A Girl like Me (Susan & Shara Lesson Plan)

Lesson Plan Title: Which is Nice? Black or White? 

Annotation: This assignment begins with a high school English class watching a video entitled, “A Girl Like Me.”  This video was created by a young  African American female student and explores the thoughts of several young African American girls as they speak about what infuenced them as children regarding standards of beauty. We will have extended directed class discussion stressing sensitivity and respect. We will discuss diversity and what shapes our personal standards of beauty. We will also discuss The Civil Rights Movement, Brown vs. Board of Education, and our thoughts about the progress made since these events.  

 Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17fEy0q6yqc 

Specific Objectives: Students will collaborate in groups of two or three. No more than two can work on an essay. We will discuss how to collaborate (perhaps one will illustrate or do more of the research). Students will use media and technology to do research on a specific subject. Students will collect data (conduct surveys) to use in their research.  Surveys will contain at least 5 thoughtful questions about topic suggestions (see below). Students can create paper surveys or create a blog to collect survey information. Students will chose from different mediums in order to present the results of their research and their own thoughts to the class. 

Topic Suggestions:Diversity in culture and differing standards for beauty.Society’s influences and standards for beauty (television, magazines, music, books, etc)Brown vs Board of Education, desegregation,  and changes in school since the 1950’s. 

Choices: 1. Write an informative essay incorporating your own thoughts and feelings about suggested topics and results of your surveys.  2. Create a detailed 6 minute power point presentation  (words and pictures). Slides should not be read. You should have note cards to accompany slides.3. Detailed photo story with narration and/or captions.4. Create your own video incoroporating some of the people surveyed.  Students will present their projects to the classs. 

Rubrics will include:Focus on the Task and ParticipationDependability and Shared ResponsibilityResearch and  Information-SharingGroup/Partner TeamworkThoughfulness and Effort Students will have one week to do conduct research (library and computer time, time to discuss in class).Students will have two weeks to produce project with plenty of class time, computer time, and library time. Adaptions for Students with learning disabilities: Students will be paired with non-LD students and responsibilities will be clearly outlined so each is responsible for individual parts. 

ELA11LSV1 The student participates in student-to-teacher, and group verbal interactions. The student:1. Initiates new topics in addition to responding to adult-initiated topics.2. Asks relevant question.3. Offers own opinion forcefully without domineering.4. Gives reasons in support of opinions expressed.Divides labor so as to achieve to overall group goal efficiently. 

ELA 11LSV2 The student formulates reasoned judgements about written and oral communication in various media genres. The student delivers focused, coherent, and polished presentation that convey a clear and distincet perspective, demonstrate solid reasoning, and comobine traditional rhetorical strategies of narration, exposition, persuasion, and description.  When responding to visual and oral tests and media (I.E., television, radio, film productions, and electronic media), the student: a. Recognizes strategies used by the media to inform, persuade, entertain (advertisements, perpetuation of stereotypes, use of visual representatioons, special effects, language). b. Develops and applies criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the presentation, style, and content of films and othe forms of electronic communication. c. Analyzes the effect of dialect and language on positive or negative stereotypes among social groups. When delivering and responding to presentation, the student: a. uses effective and interesting language , including informal expressions for effect, Standard American English for clarity, technical language of specificity.b. Delivers oral presentations that incorporate the elelments of narration, expposition, persuasion, and/or literary analysis.        

