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I seriously must have missed something during student teaching. I do not feel at all confident with planning lessons, assessing students, grading, or actually teaching for mastery. I took one class, that I know of, on assessment, and it was very general. I need more specific information on planning English / Language Arts units. What is a unit plan supposed to look like? How can I teach students skills "in sequence" so that I'm not trying to teach essay writing before I introduce paragraphs, for instance? This was not common sense for me, perhaps because I did my undergrad student teaching experience with high school students, and I didn't have sequencing explained to me; it's not like we are given a list of objectives to cover each week, only vague topics; at least, that's all that's been given to me. I do not have a way of knowing when a topic needs to be broken down. I still don't know the plan or the schedule for introducing new topics. I know there is a list of objectives and sometimes a pacing guide, but not really much else.
The other teachers seem to follow a very orderly way of doing everything, though, and I think my cooperating teacher expects me to know it already, because she is leaving me in the dark. I'm kind of afraid of being chided for my ignorance, so I haven't sought all of the answers I need from her. I feel like I need to try to learn some of this on my own, but I'm having trouble finding the information.
Please help if you can. I think I need to find a good book on sequencing and unit planning; if you know of one, please suggest titles.
*I posted a slightly better version of this as a reply to the sticky labeled "Information about Teaching."
DO you have text books to use? The sequence is in the book. The objectives are in the book. The lesson plan is there as well. If you are teaching English- there should be several different texts to use such as a literature book, writing, etc.
I have read many of your posts. Have you student taught before or are you student teaching this semester? You need to proceed full speed ahead. You only have 10-12 weeks remaining and then I am guessing you graduate and will be able to apply for full time positions. Just do it!!!!
What grade/level are you teaching? What works at the elementary level won't at high school. Heck, what works in 5th grade won't in 3rd, and vise versa.
Also, google is your friend. Try "We the Teachers" - there are some units on there.
DO you have text books to use? The sequence is in the book. The objectives are in the book. The lesson plan is there as well. If you are teaching English- there should be several different texts to use such as a literature book, writing, etc.
I have read many of your posts. Have you student taught before or are you student teaching this semester? You need to proceed full speed ahead. You only have 10-12 weeks remaining and then I am guessing you graduate and will be able to apply for full time positions. Just do it!!!!
I'm in a graduate program for another subject, so I'm doing another semester of student teaching. My undergraduate student teaching stint was not as productive as I hoped it would be. I was placed in a classroom of seniors, so I kind of approached it like I was teaching college. Predictably, the students were very confused, and so was I. My supervisor graded me as "fair" and stated that I "survived." Little did I know that I neglected many very important tenants of teaching, prepared lessons improperly, practiced poor classroom management, and basically did a lot of experimenting at the students' expense. My first cooperating teacher was an unbelievable sport to let all of that go on, but I really wish he would have provided more guidance. I was too afraid to admit that I didn't know what I was doing, but I think that was more than obvious.
I thought that maybe all I needed to get better was another chance in the classroom under a mentor, so I decided to go for a master's degree in a related subject. Now, I'm back in an English classroom; this time it's middle school, and my cooperating teacher, thankfully, doesn't allow shenanigans, from me or the students. The downside, though, is that since my cooperating teacher is so experienced, she doesn't even use a textbook for literature; she uses young adult novels instead and even writes part of her own curriculum. She also planned her entire year months in advance, so I'm assuming there's little flexibility, and she won't even consider a lesson plan if it is not in line with her system, which I have yet to figure out. I'm really just more comfortable observing her. I've picked up plenty of ideas from seeing her effectively employ new teaching techniques. Too bad I actually have to teach lessons. Within the boundaries she has set for me, I cannot do very much. I don't even really know what guidelines she uses to plan her lessons. I wish I could have more perspective. She may think I'm not interested, but I just don't want to appear ignorant in front of her. I may need to swallow my pride, though.
I'm in a graduate program for another subject, so I'm doing another semester of student teaching. My undergraduate student teaching stint was not as productive as I hoped it would be. I was placed in a classroom of seniors, so I kind of approached it like I was teaching college. Predictably, the students were very confused, and so was I. My supervisor graded me as "fair" and stated that I "survived." Little did I know that I neglected many very important tenants of teaching, prepared lessons improperly, practiced poor classroom management, and basically did a lot of experimenting at the students' expense. My first cooperating teacher was an unbelievable sport to let all of that go on, but I really wish he would have provided more guidance. I was too afraid to admit that I didn't know what I was doing, but I think that was more than obvious.
I thought that maybe all I needed to get better was another chance in the classroom under a mentor, so I decided to go for a master's degree in a related subject. Now, I'm back in an English classroom; this time it's middle school, and my cooperating teacher, thankfully, doesn't allow shenanigans, from me or the students. The downside, though, is that since my cooperating teacher is so experienced, she doesn't even use a textbook for literature; she uses young adult novels instead and even writes part of her own curriculum. She also planned her entire year months in advance, so I'm assuming there's little flexibility, and she won't even consider a lesson plan if it is not in line with her system, which I have yet to figure out. I'm really just more comfortable observing her. I've picked up plenty of ideas from seeing her effectively employ new teaching techniques. Too bad I actually have to teach lessons. Within the boundaries she has set for me, I cannot do very much. I don't even really know what guidelines she uses to plan her lessons. I wish I could have more perspective. She may think I'm not interested, but I just don't want to appear ignorant in front of her. I may need to swallow my pride, though.
