Lesson+Plan+4



I taught a lesson plan for my 9th grade high school English class on how to compare two different styles of writing (poetry and prose) with the similar theme of "coming of age".

Evaluation of the Lesson: My master teacher suggested that I try to ask questions to draw out the students understanding instead of giving them the answers or telling them connections. He said I had a good use of positive feedback when the students contributed to the classroom discussion and he also said I did a good job on calling on students that were not volunteering any answers. One of the students in the class a very few social skills and loves to tell stories, but my master teacher said I did a good job keeping her in check while still allowing her to share some with the class. He said that I did a good job tying their words back to the focus of the discussion by showing how the examples they gave were actually a part of their own coming of age story. He said I had a good use of humor and gave good clues to the students on what they should look for while I was reading the "Eleven" story and the "Oranges" poem. He said he could tell when I had prepared questions to ask the class and when I came up with the questions on the spur of the moment. He said that the planned questions were well thought out and that I did a good job incorporating them into the classroom discussion. One thing he suggested that I work on is coming up with questions to ask the class on the spur of the moment. He said that is something you just have to practice at to get good at. He said that overall I did a good job filling up the two hour block period and that the students seemed engaged for the majority of the time.

Reflection on the Lesson: I thought the lesson went pretty well. There were some moments during the class discussion when it was difficult to draw out the students thoughts and oppinions and some of the off the cuff questions that I came up with to encourage them to talk were not the more effective. The questions that I had time to plan out, however, went over really well and the students were much more willing to share when they had clear directions on what type of information was wanted. They did a great job with their close reading of the text and making connections between the "Eleven" story and the "Oranges" poem and they all were pretty excited to get to go to the school library to pick out their coming of age story. Overall, I think the lesson went pretty well and I am excited to continue teaching in this classroom.