Character Education (EDU 6526)

This week’s readings and reflection in Survey of Instructional Strategies focused on character education and its place in our schools. As a teacher at a Jesuit, private school, character education exists in nearly all, if not all, aspects of Seattle Prep. From athletics to ASB to academics, the mission of the school is to create “men and women for others”. This can ONLY be accomplished through character education. While not all teachers have this same luxury, it is as important for us at Prep to create strong, compassionate young people in spirit as well as academics.

I think that for many teachers, morals don’t need to be taught. In fact, I think many are scared, so to speak, to teach morals because of their connection with organized religion. In the public schools, this enters a territory of uneasiness. Therefore, many teachers revert to the cliché that values are “better taught than caught”. C.S. Lewis and some other philosophers agree in “it is more effectively communicated by informal means through the implicit example of a teacher’s kindness, visibility of community role models, and the actions of moral exemplars perceived through great literature” (Williams). Yet, no matter whether one is teaching in a private or public school, the character education aspect should be included in the regular curriculum.

How does one accomplish this? As we discussed in the forum this week, teaching citizenship and moral decision making can help teach character education. I believe that I can include students in making choices about lessons, timing of quizzes, and even homework load. When the students are forced to defend their decision, they learn that while having choice is part of a democratic society, so is justifying one’s decision. Lastly, I teach moral decision-making through presenting both sides of a situation (which works great in a Social Studies course) and letting students pick. They, again, must defend their choice with specific evidence. Through these type of situations in class, I am helping teach character, as well as trying to model it in my own life.

Concepts in the Classroom (EDU6526)

What needs improvement? More higher level questions for class discussion. Or….provide opportunities for critical

Bloom's Taxonomy

thinking. These comments stood out to me in my classroom observations over the past few years as a Collegio (integrated History and Engligh) teacher at Seattle Prep. While I flourished in many ways and students enjoyed my style, the challenge continued to be finding ways to push those students to grapple with higher level thinking. How do I move beyond content and into concepts? This question riddled many teachers and in fact, still provides struggles for many with years of experience. Hence this “radical” approach to thinking was the central focus of last week’s module in the Survey of Instructional Strategies course.

Professor Tracy Williams highlighted in the lecture PowerPoint how the idea of teaching concepts or themes can benefit students regardless of curriculum. She stated: “while content may change from unit to unit and from year to year in a curriculum, the themes remain as conceptual points of reference. The themes have the power of ideas, and ideas are the mortar which holds together the curricular building blocks” (Williams). This is Collegio at Seattle Prep – or at least after we revised the curriculum this summer. In my junior Collegio with the focus on American History, we take essential questions and a theme for each unit and it builds upon the previous unit. In many ways, we stick with the question of what it means to be an American and who gets included in the definition? As we move from the Revolutionary Era to the Civil War we start to see very clearly that the North and South view the definition differently and that African-Americans are not included. Then the students get to wrestle with the theme of power (politically, militarily, economically and socially) and how that influences the definition. The units are not about names and dates; they are about ideas and concepts.

A Water Class or Concept Class?

This continues with my senior course called Ecology, Economics, and Ethics: The Global Water Crisis as we teach students to become advocates of change. The course features the issues surrounding water, but it isn’t really about that. We could teach the course on hunger, disease, religion, forgiveness or any other multitude of topics. The theme is how do seniors in high school learn to combat the system and become agents of change? How do they advocate for the disadvantaged? We simply use the content to teach those skills. This is concept learning at its best and it makes me very proud to be a part of it.

Know Your Students (ELL Ch. 10)

Loads and loads of research suggests and points to the fact that parental involvement can improve student success beyond any other measure. While there are some natural gifts that each student is born with, the support of parents can make or break a kid in many cases. As teachers we are charged with finding ways to involve parents in the classroom and keep them engaged (or get them engaged if they aren’t already). On top of grading, planning, and extra curriculars, this can be a challenge to say the least. Now add onto that challenge that many teachers are trying to engage parents from various cultures and languages. This makes it even tougher, but the reality is that it must be done for the sake of our students.

