Self Reflection

On the outset, I knew putting together a comprehensive unit on the Vietnam War
would be an arduous task, requiring incredible effort to find a balance between
engrossing content and engaging activities. Having now completed putting together a unit
plan, it was even more difficult than I initially imagined. I felt compelled to try and teach
the entire almost 20-year trajectory of war in addition to explaining how the media
impacted public perception of the war and a survey of some of the cultural shifts that
occurred in the era. This would ideally be a several week unit, but I had one week. It was
extremely ambitious on the outset and it was proved to be as such.
When I started to work on my lesson plans, I decided to design them in a way that
reflected my aiding teacher Ms. Brasics slightly modified AP style. When I took AP
classes, it was very plain and had very few group projects. Ms. Brasic, on the other hand,
tries to use as much differentiation as possible within the AP construct. She typically
starts her class with a very brief exercise, lectures for 20-30 minutes and then provides an
activity, either individual or group. The brief exercise acts as a form of informal
assessment while the group work act as formal, formative assessments. While these five
lessons I created were ostensibly for a non-AP class, I felt that construct would still work.
However, I felt there needed to be more differentiation in the types of group work I
assigned. I created projects in which the students were expected to both be creative and
informational, such as the combat methods activity and the FlipCam news report activity.
These activities not only would allow me to ascertain their progress but also be engaging
and fun.

When devising my lesson plans in terms of content, I had to strike a balance

between the absolutely necessary information and the information I felt was interesting
and usually underrepresented in high school classrooms. It was difficult to discern how to
streamline the content in my lessons because when I took a course on the Vietnam War in
college, we spent six hours of class time on the origins of the war alone. There is so much
material one could cover, but in deciding how I would split my lessons up, it became
easier to condense the content. In splitting up the lessons as origins, the Johnson Years,
the Nixon Years and then the cultural movements and shifts through the era seemed
natural to me. I felt trying to teach the war concurrently with all the different movements
would have been overwhelming to the students. In addition, I felt spending an entire day
just on the origins of the actual American military involvement was extremely important
not only to properly contextualize the history, but also because its information that is not
normally discussed in a high school setting.
While I did not get to teach this unit (in fact, I had to teach basically all five days
worth of lessons in two days) I feel it is fairly good, but there is obviously room for lots
of improvement. For instance, I feel I did a disservice to the Civil Rights and the Black
Power movements because I was only able to give them maybe a slide worth of
information, which is simply not sufficient. However, I do feel overall the content
relating to the war and combat methods is presented in a coherent and easy to understand
way. In addition, I felt I provided some engaging and different activities that would help
get some students who normally would not be very interested in history some other entry
points. Overall, I feel it is a pretty effective survey of the Vietnam War.

I felt I learned a profound amount both personally and professionally from

creating this unit. On a personal level, this was the first time I really had to figure out
how best to engage 10th graders. One thing I know about myself is my propensity to not
only inundate one with information, but to also be overly intellectual. I had to remind
myself repeatedly these lessons are for 10th graders who in addition to being just 16 years
old might not have the same level of interest in history as myself. I had to teach to their
level, not mine. That was a personal revelation. Professionally, I gained an enormous
amount of respect for the labor-intensive process that is planning a unit. It is an arduous
process that requires an inordinate amount of focus, knowledge, determination and
dedication to the craft. Having to consider every students individual needs really helped
me get out of my own teaching comfort zone and play to broader strengths. Planning this
unit may have been extremely difficult (further compounded by a severe technological
mishap), but it was very rewarding. I may not have taught this unit, but having lived in
this unit since March, it feels like I have grown as a student, a prospective educator and
as a person.