Elyse Donnelly

EDUC 540
Drexel

Writing Piece- Domain 1

I really enjoyed planning and preparing the lesson on Ruby

Bridges and character traits. I taught this lesson to my second graders
in my field placement. The lesson went very smoothly when it came to
teaching, and I think that had a lot to do with the fact that I was able to
succeed in meeting every part of Danielsons 1st Domain.
Domain 1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and
Pedagogy
For the Ruby Bridges lesson, I wanted to make sure that the
lesson was more than just a Social Studies or History lesson. In order
to make sure my lesson was integrated, I incorporated ELA standards
and had lessons main purpose revolve around character traits. I also
had an activity that used higher level thinking in this lesson during the
opening. I had collaborated with the schools art teacher in order to
develop this activity. The students viewed a Photoshop edited version
of Norman Rockwells painting The Problem We All Live With and were
then prompted at certain points to discuss what they see, think, and
wonder. I then incorporated a writing aspect to the activity by having

the students write down what they wonder is happening in the

painting.
Domain 1b: Demonstrating Knowledge of Students
To make sure that all of my students were successful in this
lesson, I made sure to work closely with my cooperating teacher while
planning. Even though I have been able to observe a bit for myself
what my students are capable of, my cooperating teacher was able to
give me a clearer insight as too what students would need extra help
(have 504 plans) and what students may need to be challenged a little
more. For the students with 504 plans, I chose to make sure I made
frequent stops to their desks during independent work and had
planned to pull these students into a small group if I saw that they
were struggling. This did not end up happening. As for the children
who liked to be challenged, I had added some other books on Ruby
Bridges into the classroom library with a little more challenging of a
text that they could use as a resource for the compare and contrast
activity in the lesson. I also have a student in my class with an IEP and
a 1:1. For this student, I conferenced with one of the special education
teachers that work closely with him to discuss what accommodations
to the lesson should be made for him. I ended up just requiring fewer
examples for the compare and contrast activity. In the end, this
student was not present for the lesson.
Domain 1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes

I chose to write my lesson objective on the board in a way that

promotes higher level thinking instead of the standard way of
composing a lesson. In my formal lesson write up the objective, which
aligns with the curriculum and standards, is stated, Students will
learn about character traits by reading about Ruby Bridges and
comparing and contrasting their lives with hers. To keep with a level
of higher level thinking though, I rewrote my learning
objective/outcome to say, What information will we learn about a
young girl who showed great courage? How was she like Martin Luther
King Jr.? Martin Luther King Jr. was added to the outcome to
encourage the students to make a connection between the two civil
rights activists. MLK was someone who the class had spent a few days
learning about earlier.
Domain 1d: Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources
For this lesson, I found resources and texts from everywhere. I
made sure to take advantage of every resource that I had available to
me. To start, I talked with the schools media teacher to pull books on
Ruby Bridges and was able to find three good books, two of which were
written by Ruby Bridges herself. I also located the Norman Rockwell
painting through the schools art teacher. I altered the picture to
remove some unnecessary negative words, which I then shared with
the art teacher for her own use. I found the character trait packet
through teachers pay teachers that fit perfectly into what I was looking

for from my students and found the school house compare and
contrast activity, which I adjusted and altered to fit my needs, from a
teachers blog that I found through Pinterest. A last minute decision
during the lesson was the use of PebbleGo to research further into
Ruby Bridges life and to view a video of who she is now.
Domain 1e: Designing Coherent Instruction
I planned the lesson to flow effortlessly together, one
task/assignment after the other. Opening the lesson with the art
integration was a great way to incorporate higher level thinking. The
students had to really thing about what they were looking at in the
painting. When they were asked what do you think? The students
could not respond with, I like it. They had to tell me what they thought
was happening in the painting. I was pleasantly surprised to find out
that they did not end up needing any kind of prompt or guidance to
present this type of higher thinking. When they were asked about
what they wondered about the painting, the students picked up on
certain details in the painting and responded with I wonder if she is
heading to school or I wonder if people are throwing tomatoes at
them because she is black. They took the previous knowledge they
had on Martin Luther King and applied it to what was happening in the
painting. This portion of the lesson was followed up by the
introduction of some select reading material and a read aloud. As a
class, we then discussed Rubys character before they completed the

character trait packet. The lesson was briefly wrapped up by

discussing how Rubys school was similar and different from theirs.
They then completed the schoolhouse activity while reading groups
were pulled.
Domain 1f: Designing Student Assessments
The students were assessed by their completeness and
correctness of the schoolhouse compare and contrast activity as well
as the character trait packet. For the schoolhouse activity, the
students had to list four things that were unique to Rubys school, four
things that were unique to their school, and four things that the two
schools had in common. It was a really cute and creative activity that
showed that the students were focused and listening during the class
readings. The character trait activity showed me that the students
understood what a character trait was and could show higher level
thinking by finding a trait that they share with Ruby and writing about
how they could show this trait more often.
The students really enjoyed the lesson on Ruby Bridges and even
got their gears moving further. Some students decided that they
wanted to learn more about the history of their own school since it was
built in 1957. As a class, we discovered that the school was originally
an African American elementary school for the county and did not
become integrated until 1967. The students were shocked to see that

their school remained segregated so long after Ruby Bridges made

history. It was a very cool little bonus to the lesson.