Chapter Ten of Practical Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners by Ellen M. Curtin highlights ways for teachers to get parents involved of various languages and cultures. While she has some great suggestions, I don’t agree with all of them. In particular, she states that a “teacher knows the cultural traditions of all students” and “teacher understands and has knowledge of dos and don’ts, like: is it appropriate to shake hands? How do I address parents?” (Curtin, 235). Recently I attended a Cultural Competency workshop with other members of the Seattle Prep faculty including our principal and Diversity Director. Through my own reflection and experience in this conference, I somewhat agree with Curtin. While I feel it is essential to try and learn the cultural traditions and dos and don’ts, making assumptions based on knowing these can be dangerous. For example, if I make an assumption about someone based on their race or where their parents are from concerning eye contact then I am simply stereotyping. It is vitally important to know students from a cultural perspective, but also simply on a human level. What does respect look like at their house? How about eye contact? Best way to communicate? And the list goes on and on. The problem is that this takes time and can’t be accomplished in the beginning of a school year. Yet, knowing enough about a student’s culture can’t be done quickly either. It requires us to build relationships with students and in my opinion, this is what leads to a positive impact. When students trust us and respect us (in that building of relationships), they want to learn more.

Capping a Four Year Experience (May 24-30)

The senior seminar class that originated last summer and came to fruition for the first time this year proved to have its challenges. In creating a curriculum essentially from scratch and working with four other teachers, I felt frustrated, tired, and fed up at times. Yet the benefits of this course by far outweigh the negatives.

The idea for the course began with the concept of a capstone for seniors after four years at Seattle Prep. As a Jesuit high school we emphasize creating “men and women for others”, as well as highlighting the five elements of a Profile of a Graduate at Graduation. These elements are: intellectually competent, committed to justice, loving, open to growth and spiritually alive. When a senior graduates, he or she ideally lives out these five elements in their day to day interaction with others. This is our ultimate goal. So how do we create a class that helps students achieve this?

We began with the idea of a class that challenged students to think outside a traditional curriculum. Through much consideration and discussion we decided on the Global Water Crisis as a vehicle to help students determine how they can become agents of change in our world and how they can advocate for something they believe in. While water was the main topic, the class really served as a template for how students could become leaders of tomorrow. We wanted them to see this opportunity, try advocating, and working toward a common goal to help the community. Yet as the class moved toward its end and the students toward graduation, I wondered….do they get it? Will they truly be “men and women for others”?

As I started reading their final seminar projects in which they had present a problem related to the water crisis and essentially find a solution, I had great hope. They did get it! The groups outlined the social injustice related to the issue and advocated on behalf of the poor and disadvantaged. Groups came up with creative solutions to local problems dealing with water pollution and disruption. It inspired me to see students, both in their writing and in their presentations, demonstrate how they consciously changed their awareness and engagement with the issue at hand. I feel motivated to begin anew next year, knowing how to improve this course for its’ second year.

Slang in the Classroom? Nah dawg – formal style is where it’s at

In Judith Meece and Denise Daniels’ book entitled Child and Adolescent Development for Educators, chapter five outlines the development of language in children and as they head into adolescence. While much of this chapter provides nice context for my future child – my wife is six months pregnant – as a high school teacher, it fails to grasp apply for most of the chapter. Yet Meece and Daniels address a small part on adolescence language that grabbed my attention. They state: “By adolescence, students are extremely skilled at adapting their language to different situations” (Meece 274). While this is the hope of many educators, I find that it is becoming less and less true.

It is essential for students to be able to change their use of language and formal style in different environments. Not everyone agrees with this, but as long as society holds certain expectations for job interviews and work environments, it is essential. While students at Seattle Prep understand this to a degree, there are those who feel that they should be able to express themselves however they wish in school. Especially since their parents pay so much money to attend our school. I am not bothered personally by this style or language use (more informal), but I do feel that students need to learn how to switch their formality on and off at appropriate times.

