The video within this portfolio contains approximately fifteen minutes of me

teaching two different lessons in two different field settings. The first video was from
a summer school session at Audubon High School, which was one of my publicschool settings. I was responsible for teaching a lesson on the Executive Branch for
this government class. After observing several classes taught by my cooperating
teacher, Mr. Jason Fellows, I noticed that many of the classes contained at least one
video, which most of the students seemed bored or distracted. Therefore, I was
determined to find or create a lesson that would not only lack videos, but also
contained a problem-solving activity that would help explain some of the auxiliary
functions of the Executive Branch. While searching for activity ideas, I came across
a simulation activity called The Cabinet Meeting. As a proponent of experiential
education and learning from problem-based learning, I found that this activity was
the perfect mix of technology and critical thinking. The original activity called for
students to think of themselves as different heads of departments within the
Executive Branch, such as dept. of Interior or State, and these students would
research an issue they chose for their department to deal with. While focusing on
the Alverno ability of Coordination, and since Mr. Fellows and I wished to reduce the
amount of outside classroom work, I decided to modify the lesson. Instead of the
students researching at home, each student would be paired up and would choose a
department that had a problem attached to it. Once the students had their
respective departments and problems, they would research the issue and the
departments solutions and then, would present the information in the form of a
simulated cabinet meeting. To help the students along, I explained to them that
the cabinet meeting was primarily a means for the president to determine how
much of the federal budget should go to each department. They seemed to
understand this concept, and were receptive to the idea of giving a persuasive
speech.
When considering the Alverno abilities, I would say the primary abilities at
play were Coordination and Communication. As stated earlier, I was exhibiting
coordination by modifying the lesson so that students would be able to do the
activity within the classroom rather than at home, in conjunction with the plans laid
out by Mr. Fellows. Communication was an integral part of it as I needed to give
concise directions on what I was looking for not only in the note process of the
research, but also in the persuasion speeches the students gave. They needed to
know exactly what I was looking for, instructions that I gave both through explicit
means, and through probing questions.
I felt the lesson went very well, as I tried my best to help the students
through their research without giving too much of the answer. If a student asked me
a question on an issue, I made sure to answer it with a probing question. This was
meant to guide the students towards the importance of the issue they were
researching. Why is it important to know that the department of war uses the most
energy in the nation? Why is it necessary to worry about soil erosion with the
department of agriculture? These were the sort of questions I would ask to make
sure the students delved deeper into the subject. One final area that I thought was
not only funny, but interesting as well, was the post-speech discussion caused by

the lesson. The students began to gently argue with one another about the issues
they were researching, trying to prove that their issue was the most important. Yet,
Mr. Fellows pointed out to them, that these discussions were important because
they showed the students how important these topics are to everyday citizens.

The second portion of the video comes from one of my middle school fields:
Brookfield Academy Middle School. This was different from the Audubon field not
only in the age of the students, but in the cultural differences, as you will see from
the video. Therefore, the students were going to be different in their learning styles,
as well. After several weeks of observing the students and speaking with my
cooperating teacher, Mr. Wasmer, I realized that the students were capable of
higher thinking activities such as textual analysis. Mr. Wasmer had told me earlier in
the field that he regular introduces his students to long primary sources and in
some cases, includes some complex secondary texts as well. Therefore, I felt
comfortable leading the students through a guided textual analysis. From the
beginning of the field, Mr. Wasmer stressed to me that he did not want to stray too
far from his unit plans, which I was totally fine with. We delved into some of his
lesson ideas and came across a lesson for textual analysis of the poem The White
Mans Burden. The unit concerned American imperialism and the students were
already aware of some of the concepts and historical context within the poem. I
started out the lesson by separating the class into two groups, and told one half to
write down all the words that come to mind when concerned with the term
civilized, and the other half needed to do the same for uncivilized. I gave them
time to do this and then asked them to discuss the terms with their group members.
After this we came back together as a group and shared what each group had come
up with for the two terms. This led into a mini-lecture I gave on Social Darwinism,
since it was a concept which directly affected Kiplings writing of The White Mans
Burden. When I was finished, I asked the students to get into small groups and
analyze stanzas of the poem for the historical allusions and content. After I had
given them time to work on their textual analyses, we came back together and went
through the poem one stanza at a time to uncover their textual findings.
The primary abilities that were at play within my lesson were Diagnosis and
Conceptualization. In observing the students to make sure they were ready for
higher thinking activities, and confirming this with my cooperating teacher, I was
exhibiting diagnosis. Using conceptualization, I was also able to connect the lesson
to the deeper concept behind the unit, which was about American imperialism.
The lesson went very well and the students seemed to understand much
about what they were reading. Even while going around the classroom and listening
to the numerous group discussions, I could tell that they were making some
impressively deep historical connections within the text. Along these same lines, the
students also appeared to work well within the groups, choosing to ask questions of
their peers before considering asking me questions, even though I was nearby to
answer any concerns. It was this fact that led me to believe that my directions were
concise and, more importantly, easily digestible. When we came back together to

discuss each stanza, the students could reveal new insights that gave me the
impression that they had comprehended the text well. There were only a few times
where I guided the students with questions to lead them through deeper thought. In
other cases, I would restate what the students had said in a different way to let
them know I could comprehend where they were coming from.