Standard 1: Knows and Teaches English as a Subject Matter
During my internship, I found that there are three crucial aspects in teaching English: content, skills, and relevancy. The content that I use in my class presents students with complex ideas and concepts. Moreover, students need the skills to comprehend and manipulate such information. However, students must also understand the relevancy of both content and skills in their own life to be fully engaged and motivated to authentically partake in the learning process. In my American Dream unit, I aimed for students to question the idealism of the American Dream. To do so, I wanted students to be able to conduct a close reading of characters and themes. Close reading requires students to establish thoughtful inquiry and evaluative skills. I created a series of close reading activities that focused on different modes of text, such as videos, paintings, poems, etc.
Students had already conducted a close reading of a poem, but I wanted students to practice this skill through a visual text. I chose for students to watch a video that did not have any words because I wanted students to focus on the visual aspects of the text. I created the graphic organizer, so students could see the separation between the surface level images and the deeper or more symbolic purpose of the image. After students were able to hypothesize these deeper meanings from the text, their next task was to synthesize these collected meanings into one central message or purpose of the text.
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When students became more familiarized with this type of close reading, students began reading John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men. I noticed Chapter four of the novel focuses on four particular characters of the novel that possess difference than all of the other characters: race, gender, etc. My plan then was for students to conduct a close reading of these characters in relation to the American Dream. The worksheet I created for students was to help guide students’ thinking when analyzing each character. Also, I aimed to help students see how the content is relevant to their lives by taking their analysis and applying it to contemporary society.
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After finishing Steinbeck’s novel, my next move was for students to do further research of the unit’s major theme: the American Dream. Before having students go off into their individual research, I wanted students to fully understand that the issues surrounding the idea of the American Dream were still relevant in today’s society. Ultimately, the overall goal of the lesson plan was for students to begin generating research questions that they found interesting, so students would be motivated to create quality work.
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Once students developed a clearer understanding of American idealisms, I wanted to stem off of this knowledge to the concept of American identity, but I first created a lesson plan that would get students to start thinking about the concept of identity. I had students read a poem by Walt Whitman, which explores the components that make up one’s identity. I then had students create their own free verse poems that implicitly told the reader what the student’s identity is.
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