Educational Portfolio
INGL 4327: Young Adult Literature
Files for Themes Mini-Lesson
Mini-lesson Reflection
This mini-lesson we worked on was quite confusing as I think it was left quite vague to us. Despite this, I did the most I could and followed what I have done in mini lessons for previous classes. My mini-lesson project is divided into three parts these being the mini-lesson plan, the presentation, and the assignment to complement the presentation. I feel confident in all three parts of this project and I believe they all accomplish what they set out to do, this being presenting a concise and efficient lesson. I picked the topic of themes as I believe themes, at times, could be easily brushed off. Many people believe themes need to carry a message or lesson for readers, but that is not always the case. The best examples of themes in literature are those who pose a question and explore it in full. There doesn’t always have to be a correct answer to these.
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Although I do believe this lesson does a good job at carrying my set objective and skill, I still have my doubts about it. The greatest weakness I could find in my project is that it could be lacking some focus. I did the best of my ability to tightly bring this project together, but I still believe it might be missing focus. Like I mentioned before I believe this to be because of the vague instructions seemed. Yet, in a way, I guess this could motivate some to take more personal or creative approaches to their project. In any case, I believe my lesson did a good job and would be really efficient when working with the grade level I chose.
INGL 3425: Teaching Writing
Files for the Revision Mini-Lesson
Mini-Lesson Reflection
Although I have worked on lesson planning before, I had never worked on a mini-lesson. This led me to underestimate the mini-lesson at first, but it proved to be quite a challenging task. Mini-lessons can be a great way to help students sharpen up skills they might be lacking, for this reason, I chose the revision process. The Revision process is one I believe many students might struggle with, especially since many young writers have the “one and done” writing mentality so ingrained in their heads. My goal was to show students what the revision process consists of and how it can enrich our writing and I believe my mini-lesson does a good job at this.
To achieve this I set out to make sure my students can identify the revision process so that they can revise their own writing. My mini-lesson consists of a short presentation that will introduce revision to the students and explain what revision consists of. After explaining revision to them I provided some tips that can help us better revise our writing, such as reading our writing many times and having others read it. Then I provided a small mentor paragraph, I provided a small paragraph that shows the revision process in full. The paragraph might be shorter than the revision my students will be doing, however, by providing using a short text the revision will stick out more and my students will get a good idea of how it looks. Finally, I provided my students with an assignment checklist that includes a variety of questions they should keep in mind while revising, if they answer yes to all of these questions their revision should be efficient.
I Believe this mini-lesson to be efficient for students, it's concise, focused, and gets straight to the point. It makes sure to explain to students what revision is and provides a few pointers for steps they might want to take before revisioning. In addition, the assignment provided (checklist) will prove useful for the assignment done in class and future revisions that they work on. I believe this mini-lesson was an efficient one and will work well in the classroom.
INGL 3205: Grammar Characteristics of English
Files for Lesson Presentation
Lesson Reflection
For the final project of the class, we were assigned to create an entire lesson, complete with a lesson plan and assignment to give out as homework. I had prepared lessons with this professor in previous semesters, but never to this level. In a way, this lesson felt more complete and all the more efficient too. I chose count and non-count nouns for this lesson as I believe it’s a topic that many children for the grade level I chose could struggle with. I did my best to provide a focused lesson while making sure to cover just enough materials for the grade level I chose. In truth, I was a little concerned with this lesson before starting work on it, however, I believe I did a good job at it and the feedback I have received so far seems quite positive.
For the theme of count and non-count nouns, I chose I decided first to provide a small refresher on what nouns themselves are, this refresher is quite brief as students already know what nouns are but I believe providing a refresher could help them get to grips with this topic quicker. Since I was teaching elementary level I decided to have a good balance of visual flare to my presentation, the most prominent of this would be the video I used at the beginning which I believe gives a small and quick breakdown of what the topic we will be touching upon is. In addition to this, I made sure to include many images that would relate to the topic at hand, in order to keep student attention. After discussing the topic with the students I would practice it with them and then go on to handing them in homework that they would work on.
I believe this lesson I prepared was quite efficient. Count and non-count nouns are a topic that is quite expansive, there are many complex rules if you get into the really nitty gritty. But, I made sure not to include any details my grade level could find too difficult. I did my best so that this lesson would maintain focused and concise while retaining students' attention. I believe this lesson is efficient and would work well in the classroom.
INGL 3231: Advance Composition
Files for "Puerto Rico's Public Education System and its Treatment of Teachers" Paper
Paper Reflection
The public education system in the island has made it near impossible for many teachers to follow the profession they trained for. If I’ve learned one thing while researching for this paper is that most teachers truly have a passion for this job and are eager to have their students learn. They want what’s best for the future of these children and this island. However, many have had to move on because of the difficult position they are in, it’s just not manageable especially here in Puerto Rico. As a future educator this worries me, it’s why I decided to research the topic. It is a profession which I am passionate about and I genuinely love, but there is always that thought looming in the back of my head. Could this change for the better? Possibly, there are solutions to the problem, but many aren’t being actively worked on for one reason or another. My hope for the future is for the Public Education System to have a truly impactful change, one that will stop mistreating its teachers and in turn better the quality of its education. Affecting not only us teachers but also the students we teach.