REFLECTING

WHILE IN THIS TECHNOLOGY AND DIGITAL MEDIA CLASS I HAVE LEARNED A LOT. I HAVE LEARNED THAT BLOG ARE A GOOD THING AND CAN BE AN OUTLET FOR SOME STUDENTS. MY PURPOSE FOR USING THEM WHEN I BECOME A TEACHER WOULD TO USE IT AS A JOURNAL. HAVE MY STUDENT KEEP A PAPER JOURNAL THROUGHOUT THE SEMESTER AND POST IT ON THEIR BLOG BY THE END OF THE SEMESTER. WHEN WE HAD MS. MILLER IN CLASS AND SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY THAT SHE USES FOR CLASS I GOT EXCITED AND BEGAN TO THINK THIS IS GOING TO BE INTERESTING. YET I AM SOMETIMES SCARED BECAUSE WHAT IF I MAKE A COMPLETE FOOL OUT OF MYSELF AND THE KIDS AREN’T REALLY INTO THE ASSIGNMENTS THAT I GIVE. THEN I BEGAN TO THINK HOW DIFFICULT WILL THE ASSIGNMENTS THAT I GIVE THE CHILDREN THAT DEALS WITH TECHNOLOGY WILL BE. I LIKE TECHNOLOGY AND ALL THAT IT ENTAILS BUT OFTEN WONDER IF THE KIDS WILL BE COMFORTABLE USING IT. IN MY FUTURE CLASS I WANTED TO USE IT A SECONDARY SOURCE IN MY CLASS. THE THINGS THAT I WAS THINKING ABOUT USING IT FOR WERE FOR EACH ONE OF MY CLASS TO DO A WEBPAGE AND DISCUSS THINGS THAT WE DO IN CLASS. I ALSO WANTED MY CLASS TO BECOME PENPALS WITH STUDENTS FOR SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN THE STATE THAT THEY STAY IN. I ALSO WANTED TO USE THE BLOGS TO POST HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS AND ANY IMPORTANT NOTICES PERTAINING TO CLASS. IT IS ALOT THAT I WANT TO DO,I AM JUST NOT SURE HOW IT ALL WILL WORK OUT. IT WAS A SHOCK TO ME IN CLASS WHEN SHE SAID THAT KIDS DID NOT KNOW HOW TO USE A MOUSE. WHAT I DO NOT LIKE STILL IS GROUP ASSIGNMENTS. I HAVE COME A CONCLUSION THAT I WILL KEEP IT TO A MINIMAL IN MY CLASS UNLESS THE ASSIGNMENTS CALLS FOR IT.

So Far

So far into this semester is very interesting. Some of the things that we are doing in class are a little time consuming and can be aggravating. In my digital media class i am learning a lot of useful things in class that will help me when i get my own class. I had never heard of Teacher tube before this class. I like doing things that i had never done before and making mistakes. I am enjoying the class and all that it entails, but what i do not like is not exactly knowing what i am doing.  I am thankful for this class.

This is my link to my post on Teacher tube

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=c5981e7e68ff425e519f

Thinking2

      Now that we have finished a couple of weeks in the semester, i am ready for it to be over. I have come to the conclusion that i do not like group work. I have not liked it since i was in high school. What purpose does it serve in the classroom? I have decided that if i do incorporate it in my classroom, i will keep it to a minimal. Also i come to find out that what i thought i knew is not alot and what i don’t know is a huge amount. I have become frustrated with my classes because some termonolgy that is used in the classroom i do not know what it means. I find myself writing down words use in class and when i get home looking up the words. I am now feeling like there are not enough time during the day to do what needs to be done.

Just a thought

    I am very disturbed by the things that i see that occur at schools throughout the united states. Where are the teachers, principals and other staff memebers who are there to keep a watchful eye over the kids. Instances that occur like what is currently in the news Jena 6, was there anyone there would have prevented this from happening. I remember an incident that happened with me at my junior high school that had to deal with a race issue. I was on the track and doing my laps like i was suppose to and a group of males came up behind me. Then one of them threw a rock at me and push me back up in some trees. Then they began to use racial slurs and there was no one to help me. The teacher had gone into the building for what reason i do not know, but i was a little scared. I did not know what to expect because i had never had any problems out of them before. I had never said anything out of the way to these guys and it was a total shock when this happened to me. Luckily somebody in my class had forgot something on the field and saw these guys surrounded me. This person and group of other students ran to my assistance, but the group of guys had started hitting me. One of the students ran to get an adult and tell the principal. While the others ran on the field to help me until someone came. What i do not understand is who is responsible for events like this? What can be done to help prevent this? My whole purpose for going to school in this particular area was to be exposed to different people and cultures. I had never been around people that were different from me and wanted to know what it was like. Did this give me an bad impression of people that were different from me? Well, it did not and i learned that not everyone is going to like you .

Thinking

Each day i get up and go to my classes to try absorb the material that the professors are teaching. Not all the time this works because my attention span is no longer than 30 minutes long. By looking at me one would not guess that i was diagnosed as a child with Atteniton Deficit Disorder. I stopped taking the medicine a long time again when it was said to contribute to future heart problems. Sometimes that i find it hard to concentrate and hard to focus on what needs to be done. I can surely sympathsize with children who have something that may be wrong that others do not understand. Some may think that you are just lazy and have no self control. That is simply not the case. What can really be done for us to fit in and do well in a school setting.

Second Week

This week has been a interesting week for me. I have been extremely tired all week and very drowsy. I usually get about 3 to 4 hours of sleep each night. On the nights that i have a ton of homework or things that i need to study it is less than that. I know that school is going to pay off in the long run and i do not have much more to go, but i am simply tired. I can not wait for the day that i graduate and can get more than 3 hours of sleep  a night!!!!!!!!

schoolbus