Reverse Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan Template for SED 406 and 407 part 1 = planning
Teacher Candidate: Michele Percival	Subject: AP Literature	Grade(s): 12
Name of Lesson: Soaphead’s Trial
Learning Objective(s), including Bloom's taxonomic level: (label A, B, C, *D) *optional Students will work in groups to present a mock trial to determine the guilt or innocence of Soaphead Church, this will allow them to be able to analyze the text and characters and in The Bluest Eye.  - Analysis
Student Standards (GSE or/GLE or Common Core-in draft for math/science- list which): RL.11-12.1
Teacher Standards (professional society and/or NETS  and RIPTS-list which): Teachers have a deep content knowledge base sufficient to create learning experiences that reflect an understanding of central concepts, vocabulary, structures, and tools of inquiry of the disciplines/content areas they teach.
Rationale: Why this lesson? How does it fit into the curriculum and context? Is this the introduction, conclusion, or somewhere in the middle of the unit of instruction? This is a fun way for students to really get into the text to analyze the characters and their motivations.  The role play really helps students embody the characters. At this point the students have finished reading The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and are using this as a concluding project to demonstrate their knowledge of the text.
Materials/Resources needed, including technology: The Bluest Eye, Desks to be used as courtroom, Pens/Pencils to write information
Accommodations and Modifications (special needs and learning styles) I did not observe any special accommodations.
What content resources support this knowledge base? (list at least 2)
How confident are you in this topic as you start this lesson? Somewhat confident

(Boxes expand as you type)   Lesson Plan Template part 2 = action
Bell-ringer: How will you get students seated, and ready for academic work? (without your voice) Teacher stands at front of class and waits for students to settle in.
Anticipatory Set: How will you introduce the material, interest the students, show relevance of topic? Verbally ask students to move desks into trial formation, Group1 will be the jury as Group 2 presents.
Phase (change as needed)/Time	Teacher action	Student action	Questions/Assessments
e.g. Intro/5 min.	Asks students to prepare for their trial presentations.	Students move desks to set up as “courtroom” and finalize each person’s part.	n/a
Presentation or Open-ended/	Teacher watches/listens	Group 2 students present their trial.	Did they have a Prosecution and Defense? Did they have character witnesses? Was there a closing argument?
Guided Practice or Convergent/
Closing/	After trial teacher leads a reflection over what was done well and what could have done better.	Students offer suggestions that would have improved the project and increased their understanding of the work and the text.	Should teacher have assigned groups specific roles as opposed to choosing for themselves? What went well? What could students have done better?
HW/Application/	N/A Lesson in conclusion
Review and Reflection: How will you review for students who are still having trouble? Socratic Seminar allows for students who are confident in the material to demonstrate for those who still need help.
Extension: What will you offer to students who have mastered this? Participation in the Socratic seminar group.
*Closing: How will you review the material, and draw conclusions? (may be listed above)

	Lesson Plan Template pt. 3 = reflection
WHAT?	What went well?   Students seemed to enjoy the trials and learn more about the characters.
	What area of weakness needs addressing? Roles need to be defined more, Group 2 did not have a closing argument and did not seem to know who was designated to handle that.
	Which objectives were met? What is the evidence? Students demonstrated knowledge of the text and they were able to analyze the characters to draw a conclusion of Soaphead’s innocence.
	Which students did not meet objectives? Some students who seemed to have not read the text.
	Was time managed appropriately? Yes
	Did any teacher mannerisms or actions detract from the lesson? No
	*What were the strengths and weaknesses of classroom management? Overall the teacher managed the class well.  There was no disruptive behavior. When participation was lacking she guided the students with many open-ended questions to draw out conclusions from the text.  The student’s roles in the groups could have been better defined for the trials but she acknowledged this.
SO WHAT?	Was the lesson engaging? Yes
	*What did I learn from my peer observation (address at least one aspect)   There is variety in what you can do to analyze literature beyond group discussions.  I could tell the students really learned about the characters in the text through the mock trial and it seemed fun.  I also had the opportunity to witness a Socratic Seminar, which I have never seen.
NOW WHAT?	How will this experience influence your professional identity?  I realize the amount of creativity that I can have in my classroom and hope to tap into that for my future lessons.
	How will it influence how you plan/teach/assess in the future? I will be sure to be specific in assigning roles within group work so everyone can demonstrate their knowledge.  I would plan many open-ended questions for when students get stuck on the analysis piece.

