that time made, but be faced withcontemplating what they would do in the same situation. By improving their ability to persuadethrough their writing and their public speaking, students will strengthenskills that will serve them throughout their academic careers and beyond.
Potential Problems:
Students have not studied World War IIformally, so they have a very limited background knowledge about specificdetails which may make them miss key information in their texts andunderstanding of the unit.Therefore, we will have to directly address this with specific backgroundinformation lessons and integrating articles and materials that will help givethem a more well-rounded understanding of what was happening all around theworld during the war. Also, we will have to have frank conversations aboutparticular horrors of the war, including the holocaust in Germany, intermentcamps in the United States, and the mistreatment of conquered peoples, such asthe Koreans, in Asia, and the dropping of atomic bombs in Japan.
Additional Information:
TechnologyIntegration:Students willuse the internet to research various background information that will connectto their novels to share in their literature circles. Several internet resources will beused in our study of propaganda, including posters, graphic novels, andcartoons. We will alsorecord students propaganda speeches so that part of their self-assessment willinclude analyzing their presentation so that they can improve their publicspeaking in the future.
Persuasive Speech Unitms. Schrader's Teaching Portfolio Lesson
DifferentiatedLearning:The class will bedifferentiated in several ways. Tobegin, students will be given novels based on their reading levels. Also, when students workshop theirdrafts, they will work in groups that are mixed in the student’s level ofwriting so that each student gets a well-rounded level of feedback. Finally, students will be able to focustheir final project on whatever issue and from whichever side of the issue theychoose, allowing student to feel confident as they work on their persuasivespeeches, as persuasion can often be intimidating to students.