Portfolio Reflection One My current proposal for my Honors 345 final project is a set of curriculum and lesson plans for a mini-unit covering Seattle literature that we won’t have the opportunity to read in this class. Unlike this class’s coursework, my curriculum would be targeted at a high school classroom, seeing as this is the domain I am more comfortable with and thus reliably able to replicate. In order to keep my scope concentrated, I have chosen one novel in particular to center my work around: “This Is How It Always Is,” by Seattle author Laurie Frankel (though Frankel has several other Seattle-based novels if I needed to expand upon this, while still keeping my chosen books related). I feel that this novel would be an excellent one to teach in a 2019 Seattle high school classroom because, in addition to being both set and written locally, the plot hinges around a family who moves to Seattle from the Midwest to give their transgender daughter a fresh start in order to transition. I feel the topic of gender and identity is an incredibly relevant and important one to discuss and debate in a high school environment. To prepare for this project, I met up with Joe Concannon at Professor Sokoloff’s recommendation. Joe is a graduate student whose work centers around high school teaching and Seattle literature, so it was highly beneficial to hear his insights. He encouraged me to keep my scope concentrated around one novel in order to go into depth with my planning. He also suggested ways to preface and conclude my imaginary unit, and talked through with me methods to vary the delivery of curriculum to keep students engaged and focused. For example, he said that it is helpful to begin each day’s lesson with a goal for the day: “Students will be able to….” Another example of a potential guiding question was: “What makes an author fictionalize they place they come from? Is it still a ‘true’ representation of that place?” He also helped me to brainstorm tactics to incorporate creative writing, my passion, such as having students write about Seattle as they experience it, or allowing them to take on the voices of characters through monologues, as a way to explore stylization and language. I’m excited to explore Joe’s recommendations as I begin to craft my imaginary curriculum. Portfolio Reflection Two It is fitting that for my second of three portfolio reflections, I am just about midway through my Honors 345 creative project. Since my last reflection, I finalized my plans for the faux unit that I want to construct: a week’s worth of curriculum about Laurie Frankel’s This Is How It Always Isfor a Seattle high school classroom. I came up with themes for each of my five days worth of lessons, and began outlining various activities I wanted to integrate at different points in the week. I then went back and began organizing my individual lessons and filling in in more detail exactly how different activities would play out. While working on this project, I had the benefit of being enrolled in Honors Peer Educators, in which a large portion of our homework consists of constructing lesson plans for use in teaching Honors 100 sections in the upcoming fall quarter. This experience was a highly useful one in giving me tools for my project; upon starting, I had practical experience with consolidating goals and lists of supplies for the day, laying out timelines of activities, and varying types of activities to balance the flow of a class. Though the curriculum of my literary lesson plans differed, obviously, these teaching techniques came in handy in formatting and crafting my project. One challenge I faced in the process of developing this project so far was the amount of outside information I had to gather. As a student, I don’t often think about the fact that in order to teach information, teachers must first learn this content themselves elsewhere. For example, I wanted to include a background and short biography of author Laurie Frankel for my first lesson of the week. However, in order to do this, I had to learn about the author myself. This sent me on a spiraling hunt through her website, bouncing around from New York Times editorials to comments on her Goodreads page. I learned firsthand the difficult work a teacher must put in behind even the simplest-seeming of lessons. This experience gave me a greater appreciation for the art and craft of teaching, and all the dedicated instructors I’ve had in the past. That being said, I am still committed to putting in whatever work is necessary to complete my lesson plans thoroughly, to do them justice. In many ways, I have it easy – I don't actually have to put them into practice. With teaching, the work of planning lessons is only half the battle! Portfolio Reflection Three Having just completed my Honors 345 creative project, I wish to reflect on the work I put in to it, and the knowledge I have gained. This project was different from any I’ve attempted before, and allowed me to think about literature from a new perspective. A lifelong reader and student, I am used to both the role of literary consumer and scholar, but rarely before have I taken on the role of critical guide. In crafting my lesson plans, I thought back to when I myself was a high school student, not all that long ago. One of my eternal frustrations as a student is instructors that don’t appear to care about what they are teaching, or don’t attempt to engage students that might otherwise be passive or disengaged. I tried to incorporate a variety of activities into my lessons in the hopes that at least one would spark a theoretical student’s interest. I also tried to find ways for students to be actively involved in the learning process; my lesson plans contained practically no lecture segments, but instead hinged on students reading, writing, discussing, and reflecting on course content and questions. One challenge I gave myself in crafting my lessons was the role I assigned myself as the instructor. Having recently received training on facilitating discussions, I was particularly conscientious of how I wished to craft the teacher’s role in my curriculum. It is my opinion that a teacher should not try and impose their own opinions on students, but rather guide them towards their own conclusions, providing information along the way to help them to do such. The discussion sections of my lessons are phrased in the most open-ended manner I could manage, providing space for all opinions regardless of what my own views on the matter were. For example, I am passionate about reading local literature (in case that isn’t evident from my choice of project). Seattle is a place of my heart: it’s where I’ve grown up, mostly, and where I’ve remained for school. Aside from the delight I experience from reading about a place so familiar and beloved, I think readers – students and beyond – have so much to learn from immersing themselves in the art of the place they’re from or inhabit. I think we have a responsibility to the place we’re from, to learn about its history, culture, and stories. I think we should support local artists and the incredible work they do to capture the legacy of our city for audiences around the world, and for future generations. However, though I doubt this opinion is particularly controversial, I respect the fact that it is an opinion. In my simulated classroom, I want students to question the information they’re given, to critically examine the many ideas and perspectives they encounter. Through critical thinking, students learn what is important to them, what they believe in. If there are students in my imaginary class who disagree with my views on local literature, I want them to feel comfortable voicing their ideas, and I want to be able to listen and contemplate these perspectives myself. I feel that teachers should be willing to learn about the world alongside their students. I hope that my lesson plans help shape an environment of questions, of exploration and not knowing all the answers, of discovery coupled with respect. This is the type of classroom I wish to inhabit, and the sort of environment where I myself learn best.
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(Retroactive reflection 10.8.19) This was the second major paper I wrote for this class. Writing for this class was an interesting experience for me, because it was equally exactly the sort of assignment I had experience with and had previously excelled at, while also being remarkably difficult. Part of my issue was I didn't quite know what I wanted to say about the story I'd chosen, or how to make what I wanted to say feel insightful and relevant to the course. Maybe I was too preoccupied with papers I was simultaneously writing for other classes, which intrigued me far more. Maybe my standards for myself were just too high. This is the paper I wound up with. I got a good score, which was ultimately my goal. However, I don't know that I would return to this assignment as an example of work I took pride in.
This paper was our first big assignment in this class. After spending several weeks studying literary techniques in various written texts, including poetry, novels, and creative nonfiction, we were given the task of examining one of the texts we read through a close literary lens. We then spent a day providing peer review to each other in class before turning our essays in to our professor. She provided us with feedback as well, then allowed us the chance to revise our papers before turning in the final draft. On this assignment, I was not particularly pleased with my initial version. However, I received an 89, a better score than I had expected with my professor's high standards, and my professor provided me with excellent feedback on how to improve. I was then able to edit and improve my draft, and got a 94 on the final version, a grade which I was satisfied with. I was also particularly proud of the feedback my professor gave me on my peer review: I pride myself at being good at editing, and it was wonderful to be recognized for this.
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