I chose this lesson plan because I felt that it
had a good handle on how to relate sonnets back to the lives of the students,
as well as having a fun activity to complete for the class. Overall, many
teachers only teach Shakespeare when it comes to sonnets, and the power of a
sonnet is lost because many students automatically assume they cannot
understand anything by Shakespeare. I particularly like that the lesson started
off with a modern sonnet, and then eventually circled back to Shakespeare in a
very comprehensive way.
Overall, I feel that the lesson did not have
many gaps. When adding in technology, I tried to focus my efforts on adding to
the paper work that was originally described in the lesson plan. For example,
instead of handing out worksheets that students can lose, I would publish the
worksheets/notes onto a class discussion board where they can be accessed at
anytime. Also, I felt that publishing the poems onto blogs is very important to
help relate the activity to the students’ everyday life, as well as
accomplishing more of the Core Curriculum Content Standards. The problem
presented now with my version of the lesson plan is that if a school does not
have access to computers for every student or a smartboard, then many of my
adjustments are impossible to complete.
Although I do not feel that the technologies I
presented are essential, I do feel that they are more effective than the
original lesson plan. Having students publish work makes them take a certain
level of pride in their work that would be difficult to accomplish in private
drafts. Also, the technologies I’ve presented makes for easy note-taking,
assignment collecting and adds relevance to the lesson.
Lizz,
ReplyDeleteYour newly transformed lesson plan is truly comprehensive and evocative. I like how you weaved in new and different technologies to help the students more easily access their ideas and work. I truly liked the idea that they are creating something basically from scratch or as close to scratch as they can get. Not only will they take pride in their accomplishment but they can also express various unique traits and individual creative aspects. The use of Wordle in learning sonnets is so cool. I first came across Wordle in college and was immediately drawn to how innovative and truly revolutionary it is in a classroom setting. It provides expression far beyond a simple poster board with creative thoughts. It allows manipulation into the process that can transform the students' work into something they can then look back on or revisit to reaffirm a concept. The posting on blogs mirrors a lot of how technology is revolutionizing the classroom discussions just like we are completing in this module. It was very interesting to read this lesson plan and I hope to one day snip some things and produce my own creative lesson to teaching my students the importance of sonnets. Your lesson provides them with an overview and how Shakespeare transformed them in their purpose to how writers today have again slightly adapted such an important concept.