The following lesson plans consist of much of the focus and work during my first semester as a UTA. The first lesson plan was executed both semesters with some slight modifications between each semester, and the second one was something that underwent a lot of change within that first semester. We were unfortunately unable to redo the workshop that resulted from it this most recent semester. I noticed that these were a main focus of my first semester, because these were the elements that really initiated my ability to feel confident in the classroom. Without these highly organized and planned out lessons, I would not have been able to have the kind of solo teaching and leading class days that made up a lot of my time this semester. Although I had less of these kinds of structured lessons this semester, they still are representative of the knowledge and confidence I brought to class every morning.
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|Lesson Plan 1|
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This is a specific lesson plan that I executed both of my semesters as a UTA. What is unique about this lesson is the way that is really forces students to upend a lot of what they are used to with typical lengthy papers for undergraduate courses. This lesson plan works to detail the ways in which their Long Review assignment acts as a combination of critical and creative writing skills. What I love about giving this lesson plan is that it is really something that I can execute more effectively than my professor. It is something that calls upon the expertise of a teacher and that of a former student. I know what it is like to write this paper because I have actually done the work. For more reflection on this lesson plan in particular, click on the "digital artifact" page of this portfolio.
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|Lesson plan 2|
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This lesson plan was something that I only (somewhat) did in my first semester as a UTA. The original plan for this assignment, as detailed in this document, really harps on the essential parts of their presentations. In my first semester as a UTA, I was not able to give this lesson plan due to a time constraint. However, I was able to do it as a sort of modified workshop, where students could tell us some of their ideas while I talked about my experience giving this presentation last semester. One of the things that we did in this class which was really successful was having the students sit in a circle and go around giving modified, and not practiced, versions of their presentations in just two minutes. This forced the students to take some of the points that we wanted them to do in their presentation and think about what they would do in a very condensed amount of time. After each student did their small presentation, we all went around and complimented one another on what they did successfully. This broke down a lot of the judgement that some students feel. It also turned out being a sort of modified version of my original activity. Instead of me leading discussion, the students found themselves discovering what was the most impactful with each other's work that day. It was a very self-affirming day for the students and allowed them to get an idea of what is expected of them for these presentations. My professor and I did not feel the need this semester to do a similar workshop since we felt that our students needed more class time working on their Long Review and Grant Proposal assignments. I do, however, still think this was a great day of class last semester, and I think when modified to a writing class, it can be really beneficial!
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|The Process of Writing/Editing Lesson Plans|
About half way through my semester as a second time UTA, we were asked to look over and peer review our fellow first semester UTA's lesson plans. Prior to doing these peer edits, I was genuinely worried that I would not have enough to say, but what I found out was that I had plenty of amazing and complimentary notes to the three lesson plans I looked over. I was so relieved and happy to see that the three lesson plans that I was working on had such strong ideas and such organized structures. It's funny, but you forget that all of us got to this point because we are such strong students, and it is that thoughtfulness and creativity that brought all of those first semester UTA's to this spot. I think that the breakdown for these comments ended up being about 80-20% positive to negative feedback (I use the term "negatively quite loosely here). I think that sometimes the best kind of feedback comes from the positive things, and I do that in both peer edits for my students and my fellow UTA’s. This does not mean that I carry a fake smile throughout, but that instead I actively look for positive things in someone’s work in order to build up the confidence that they are showing with their writing and with their ideas. One of the lesson plans I looked at was about code-switching, which I remember having such an interesting conversation and discussion about in my 388V class last semester. That original thought made me really excited to see how they structured a whole class around it, but what made me even more excited was to see how creative the UTA was at included outside materials in her power point slides. I am not going to lie, I am not a fan of the mindless power point presentation, but when you see them crafted so well, sometimes you just have to stand back and applaud a little. All of the UTA’s drafts that I looked over had such considerations and reflections, which makes me feel so confident about the way in which this internship opportunity not only creates strong teacher, but build even stronger students.