Teacher's Work Sample in Partial Completion of Graduate Studies

TEACHER WORK SAMPLE 1

SPRING 2013 Teacher Work Sample:

A Unit on Theme

Eric Matthew Brame

University of Central Florida


Contextual Factors

This research identifies the needs of students who are studying language arts online. The

curriculum is designed for students that are in the honors program, ESOL program, ESE program

and regular curriculum. Instruction throughout the language arts course is differentiation through

each module, providing students with numerous opportunities to master each skill presented in

each lesson. Each lesson is allowed to be revisited as many times as the student desires. In

addition to each revisit, students may resubmit assignments to increase the score of each

assignment. Due to the philosophy of mastery over single submission policies, students are

allowed to revise each assignment until the student completes the assignment with full mastery.

This TWS will include students from the honors program, ESOL program, ESE program and

regular curriculum due to diverse online environment. This mode of instruction is serves students

throughout the United States. Its services are free for residence in one state. Headquarters of the

virtual school is located in Orlando, FL. However, students in other States, or overseas, may

enter the services on tuition basis.

The school consists of about 150,000 students, who are dispersed globally. This

population lives throughout metropolitan areas, suburban areas, and rural areas. Due to the need

of the school, and its population receiving education services – nationally and internationally –

the school employs over 1,400 faculty and staff. The school comprises of 57% Caucasian-Non-

Hispanic; 14% Black or African-American; 3.5% Asian or Pacific Islander; and 0.9% Native

American. Within this population, the school serves numerous economically disadvantaged

students, who comprise 47.5% of the student population.

My class is not similar to the demographics of the school. Based on the data collected, the

class has 44 students, 2 identify as Asian or Pacifica Islander; 2 identify as Black or African-


American; 3 identify as Hispanic; 1 identifies as American Indian; 33 identify as Caucasion.

Within this group, one student is identified as ESOL. Five students are identified as ESE.

Spanish is the primary language of the ESOL student. This student functions at advance levels of

English language proficiency. The students who are ESE have minor learning disabilities and

require further assistance through additional comments and scaffolding.

Six of the students have IEPs. Five students have IEP’s due to ESE services; one student

has an IEP due to short term memory problems; four other students have IEPs due to attention

deficit disorder (ADD). The other IEP is due to ESOL services of one student. Due to the

ESOL student being advanced in his progress toward English language acquisition, the student

tends to be independent. When the students with ESE IEPs have difficulties with comprehension,

they have access to the work numbers of their instructors in order to receive additional assistance.

The environment of my supervising teacher’s classroom is an online classroom. Students

may access the classroom 24 hours per day, each day of the week. Because this class is online,

students do not have direct access to the instructor. Also, the classroom allows free roaming

through links designed by the school. The classroom provides live online instruction for

an hour, once per week. Each module provides easy to access information for students access

including examples of essays, pomes, etc. However, there are certain technology requirements

that students must have including internet, in order to access the classroom.

Students who are a part of the school are closely monitored for academic integrity. One

method that is used is plagiarism software, which is powered by Turnit.com. If a student is found

plagiarizing, the student is given a zero on the assignment, called and a discussion occurs.

According to the school’s policy, there is a zero tolerance policy the student may be expelled for

plagiarism. However, each instructor gives the student the benefit of the doubt, calls the student,


and allows the student to explain why the policy infraction occurred. If the student is found to be

in error, the student must redo the assignment and submit the revision. However, if the student is

found to have intentionally plagiarized, the instructor must report the student to the school’s

administration.

To assist my students with an IEP for ADD and ESOL, I will provide study guides on

their Discussion Based Assessments (DBA) prior to their over the phone quizzes; the student’s

mother will have a large role in the student’s success, reading the modules to the student and

helping the student type written assessments. Additional individualized online and over the

phone sessions, as well as additional instructional videos, will be given as the student progresses

through the course and the quality of work is assessed..


Learning Goals

These goals are appropriate because the standards for a student in Language Arts

II require the student to be able to use full, formal sentences, which will be expanded into

formal paragraphs and essays. This unit is based on the Next Generation Sunshine

Standards for eighth grade that relate to theme in literature. All of the students in the class

performed at or above grade level in Language Arts II, so these standards should be

appropriate for this group of students. Since literature uses literary devices, I will create

vocabulary matching, short response and think-pair-share-collaborative activities in order

to help students demonstrate making connections to textual information. In order to

support the two ESOL students in the class, I will provide word banks and images along

with other visual aids. I will also provide the ESOL students with language acquisition

strategies that will allow them to read critically.

These goals also provide challenging learning outcomes because students have to:

1. Identify and analyze universal themes and symbols across genres and historical

periods, and explain their significance (Next Generation Sunshine State Statndards:

LA.8.2.1.4).

2. Develop an interpretation of a selection and support through sustained use of

examples and contextual evidence to support an argument for them (Next Generation

Sunshine State Standards: LA.8.2.1.5).

3. Compare and contrast literary texts that express a universal theme, providing textual

evidence (e.g., examples, details, quotations) as support for the identified theme (Next

Generation Sunshine State Standards: LA.8.2.1.6).


4. Synthesize textual data from the text to create a meaningfully argument for the

identified universal theme (Next Generation Sunshine State Standards: LA.8.2.2.2).

5. Organize information from the text to show an understanding or relationships among

facts, ideas, and events that identify theme (Next Generation Sunshine State

Standards: LA.8.2.2.3).

Due to these goals, the student has mastered each goal when the student demonstrated

80% accuracy on analysis, discussion, and literary relations to the goals. Each goal will have

a sub-skill that can be evaluated independently. My pre/post-assessments and other

assessments will assess all parts of the goal as much as possible. Also, every goal will be

assessed by applying the knowledge and skills introduced as realistically as possible.


Assessment Plan

The supervising instructor uses activities such as the Venn diagram, in order to

formatively assess student comprehension of relationship between literary pieces, in order to

assist students grow in their abilities to compare and contrast. To assist students understand

theme through the comparison and contrast, I will also use two videos via YouTube that has two

different interpretations of The Boy the Called Wolf. The students will also have an opportunity

individually practice identifying theme with support from the instructor and me.

Class Meetings: Description of Assessment: Learning Goals Assessed:

Student is pre-

assessed before

online live lesson.

Pre-assessment (attached to TWS) 1, 2, 3

Day 1 Introduction to Theme. 1, 2, 3

Day 2 Defining a theme statement. 1

Day 3 Supporting theme statement with evidence. 2

Day 4 Relationship in theme/short responses. 3

Student is post-

assessed before

online live lesson.

Post-assessment (attached to TWS) 1, 2, 3

In order to properly accommodate the students with ADD and ESOL needs, I will

provide an addition half hour of instruction. The ADD IEPs indicate that the assessment must be

interactive within the class and the instructor must give individualized attention for each student.

According to the IDEA, “the content of the child’s individualized education program, including

information related to enabling the child to be involved in and progress in the general education

curriculum, or, for preschool children, to participate in appropriate activities.” See 20 USC §

1414(b)(ii). To assist students with ADD and ESOL IEPs, I will create an interactive activity that

allows students to interact, ask questions, and work with each other. This will assist students with


ADD to concentrate and ESOL student with their interactive language acquisition. This requires

extra time for assessments, .

Throughout the pre-assessment and post-assessment I will use the bloom taxonomy. This

is in order to reinforce higher-order levels of thinking (e.g., creating, evaluating, etc.). In order to

pre-assess students, I will ask questions to the following effect:

Pre-Assessment Questions:

1) What is theme?

a) What happens in a story.

b) The lesson or moral of a story.

c) The angle from which a story is told.

d) Why a story was written.

2) What is a good theme statement?

a) Love

b) A boy learns to survive in the wilderness.

c) To move forward, people must learn to remember and forget the past.

d) Courage

3) Which line from the text best ILLUSTRATES theme?

a) Red

b) Blue

c) Green

d) None

4) Which line from the text best ARGUES the theme statement?

a) Red


b) Blue

c) Green

d) None

Post-Assessment Questions:

1) What is a theme statement?


b) What the lesson is in a story.

c) What the character wants in a story.

d) What the angle is in a story.

2) What is the best example of a theme statement?

a) She wants to learn how to love someone and care for them.

b) The boy need to learn how to survive in the wilderness at all times.

c) In order to move forward, remember and forgetting the past is necessary.

d) Freedom

3) The Dog and the Shadow. Please read the story and select the BEST answer.

A DOG, crossing a bridge over a stream with a giant steak in his mouth, saw his own shadow in

the water and took his reflection for that of another Dog, with a piece of meat double the his own

size. He immediately let go of his own, and fiercely attack the other Dog to get his larger piece

from him. He thus lost both: that which he grasped at in the water, because it was a shadow; and

his own, because the stream swept it away.

Select the letter which best illustrates the theme statement.

a) Greed

b) A dog crossed a bridge and lost his piece of steak in the water.

c) Greed is a destructive urge. It makes you like you never have enough.


4) The Dog and the Shadow. Please read the story and select the BEST answer.

(1) A DOG, crossing a bridge over a stream with a giant steak in his mouth, saw his own shadow

in the water and took his reflection for that of another Dog, with a piece of meat double the his

own size. (2) He immediately let go of his own, and fiercely attack the other Dog to get his larger

piece from him. (3) He thus lost both: that which he grasped at in the water, because it was a

shadow; and his own, because the stream swept it away.

Select the letter which best illustrates the them statement.

a) Line 1

b) Line 2

c) Line 3

In order to create a post-assessment that addresses student needs through rigor, the

following questions will be incorporated, in order to assist students with the concept of theme:

1) Describe what a theme is:


a) What the lesson is in a story.

b) What the character wants in a story.

c) What the angles is in a story.

2) What is the best example of a theme statement?

a) She wants to learn how to love someone and care for them.

b) The boy needs to learn how to survive in the wilderness at all times.

c) In order to move forward, remembering and forgetting the past is necessary.

d) She is learning to hate how people treat her every day.

This creates a challenging assessment that allows students to assess their learning and

interact with core concepts in the lesson.


Design for Instruction

The students in my class scored an average 46% on the pre-assessment. The students did

not demonstrate master of any of the learning goals. The average score of the students suggests

little familiarity with the concepts of theme, which I plan to teach, therefore, the learning goals

are rigorous and challenging. Although they seem to lack some familiarity with, the topic is not

to challenge and rigorous, due to some of the correct understanding of the content.

The pre-assessment showed me that the students know how to use contextual clues. The

questions that were most frequently answered correctly were covered in the sixth and seventh

grade. Students had a more difficult time with close reading. After analyzing the pre-assessment

results, I will spend more time on the different methods to extract evidence from the text, in

order to teach theme.

The unit will follow the general timeline below. For more detail, I have attached my

lesson plans to this TWS.

Eric M. Brame

Lesson Title: Introduction to the Novel

Subject: Language Arts III

Grade: 8th

Topic: Theme

Content Summary: This lesson will cover the various complexities of chapter three,

which discusses the concept of the novel. Specifically, the lesson will address the various

concepts of theme, student analysis and opportunities to practice the skill they learn. Also, the

State learning goal is appropriate for 8th

grade students because analysis of theme is assessed on

State standardized testing for 8th

grade reading.


Next Generation Sunshine State Standards:

1) LA.8.2.1.5: The student will develop an interpretation of a selection and support

through sustained use of examples and contextual evidence;

2) LA.8.2.1.6: The student will compare literary texts that express a universal theme,

providing textual evidence (e.g., examples, details, quotations) as support for the

identified theme;

3) LA.8.2.1.7: The student will locate and analyze an author's use of allusions and

descriptive, idiomatic, and figurative language in a variety of literary text, identifying

how word choice is used to appeal to the reader's senses and emotions, providing

evidence from text to support the analysis;

4) LA.8.2.2.2: The student will synthesize and use information from the text to state the

main idea or provide relevant details;

5) LA.8.2.2.3: The student will organize information to show understanding or

relationships among facts, ideas, and events (e.g., representing key points within text

through charting, mapping, paraphrasing, summarizing, or comparing/contrasting);

Common Core Standards:

1) CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an

analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

2) CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze

its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters,

setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.

3) CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.3 Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in

a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.


Goals/Objectives:

1) The 8th

grade students will be able to identify concept of theme, using the text of the

short stories choses for the lesson, under the direct supervision of their instructors in a

virtual environment, and achieve a mastery of 80%.

2) The 8th

grade students will be able to develop an interpretation of theme, using

elements of the text, under the direct supervision of their instructors in a virtual

environment, and achieve a mastery of 80%.

3) The 8th

grade students, will be able to identify allusions and descriptive, idiomatic,

and figurative language of theme in the novel they chose, under the direct supervision

of their instructors in virtual environment, and achieve a mastery of 80%.

4) The 8th

grade students will be able to converse about theme, using formal language,

which pertains to the literary piece being discussed, under direct supervision of their

instructors in a virtual environment, and achieve a mastery of 80%.

5) The 8th

grade students will be able to formally argue theme, using formal writing,

under the direct supervision of their instructors in a virtual environment, and achieve

a mastery of 80%.

Materials:

1) Elluminate

2) PowerPoint Presentation

3) Computer

4) Pencils

5) Paper

6) Internet


Procedures:

Students will receive am online live lesson which begins with the students taking a pre-

assessment. Afterward, each student will receive interactive instruction using a YouTube video

of The Boy that Cried Wolf and an updated version, which was produced by three middle school

students. Afterward, each student will use the evidence in the story, in order to produce a theme

statement. When they complete the theme statement, they will receive instruction on using

evidence from the text in order to find the relation of comparison and contrast. When the lessons

are complete, each student will receive a post-assessment.

Evaluation and Assessment:

The primary source of assessment will be a multiple choice quiz (i.e., pre-assessment and

post-assessment). However, I will gather further assessment data from the lesson through the

activities of each student. To achieve mastery, the student must have at least 80% over all in each

category – including the pre-assessment and post-assessment.

ESOL Accommodations:

I will allow extra time for the ELL student who is in the class. I will also provide a

modified quiz upon request. Also, the student will have opportunities to chat with me or the

instructor through the online session system. In order to provide further support, I will identify

the ESOL of the student. I will modify the lesson for the student, depending on the ESOL as

follows:

1) Novice: I will provide additional assistance by creating a word bank that has graphic

contextual clues, including simplified English. Also, if possible, I will provide a bilingual

overview of the lesson and a bilingual assessment. To further assist the student, I will ask if the

student desires extra time on the assessment.


2) Intermediate: I will provide an overview of the lesson in simplified English. The

student will also be provided a word bank that simplifies the literary jargon presented in the

lesson. To further assist the student, I will ask if the student desires extra time on the assessment.

3) Advanced: I will provide extra time on the assessment, if the student desires. Also, the

student will allowed to use a word bank, I will design through dictionary.com in order to assist

the student with increasing their advance vocabulary.

Resources:

1) Reiss, Jodi. ESOL Strategies for Teaching Content: Facilitating Instruction for

English Language Learners. 1st ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice-

Hall, 2005. Print.

2) Smith, Michael W., and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. Fresh Takes on Teaching Literary

Elements: How to Teach What Really Matters about Character, Setting, Point of View,

and Theme. New York: Scholastic, 2010. Print.

3) Writer's Corps. Jump Write In!: Creative Writing Exercises for Diverse Communities,

Grades 6-12. Ed. Judith Tannenbaum and Valerie C. Bush. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,

2005. Print.


Instructional Decision Making

Example One: The first example of a time that it was necessary to modify the lesson

plan, which was approved by my instructor, was the ability for each student to differentiate

between theme and plot. When I asked them to give an explanation of theme, they would give

explanations of plot, which suggested that they were struggling with the differences in the

elements of theme and plot. After the pre-assessment, I asked them to discuss The Boy that Cried

Wolf in order to assess their comprehension of the story’s theme. The ELL only address the

concept with single words, which allowed me to modify my explanation of theme from a

generalization to the proper method of writing a theme statement.

During the lesson, in order to assist the ELL, and other students, I will model the various

concepts by writing an example using a different story. When they were done with their work, I

will show them my theme statement and explain how theme has multiple elements, not just one

word. If they find that confusing, the supervising instructor will enter the conversation and give

additional examples, explaining that a theme statement is a full sentence. If the ELL student or

other students struggled further, I will allow them to give me a call in order to assist them further

by asking them what they do not understand. I will offered further time in live online session for

individual instruction.

Due to the school being primarily online, it is necessary for student to have access to my

office number, which allows them to communicate their learning needs. The online learning

environment presents additional challenges since there are few, if any, face to face sessions.

Thus, it was necessary to assist each student through follow up calls. Each follow up call is

documented and logged in the school’s system.


I allowed them to have individual discussions via phone calls, and extended live online

instruction, using different descriptions of theme, by challenging them to use their current novel.

When as I explain that theme is the lesson the author is attempting to convey, they said

comments in the live lesson such as: “Cool,” and “I get it now,” or words to that effect. In order

to reinforce the concept, I gave them opportunities to roam with and review the slides presented.

Example Two: The second example was the short response. In this, they were offered

the opportunity to practice describing theme. They would use the book that they are reading. The

task was to draw evidence from the text to explain why they thought the book’s theme was a

certain topic. However, they started off struggling, even after they were offered the numerous

lessons on theme through the live lesson.

To assist each student, I modeled how to write about theme. Each student witnessed how

I used evidence from the text of The Outsiders. My short response stated, “Pony Boy shows his

heroic side of his personality when he comforts his companion who hard to address the socs who

were attacking him at the fountain.” Afterward, one the ESOL students saw my example and

wrote, “In the first couple [of] chapters he trys [sic] to figure out what his feeling about. He

says[,] ‘It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to feel frightened. No. wrong word.’”

Although the student showed signs of struggle, the ESOL student should immense improvement

due to the modeling technique. This allowed me to assess how each student is able using

examples to scaffold their own learning.

Current research shows that students, both ESOL and ESE, benefit greatly when they see

teachers model through their own writing and revisions. This is why I asked the supervising

teacher who approved my method modeling, which used live method of writing to show students


who professional writers start with a draft. Thus, each student began to write a rough draft of

their argument for the theme of their book.

The result of the modification and modeling increased student awareness, including their

ability to write full sentences. Due to this, their mastery of the concept increase exponentially.

Instead of writing a single word, they started writing sentence of at least five words to

summarize the theme. The next sentence had at least six words, using data from the text to

summarize the evidence for the argument.


Analysis of Student Learning

The pre/post assessment results showed that each student increased their understanding of

theme and its concept in a novel. The class scored an average of 65.7% on the post-assessment,

which was an increase of 19.7% from the average score of 46%. Individual students increased

their mastery from 28% to 84. The graphs bellow shows the individual student scores on the

pre/post-assessment for the live lesson I taught.

Figure 1


Figure 2

Figure 3

Prior to instruction, my students did not demonstrate master of any of the learning goals.

After the completion of the of my unit, ≈0% of my student demonstrated mastery of learning for


learning goal one, ≈33.3% demonstrated master of learning for learning goal three, ≈50%

demonstrated master of learning goal four, and ≈33.3% demonstrated mastery of learning for

learning goal five. This demonstrated an overall improvement of mastery. However, no student

mastered all five learning goals. For this reason, I plan to discuss revision of the material

presented and the manner it is presented and the possible inclusion of Common Core and

additional ESOL and ESE support. This will give me a chance to review and revise the

presentation with each instructor in live lessons, in order to include further modifications.

My cooperating teacher and have decided to increase the number of calls we make for

students that are currently in the module that contains the unit on them. Each student

demonstrated increase mastery. However, no student has demonstrated full mastery of each goal.

To assist each student, I will provide them additional reinforcement by providing additional

opportunities to master the material through module assignment revisions. In order to be

beneficial to ELLs and other students, I will provide opportunities for theme analysis through

line-a-child choral reading, using poems that are easy to read. However, each poem will have

moral lessons which need to be argued, using textual evidence from the poem for their

interpretation of the theme. If it is possible, I will provide a copy of a poem that is translated

from the ELLs native language. This will help unlock the ELL’s background knowledge and

interact with the L1 students. After creating an environment the ELL is comfortable with, I will

use a simplified word bank, which each student can use, including the ELL. This will break

down the tier one, two, and three words into the context of the lesson. After the remediation

lesson, I will ask the students to use the techniques taught toward their favorite books, poems,

journals, etc. They will be allowed to work on a group project or individually.


Four out of six students failed the post assessment. However, each student should

significant growth. The ESOL student (B6) increased from 30% mastery to 49% mastery in one

live lesson. Each student had poor master to begin with. However, ESOL students, as research

demonstrates, do not have the mastery of the English language to acquire complete mastery of

eight grade literary analysis. Due to this, I will design future lessons with an embedded ESOL

modified unit. Also, I will provide incentives for each student, such as an automatic 50% for

showing effort in the live lesson, for the topic covered. I will also notify parents that I will

provide further instruction upon request. There were points of distraction, which accounts for

low mastery. Thus, I will provide an additional opportunity each week for further instruction of

the topic I cover during the week.


Evaluation and Reflection

The highest average among students was learning goal four, which was mastered at 75%

overall. The least mastered learning goal was learning goal one at 45.8% mastery overall Due to

this, I believe that my overall teaching method was highly inadequate for each student, especially

the ESOL student. In order to create a better lesson plan, I believe it is necessary for me to revise

the entire presentation so it more interactive. Also, I need to work on allowing students the

opportunity to ask me for extra time, if they need it.

Overall, learning goal four was the most successful learning goal, with a 75% mastery,

due to the modeling that I planned to perform during the analytical writing session; each student

conducted their analysis using evidence of the text to argue for a theme statement. I used

concepts such as the Venn diagram that assisted students with juxtaposing two versions of The

Boy that Cried Wolf and the characters with in it. This taught each student close reading of the

text. Afterward, I modeled how to use evidence in the text through written argumentation.

The least successful learning goal was learning goal one, with a mastery of 48.5%. The

students did not show that they had any practice with module three. In order to clarify their

strengths and weaknesses, it is necessary for me to create a mini-lesson toward analytical reading.

To assist the students with analytical reading, it is advantageous to supply them with professional

writing that uses the technique they need to know. An example of a collection of articles is The

Journal of American Literature. This journal explores theme, scene, plot, etc. This type of

modeling will assist students because I will be there to show them how professionals determine

theme. Afterward, I can ask them how the author of the article discovered theme in the literature

the author is analyzing. Also, I can bring those concepts they witness from the professions to the

literature read in the class.


I believe my strength as a teacher is the hands on method I have as a teacher helps

students understand what they need to know through interactive processes. The instruction

method of illuminate, which was designed through PowerPoint, contains YouTube videos,

juxtaposition exercises and basic writing exercises. I used the Venn diagram as the juxtaposition

exercise for the YouTube videos that allowed the students to see two version of The Boy that

Cried Wolf. This was used a prewriting exercise that assisted student with their ability to use

textual evidence. Also, I modeled analytical writing for the students by completing portions of

the assignments in the class with them.

An area where I can improve my instruction is my i+1 methodology. After I taught the

lesson, reviewed the concepts taught, and the raw data gathered, I saw evidence that my lesson

lacked numerous accommodations and modifications. During my play back of the class, my

lesson on theme did not address ELLs and/or ESE. Instead, it was set up for students who did not

have IEPs. When teaching, I need to assess which IEPs I have in the class, which includes ESOL

and ESE students, and attempt to design lessons that have additional support. Part of that support

is word banks and modifications of lesson ideas. Since the students did not achieve mastery, I

noticed that the class was extremely high paced and left students with many questions I could not

answer, due to time. The evidence suggests that the questions and activities I submitted to the

online education system did not have enough visuals or manipulative. To assist ESOL and ESE

students, it is necessary to add more visuals and manipulative that each student can interact with.

This will assist each student to master the concept of theme and answer the questions, which uses

an i+1 methodology.

During the lesson, I learned that my pedagogy must engage students through differential

instruction. When I attempted to teach, I only taught using one methodology. Also, I spoke a lot


in the class, which gave it the quality of a traditional classroom. In the future, in order to scaffold,

I will design my lessons to be interactive. To accomplish this, I will use modified activities from

different sources. One of sources is Jump Write In! by Writer’s Corps. In the book, there is a

lesson that I call the tree of life. This is a visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activity that is used to

assist L1, ESE, and ESOL student to interact with a writing lesson, converse, and work as a

group. This lesson would have assisted the students in the lesson to interact with the concept of

theme in a differentiated manner. Also, it is necessary to scaffold for ESE and ESOL student by

addressing their interests. In the future, I will design lessons that address these interests as I

collect their free writes. This suggests that students who are not interested in the lesson, or have

poor rapport with me will not listen to it anyways. In fact, I should design my lessons to address

their views on technology, sports, music, and much more (i.e., video games). Since their interests

are much more visual due to technology, I should scaffold by using video game designed lessons

about theme to interest them.

Overall, the unit on theme suggests that the students have improved greatly improved.

However, they did not achieve mastery of the concept of theme. During the lesson, I asked

questions about the similarities and differences between The Boy the Cried Wolf from the

tradition version and the story from a modern, 21st century version. I asked questions such as:

“What did the boy in the original version do?” Also, I asked the same question about the 21st

Century version. When I asked for the differences, the students struggled to give an answer. This

shows that I needed to appeal to their background knowledge. For this reason, I asked about their

favorite shows. After I challenged them to see the differences between two of them, they were

able to complete the task. The same issue occurred when I asked about the similarities between

The Boy that Cried Wolf in the traditional version and the 21st century version. When I redesign


the lesson, I will use the videogames, films, and books that the students are familiar with. This

will allow them to unlock their understanding of theme more efficiently. Also, it will get the

students further involved in the lesson presented. This will assist each student in their analytical

skills prior to assessment.

Documents

Teacher's Work Sample in Partial Completion of Graduate Studies