TAL 875, Adolescent And Young Adult Literacy

I chose a lesson plan revision that I did for my final portfolio in TAL 875, Adolescent and Young Adult Literacy, as my Creativity artifact because it shows a creative approach I took on having students express what they know and learned in a reading done in class. This piece of work demonstrates my effectiveness as a beginning/emerging teacher because it shows reflection on what went well and what needed improvement based off a previous lesson and shows improvements I made to the lesson. It also shows an understanding of the different learning preferences in my classroom. As a student, this piece of work shows an application of a strategy we went over in class. I was able to look at the toolbox of literacy strategies we went over in our

After trying the strategy the first time, I was able to notice what my students struggled with and why. I noticed that some of the students struggled to understand the text that was given to them because of various reasons, such as the way the text was formatted to the vocabulary used in the article. Because the students did not understand the text, they were unable to even get to the written conversation portion of the lesson. I also felt that I was asking the students to do too much during that first lesson. The lesson also demonstrates my understanding of the types of students I have in my classroom. I wanted to try the written conversation because I know that a good number of my students do not like participating in class discussions. I also noticed that the same students dominated class discussions. I also noticed that many students had trouble noticing multiple arguments in an article or reading and didn't fully understand counterclaims. I felt that the best way to “hear the voices” of the quieter students, get the dominating students to take a step back, and to also introduce counterclaims was through a written conversation in response to an article on a controversial topic. When I re-did the lesson, I also leveled the article by Lexile level and distributed it to my students based on their previous reading

Enquiry 5 (Students show commitment to the on-going improvement of their teaching) is addressed in this lesson because it shows a commitment to try different strategies to find out what works best for my students. I could have given up the first time and went back to having students respond to questions after the reading, but I wanted to try this strategy again after giving students more access to the reading by providing leveled readings. Empathy 2 (Students care for and believe in the potential of their students) is addressed in this piece because I was able to notice that it wasn’t their fault that they weren't understanding the article the first time around, but rather my fault for not providing leveled texts that they could have greater access to. It shows that I believed that my students, even the quiet ones, could express their thoughts effectively if they had an article that they understood along with a strategy of expressing their thoughts. It also shows a belief in the potential of the quieter students who too often get dismissed and go months without speaking a word. I also address Pluralism 3 (Students implement a range of instructional approaches and strategies that are needed to educate diverse learners in a variety of contexts) by using multiple strategies, such as leveled readings, strategic instructional groupings, and the written conversation approach to teach this