Lesson Plan #1: "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
This first lesson plan was an amazing experience for me because it was the first time I'd ever attempted anything like this before. My goal with this lecture was to express the importance of utilizing creative ability in the Inquiry Assignment's introduction. I chose the first chapter from O'Brien's book because I believe that it works as a larger scale narrative introduction for the inquiries he presents throughout the rest of the book, namely the concepts of death and tragedy and how we as human beings cope with them.
I was initially excited to present this lesson plan to my students. I felt that I'd established my ethos at that point in the semester and I knew they'd respect and listen to me. The week before I was scheduled to present this lesson plan, tragedy struck. I lost my grandfather unexpectedly to natural but sudden causes. I found myself floundering and hesitant to present a topic so close to my grandfather, who, like Tim O'Brien, was a member of the Armed Forces. The thought of teaching about death so soon after losing someone important to me was enough to turn my stomach.
I spent the weekend before my lecture considering my options. I knew that my professor, Catherine Bayly, would completely understand my situation and allow me to postpone the lecture. I could have given myself time to heal before diving into a painful concept. In the end, I chose to push through the difficulties I was experiencing and deliver the lecture as I promised to do before my grandfather passed.
To my pleasant surprise, the students came through for me in ways I'd never expected. Every single student read the assigned material. My class is usually quiet, but that day, I had trouble acknowledging all of the hands in the room as they shot up to participate in the discussion. I ended up relating the lecture to my grandfather, both as an homage to him and because I honestly believed it related to the lesson. The students seemed moved by my message and several even thanked me on their way out of the class.
My first lecture went better than I could have ever imagined. I felt humbled and encouraged. I taught my students about The Things They Carried, but my students taught me how empowering teacher-student relationships can be. It set me up to work even harder on my second lesson plan to make them proud of me.
I was initially excited to present this lesson plan to my students. I felt that I'd established my ethos at that point in the semester and I knew they'd respect and listen to me. The week before I was scheduled to present this lesson plan, tragedy struck. I lost my grandfather unexpectedly to natural but sudden causes. I found myself floundering and hesitant to present a topic so close to my grandfather, who, like Tim O'Brien, was a member of the Armed Forces. The thought of teaching about death so soon after losing someone important to me was enough to turn my stomach.
I spent the weekend before my lecture considering my options. I knew that my professor, Catherine Bayly, would completely understand my situation and allow me to postpone the lecture. I could have given myself time to heal before diving into a painful concept. In the end, I chose to push through the difficulties I was experiencing and deliver the lecture as I promised to do before my grandfather passed.
To my pleasant surprise, the students came through for me in ways I'd never expected. Every single student read the assigned material. My class is usually quiet, but that day, I had trouble acknowledging all of the hands in the room as they shot up to participate in the discussion. I ended up relating the lecture to my grandfather, both as an homage to him and because I honestly believed it related to the lesson. The students seemed moved by my message and several even thanked me on their way out of the class.
My first lecture went better than I could have ever imagined. I felt humbled and encouraged. I taught my students about The Things They Carried, but my students taught me how empowering teacher-student relationships can be. It set me up to work even harder on my second lesson plan to make them proud of me.
Lesson Plan #2: Incorporating Source Work
My second lesson plan was a totally different experience than the first. I wrote this plan based off of an existing plan from one of Catherine's old teaching assistants. Incorporating source work isn't exactly a glamorous topic, but I tried to spice up the lesson as much as I could. I wrote in some sample sentences that were interesting enough to spark some light laughter. I also incorporated an activity that I created that was based on an episode of a popular television show, Bob's Burgers.
I taught the lesson on my own on a day Catherine was unavailable. I also delivered the lesson to her second section of 101S students. I was intimidated by her second session, and unfortunately, it showed while I taught. I ended up finishing the lesson with 20 minutes to spare. I had planned for this worst case scenario and gave the students a partner-based activity that required them to peer review their citations and bibliography. However, the students had a lot of questions for me that I was not prepared to answer, and I worried that I made myself look foolish. Catherine assured me that her students only had good things to say about me during the next class, which made me feel a bit better.
In my section, I had the advantage of already teaching the lecture immediately beforehand. I slowed down and made sure to make time for extra questions (that I had the answers for now because I did some research after the questions from the previous section.) I also revised my Bob's Burgers activity for clarity and it went over much better. I felt fortunate to have the chance to make a few quick, small changes that vastly improved the lecture. I decided to use my mistakes as motivation to make changes and try again next semester.
I taught the lesson on my own on a day Catherine was unavailable. I also delivered the lesson to her second section of 101S students. I was intimidated by her second session, and unfortunately, it showed while I taught. I ended up finishing the lesson with 20 minutes to spare. I had planned for this worst case scenario and gave the students a partner-based activity that required them to peer review their citations and bibliography. However, the students had a lot of questions for me that I was not prepared to answer, and I worried that I made myself look foolish. Catherine assured me that her students only had good things to say about me during the next class, which made me feel a bit better.
In my section, I had the advantage of already teaching the lecture immediately beforehand. I slowed down and made sure to make time for extra questions (that I had the answers for now because I did some research after the questions from the previous section.) I also revised my Bob's Burgers activity for clarity and it went over much better. I felt fortunate to have the chance to make a few quick, small changes that vastly improved the lecture. I decided to use my mistakes as motivation to make changes and try again next semester.
Lesson Plan #3: A Revision of Incorporating Source Work
As a second semester UTA, I learned some new tricks that I brought with me into my new semester. I recognized the faults in the first version of my source work lesson plan and used them to completely redo it. In the first version, I altered a lesson plan previously designed by a different teaching assistant and tried to make it fun by relating it to pop culture. This semester, I decided to scratch the Bob's Burgers activity and add a new activity. This new activity, "Agree/Disagree," got the students on their feet and asked them to take a stand on polarizing claims regarding source work. The students seemed to enjoy this activity more than last semester's students enjoyed theirs. |
|
I decided to decorate the PowerPoint with a Halloween theme because I presented the plan on the day before Halloween. My students seemed to enjoy that silly element. Other than that, though, my lesson plan was dry. Lectures about source work aren't fun, but they don't have to be fun to get the message across. I made sure that my students had a clear understanding of plagiarism, source work incorporation, and citation formatting before I moved on to another activity that relied on that information. The students used a sample paragraph to place citations pulled from an example article. I originally intended to split the students into small groups and have them decide together which form of citing to use and where to place it. However, as the class progressed, things changed (as they do, sometimes) and the students chose between direct quote, summary, and paraphrase independently. I split them into three groups based on their choices and we discussed as a class which option fit the prompt best. They did a wonderful job participating! I enjoyed teaching this lesson much more than I enjoyed it in the previous semester.