As I conclude my second month of student teaching, I wish I could say I felt better about what I'm doing with my classes. I am planning and teaching lessons for the senior college prep classes, and our unit uses The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I wanted to do something relevant and useful for my students; and since Pausch's book is based on a lecture he gave at Carnegie Mellon, it was appropriate to plan this unit around oratorical skills and communication.
My plan seemed pretty solid at first. I introduced the book, the author, and the culminating project (a graduation speech for the students to give in class). I gave the students clear objectives, and I explained that participation and grades for the unit would be rooted in oral communication or discussion. It was my hope that through "authentic discussion" (Randy Bomer), my students would be able to discuss the literature, find the themes, discuss the connection between their lives and the theme, and pose and respond to questions in a student-led atmosphere. I diligently studied and sought to improve each discussion by seeking out resources, and our discussions did improve. The students are now respectful toward one another, compliment each other, politely agree or disagree, and ask deep questions that require critical thinking. The format for discussion stays the same: students fill out two worksheets per week (one response journal and one discussion form), the requirements stay the same. But the discussion skills improve. I must say, I'm impressed (and grateful that it worked).
All the while, I have included workshops for pre-writing, drafting, and revision for their final graduation speech, but students were mostly expected to complete outside of class.
These successes are not the problem.
I had all these other ideas I wanted to incorporate into the lesson. But I forgot about them, or I didn't figure out how to fit them in until after it was appropriate. I had all these ideas about what to include in revision and writing workshops, but we ran out of time. I wanted to compare and contrast good and bad speeches, and discuss what qualities they as an audience value. All of these supplemental ideas supported the unit and culminating project, and they would have scaffolded perfectly into the unit. But the time has passed, and I'm afraid that their writing will have suffered because I didn't do these activities before they wrote and turned in their speeches.
I have discovered other ways to incorporate the ideas this time, but it doesn't fit together because the larger project came before the supplemental activities. I know that I can use this if I ever teach this again, but the damage has already been done.
How am I ever supposed to REALLY teach them something if I can't get all of my thoughts and ideas onto paper and into a cohesively scaffolded unit? And although I plan my unit using backwards design and I fill out daily lesson plans, why do I feel like I'm not FEELING this unit piece together? Like I've left something out? Like they don't understand the point (even though we have talked about it)? Am I just projecting my insecurities onto my lessons, or do my students feel like I haven't prepared them as well?