So let me get this straight...you had a less than stellar experience student-teaching so instead of getting a job teaching to see if it really is for you, you went straight into a Master's program for teaching and are again having a hard time with the actual teaching part?
The only way to get better at teaching is to do it, period. That's why experience counts and the best teachers are those who have spent years trying things and figuring out what works and what doesn't. Every teacher, if they can survive the first few years, goes through this. There is a major learning curve between "learning about teaching" and actually teaching.
As a teacher, when I plan units or lessons, I usually have a "vision" that makes sense to me. It sounds like you need to follow your cooperating teacher's vision, and you just can't "see" it, which definitely makes things difficult. First of all, you need to ask questions. There's absolutely no shame in admitting you don't know something. Everybody was a beginning teacher once, and we all remember how overwhelming that was. Honestly, it doesn't reflect well on you that you consider it swallowing your pride to ask your cooperating teacher to explain what she wants from you. That's a pretty basic conversation to have. You're not doing anyone any favors by pretending to understand things that you don't.
Secondly, regarding your original question, when you're planning a unit, you have to first figure out what your specific objects are. Take these from your standards. Then, when you're planning lesson activities to meet your objectives, you should always ask yourself what prerequisite skills your students are going to need to be successful. Then find out if you can expect students to have those skills. Sometimes you'll know the answer to that just from your own observations. If you've noticed that students can't write well-developed sentences, for instance, it makes sense that you need to work on that before you write paragraphs. Other times, you may want to check the previous year's standards. Should students already have been taught a particular skill? If so, then try doing just a quick review and see how successful they are. You'll quickly see if you can move on or need to re-teach. Understand that a good teacher is always flexible--you can plan all you want, but if your students need more time to master a concept, or if your plans aren't working the way you want, then you need to figure out how to adjust. Don't take it as a sign that you're a bad teacher. It happens to everybody. Most of the time there's no one right way to do something. Trust yourself.
Finally, a little bit of unsolicited advice: If you want to be a teacher, you have to stop being so passive. You have to take responsibility for learning absolutely everything you can, finding answers to every question you have, and making the absolute most of your student teaching experience. Don't wait for someone to give you feedback. ASK for feedback...every day, every lesson. Don't wait for someone to explain something to you...ASK for explanations, and ask again if you need further clarification. And don't be afraid to put yourself out there...you have to take some risks in order to be awesome. Just my 2 cents :-)
I was going to write a long post with some advice, but I think I will hold off for now. I will give you one suggestion (and I am not an English teacher). If you need help selecting pieces of literature to go with your lesson plans or to use for the specific skills that you want to teach, go to your local library and ask the children's librarian for suggestions. Also, ask the librarian which books are popular with middle school kids, what's out there that is new, and what books are being used in middle schools. Usually, the librarians get lists for summer reading. Read as many children's and young adult books that you can. It will give you ideas and you will see common themes that you can use. Look for articles and pieces of nonfiction too. Go browse an education store. That will give you ideas too.
DO you have text books to use? The sequence is in the book. The objectives are in the book. The lesson plan is there as well. If you are teaching English- there should be several different texts to use such as a literature book, writing, etc.
I have read many of your posts. Have you student taught before or are you student teaching this semester? You need to proceed full speed ahead. You only have 10-12 weeks remaining and then I am guessing you graduate and will be able to apply for full time positions. Just do it!!!!
I don't think this is very good advice at all. Just follow the textbook? What chance is there that the text's sequence will match that of the school district? There may be state standards the text isn't covering. There may be things the textbook covers that don't need to be taught.
The school district should have some type of pacing guide. Seek it out. We have one for each subject area that the district provides. It is aligned with the state standards. All of the standards and benchmarks are broken down into units by quarters. The district also provides a ton of suggested lessons and activities. Textbooks are supplemental resources.
Have you read a curriculum which teaching writing for example? If you have a curriculum to base your lessons and units off of, you will be immensely more prepared. Most schools have curricula that you should follow and will provide training for those curricula.
This is incredibly basic (and I'm a music teacher), but I would imagine teaching writing to be in this sequence: words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, 3 paragraph form, 5 paragraph form, multiple pages. With that in mind, how are you going to teach Kindergarten/first grade words and phrases? 1st and 2nd graders sentences (remind older children about sentence structure as well), then review review review for all older grades.
I LOVE this method of unit and lesson planning. I don't use their structure anymore, but I did and it helped me immensely.
I also create a year long plan where I have a column for each month, I then have the elements which I must teach. I have: songs, theory, Listening/Music History, Composing, Concepts, Dancing, Warm-up, Concert. This way, I can track the steps towards completing my state standards.
I think you need to sit down and have a heart-to-heart with your host teacher. Express your confusion. Ask her what pieces of literature you will be covering during your teaching. Most middle school teachers use novels rather than a literature textbook.
We teachers. at least in my district, received an addendum for hosting a student teacher. It is the host teacher's job to support, direct, and assist the student teacher.
Don't be shy! Your future depends upon this being a positive experience!
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