Below, I detail my experience teaching a unit on rhetoric to four sections of a PreAP English course located in the suburbs south of the Twin Cities. To learn more about how I planned this unit to align with the learning goals of the school, course, and students, visit the unit planning page. In part one of my instructional narrative, I reflect on my experience teaching the first two days of the unit I planned and describe how I used direct and indirect feedback from students and my cooperating teacher to adjust my instructional materials and prompt better student learning. The instructional materials and reflections I include demonstrate how I communicated to students throughout the period of in-person instruction. In part two of my narrative, I discuss the process of adapting my unit for distance learning during the COVID-19 outbreak and provide artifacts and reflections from my time leading distance learning. As with the in-person instructional materials, these artifacts demonstrate how I communicate to students as a large group. Visit the linked communication pages to explore how I communicated with individual students and their families.
Part One: In-Person Instruction
Revised Instructional Materials (docments and reflection)
Teaching Reflections
Assessments
Revised Instructional Materials (docments and reflection)
After teaching a planned lesson to the first section of the PreAP course, I reflected individually and with my co-teacher about how well my instructional materials aligned with pre-established course routines and supported me in giving specific instructions. During my two days of in-person teaching, we made three types of adjustments to the planned instructional materials.
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- Document Folder Location Slides: The first time I taught the March 10 lesson, I showed the students where on Schoology they could find the activity documents by freezing the presentation, moving to the computer to open up Schoology, and then displaying the Schoology dashboard. My cooperating teacher suggested that I insert screenshots of the Schoology pages to save time during transitions and to ensure I could stay in the front of the room while delivering instructions. Slides three, five, and twenty-one reflect the updates.
- Removing Share-Out Slides to Encourage Free Dialogue: I originally planned for students to share the work they produced in the activity on slide seventeen paragraph-by-paragraph. After the activity, I planned to display slides of each paragraph to guide our discussion. Before teaching, I realized the paragraph-by-paragraph format might impede our dialogic learning. For example, if a student wanted to add parallelism to one paragraph, and I wanted the class to build knowledge of how parallelism functions, it would help to be able to discuss other places where students thought the author should have used parallelism.
- Bell Ring Activity: My PreAP students begin most class periods by completing a sentence direction activity to build their grammar knowledge. While my Cooperating Teacher did not plan for any grammar activities during my EdTPA lessons, we thought students might have an easier time transitioning into instruction if we opened class with a small activity. The “Name the Rhetorical Device” activity on slide fifteen reflects this change.
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Teaching Reflections
In my first three full days of teaching, I learned so much about my teaching style and had opportunities to make mistakes and correct them. During my university supervisor’s observation, my CT and supervisor noted how I defaulted to saying “right, right” as a way to fill the time I needed to process an unexpected answer a student provided. On Wednesday, I worked to make sure I was not using language that shut down diverse or unanticipated opinions about a topic, as my desire to hear other’s unique ideas and perspectives is what drives me to teach. Rather than saying “right, right,” while I attempted to grasp students’ thinking, I told them, “I am so interested in that idea, can you explain a little more.” Not only did this method increase the amount students were speaking, but it tasked students with the duty of connecting what they said to the question asked. Often, I would witness students refining their ideas as they restated them for clarity. I tend to have a hard time breaking verbal habits (“You guys”), so I was happy when my cooperating teacher told me that I did not revert to “right, right” once.
On Wednesday, my cooperating teacher pointed out to me that I tried to manage the classroom with language, such as, “please keep the volume to a minimum” and “can we try to be respectful to our peers by actively listening.” It was amazing to hear my cooperating teacher repeat the language I had used because, in my head, it had sounded and felt so much more direct and forceful. We discussed how students should never have the choice of being respectful listeners to their peers and that no students should have to speak over others. I shared with her that large-group classroom management is a skill I need to refine because I cannot remember a time in my life when I publically confronted another person or raised my voice to curb another’s actions. I am more comfortable addressing students’ behaviors privately in one-on-one conversations. In the following class periods, my cooperating teacher helped me navigate the newness of publically confronting students by suggesting that before every task, I clearly state my expectations of how students should be working and listening. She also taught me how to position my body within the room to try to address minor disruptions silently. These tactics increased my abilities to quickly and consistently address minor interruptions.
Assessments
Click on the links to visit each assessment’s page.
Each assessment page contains a description, objective, and analysis of assessment data.
