Same Sun Here Author Visit

Each year, the St. Michael’s College Education department has a common read for everyone throughout the department, and typically invites the author to visit for a talk at the school. This year, we read the epistolary novel Same Sun Here written by Silas House and Neela Vaswani, and had the chance to listen to Neela Vaswani talk about the book in mid-October. At the talk, she discussed the process of writing the book and why she included certain aspects of the plot, but she also mentioned how to teach the book to students and was also open to ideas about other possible ways to teach the book. One aspect of the event that I really appreciated was learning about how she and her co-author wrote the novel, which consisted of sending letters back and forth to each other, without discussing their any of the content in person. The novel itself is written through letters between a young girl from India living in New York City and a young boy from Kentucky, and each of the authors, according to Neela, has a personal connection to each of their characters. Silas House wrote as the young boy from Kentucky named River, and Neela wrote as the girl living in New York City named Meena. As a reader of the book, I really like that they chose to take this genuine approach, and as an educator, I really appreciated the thoughts shared by Neela Vaswani on different ways to teach the book.

Attending this event allowed me to draw connections between the Vermont Educator Performance Criterion and the St. Michael’s College Education department mission statement.  One performance criterion that this event connects to is 10.1: Candidates are prepared to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and community members to ensure student learning. At this event, she welcomed new ideas to teaching this book and we also looked at more specific ways to teach the novel in our education classes. We were split up into groups to come up with a learning activity based around this book. My group decided that one engaging and purposeful way to examine this book would be to stage a debate around mountaintop removal, which is something River, as a character, struggles with in his hometown in Kentucky. This Performance Criterion is also connected to this event because, in my opinion, one of the most influential demonstrations of learning and growth from a student is through student activism, which was also a topic discussed at the author’s talk. River portrays an example of a student activist in the book by standing up to the governor at the State House fighting for tougher environmental regulations to protect the beauty of his hometown, and Neela touched upon how this book could inspire students in our classrooms to become activists in their own communities. One way we as educators could facilitate this type of student activism would be to allow for a opportunity for students to perhaps write to a local official, or even a state congress or senate official. This aspect of education connects to the St. Michael’s College Education Department mission statement, which states “Our graduates are change agents committed to social justice and sustainability”.

After the event, there were two main themes that stood out to me which I will take away with me as a future educator. These two themes were the importance and value of interdisciplinary learning and the collaborative process it took to compose the novel they wanted. After reading and analyzing the novel Same Sun Here it is apparent to anyone in the field of education that this book could be used to teach from multiple different perspectives, and from multiple content areas, as well. I think novel’s like these are serve students well because this type of book doesn’t compartmentalize valuable learning concepts. One could look at many different factors, from friendship building, to mountaintop removal, to fixed housing prices. Studying a book like this in a class does not put student thinking in a box, but rather would assist in sparking young student’s imagination due to all of the different angles an educator could take while teaching a book like this.

The second takeaway from this event that I value as an educator was gaining insight on the collaborative process the two authors went through to produce a genuine novel of letters.  The two authors knew each other quite well before beginning the novel, so they knew if they wanted to create the book they both had envisioned, it had to be done by actually sending each other letters and really pretending to be their characters. I may not be a co-author of a book anytime soon, but I do plan on collaborating with colleagues inside of my content area and outside of my content area with other teachers and school professionals to ensure student learning and growth. One key point she had for working in a pair like this was that she had to respect his ideas (and vice-versa), even when the book was not going in the direction one of them may have wished. This makes me think, as a future educator, how important it is to always add your opinion, but most importantly, how important it is for you to listen to other’s opinions and try to make compromises when differences arise.

Back-to-Back Mini-Lessons

This past week in my Literacy/Curriculum education courses, we conducted back-to-back 20 mini lessons for our chosen unit for the semester, with one lesson being taught on Tuesday and the other part being taught on Thursday during class time. For this lesson, I chose to teach a lesson on the different advantage factors between the North and the South at the very beginning of the war. Linked below is a Google folder that contains all of the parts to my unit, including this particular lesson plan and materials (Nearpod presentation, graphic organizer, kahoot formative assessment, a creative writing formative task).

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jUpsNGq8jOhIErEGvz0M0_-zBqCuFw3w

Standards addressed in Lesson:

D2.His.14.6-8:  Explain multiple causes and effects of events and developments in the past.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.4:
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.

