Mini-Lesson of a Literary Text

All students will have the opportunity to team teach a lesson using one of our course texts:

• Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown, 2007.
• Jolin, Paula. In the Name of God. Square Fish, 2008.
• Poe, Edgar Allan. Complete Tales and Poems. Castle Books, 2002.
• Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet.
• Spiegelman, Art. Maus I & II. Pantheon Books, 1986.

Students will select which of the five texts to use. Each team will be responsible for teaching a 20 minute mini-lesson focused on one aspect of the text. You will consider your 493 classmates as your students, and we’ll be respectful secondary students at your request. Each team will provide the class with a TPA lesson plan for their mini-lesson (we’ll review these requirements together in class). Following each lesson, the class will participate in a feedback session designed to help us all consider what worked well and what can be improved. Additionally, each student will complete a self-evaluation after reflecting on his/her teaching. Note: All students are responsible to know every text presented. The presenters need your participation to grow as teachers, and you will depend on their participation as well. Consequently, the class is not only responsible for reading the texts, but also for participating in the lesson and the discussion following the lesson.

Specific requirements for teams:

1.      Each team will provide the class with a TPA lesson plan for their mini-lesson. Prior to completing this project, we will discuss the requirements and the purpose of the TPA. This lesson plan will be a thorough explanation of what is planned and implemented.

Specific requirements for individuals:

2.      Each student will complete a 2 pg. self-evaluation after reflecting on his/her teaching. In this self-evaluation, each student will:

*reflect on what was successful about the lesson and teaching,

*reflect on what he/she might do differently next time, and

*address issues that are brought up during the feedback session

Specific requirements for text groups:

1.      As a group, you must discuss what aspect of the text each team would like to teach. It is essential that each team teach a different aspect of the text.

2.      Each text group must include some aspect of popular culture, social justice, and informational text. Please note that every team does not need to include all of these, but each of these must be included for each of the texts.

It’s expected that you use the content of the course to guide your lesson preparation. This assignment is a great opportunity to take some risks and attempt things you haven’t tried before. As a class, we are here to support and help each other to become better teachers. My hope is that you take this opportunity to do that.

Evaluation Rubric

The mini-lesson teaching exercise is worth 20% of the final grade for the course. Students will be evaluated by the following.

___/10 Lesson Plan

___/10 Effectiveness of Lesson Activities

___/10 Teacher Effectiveness/Poise/Presence

___/10 Level of Class Engagement

___/10 Self-evaluation Paper