| Observations | Reflections |
| Today at the beginning of the class, students watched their peers play in a tournament. There were only a couple of students in class. They were working on homework. I asked my mentor teacher what I could work on, and he had the idea of me brainstorming some workshops he could use for a future class. It was fun! I planned and then we talked about the ideas together. I’ll share my ideas and then talk about my thoughts on them and why I think they would be good for use in a class. | Practising was great! I found that brainstorming in a low-pressure environment (where I would not have to teach the lesson) built up my ideation skills and ability to think about how to instruct learning concepts in an engaging way. I enjoyed applying my theatre experience and using the lesson structures I observed in his class to make my own lessons. |
| 1. “Types of Conflict” writing workshop brainstorm notes (theatre/partial improv) Intro – hook related to conflict -have students who are confident in theatre play a warm-up improv game to show others what this style of acting should look like -AND/OR ask students what they remember about the types of conflict. write the titles on the board and briefly describe them Teach – explain that we’ll show each conflict type through partial improv skits. (not rehearsed fully like a full skit, but still given a bit of planning/prep time unlike regular improv) – explain the basics to know about improv and how to do it well – split into groups. Each group has a paper with a description of their conflict type and instructions specific to their group. (i.e. “choose a protagonist who will face the conflict) – give 5 minutes to decide you characters, protagonist, and the basic conflict – visit groups to see how they’re understanding, progressing, and feeling about acting – each groups performs to teach their conflict type to the others in the class. At the end of each performance, peers guess the protagonist and conflict type, and say ways they see the group showing the conflict through their skit. (formative assessment of showing understanding and engaging all students, whether they’re performing or not) – summarize the types again Practise/Formative Assessment – students take out their writer’s journals to write examples of storylines in point form that would fit into a type of conflict on sticky notes. Put them on the whiteboard next to their connected conflict type. (give an example first) – teacher reads out types He told me which students had experience with theatre so we could split them into each group as a leader. This would give each group strength and a sense of direction. (This is not relevant to my past reflection about group presentations because this workshop is not for marks and it is completed during class time.) | This theatre-based workshop made me think of what we discussed in EDUC 401 with performance learning targets. I wondered if it was okay to use theatre in the classroom like this because my 401 professor mentioned not going overboard with performance assessments. She said it is difficult to use them to assess specific targets accurately due to the many working parts. A student may have met the knowledge targets, but not be able to express what they know due to barriers in their ability to act. Performance assessments should only be used to assess performance targets. As I thought about this, I realized that this problem is not very relevant to instruction. It is talking about summative assessment. Theatre is good for instruction because it helps students apply knowledge in a memorable, tangible way. They express their learning through movement. I would not use this theatre activity for summative grades, but instead for teaching concepts in a way they might remember years in the future. Note from later: My mentor teacher said the class loved this activity! They loved it so much that he also used it in another class the next day I came. It was fun to see my plan get put into action. |
| 2. “Point of View” writing workshop brainstorm notes Hook/Intro – Read an unconventional excerpt from a 2nd-person story. Option “Father Forgets.” – Ask a question about this Explain – write 3 main types of Point of View on whiteboard (and the types within them) Practice – students use a chosen point of view to describe their morning today. They have 5-10 minutes Review/Share – Say the meanings again – Have volunteers read their written pieces to the class. – If they aren’t confident, read your own and offer to read theirs for them – alternative option of think-pair-share | This was also fun to write. I tried out many of the techniques I saw my mentor teacher use in his lessons! I’m grateful for the practice even though there wasn’t much to observe today. This is almost ready to teach! I would just need to fill in a few more details like the question and excerpt at the beginning. |
| Once more students came to the class, they were given a character worksheet. In groups, they chose movie characters to connect to the sheet. They answered questions about characters traits such as physical characteristics, desired, strengths, weaknesses, etc. He sent me a copy because I thought it was such a thorough and helpful worksheet. | This sheet was amazing! I liked the way they analyzed characters they already knew to show their understanding of knowledge targets related to character types. Once they complete this, they will be able to build their own characters. |
| Students ended by doing a Kahoot to review and assess general understanding of the learned content. | This is a formative assessment piece that is easier to keep track of than sticky notes, and students get excited to do it! I don’t want to forget about Kahoot. |
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