So how do we help them practice this? I believe there are a couple ways in the classroom to accomplish this. One way is through group presentations. Currently in my junior Collegio, the students are working together on 1920s presentations, as that is our current unit of study. The students present on one of the following: Harlem Renaissance art, Harlem Renaissance music, prohibition, Scopes Trial, rise of the KKK, changing role of women, women’s suffrage, the rise of the automobile, consumerism, popular culture, or the Palmer Raids. While each group uses technology to enhance their lesson and must practice group skills, the true evaluation is on their presentation. Students must learn to adapt their language and style to become more formal. Through this process, students practice essentially for their future encounters in the workplace and in interviews. And in the end, they are agreeing with Meece and Daniels without even knowing it!

Student Group Presentation: Consumerism and Rise of Technology

History: Just Memorization?

While reading John Medina’s fifth and sixth chapters from Brain Rules, I found myself reflecting on classroom experiences and the significance of memorization. Since I teach world and American history, I inevitably face the memorization challenge on a weekly, if not daily, basis. I try to steer away from heavy memorization of facts, dates, and names as that usually makes people hate history in my experience. If you ask the average person how they liked history, most will say, “it was a bunch of dead people and dates I had to memorize!” Not effective teaching, right?

Yet I realize that much of knowing what happened in the past must involve some memorization. How do I balance memorization with significant learning experiences? Medina gives me some insight to how I can make this possible.

Memorize here or at home?

In terms of short term memory, Medina points out that, “retrieval may best be improved by replicating the conditions surrounding the initial encoding” (Medina 113). This can be pretty difficult at school. Our system is set up in many ways for students to study and read material at home and thus memorize material. They then are tested on that material in school! This does not replicate the conditions! We have a base level challenge that will be difficult for students to overcome. Although this challenge in not impossible. By having students study names or a list of terms in the classroom on their own during my teaching time, I may be setting them up for future success. They can continue to study outside the classroom, but the initial encoding happens right there where they will take the quiz or test. This happened recently with a terms of Islam exam I gave to my freshman. They worked on learning the terms in partners in class and almost all of them did very well on the quiz.

While the initial encoding environment is important to memorization, the significance of the material proves to be the most important aspect of the process. As Medina states: “We know the information is remembered best when it is elaborate, meaningful, and contextual” (Medina 114). This is how I strive to teach history. My philosophy never revolves around memorization. I try to use memorization to aid in the process of making meaning out of events in history. The more meaning students can attach to the history, the more they will remember.

Long Term Planning

Last week provided an eclectic mix of semester activities for me and my classes at Seattle Prep. As I finished grading finals and last minute assignments from the previous semester, I also attempted to lead my students in a new direction as the second semester began. This tenuous mix created a feeling of uncertainty and additional stress, but also provided a great opportunity to head into the next semester with a feeling of organization – which doesn’t always occur in this job.

While Seattle Prep provides teachers with a grading day and a week full of time to grade as students only have finals for an entire week, it becomes a little difficult to get this done during basketball season and the week fills up with meetings. I found myself continually sitting in necessary, and even helpful, meetings throughout finals week. While this helped prepare me for the next unit in both freshmen and junior Collegios, it also took valuable grading time away. As the clock ticked toward the grade posting deadline, I found myself trying to balance many aspects of my job at once. While it can feel difficult, I believe that the mix of a new semester and finishing an old semester can provide just enough balance to make it possible.

By introducing new content and plans for each unit in my classes, I really didn’t have new things to grade in each class. This allowed me to finish up the grading from first semester and complete my grade comments in plenty of time. It also kept me focused on the long term plan in each class which will greatly benefit me as I move forward.

I find that long term planning or planning out the reading for each unit (like a month at a time), really helps me feel intentional about lesson plans and extremely organized. For example, the juniors will be completing group projects about topics in the 1920s ranging from the Harlem Renaissance to women’s suffrage to prohibition. While they complete these presentations, we will also be going over some additional history material. At the beginning of the semester, I handed them a calendar which essentially plans out all of February and thus the current unit. It provides them and myself with a road map for the current unit and benefits everyone in my opinion. This is also why I feel so great about my new class this semester: senior seminar. With 78 seniors and three co-teachers alongside me, it would be insane to not enter this new class without proper preparation. By meeting during one of our free periods for months and months, we planned out the first three months of class time and thus the class arrived with less stress and more clarity. I hope to continue my progress toward long term planning as the semester continues so that I can feel organized and provide a clear map for all my students.