1. Pretest- Rhetoric Challange
2. Formative- Social Worker’s Report
3. Formative- Governor’s Budget Fiasco
4. Summative- The Atlantic Essay Assignment
Part Two: Teaching During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Two lessons into teaching my mini-unit, my university notified me that I would not be going back to my student teaching site due to the COVID-19 crisis. Using the unit lesson plans and the instructional materials above, my cooperating teacher led the instruction of the third and fourth lessons within the unit. By the next Monday, Governor Tim Walz had ordered all schools closed and notified all districts to spend the next two weeks planning for distance instruction. My cooperating teacher and I used Google Meet to determine how to teach our rhetoric unit in a way that complied with the school’s directives to give students only two hours of work (per subject) each week, to keep all learning asynchronous, and not to introduce new learning applications (limiting us to Schoology and the Google Suite). We decided to expand the rhetoric unit, giving students more time to complete their Atlantic essays and providing them with an opportunity to work together to hold team debate. Each Monday during distance learning, we posted a weekly learning plan (examples below), which students could complete at their own pace. We also held office hours every Tuesday, which students utilized to ask questions or to say “hello.” Below, I have included the large-group posts that I sent to students during the COVID-19 crisis. Click on the links within each post to view the instructional materials. Visit the linked communication pages to explore how I communicated with individual students and their families during this time,
3/30
4/6
4/13
4/20
4/27
5/4
5/11
5/18
Reflections
Assessment
3/30
Monday Post
Ms. M. and I hope you enjoyed your break and found interesting entertainment to keep you occupied. While we all may prefer going into school, we will make the best of online learning. As I mentioned before break, don’t worry. We will work through this process together.
Before reviewing anything else, add yourself to the correct Schoology course. Use your fourth quarter school schedule. If you stayed in the same hour, you do not need to do this step.
Hour One- KT8N8-*****
Hour Four- 7ZX3T-*****
Hour Five- 2WD6X-*****
Hour Six- NVN8-CX4W-*****
We will begin Tuesdays with Mave and Mattei. We will conference on Google Meet each Tuesday. You can join us to clarify any questions or to say hello, but you do not need to attend. I will post a Google Meet link each Tuesday in an update. To join, you need to log into your plsas.org account and click the link. Please use the following schedule for your meeting time.
Hours One and Four- 10:00 a.m.
Hours Five and Six- 11:00 a.m.
Since we do not know when we will return to PLHS, you will receive weekly plans each Monday with Google links to the documents you need. You may choose to complete work each day or work at your own pace each week. Click on the link below for your plans this week.
Learning Plan Link (Directions & Assignments)
4/6
Monday’s Post
We made it through week one! Ms. M and I are so proud of how you are staying positive through this difficult situation, and we are impressed with how you are taking the initiative to tell us how we can better support you.
Click on the link below for your plans. We will see you tomorrow for Tuesdays with Mave and Mattei.
Thursday Question
If you find a free moment, can you reply to this update and let me know if you prefer using drive or notability to provide editing feedback? Which process makes editing quicker and easier for you?
Friday Google Form
Ms. M. and I miss you and want to check in on you. Please take this short survey.
Checking In Survey
4/13
Monday’s Post
Good Morning.
Ms. M. and I hope you enjoyed your weekend.
Click on the link below to view this week’s learning plan. The document outlines the activities we suggest you complete each day. You will also find these activities on your Schoology calendar.
We created a “Weekly Plans and Quarter Four Overview” folder on Schoology to house our learning plans and a calendar overview of quarter four.
When you send a message in Schoology, please send it to Mave and Mattei.
Ms. M. and I appreciate the responses we received to the check-in survey. If you have not responded yet, we still want to hear from you. Use the link on the learning plan to take the short survey.
We will see you tomorrow for Tuesdays with Mave and Mattei.
Friday Update
Happy Friday!
Take pride in your hard work and writing growth this year. As I read early allusion work submissions this morning, I grade with joy. Keep up the good work.
4/20
Monday’s Post
Happy Monday!
Ms. M. and I hope you enjoyed your weekend. Click on the link below to view this week’s learning plan. The document outlines the activities we suggest you complete each day. You will also find these activities on your Schoology calendar.
We will see you tomorrow for Tuesdays with Mave and Mattei.
Tuesday Request
I will start creating debate groups tomorrow. If you have not shared your debate group preferences with me, please complete the survey TODAY.
Thank you.
Wednesday Instructions
Do you need help getting the literature for your IRP?
1. Ask for pictures from a friend. Most students brought the literature book home.
2. Create an account at Clazzone.com. You will need to turn on your Flash Player.
If a Student is new to Classzone and doesn’t have a user account, please follow these steps:
-Click My Account located on the top, right of the Classzone Homepage
-Click Create a Student Account
-Enter your birthday and press Continue.
-Fill out all required information to create user account. Click to create account.
-A page will appear indicating Registration is complete. Verification of your username and password will show. Click to continue.
