I'm really excited about this new development in my teaching career, and in my excitement I can't wait to share!
A few weeks ago, I expressed my concern about the cohesiveness of my unit plans. I felt like I was teaching the material, but that the fluency of the activities, literature, and plans was absent.
My thoughts ranged from the following:
I'm an incompetent teacher.
Well, you're busy right now, so maybe it will get better when things slow down...but things never slow down!!!!!
This building has too many interruptions, but all buildings have interruptions so get used to it.
It was definitely not an inner monologue I benefited from.
Here's what I've learned:
I'm not an incompetent teacher, but this stuff takes practice. I didn't learn this overnight, I didn't perfect it within the first month, and I certainly haven't perfected it now. But I cannot express to you the lifted weight of relief I feel now that I know it can be fixed.
The more material you as a teacher understand, have covered as a class, and have personally taught and planned helps significantly when planning a new unit. It is incredibly difficult to start from scratch with every, single, mother-loving lesson I plan. However, I was able to have my students use what we learned earlier in the semester to further their understanding and exploration of the text we started two months later. I found myself saying [during Hunger Games], Remember 'denotation' and 'connotation?' Good, what are they? And what is the denotative meaning of 'Happy?' What is the emotional connotation of the word from the phrase 'Happy Hunger Games?' Is it really happy? Good. Now THAT'S called irony. Irony is what we will be looking for throughout the novel, and you will need to know denotation and connotation for the words, phrases, and ideas explored in verbal irony.
They understood.
We did an activity.
Amazing.
Backwards design really does work. For real. Tell everyone. As a new teacher, I am pretty unfamiliar with the standards. I haven't taught this level of students before, so I don't have any idea about what things need to be covered unless I look at and study the standards (which I also recommend doing). I HAD to address the standards in EVERY lesson. Objectives HAVE to tie to the standards. And backwards design is a HUGE help. I found that my lessons needed a greater purpose outside of finish this book. What types of skills were being assessed? How could the lessons build upon one another? How could they be used in later lessons outside the unit? Backwards design; problem solved.
It has been a nice feeling to see not only a unit come together nicely, but to see the usefulness in the practice, experience, and education I have had the last few years.
My note to you is this: Don't get discouraged. Continue practicing (always). Hard work really does payoff. And as a word of advice to all future student teachers, take what your professors ask you to do seriously. Pay attention not only to the material they give you, but to the methods they use. Notice how your literature professors present their material and get you to analyze text. Start observing how the teachers who teach you interact with every aspect of their job.
Someday soon you will find it useful.
