Texas Bluebonnet Writing Project Blog

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Stuff for Janelle's Teaching Demo

No peeking! Just remember that you need to being a copy of your favorite song. It would also be helpful but not necessary to have a copy if the lyrics.



mythology_and_music.doc

Mind_Map.doc

Myth_Reading_Log.doc

See you tomorrow!

posted by Janelle @ 7/15/2007 05:22:00 PM  

5 Comments:

  • At 7/16/2007 12:38 PM, Blogger Jolyn said…

    Dear Janelle,
    The Lens 1 As you presented your lesson, I was hopeful. I teach mythology, so I felt as if I had a handle on this.
    Lens 2 - I know that my students would benefit from the best practices of real purposes and student ownership and responsibility.
    Lens 3 The lesson would work well for high school /TEKS.
    Lens 4 Extensions and adaptations This lesson lends itself to more research and presentation in a class anthology. I might add a piece. Every student should take notes on each presentation, and then they should summarize their findings.
    Lens 5 Questions arisen Theoretical Connections Scaffolding – this lesson builds on itself.

    I appreciate and thank you for your help. I was looking for a different way to present Mythology. I have spent too much time on this in the past. In this lesson, the students will not simply memorize, they will actively participate.
    Sincerely,
    Jolyn Redden

     

  • At 7/16/2007 12:49 PM, Blogger teach to inspire said…

    July 16, 2007

    Dear Janelle,

    Truly enjoyed your enthusiasm for today’s demonstration. Your positive attitude allows us to feel unthreatened and your willingness to help along the way is quite comforting. However, I must say I DID STRUGGLE quite a bit (actually a lot) putting lyrics to the Spanish CD that I brought in. It might have helped if I would have brought in some English songs, but not really I’m not musically inclined so that’s probably not an excuse. However, I would like to share some of my observations through, “THE LENSES”. Here it goes.

    1st Lens (Feelings)
    Through your activities such as the “mind map” you assessed (pre-assessment) what the learners knew and gain an understanding of our prior knowledge. Thus, you demonstrated respect for the learners and involved us all in the process.

    2nd Lens (Best Practices)
    Friend you did plenty of that. You reached out to learners of different styles. Through music, through mapping, through research, and presentation. You allowed each learner to glow in their area of expertise. Learning was far reaching and non threatening (I could argue on writing the lyrics-but then again that was not my arena). Each student was empowered to take learning into their own hands and make it meaningful and applicable in their life.

    3rd Lens (Standard and Benchmark)
    Okay can’t give you specific TEKS or National Strands, but you did use them. You integrated the learning: Reading, Writing, Music, Social Studies/History, and Technology.

    4th Lens (Extensions and Adaptations)
    Again you rock! You had those well integrated throughout the lesson. Every learner had the opportunity to extend or take a deeper dive into each of the activities. I took a dive into history, but stayed afloat with a life jacket during the music production part. As much as I tried to sink in the floating devices wouldn’t detach.

    5th Lens (Questions and answers)

    How have you helped those who struggle with composing the lyrics? (I think I have the answer you mentioned pair up at the beginning). Have you had students bring in Music (lyrics) in other languages? Did the task become harder because the language was different? Did you find the learners relying more on the rhythm or lyrics to interpret the myths.

    Thanks again for the wonderful ideas and demonstrating that integration can be done and it benefits all learners.

    Yours truly,

    Teach to Inspire (Christina Hernandez-Castruita)

     

  • At 7/17/2007 11:03 AM, Blogger Unknown said…

    Dear Janelle,

    Loved your teaching demo!
    Lens 1: You were enthusiastic about the subject and you made sure we all understood what we were supposed to do. You also went around to each group to ensure we were on the right track and to compare myths.
    Lens 2. You asked us for prior information on what we knew about mythology. The activity in which we transcribed the myth tied the assignment to the students' interests.
    Lens #: You listed the TEKS.
    Lens 4: I decided this would be great to use the song activity when I teach the Scarlet Letter. The kids will enjoy doing something fun, after having read it (which most of them don't enjoy).
    Lens 5: How would you assess them? is there a rubric you use for the song transcription?

    Hope you are having fun in CA! Rock on, Di Trang

     

  • At 7/17/2007 11:05 AM, Blogger Sherry said…

    Dear Janelle,
    Looking at your demonstration through the five lenses, I have the following comments:
    Lens 1-I know that mythology is fun, so I was already engaged and enthusiastic when we began. The musical parody was absolutely a blast. I know that my students would enjoy this activity.
    Lens 2-All children can write--even parodies!
    Student Ownership and responsibility--this comes naturally when they teach each other
    A classroom of shared learning--everyone participates, everyone learns
    Evaluation and assessment--a fun way to do this with the presentations and the music
    Lens 3-This would work well with high school TEKS, particularly those dealing with students writing in a variety of forms and for a variety of purposes. This was also great for voice and style, and writing to clarify ideas, compile information and represent that information in a variety of ways.
    Lens 4-One thing I always added in my mythology studies was that students had to bring in a three-dimensional object to represent their mythological character. It was fun to see what they came up with.
    Lens 5-Theory-Scaffolding--the lesson builds as it progresses
    Thanks for a lot of fun,
    Sherry

     

  • At 7/26/2007 12:00 PM, Blogger Writing Unplugged said…

    07/17/2007


    Dear Janelle,

    Lens 1: Describing affect for teachers and learners
    I think Mythology can be a little intimidating specially for ELL students the vocabulary can get in the way but through your scaffolding and walking around to make sure that everybody was on the same page I know the students will be able to get the hang of the lesson. Innovative way to present a subject that can be rather complex. You also activated prior knowledge by asking us what we already knew about myths.


    Lens 2: Articulating best practice.
    You pretty much addressed all of the best practices. You integrated technology, art: music, poetry, singing, composing, technology, research…etc. What more can I say?


    Lens 3: The Texas language arts standards and benchmarks
    • TEKS where available and correlated to the lesson
    • Objectives where directly tied to support TEKS
    • Research supporting the learner objectives was presented

    Lens 4: Extensions and adaptations.
    The ideas for extensions and adaptations are great. If I was a high school teacher I’ll use them in my classroom.

    Lens 5: Questions arisen
    None at the moment, thanks!

    I really enjoyed your presentation and appreciate the fact that you took the time to put it together. I really learned a lot from you.

    Sincerely,


    Sugey Villarreal

     

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