-On the user account summary page, click Activate more products and enter the provided activation code (9624****-10). Click to continue.
3. Use my login information, but you CANNOT highlight or modify the text. You will need to turn on your Flash Player. You can take screenshots of the literature, and you can annotate from your screenshots.
Login: ******
Password: *****
4/27
Monday’s Post
Happy Monday!
As we begin this week and finish our first full month of distance learning, I want to thank you for the positivity and patience you have shown me during this time of adaption. I feel so lucky to know you all.
Click on the link below to view this week’s learning plan. This week, you will select your debate topics and work on the IRP pair two and essay due next Monday. The document outlines the activities we suggest you complete each day. You will also find these activities on your Schoology calendar.
We will see you tomorrow for Tuesdays with Mave and Mattei.
Thursday Update
Due to the state naming Friday (5/1) and Monday (5/4) school planning days, I am posting the learning plan for the next two weeks today. Your IRP Pair Two and Essay is still due on Monday (5/4) to Turnitin.com. Over the next two weeks, you will research your debate topics and prepare for your first debate post on Friday (5/15).
Ms. M. and I will continue to host our Tuesday check-ins on Google Meet.
5/4
Weekly Update Sent on 4/30
Due to the state naming Friday (5/1) and Monday (5/4) school planning days, I am posting the learning plan for the next two weeks today. Your IRP Pair Two and Essay is still due on Monday (5/4) to Turnitin.com. Over the next two weeks, you will research your debate topics and prepare for your first debate post on Friday (5/15).
Ms. M. and I will continue to host our Tuesday check-ins on Google Meet.
5/11
Monday’s Post
Happy Monday, Debaters!
This week, you will continue to work with your group to prepare for your first debate posting on Friday. Scroll down to the second learning plan on the attached document for the weekly directions. If you run into difficulty contacting a member of your group, please reach out to Ms. Meuwissen and me in a Schoology message so that we can work to find a solution.
Ms. Meuwissen and I enjoy reading your IRPs. If you have not submitted your project yet, there is still time to share your work with us! Do not hesitate to contact us with your questions.
See you on Tuesday for our weekly chat!
Wednesday Google Form
We made it to Wednesday! Follow the link for a debate project update.
Friday Encouragement
Happy Friday, Everyone,
Ms. M. and I enjoy seeing your lovely faces. We appreciate how so many of you use well-researched insight and strong arguments. After watching one impressive first speaker, I out loud said, “Whoa.” Thank you for the joy this Friday.
Good luck to those of you taking the AP Biology test Monday.
Stay healthy, and take care.
5/18
Monday’s Post
Happy Monday,
This week, you will finish your debates. Thank you for the thoughtful work you put into this project. Your first speaker videos challenged me to think critically and pushed me to consider topics from new perspectives. I can’t wait to see how your discussions unfold.
Follow the attached link to see the weekly learning plan. This Tuesday, we will hold our last Mave and Mattei meet. I hope to see you there!
Good luck to those of you taking the AP Biology test today!
Reflections
Week one
To prepare students to write their summative essays, I wanted to create a series of questions to prompt students to consider:
- the qualities that make a thesis and topic sentence claim strong
- the differences between analysis and summary
- the linguistic choices that create a compelling, easy-to-follow essay
I had planned to lead students through a “Four Corners” activity, where students read an example essay, answered if they agreed, disagreed, strongly agreed, or strongly disagreed with statements about the writing, and then discussed their opinions with their peers. To adapt this lesson for distance learning, I posted the example essays on Schoology and asked students to answer a series of questions about them. From the screenshots of their work, I learned that most students could articulate the qualities of strong claims and describe the differences between analysis and summary. However, many students did not identify when the authors of the example essays chose to do things like shift verb tenses or connect independent clauses without coordinating conjunctions or semicolons. I decided I would give students more opportunities to consider grammar choices in the coming weeks, as the summative assessment’s competency-based rubric assesses grammar choices.
Week Two
During the second week of distance learning, I paired students in groups and asked them to complete a peer editing protocol on each other’s work. Each student used highlighting tools and a series of questions to identify their partner’s claims, evidence, and support. Then, they examined their partner’s sentences and considered whether their partner used specific pronouns, they connected their clauses in a way that advanced their argument, and they used active verbs. I asked students to submit screenshots of their work so that I could examine how students used their partner’s feedback to improve their work. I also wanted to see how well students were able to identify organization and grammar patterns in their partner’s essay, as this helped me predict how well they would be able to do it for their own. The assignment data showed that, while many students could differentiate between strong and week thesis statements and topic sentences, they were not likely to ask their partner for more evidence or analysis or to identify grammar choices that might confuse the reader. Therefore, I decided to weight the grammar competency of the Atlantic essay so that it contributed to less of their grade. Students could use the essay rubrics to understand their competency (on a scale of one to five ), but not be penalized for still working to achieve mastery. I hoped that my feedback on their Atlantic essays, plus some grammar activities I added into the learning plan for the following weeks, would support their success on their course summative essay (the Independent Reading Projects).
