Demonstration Reflection
I very much enjoyed doing my teaching demonstration. I wish I had more time to work with my fellow RCWP folks. Having just enough time to present to them how to introduce to students and allowing them just 45 minutes to complete the final activity felt really rushed. I wish I had been able to provide the group with another lesson from the unit. There is a richness in this unit that I feel did not come through because of time. However, I received excellent feedback from my RCWP fellows.
This lesson allows students to be creative and see an abstract literary device come to life through music and video. Videos can be excellent mentor texts for ideas such as allusion. These two things came to light as my RCWP colleagues wrote to me after the demonstration. This lesson is designed so students become engaged in a very difficult topic to comprehend at a middle school level.
Engaging students in discourse is difficult to do at times in the field of writing. Students are often disengaged when it comes to literary devices because they see it as just one more thing to do. I love that this lesson opens that discourse, especially after students have studied the French Revolution and can identify what was happening during that time with Napoleon as they view the Cold Play song Viva la Vida. The final project of this lesson allows students to work collaboratively and offers differentiation by allowing students to create their own piece of work. It also allows the habits of mind to be at play as students are being creative, curiosity, flexibility and engagement.
One thread I keep seeing coming with the CCSS is that students be able to take information, process that learning, and then create something to show that learning in a new way. Creating an allusion movie trailer does just that. It also allows students to practice working collaboratively with others. This is a skill that so many employers are looking for out of people they hire. It is also one of the biggest complaints. Many companies struggle to find young candidates for employment that can work with a group of diverse learners to create presentations and share ideas.
There are many adaptations that can be made through this kind of final project. One idea offered from my own writing group is that students could create movie trailers about literature they have read, and that same assignment would allow students to take on roles such as the director that would be similar to roles taken in literature circles.. I also really appreciated an idea the other writing group suggested: Students could create i-Movies about their own lives, pets, etc. That would be an excellent year-starter presentation for students to do.
One question I would like to address is How do you decide how much time to spend on technology for projects? I would like to take a moment to address this question as I feel it is something with which many teachers struggle. I try to use technologies I know students would enjoy and that are easy for them to learn. Students catch on very quickly to technologies such as i-Movie, Glogster, and Prezi. I will usually present a mini-lesson demonstrating the “major” aspects of a technology and allow one day of “playing” with that technology. Then students must be prepared to run with it! There are bumps in the road, of course, but taking that one day to allow students to familiarize themselves is worth it. Technology offers an interest for students, which in turn, engages them in the content of what I am trying to teach.
I was pleased to be able to share this lesson with my RCWP colleagues as they seem very interested in learning more about digital writing. My biggest “wish” for this lesson is that I wish I had more time to present. I could have taught all day! I am appreciative of this demonstration experience and being able to receive feedback from other teachers. Sometimes it takes the eyes of another to see where you may need to improve as a teachers as well as where you shine!
This lesson allows students to be creative and see an abstract literary device come to life through music and video. Videos can be excellent mentor texts for ideas such as allusion. These two things came to light as my RCWP colleagues wrote to me after the demonstration. This lesson is designed so students become engaged in a very difficult topic to comprehend at a middle school level.
Engaging students in discourse is difficult to do at times in the field of writing. Students are often disengaged when it comes to literary devices because they see it as just one more thing to do. I love that this lesson opens that discourse, especially after students have studied the French Revolution and can identify what was happening during that time with Napoleon as they view the Cold Play song Viva la Vida. The final project of this lesson allows students to work collaboratively and offers differentiation by allowing students to create their own piece of work. It also allows the habits of mind to be at play as students are being creative, curiosity, flexibility and engagement.
One thread I keep seeing coming with the CCSS is that students be able to take information, process that learning, and then create something to show that learning in a new way. Creating an allusion movie trailer does just that. It also allows students to practice working collaboratively with others. This is a skill that so many employers are looking for out of people they hire. It is also one of the biggest complaints. Many companies struggle to find young candidates for employment that can work with a group of diverse learners to create presentations and share ideas.
There are many adaptations that can be made through this kind of final project. One idea offered from my own writing group is that students could create movie trailers about literature they have read, and that same assignment would allow students to take on roles such as the director that would be similar to roles taken in literature circles.. I also really appreciated an idea the other writing group suggested: Students could create i-Movies about their own lives, pets, etc. That would be an excellent year-starter presentation for students to do.
One question I would like to address is How do you decide how much time to spend on technology for projects? I would like to take a moment to address this question as I feel it is something with which many teachers struggle. I try to use technologies I know students would enjoy and that are easy for them to learn. Students catch on very quickly to technologies such as i-Movie, Glogster, and Prezi. I will usually present a mini-lesson demonstrating the “major” aspects of a technology and allow one day of “playing” with that technology. Then students must be prepared to run with it! There are bumps in the road, of course, but taking that one day to allow students to familiarize themselves is worth it. Technology offers an interest for students, which in turn, engages them in the content of what I am trying to teach.
I was pleased to be able to share this lesson with my RCWP colleagues as they seem very interested in learning more about digital writing. My biggest “wish” for this lesson is that I wish I had more time to present. I could have taught all day! I am appreciative of this demonstration experience and being able to receive feedback from other teachers. Sometimes it takes the eyes of another to see where you may need to improve as a teachers as well as where you shine!