Artifact #1
Curriculum Map
At the beginning of my Senior Seminar (TE 407) course this assignment, drafting a curriculum map, was my first experience writing as a teacher. Let me tell you...it was not easy! Before this experience I had no idea what backwards planning, dialogic instruction, or recursive teaching was. While creating this assignment I had to keep in mind all three of the above while attempting to create units that seemed engaging and plausible in any given context. As a pre-professional I had not even seen an actual curriculum plan, let alone know how to write one myself. After reaching this conclusion, I decided it would be beneficial to view various examples of enacting curriculum in hopes of inspiration and direction. Soon, I just began writing from my experiences as a student, and as a future teacher.
When a draft was finally produced I was allowed the opportunity to workshop my writing with other colleagues. From this I realized that two heads are most definitely better than one. If anything, my first writing experience as a future teacher has taught me to seek the advice of my future colleagues when I am in need of direction or inspiration.
Artifact #2
Designing an Assessment
After completing and publishing a recursive and pedagogically sound Curriculum Map we were next able to draw from our maps in order to create an alternative assessment. One of the units that I created was inspired by multicultural or diversity literature. Within this unit I decided not to base it on one specific text, but give many options that would best suit a specific student demographic. When referring to the assessment I chose to employ Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel American Born Chinese. Which for those that are not familiar with the novel, it incorporates the themes of identity, diversity, and culture assimilation through the medium of comics.
Before writing the assignment description in a "student friendly" hand out I had to make sure that what I was planning was once again dialogic, and this time advocated for an alternative form of assessing. With that said I chose to assign my students the task of examining their own identity by considering how they view themselves, and how others view them. For this specific task I required my students to draw, sketch, or digitally create comic strips. With their comic strip they had to provide a rationale as to why they view themselves in such a way, and others view them in such a way. Although I have not had the chance to enact this assessment within a classroom yet, I am hopeful that this would be a fun and engaging assignment for ninth grade students. Needless to say I had a great time drafting and writing this alternative assessment.
Artifact #3
TE Lab Lesson Plan
During the second week of my Senior Seminar our class was divided up into two "labs." Within these labs we created and practiced lesson plans for our future contexts. This lesson plan was my first! Before creating this piece I had only co-wrote and co-taught lesson plans with colleagues. So needless to say I was very nervous! I had no idea what would be a "good" lesson for our given assignment (grammar instruction) nor was I very confident in my teaching style considering that I did not even know if I had one!
After spending some time considering how I would have liked to learn the "Parts of Speech" I began drafting a lesson plan. What I found was that it was not that hard to deliver a finished product stemming from such a broad concept (i.e grammar). In fact, this possibility gave me so much more room to explore, and integrate creative activities into an otherwise possible boring grammar lesson. In the end, I was so happy to solely teach the lesson plan that I had written all by myself within my lab. Although it was scary at first, it was completely exciting and exhilarating!
Artifact #4
TE Lab Lesson Plan
After our first round of grammar lesson plans were over in lab we next experimented with teaching poetry, and then teaching drama. As you can see my drama lesson plan was collaboratively written, and covered much more material compared to my grammar lesson plan above. I chose to include this piece within my Writing Portfolio because this specific lesson has been the funnest and most engaging lesson that I have ever been a part of. From writing it to participating within it, this lesson plan has been my all time favorite up to this point!
Although this lesson plan was taught to fellow colleagues within a low-risk environment, I still feel that it would have the same results within any given classroom. In my opinion, as long as the students and the teacher are comfortable with each other in their given environment these types of engaging and somewhat "high-risk" lesson plans can work. With that said, I know that writing the lesson, and seeing the product in black and white was not nearly as rewarding as teaching and participating in it. Overall, each piece or activity of the lesson seemed odd if allowed to stand alone. However, when all activities were combined into one unified lesson everything fell into place. I cannot wait to be able to teach this lesson within my future classroom one day!
Artifact #5
Personal Narrative
Within my English 313 class during my Senior year one of our assignments was to write a personal narrative about a piece of writing that had made an impact on who we were as writers. Upon hearing these directions I immediately was discouraged because I could not genuinely think of a piece of writing that really made a difference in my life. At the time most of my writing was done for school. Therefore I would have to chose from papers, presentations, essays, etc. to write a personal narrative about; many of which had no personal influence on me at all. So I decided to write about just that...why formal writing assignments have not had a life changing influence on me.
At first, I was somewhat nervous to be stretching the boundaries of our assignment description. However, when I began writing I felt so alive with words, thoughts, and feelings that I never knew I had in regards to my topic. A two page draft ended up turning into a seven page personal narrative. I had no idea that I was going to be capable of so much at the beginning of the assignment nor did I think I was going to be so proud and satisfied with my final product. For once I felt like I had actually written something that was more than just an assignment. More than just a grade or an artifact in a portfolio. It was a part of me.