Week Three
This week, students completed a grammar activity and worked on an Allusion Card (this is an ongoing assignment my students complete every other week throughout the year). In the grammar presentation, I added comments to explain why answers did not follow Dominate American English grammar norms and to link to resources where authors subverted norms intentionally. Because I built the explanations into the presentation, no students reached out to me throughout the week to question my opinions (as, enjoyably, they often would do in class). I also had no record as to understand how well students were identifying what worked (or did not work) about an author’s grammatical choice. Knowing I had one other series of grammar activities in the learning plan, I decided to adjust those presentations so that I did not explain why an answer was correct or incorrect on the document. Instead, I decided I would link to Schoology discussion areas where students could ask questions and discuss usage with each other. This format more closely resembles the type of grammar discussions we had in class.
From the “Checking In” Form, I learned that students were struggling with procrastination and wanted their projects broken into smaller, daily tasks. Alongside the weekly learning plans I sent out to students, I began to post daily tasks on the Schoology calendar and set tasks so that one would not “unlock” until students had completed the previous tasks.
Week Four
This week, students worked through a series of practice ACT grammar quizzes and had the opportunity to discuss them on Schoology. With my PreAP students, teaching grammar is a balancing act. I want to equip the students with the tools to make strategic grammar choices that advance their purpose for writing, but I also have to give them the practice they need to pass ACT grammar tests. As the ACTs operate under the assumption that grammatical choices fall into a correct/incorrect binary, I posted a series of practice grammar quizzes that show students how their choices would fair under ACT scrutiny. Then, I linked students to discussion forums where they could ask questions and challenge the “correct” and “incorrect” labels on the quizzes. I enjoyed interacting with students and seeing students interact in the discussion as we contemplated questions such as, “when is it appropriate to shift verb tenses within a paragraph?” At times, I shared with students what I thought the ACT might say about the questions with which we were grappling (example below).
Week Five – Week Seven (Debates)
During weeks five and six of distance learning, students prepared for their week seven debates. When I was a high school student, I often felt stress at the thought of group work because I did not want someone else’s effort to be a variable in my grade. As I planned virtual debates for a course in which many students struggled with anxiety and perfectionism, I wanted to ensure I structured the group project to minimize students’ worry. Like a typical debate, I divided our digital debates into three speaking and two crossfire rounds. Using a Google Form, I collected each students’ preferences for which classmates they would like to work with to complete the debate. I also asked students to notify me of any peers with whom they did not feel comfortable working.
I used the data from the Google Form to divide the class into groups of six to eight students. Using grade book and attendance information, I identified the students who might not participate so that I could place them in the larger groups. I sent an email chain for each group to kick-off their communications, and I instructed them to work together to select a debate topic and form pro and con teams. After this process, I checked in with each group to approve their topics and ensure every student was contributing. I offered students who were not contributing to the group an alternate debate assignment. One student took the alternate option.
The debate structure made it possible for me to give each student an individual grade based on their personal work, and it mitigated the possibility students would struggle if their team members did not participate. Each team had one First Speaker, one or two Second Speakers, and one Final Focus speaker. I told the students that I would determine each student’s grade by evaluating the speaker video they posted. Each student received participation points for posting crossfire questions (in written or video form). I also ensured the students that if a team member did not post their role, the rest of the team would not be responsible for posting it for them. I sent the students Google Form updates throughout the debate preparation process to remind them of these accommodations.
I hoped that, given the structure of the debates, teams would not struggle with communication issues. If a group had trouble connecting, each student could complete their part individually. Overall, students were thankful for an opportunity to connect and collaborate, and they found my instructions on how to set up Google Folders and Hangouts helpful for coordinating work. A few students wanted more connection with their groups than their group members were offering to them. In these instances, I joined the team members in Google Hangouts so that those students had opportunities to seek their team members’ feedback and insights. If I were to do the project again, I would set up a concrete communication channel for each group and require some type of communication check to encourage participation.
Assessment
Click on the links to visit each assessment’s page.
Each assessment page contains a description, objective, and analysis of assessment data.
1. Pretest- Rhetoric Challange
2. Formative- Social Worker’s Report
3. Formative- Governor’s Budget Fiasco
4. Summative- The Atlantic Essay Assignment