The Wizard of Oz, Showcase Showdown, and Finals Week

The first two weeks in January always seem a little hectic around Seattle Prep. I often feel a little overwhelmed and crazed as many aspects of my life at Prep come crashing into one large convergence zone. As a high school basketball coach, January means the heart of our season. As a freshmen class moderator, January means getting ASB officers rallied around an idea to unite the class. As the coordinator for the National History Day competition, January means collecting papers, judging papers and a whole lot of organization. And finally as a teacher, January means finals week!

Students tend to stress out a bit more around finals week at Prep. Maybe that is an understatement. In an attempt to prepare them, while also teaching my showcase lesson for Seattle Pacific, the first two weeks in January felt a tad more chaotic this year.

While the showcase lesson can be stressful – mostly due to the amount of paperwork required for it – I really enjoyed teaching the lesson. While working on a unit in American History around multiculturalism, I chose to teach my showcase lesson on Populism and its connection to the unit. Students read the Populist Platform in preparation for class and then connected the ideas of the Populist Party to the themes of the unit (which focused mostly on Native Americans, Mexican-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Eastern European Americans in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries): 

• Different paths to America
• Traditional cultural values v. modern American values
• Racism, displacement, alienation within American society
• American dream – ideal and real

While opening the lesson with a review of Populism and its fascinating connection to the Wizard of Oz, the discussion

A Parable on Populism

 centered around relating the party to these themes. Students did a great job and aside from feeling a little rushed, the whole experience turned out to be very rewarding.

Yet as soon as I finished that lesson, my focus turned to helping students prepare for their finals. As a proponent of student-directed learning, I left the brainstorming up to them. In both my freshmen and junior classes, students generated lists of people, places, events, and concepts that they felt were important to know for the final. This allowed them to be actively engaged in the process and also helped them figure out what was most important to study. Aside from their obsession with knowing what EXACTLY is on each test, the review process went smoothly and helped students prepare. At least I hope. I won’t really know until all those tests are graded!

Marzano Strategies: Similarities & Differences, Homework & Practice, Generating & Testing Hypotheses, and Cues, Questions & Advance Organizers

Lesson: Moodle and Causes of Civil War

I created this lesson on using the online discussion board Moodle and the causes of the Civil War partly from a SPU class and partly on my own. The Issues and Advances in Education Technology class at SPU brought Moodle to my attention, but the school also began using Moodle before I came up with the idea to use it in my class. The manner in which I utilized the technology (and thus reaching the criterion for that aspect of Standard T) came from my original creation. As students analyzed the causes of the Civil War and responded to each other, this allowed them to demonstrate their competency toward the various written and historical standards (as well as understanding of content). Obviously a great part of this lesson dealt with creating technologically fluent students while creating historical arguments. The attached artifacts showed their understanding of the material clearly in their Moodle responses.

Instructional Strategy-Referenced Reflection 

Similarities and Differences

As Robert Marzano states in his Instructional Strategies that Work, “asking students to independently identify similarities and differences enhances students’ understanding of and ability to use knowledge” (Marzano, 2001). In this lesson, I asked students to consider their previously learned knowledge during our unit on Antebellum America and access it to form an opinion. Students needed to compare the causes of the Civil War and determine independently which one (between social, economic and political) proved to have the most impact on the beginning of the war.

While I believe most students gained a good understanding of the similarities and differences in the various causes, I would be more explicit in my explanation of these thematic causes prior to asking students to write about them in the future. This is partly what didn’t go well and partly what I would do differently in the future. Some students appeared to struggle particularly with understanding the social cause of the Civil War. As I reflect upon the lesson, it does seem pretty vague. I think some students confused social with political causes.

My mentor teacher encourages the instructional strategy of similarities and differences as part of our Jesuit teaching model. We continually strive for students to create their own learning opportunities and similarities and differences fit perfectly in this model. My university coordinator did not comment specifically on this instructional strategy, but did give me great feedback on the lesson overall. Specifically, she encouraged me to have assessments that matched up with my learning strategies.