To begin the lesson on the first day, I presented a Nearpod slideshow that focused on four influential factors that would eventually lead and determine the outcome of the Civil War. These four factors included Population, Military leadership, differing economies, and their respective infrastructures at the time. The slideshow, as well as the accompanying graphic organizer students that was handed to fill out during the presentation, were both formated in a clear compare and contrast manner between the North and the South. At the end of the slideshow, the students gathered into a group to compare each other’s graphic organizer notes, as well as creating a group Venn-diagram comparing and contrasting the difference in factors. My reasoning for doing this was because my accomodation focus for this lesson was to assist students with note-taking anxiety. Students were able to listen and gather their own notes, had an opportunity to convene with fellow classmates to write down anything they may have missed, and created a Venn-diagram to discuss, recap, and confirm the newly presented material.

To begin the lesson on the second day, I conducted a four question formative Kahoot assessment that had a question on each of the four factors we discussed on Tuesday. Students demonstrated their understanding of the content in both the graphic organizers and kahoot assessment to a point where I felt it was appropriate to begin to apply the knowledge to writing. Students were then prompted to complete the creative writing task, where they essentially summarized the difference in factors at the beginning of the war, as well as taking on a perspective from either the North or the South. The final summative performance assessment task for this unit is a creative writing assignment, so my reason for completing this creative writing task was to begin to creative writing, which entails taking on a role, writing to a specific audience, and using a tone separate from the student’s usual writing tone. Through employing this write-to-learn activity, I felt the students were much more engaged and were able to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the content. I could have asked students to just write a summary, but allowing students to take on a perspective from the North or the South and having them defend which side holds the superior difference at the onset of the war created a much more memorable and effective learning experience. This activity also created an opportunity for students to demonstrate learning for the standards I chose to address in this lesson. Students were able to effectively explain the difference in factors between the two sides, as well as demonstrating their understanding of unit vocabulary. This lesson would probably take place after an extensive vocabulary lesson, so this was also used as an opportunity to become more familiar with Civil War related vocabulary and big ideas.

The three Performance Criterion I was looking to address through planning and administering this lesson are:

Performance Criterion 3.1: Candidates design learning environments that support individual learning marked by active engagement.

Performance Criterion 5.2: Candidates integrate cross-disciplinary skills (such as critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving) to help learners demonstrate their learning in unique ways.

Performance Criterion 6.1: Candidates implement multiple methods of assessment to monitor learner progress to  inform instructional practice.

Performance Criterion 3.1 was addressed through providing a graphic organizer to students as they followed along to the Nearpod slideshow. This gave students an opportunity to take clearly formatted notes that assists their understanding of the comparisons and contrasts between the North and the South. Students also had an opportunity to work in a group to go over any content they may have missed and constructed a Venn-diagram for evidence. My focus for doing this was based off of the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model (I do, we do, you do). The ‘I Do’ would be the nearpod presentation, the ‘We do’ would be the graphic organizer and Venn-diagram, and the ‘You Do’ being the kahoot assessment and creative writing task on the second day.

Performance Criterion 5.2 was addressed through administering the creative writing task, which gave students an opportunity to practice their creative writing skills, and writing skills in general. Students were using the writing strategy RAFT to construct their responses. In retrospect, I wish I could have provided time to go over RAFT and conduct a pre-writing activity to get students cognitively thinking about what RAFT means and how they could apply it their creative writing throughout the unit.

Performance Criterion 6.1 was addressed through students being assessed on the content multiple times in multiple ways over the course of the lesson. Students were assessed on the first day by turning in their graphic organizer and group constructed Venn-Diagram. On the second day, they completed both a selected response (Kahoot)  and an essay (creative writing task) assessment.

In teaching these two mini-lessons back-to-back, I learned a lot about lesson planning and execution. One aspect of lesson planning and teaching that I have noticed to be crucial is connecting every learning activity to the standards I am addressing, as well as making the desired standards and focusing questions transparent with the students. On the first day of the lesson, I never communicated with the students what the focusing questions for the lesson were and never introduced them to the standards we are trying to address. I made sure to begin my second lesson period by telling the students what the focusing questions were for the lesson, and felt as if students were able to begin class with a better focus of what is being taught and what they are about to do/learn. I also realize that in failing to be transparent with my students about the desired learning outcomes, I am not  aligned with my Accomodation goals for this particular lesson. As I continue to construct lesson plans for this unit, I will continue to think about and create specific learning opportunities that adequately addresses the standards I am wishing to meet with my students. Another focus I will have moving forward in every lesson that I design and implement in my classes is to be clear with my students on the focusing questions for that particular lesson. This will keep students focused on the expected learning outcomes, and it only takes about 1 minute of time do at the beginning of each lesson.

Gradual Release of Responsibility Model