Classroom Observation 1

I was asked to do classroom observations for my SED class.  For the purpose of this entry, all names, including the school’s, have been changed.

As I walked into Riverbank High School, I was overwhelmed at how enormous the building was. Having graduated from a small private school, it was astounding to see this huge building that would need to be navigated by many students on a daily basis.  I wondered how many Freshman were possibly lost for hours trying to go from class to class. 

Once I checked in, I was told to head up to the third floor to meet the first teacher I would be observing.  Mrs. P. was very nice and welcoming, she explained that her first class was Senior AP Literature and the next one would be Sophomore World Literature, but many of those students had IEP’s.  I was pretty excited about this because I thought it would be a good opportunity to view two very different classes.

When I walked into the class the desks were arranged traditionally facing the front of the rooms.  Mrs. P. shares a classroom with another teacher so there were two teacher’s desks at the front of the room.  The walls were filled with posters about vocabulary and different ways of analyzing literature.  One set of posters that caught my attention was in the front of the room, on the right side of the classroom.  They had the teacher’s promises to the students on one and the other had the Teacher’s expectations of the student’s.  Normally, you see the latter; I have not seen one from the teacher to the students.  I thought it was a nice gesture to have that to reassure students that she would offer her best efforts to make class fun while they learned and to be available to them if they needed help.

As students began to arrive I immediately noticed that the minority here would be the white students.  Most of the students were Latino, Asian or African American.  I could count on one hand the amount of white students I saw in the few classes I observed.  While the first class I observed was AP students, the next few classes were integrated with average students and students who had IEP’s.

Once the AP Literature class began the desks quickly moved.  The students were doing the second half of a mock trial on a book they were reading.  The class was divided into two groups for this project.  Group 1 had done their trial a few days prior so I was able to observe group 2.  The concept was good but participation seemed weak.  From the sound of it, group 1 was better prepared but the teacher made sure to note positive performances in both groups.  The project was meant to really help the students have a better comprehension of the text and to embrace the character’s roles in the story. Once they were finished with the mock trial they reflected on the assignment and what the teacher and the students could have done better to make it a more effective project.  I later found out that this teacher was not given any books for this class so she kind of had to “wing it” with lesson plans and teaching this level.  I didn’t ask but wondered if she had purchased the books herself that they were using.

Once reflection was over, she reviewed their homework assignment.  Many students did not pass anything in.  She took the opportunity to use the student’s who did complete the assignment in a Socratic Seminar, in order for other students to see how to answer the questions.  I felt this teacher did a really good job with this exercise.  She did minimal talking and asked many open-ended questions to try and get the students to have a meaningful discussion about the text.  I noticed that there were two students in the group who were more inclined to speak.   The others followed with the teacher’s prompting.  She did eventually read a particular passage in the text that helped address the question.  Students then began participating more in the discussion.  Later Mrs. P. told me she thought that the students who weren’t talking didn’t do as close of a reading of the text as they were supposed to.  I felt all of these students were capable of doing what she was asking.  They were clearly intelligent enough and focused on their work. A couple of them even went to her after class for further help developing their answers.

I could tell group work was an important part of this classroom.  I truly felt she was preparing them for a college Literature class.  The style and questions were similar to ones I have had in college. The teacher was very much in charge of the students but was open to their feedback and questions.

One thing that did surprise me was the small class sizes.  I expected in a school so big to see floods of students in the halls and classes.  One of the teachers explained that they had lost a lot of kids this year.  Next year they would be gaining 300 more students when another high school closed.  I asked her if she was having a better experience with smaller classes but she said she wasn’t.  This surprised me since I have always heard small classes make better learning environments.  She explained that it limited group work and the diversity the kids would get in groups.  Also, in bigger classes the students would feed off each other’s ideas; that concept was harder in a smaller class.

The school seemed like a pleasant place.  I was only on the first and third floors so I cannot properly assess the entire school.  I do feel that the teachers I interacted with truly cared about the students and enjoyed their job.  They seemed to make their classes as welcoming as they could and held their students to certain expectations of behavior and work in their classrooms.  If I was a student here I think I would feel comfortable, especially in that the teachers were receptive to feedback and tried to make a fun, interactive learning experience.