Homework and Practice

One of the primary focuses of the first semester at Seattle Prep for juniors involves the National History Day paper. This research paper challenges and pushes students to work toward a historical analysis of an innovation in American history. Teaching students to create a paper around a centralized argument (thesis) rather than a collection of facts can be difficult for students. This skill requires a great deal of practice for even the most sophisticated students. Thus I create many assignments that require students to generate topic sentences or thesis statements so they can practice this kind of analysis. This particular lesson requires students to do the same kind of analysis that they must do for their research paper.

I believe that this lesson does a great job in terms of homework and practice. While I wanted my students to succeed on this particular assignment and lesson, I really wanted them to practice for their research paper. This lesson accomplishes this practice very well. I wouldn’t change much, if anything, concerning this instructional strategy.

The only advice I received regarding this strategy involved ensuring that my assessment matched my strategy. My university coordinator wants to make sure that assessments are not just informal, but formalized with rubrics. Thus I created a rubric for the lesson.

Generating and Testing Hypotheses

A large part of our curriculum at Seattle Prep, especially in the junior year, involves creating hypotheses and proving them with evidence. As I mentioned before, the National History Day paper allows students to use this skill, but there are a number of other smaller assignments that push students to do this as well. As Robert Marzano states, creating hypotheses in writing and proving them can be instrumental in student development. “A fair amount of research has demonstrated the power of asking students to carefully explain – preferably in writing – the principles they are working from, the hypotheses they generate from these principles, and why their hypotheses make sense” (Marzano, 2001). In this lesson, students not only had to generate a hypothesis, but they needed to prove it with specific evidence from earlier lessons or the text. Additionally, students needed to respond to two classmates, thus their hypotheses were tested by being examined and commented on by their peers.

I feel pretty good about this instructional strategy as I use it a lot in all of my classes. Students must learn how to form an argument and prove it; I feel that there is no more important skill in history. While I am confident in my ability to teach this skill and in particular with this lesson, I would be more clear in my instructions with this lesson. I allowed students to choose the cause of the Civil War and I left it too open ended. Some students created a hypotheses that involved all three causes rather than taking a strong stance in choosing one particular cause (social, political, or economic). In the future, I will not allow this ambiguity so that students must take a strong stand and form their argument.

On this particular strategy, I did not receive any feedback or advice from either my mentor teacher or university coordinator.

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers

This particular lesson centers on the important and “higher level” question of the cause of the Civil War. This isn’t a factual recall question and it requires students to analyze information to create an argument. As Marzano states, “a fair amount of research indicates that questions that require students to analyze information – frequently called higher level questions – produce more learning than questions that simply require students to recall or recognize information – frequently referred to as lower-order questions” (Marzano, 2001). By constructing an argument with support and analyzing the different perspectives of other students in the class, each student must access analytical and higher level skills.

I would add an element to this lesson in preparing students to create their arguments to better utilize this instructional strategy. The advanced organizers presented by Marzano could greatly benefit many of my students in creating their argument concerning the cause of the Civil War. Most likely, I will use the graphic organizer such as a mind map to accomplish this.

Both my mentor teacher and university coordinator (as well as other faculty members and the Dean of Academics) to continually push myself to ask “higher level” thinking questions in class. This is emphasized continually at Seattle Prep.

Standard S Criterion-Referenced Reflection

Content Driven

By asking students to create a historical argument concerning the cause of the Civil War and write it on the discussion board “Moodle”, there is no doubt that the lesson is content driven. Additionally students debated their point of view in class thus accessing their oral communication skills. Lastly, by reading other students’ arguments on the Moodle page and having to respond to two classmates, each student understood the content even better. Not only do they read about the information, students create their own argument and analyze others.

Aligned with Curriculum Standards and Outcomes

Students in my class understand that they are creating historical arguments in regards to the causes of the Civil War. The Antebellum sub-unit involves analyzing the causes of the Civil War through three different lenses: economic, political, and social. As the class learns about specific people and events, the particular lessons are connected to causes of the war.

Integrated Across Content Areas

This lesson didn’t access much in aesthetic reasoning but did allow students to contrast and prove their argument in different manners. First, they wrote their hypothesis on Moodle with evidence backing it up. Second, they needed to respond to classmates. Third, they argued their point in class in a debate format. The creation of a hypothesis with evidence utilizes scientific reasoning.

