Ms. Q

what is your purpose and intent for these two [performance] assignments?

Great question and one which has me reviewing my understanding of UbD assessments. My intent and purpose with both assignments is to ensure their understanding of the Essential Understandings. Looking at the oral storytelling assessment, I want students to retell the story orally, as this is the format Native Americans used. The only purpose oral telling has is to get them practicing their speaking in class and I have designed this for them to do in groups, so each person has support. The creation of a myth will show evidence of use of the criteria used in the myths we study in class. After reading 3-4 myths, they will create a chart listing the elements found in common. From this chart they will create their myths.

The other performance assessment, creating a poem/sermon, will build on the idea of culture, society, and individuals within a society, which will be a theme running throughout all units this year (both Eng III & US His). This will be assessed using a rubric, created after learning the structure of a poem/sermon. I am still working on rewriting my rubrics, as they did not assess the understanding I was trying to get the students to know.

The overall purpose of the unit is to get students to understand (know) the cultural beliefs held by both parties (Native Americans and European colonists) and to be able to reiterate those back to me, as well as to start creating their own written set of beliefs. I am plannning for this to lead to conclusions about how culture beliefs are defined, conveyed, and used.

To assess the literary aspect of the myths and the other works, students will be writing a response comparing oral storytelling and the historical narratives.

Truth be told--this is the unit I dislike teaching the most. This is the area of literature I know the least about and I find it personally unengaging. It was hard for me to come up with assessments to assess true understanding.

Note--my unit plan does not have any learning activities outlined as of yet, I am working on those once I have the overall plan for all units outlined. I want to make sure my themes run through all units, as I need to have something unifying the whole year, besides it just being American Literature.

The "Question for the Teacher" sheet sounds interesting. How do you conduct that activity?

I have struggled with how to get my students to ask questions when they are still not understanding something. This year, I have decided to implement a "Question for the Teacher" handout. There are several ways I could do this: 1) create a sheet with several "Question for the Teacher" boxes and give a few to the students at the beginning of the quarter. They could then write their questions and turn them in inconspicuously when turning in other work, 2) have a box labeled as "Question for the Teacher" box with slips of paper beside it and allow them to write questions and put in box, or 3) have them write questions at the bottom of homework/tests. I have tried #3 before, but have not had a good experience with it. Most students either skip over that section or rush through it and ask a knowledge based question, when the real question they still have is one of concept understanding. I am leaning most to #1, as I think the confidential factor involved would best suit my students.

Here is an issue I was discussing with myself today--teaching the "elements of literature." As I was combing through my literature text (which is half of my problem) I was baffled by some of the choices of "elements" chosen for certain pieces. It is hard for me to focus on one element over the others, when I know there are several illustrated in key ways, but I also don't want to overload my students learning by addressing all of the elements used. So, I came up with two plans, but have not yet decided which one I will choose for the year.

Plan 1:
Teach all elements in a unit, before getting into the actual "American Literature," using short pieces of selections we will study at length later. This will give the students a brief intro to all elements and many of the works to be read. My plan would be to teach all elements, have students reproduce a compendium of elements for reference throughout the year, and then test them on said elements using other pieces of writing (transference). Then as we go through the units of literature have assigned elements for students to look for in all works. (each student is given 2-3 elements OR groups of students given a list and they are the ones looking for elements and will share with the rest of class)

Plan 2:
Choose one or two elements to teach in minilessons before beginning the unit. Focus on these one or two as the unit progresses. Remember to come back to these throughout subsequent lessons.

The hardest part for me in plan 2 is choosing which ones to focus on. Not all pieces of a unit will have the same elements portrayed as prominently as others. Also, if students have a good understanding of hyperbole why waste time teaching it as part of a unit, when it can simply be looked for in the unit. I don't know if I am being clear about my difficulty with this issue, but I know, as I have been planning, this has been the hardest part of the planning.