West Virginia State University

College of Professional Studies: Department of Education

Teacher Candidate: Taylor Connard Date: March 17, 2015

School: Horace Mann Middle School Grade/Subject: 8th Grade English

Lesson Topic: Introduction to Shakespeare

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES/ STUDENT OUTCOMES

1. Students will be able to use prior knowledge to write about William Shakespeare and his life.

2. Students will gain an understanding of the time period of William Shakespeare. 3. Students will gain an understanding of who William Shakespeare was. 4. Students will gain an understanding of why William Shakespeare wrote.

WV CSOs

1. ELA.8.W.C10.1 produce clear and coherent writing in which the development organization and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience. (grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in objectives in text types and purposes).

2. ELA.8.SL.C13.3 delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and relevance and sufficiency of the evidence and identifying when irrelevant evidence is introduced.

NATIONAL STANDARDS

1. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

2. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

3. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

Overall Time: 45 minutes

5 minutes: Introduction to myself and the topic/objectives.

10 minutes: Prewrite activity.

20 minutes: PowerPoint presentation.

10 minutes: Completion of post writing activity.

STRATEGIES

Teacher/student led discussion, independent practice, guided instruction, teacher demonstration.

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION/ ADAPTATIONS/ INTERVENTIONS

The first class of students will complete the worksheet as needed, but due to the last class’s behavioral issues, they will instead show their answers on the “DoodleBuddy” app on their iPad.

PROCEDURES

Introduction/ Lesson Set

The students will complete a prewrite activity to assess what they know about William Shakespeare, this will be used in conjunction with another writing activity at the end in order to determine what they have learned (See Attachment). A visual presentation including a PowerPoint and virtual tour of the Globe Theater will be used to engage students.

Body & Transitions

After the class has settled in and introductions are made, I will begin the lesson.

• First the students will be informed that we are going to be doing an introduction to William Shakespeare.

• Next, I will give them a handout that asks for them to write down everything they know about Shakespeare (See Attachment). There will be no length requirements for this part of the lesson. After about 10 minutes I will ask the students to flip over their papers.

• My presentation will consist of a PowerPoint that contains the time period of Shakespeare, who Shakespeare was, and why Shakespeare wrote. I will ask volunteers to read parts of the PowerPoint and we will discuss as we go.

• After the presentation is completed, I will have the students flip the handout back over, that I gave them in the beginning of class.

• They must list at least three to four facts of what they have learned during the presentation. These facts must be different from their original prewrite.

Closure

After they have finished their written assignment, we will review what we have learned. I will then hand over the class back to the cooperating teacher in case she has any announcements for them.

ASSESSMENT

Diagnostic: The students will do a prewrite activity to assess their prior knowledge of Shakespeare (objective 1).

Formative: As I am presenting the PowerPoint the students will participate in discussions lead by me. I will assess how they are coping with the objectives and if they are on track during these discussions (objectives 2,3, and 4)

Summative: At the end of class students will do another writing activity where they will write down what they have learned from the presentation. In this activity I hope the students will write about each objective (objectives 2, 3, and 4).

MATERIALS

I will be required to have the PowerPoint ready to be used and the assignment printed and ready for the students to do. The students will need a writing utensil and if they finish early their iPads that were issued earlier in the month.

EXTENTED ACTIVITIES

If Student Finishes Early

If the student finishes early they may take out their iPads and go to the virtual tour of the Globe Theater and look at more aspects of the tour that we had to skip in class.

If Lesson Finishes Early

If the lesson finishes early we will look at more aspects of Shakespeare’s plays that we did not get to cover in class, more specifically Romeo and Juliet, which they will begin later that week.

If Technology Fails

If technology fails, I will do the lesson in more of a discussion with the students. I have the slides memorized and therefore can create the lesson in more of a conversational tone with the students. The assignments can continue as planned.

POST-TEACHING

Reflections

Due to this being my first lesson, there are many things I would have done differently. First and foremost, I should have over planned on time. The lesson ended way too fast and even after doing the extra thing I planned, I was still short on time. I’ve also realized that there needs to be a procedure for doing everything; you cannot just assume that they know what you are asking for. Classroom management with my first class was amazing and I truly felt as though I had control over the class, but the last class was a disaster. These students have a lot of behavioral issues and often refuse to do work. I felt very overwhelmed teaching this class because I knew that they were not going to listen to me or give any respect. I also altered the worksheet right before the lesson to give better instructions, I also should have been more clear in verbalizing my instructions to the students. I definitely have learned a lot and I’ve constantly been thinking about how I can do things differently next time.

Data Based Decision Making (If Needed)

For my data based decision-making I had my students write facts that they knew about Shakespeare before I taught the lesson. After the lesson, I had students write facts that they had learned. I pulled 10 random papers from the class and used those to assemble my chart. The vertical axis represents the number of student’s papers I pulled and the horizontal axis represents the categories that I looked for in their facts from the prewrite and postwrite activity. The darkly shaded bar is data from the prewrite and the lightly shaded bar is data from the postwrite.

0  

1  

2  

3  

4  

5  

6  

7  

8  

9  

10  

Shakespeare's  Birth   Shakespeare's  Life   Shakespeare's  Works  Shakespeare's  Death  

PreWrite  

PostWrite  

You will notice that in every category, except for Shakespeare’s life, there were growths in knowledge. For Shakespeare’s Birth, the amount of students who put a fact about his birth rose from two students during the prewrite to nine students during the postwrite. The amount of students who included facts about Shakespeare’s Life stayed the same at nine students. Shakespeare’s Work advanced from three to six students. Finally Shakespeare’s Death went from four students including facts to five students including facts.

From this chart I can see that my lesson made the most lasting impression in the category of Shakespeare’s Birth. Almost every student, except for one, included a fact about the mysterious origins of his birth. Also, I can see that I need to cover more of his works and his death. These categories showed the least amount of growth and knowledge. In the category of Shakespeare’s Life, the students already had advanced levels of knowledge on the topic and showed no growth; due to this I should find more interesting facts about his life to cover in the lesson. Overall I believe this chart shows the successes and failures of the lesson and proves that there are areas that did well and areas that need improved upon.

PowerPoint:

William Shakespeare

Early Life

!   There are no records of Shakespeare’s birth. The only record that exists is that of his

baptism on April 26th, 1564.

!   Shakespeare did not attend a University, but instead married at 18 and began his family.

!   After 1585 Shakespeare disappeared until 1592.

Shakespeare’s Work

!   Shakespeare began acting and writing plays in 1590 and by 1594 Shakespeare had completed the plays:

!   The Taming of the Shrew

!   Richard III

!   The Comedy of Errors

!   The Two Gentlemen of Verona

!   Often Shakespeare wrote his plays to put himself in favor of Queen Elizabeth I.

Elizabethan Age

!   Elizabeth I ruled as Queen of England for 45 years.

!   Elizabeth saw the need for arts and so established many theaters and poured money into them.

!   After her death, King James came to power and established Shakespeare’s Theater Company as the

King’s Men.

!   After James died, his son Charles I would ruin the theater by starting wars with the Puritans.

The Globe Theater

!   The Globe Theater was built in 1599 and was the most elaborate theater to date.

!   The Globe housed Shakespeare’s Acting Company and lasted until 1644 when it was taken down due to new

Religious Laws.

Writing Activity

Now that we have more knowledge about Shakespeare, go back and write down three to four different facts that you

have gathered from the presentation!

Worksheet:

Name:  __________________________________  

 

Shakespeare  Activity  

 

 

What  I  knew:    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What  I  now  know: