Jamie, Just like your last lesson, I found this one engaging. I think the fact that you use well-known and well-loved movies, (Mary Poppins in this case), to help you demonstrate your points is powerful because you provide most students with something they can easily relate and connect to, which, in turn, helps them to become more engaged. I also thought you had a great volume level. For many people, myself included, it is hard to talk loud enough to be heard from across the room, but not so loud that you can be heard all the way down the hall. I think you have mastered that perfect volume. I could hear you clearly at all times and I think that loudness and clarity will be appreciated by your students in the future, (it is frustrating to have a teacher you cannot hear). Also, the way you talked was great. You sounded legitimately interested in what you were saying. This too will help your students because, when the teacher sounds interested in what he or she is saying, students are more likely to be interested in what the teacher is saying. There are two main suggestions I have for you. The first is the amount of time that you gave us for exploration. I think if you gave students a longer period of time in the future, you would find that students would have more complete results. By “more complete results” I mean that students may actually be able to piece together sentences rather than only being able to sort the words into different categories. I think this will help students understand mood and tone even more because they can then see how the author connects words together to build mood/tone. The other suggestion I have for you is allowing more time for other students to contribute after you ask a question. Typically, you asked a question, one of us answered it, and then you moved on (although to be fair, you did NOT do this every time). Still, I think that calling on several students to answer the same question could be beneficial because it allows for greater exploration of different ideas which, in turns, leads to more critical thinking (something all students should be engaging in). Overall, excellent job. I think the activities that you have students do are thoughtful and engaging. Keep up the good work! -Catherine
Jamie, I thought your introduction was great! Using Disney (well-know) clips was engaging and allows the students to work with something that they already know. I hope that you will continue the pattern of introducing new concepts to your students by using media and stories that they have already been engaged with. This could include other elements of pop culture like famous music, actors/actresses or other movies and tv shows. (Although I love Disney, I think an over use of it might get boring for your students.)
I really liked the exploration of two different poems and separating them by tone. At first I was a little worried that I wouldn't get proper results, but at the end my group ended up doing really well separating the poems. As Catherine said, I think a little extra time for both exploration and discussion would help us to have a more in depth class.
I really liked how you simplified mood (reader's feelings) and tone (author's attitude). It will be easier for your students to grasp and understand the words. I also like that you came full circle, back to the film clips, to end the lesson and help us apply what we have learned.
Jamie, I thought you did a really good job with your lesson. I liked the two introduction videos that you showed us. I think they really set the stage for your lesson and helped to get us thinking about the topic before you introduced the exercise. I also thought that the exercise was perfect for what you were trying to get us to think about and discover on our own. The poems really emphasized mood and tone in different ways, which was a great way to introduce the topic. The discussion we had after was also very helpful. The short packet that you have us with mood and tone words was also very helpful, as it showed us the best ways to express certain moods and tones and how to recognize them. The only thing I noticed was that the discussion could have went on a little longer by using more questions, which would have helped in making the lesson a little bit longer. However, that is very minor and easily fixable. Overall, I thought this was a great lesson that you should definitely use in the future. Great job!
Hi Jamie, Great job with your lesson! I really like how you tie Disney into your teaching. ;) I think that your future students will really appreciate that. It's a fun way to relate to the lesson...and it makes it memorable, because you know that we're ALL going to think about mood and tone when we see Mary Poppins references now. :)
I liked your activity. It was challenging, but that's kind of the point. I wasn't super sure of where to start when you gave us the poem pieces, but I figured it out as I went along, and that's the beauty of indirect instruction! Then when you brought some clarity to it all after we had played around with the 2 poems, everything made sense.
My only suggestion would be to perhaps have more discussion questions prepared. You could always reference more movies if you're trying to get your students to think about tone and mood from themes that they're already familiar with. :) Then again, it's really hard to predict how long you need for discussion questions. I think most of us had that issue...timing is hard when the learning is a bit student directed.
I think that you did wonderfully overall, and that you'll be such a fun teacher when the day comes. :)
Jamie,
ReplyDeleteJust like your last lesson, I found this one engaging. I think the fact that you use well-known and well-loved movies, (Mary Poppins in this case), to help you demonstrate your points is powerful because you provide most students with something they can easily relate and connect to, which, in turn, helps them to become more engaged. I also thought you had a great volume level. For many people, myself included, it is hard to talk loud enough to be heard from across the room, but not so loud that you can be heard all the way down the hall. I think you have mastered that perfect volume. I could hear you clearly at all times and I think that loudness and clarity will be appreciated by your students in the future, (it is frustrating to have a teacher you cannot hear). Also, the way you talked was great. You sounded legitimately interested in what you were saying. This too will help your students because, when the teacher sounds interested in what he or she is saying, students are more likely to be interested in what the teacher is saying.
There are two main suggestions I have for you. The first is the amount of time that you gave us for exploration. I think if you gave students a longer period of time in the future, you would find that students would have more complete results. By “more complete results” I mean that students may actually be able to piece together sentences rather than only being able to sort the words into different categories. I think this will help students understand mood and tone even more because they can then see how the author connects words together to build mood/tone. The other suggestion I have for you is allowing more time for other students to contribute after you ask a question. Typically, you asked a question, one of us answered it, and then you moved on (although to be fair, you did NOT do this every time). Still, I think that calling on several students to answer the same question could be beneficial because it allows for greater exploration of different ideas which, in turns, leads to more critical thinking (something all students should be engaging in).
Overall, excellent job. I think the activities that you have students do are thoughtful and engaging. Keep up the good work! -Catherine
Jamie,
ReplyDeleteI thought your introduction was great! Using Disney (well-know) clips was engaging and allows the students to work with something that they already know. I hope that you will continue the pattern of introducing new concepts to your students by using media and stories that they have already been engaged with. This could include other elements of pop culture like famous music, actors/actresses or other movies and tv shows. (Although I love Disney, I think an over use of it might get boring for your students.)
I really liked the exploration of two different poems and separating them by tone. At first I was a little worried that I wouldn't get proper results, but at the end my group ended up doing really well separating the poems. As Catherine said, I think a little extra time for both exploration and discussion would help us to have a more in depth class.
I really liked how you simplified mood (reader's feelings) and tone (author's attitude). It will be easier for your students to grasp and understand the words. I also like that you came full circle, back to the film clips, to end the lesson and help us apply what we have learned.
Great Job!
Jamie, I thought you did a really good job with your lesson. I liked the two introduction videos that you showed us. I think they really set the stage for your lesson and helped to get us thinking about the topic before you introduced the exercise. I also thought that the exercise was perfect for what you were trying to get us to think about and discover on our own. The poems really emphasized mood and tone in different ways, which was a great way to introduce the topic. The discussion we had after was also very helpful. The short packet that you have us with mood and tone words was also very helpful, as it showed us the best ways to express certain moods and tones and how to recognize them. The only thing I noticed was that the discussion could have went on a little longer by using more questions, which would have helped in making the lesson a little bit longer. However, that is very minor and easily fixable. Overall, I thought this was a great lesson that you should definitely use in the future. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Jamie,
ReplyDeleteGreat job with your lesson! I really like how you tie Disney into your teaching. ;) I think that your future students will really appreciate that. It's a fun way to relate to the lesson...and it makes it memorable, because you know that we're ALL going to think about mood and tone when we see Mary Poppins references now. :)
I liked your activity. It was challenging, but that's kind of the point. I wasn't super sure of where to start when you gave us the poem pieces, but I figured it out as I went along, and that's the beauty of indirect instruction! Then when you brought some clarity to it all after we had played around with the 2 poems, everything made sense.
My only suggestion would be to perhaps have more discussion questions prepared. You could always reference more movies if you're trying to get your students to think about tone and mood from themes that they're already familiar with. :) Then again, it's really hard to predict how long you need for discussion questions. I think most of us had that issue...timing is hard when the learning is a bit student directed.
I think that you did wonderfully overall, and that you'll be such a fun teacher when the day comes. :)