Standard T Criterion-Referenced Reflection

Informed by Standards-Based Assessment

I charged students with creating a historical argument, thus my assessment must match this objective. I created a rubric assessing students’ ability to create and back up their argument with evidence.

Intentionally Planned

Students are allowed to choose their own perspective on the cause of the Civil War. This creates an opportunity for each student to create their own argument without being forced to take a specific perspective. Additionally, by responding to other students’ commentary, each student gets to explore the history for themselves.

Influenced by Multiple Instructional Strategies

As referenced in the four instructional strategies included in this lesson, this lesson definitely varies its approach to reach learning targets. I allowed students to not only write about their historical argument on Moodle, but respond to each other online and in the classroom through debates. These varied instructional strategies allowed for different types of learners to achieve success.

Informed by Technology

By using Moodle, students in my class utilized a web 2.0 tool that they will encounter numerous times in the college environment. They became more proficient in using technology while still working toward analyzing the causes of the Civil War.

Artifacts

Student Moodle Work

Seattle Prep Moodle

Marzano Strategies: Summarizing & Note Taking, Setting Objectives & Providing Feeback

Lesson: Minoans/Myceneans & Myth

This lesson plan regarding the Minoans/Myceneans and the myth allows students to meet the standards S and T in many ways. While a colleague of mine created the original paragraph assignment, I adapted it to be a peer edit and topic sentence work. It originated mostly because freshmen need as much work as possible on writing, and in particular on historical arguments. With this in mind, the positive impact on student learning can be viewed through the attached artifacts. In the first version of the paragraphs, students created rough versions of topic sentence, but through the peer edit process the end result improved greatly. By connecting directly to written, historical, and reading standards, while remaining in the Greek unit in the curriculum, the work shows clear competency of the standard. The students work improved through the process and they achieved good results with their topic sentences in the end. 

Instructional Strategy-Referenced Reflection

 

Summarizing and Note Taking

 

As Robert Marzano states in Instructional Strategies that Work, part of the note taking process involves comprehending what parts are most important. Students in my class are continually pushed to not only take notes, but answer the question: why does that matter? History cannot be viewed as a list of events and people if students are to become critical thinkers. Marzano highlights the strategy developed by Brown, Campione, and Day in 1981 that includes the following when it comes to note taking:

 

• Delete trivial material that is unnecessary to understanding
• Delete redundant material
• Substitute superordinate terms for lists
• Select a topic sentence, or invent one if it is missing (Marzano, 2001).

 

By taking notes on my PowerPoint presentation, the students are forced to discern the most important aspects of the material. We practiced this skill earlier in the year through note checks on their text reading and in class work. After gathering info and reading the myth, the students then create their own topic sentence in a comparison of the two. This allows students to put the notes into practice.

 

If I had to change something about this lesson it would be to be more specific with my direction in regards to summarizing and note taking. I think it could be helpful during the PowerPoint to call on random students to read their notes on the last slide out loud. If not that, have students share with each other what they took down for notes on the last slide. I would simply create “check points” for the notes to ensure students are really taking down the right, crucial information.

 

My mentor teacher is a big proponent of note taking and checks on notes in the classroom. We spoke numerous times about the importance of this skill at the freshman level specifically. Students from various backgrounds (in terms of schools) come to Seattle Prep with different skill sets. It is essential for the teacher to let students know early and often the expectations of my own classroom. I did not meet with my university coordinator about this specific lesson.

 

Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback

 

By allowing students to peer edit and focusing on a specific skill in this lesson, I provided varied forms of feedback for students. When reading Marzano’s chapter on feedback, this lesson fits the criteria very well. For example, Marzano states that feedback “provides students with an explanation of what they are doing that is correct and what they are doing that is not correct” (Marzano, 2001). By focusing this lesson exclusively on the topic sentence aspect of the paragraph, students and myself were allowed to narrow in on the following:

 

• Is the topic sentence an argument?
• Does the topic sentence avoid 1^st or 2^nd person?
• Does the topic sentence address the “why” question? (Meaning is there a because following the argument).

 

By focusing on these elements, students receive corrective feedback that allows them to change for the final product (after peer edit) or for the next time (after my grade). Additionally, the feedback is timely especially with the peer edit. Marzano states that “the timing of feedback appears to be critical to its effectiveness” (Marzano, 2001). By having students peer edit each other the day the paragraph was originally due, the feedback is immediate. Lastly, the feedback is specific to criterion. Since the lesson focuses on a specific skill that they need to be developed, there isn’t a comparison to other students. The central point of the lesson involves creating effective topic sentences solely.

 

While I think this lesson really does a great job in terms of feedback, I can alter the lesson to be more effective. I think in the future I will do a few things differently. First, I would have students bring in a copy without their name on it so the focus remains specific on the work rather than the person they edit. Second, I will be more explicit in my explanation that the focus is on topic sentences rather than the whole paragraph in the first draft. This allows students to work on stronger topic sentences and worry less on grammar, spelling, and sentence structure. Third, I will give my feedback the next day rather than a few days later to ensure effectiveness.

 

My mentor teacher also works a lot on topic sentences and crafting historical arguments. He didn’t specifically help with this lesson or provide specific support, but we held many conversations about creative ways to ensure we achieve this in the classroom. I did not have a specific conversation about this lesson with my university coordinator.

 

Standard S Criterion-Referenced Reflection

 

Content Driven

 

Students must read their text for the original material, write their own paragraph, read another classmate’s paragraph and re-write a topic sentence. This allows students to focus on the content of the Minoans and Myceneans while practicing various skills needed in this standard. They also practiced problem-solving by examining their topic sentence and recreating a new one based upon feedback.

 

Aligned with Curriculum Standards and Outcomes

 

I let students know that they were going to create topic sentences as they began their first draft of the Minoan/Mycenean and myth paragraphs. I could have done a better job of being specific in asking for specificity toward topic sentences rather than a whole paragraph at the beginning of the assignment. When they exchanged papers to peer edit, I provided students with a progress check toward this target. Lastly, they turned in revised topic sentences. We reached the learning target, but not all students did it as well as others obviously. I provided this feedback in the evaluation of the topic sentences.

 

 

Integrated Across Content Areas

 

Students worked toward creating an effective argument that could be proven in comparing a myth to a declining civilization in Ancient Greece (the Minoans). This creation of an argument provides students with an opportunity to practice scientific reasoning. They must create a hypothesis (or argument) and back it up or prove it. I did not integrate mathematical or aesthetic reasoning into the lesson. By allowing students to re-invent their topic sentences, they really had an opportunity to create a good argument. Thus the efforts were good in this respect. I believe there are great opportunities in this lesson for aesthetic reasoning in the future through nonlinguistic representations of the decline of the Minoans.

 

Standard T Criterion-Referenced Reflection

 

Informed by Standards-Based Assessment

 

By editing each other’s original paragraphs, students received valuable feedback in order to self-assess. This lesson provided opportunities for students to evaluate their own work and revise before being assessed. Through this revision process, it became clear to students what they would be assessed on in their final product.

 

Intentionally Planned

 

Through a revision process and peer editing, this process became personalized for each student. Instead of the assignment being generalized about topic sentences, each student received specific feedback. This allowed for individual work on their own topic sentence. Also, when faced with a student who (due to a diagnosed learning difference) should not edit other’s work, I personalized the lesson to allow her to edit her own work.

 

Influenced by Multiple Instructional Strategies

 

By allowing for peer edit time, writing time, and group instruction, this lesson encompassed a variety of instructional strategies. Students who benefit from a lecture format and are auditory learners could benefit from my lesson on topic sentences. At the same time, those are more visual benefited from the peer edit work.

 

Informed by Technology

 

This lesson utilized PowerPoint in the instruction section as students took notes. While PowerPoint isn’t the most exciting or hands-on technology we use at Prep, it does create help visual learners and it informs students on how to use it for presentations later in the year. By watching me model the use of the technology, students gain their first step in using it for their own work.

 

Artifacts

 

 

Student Work: Minoans/Myceneans