Wauwatosa West High School (WWHS) Lesson Plan 1

On February 29, 2016, I taught a 10th grade English/Language

Arts lesson on characterization in The Monkeys Paw, a fictional short
story. I demonstrated the following two of the Wisconsin Teacher
Standards for Licensure and Development: Teachers know how to
teach and Teachers are able to evaluate themselves. In planning for
this lesson, I determined a short story that I thought the students
would enjoy before determining which elements of short fiction the
students should learn from reading the story. I then determined the
learning target/objective that students would be able to analyze
characters as they develop throughout the course of a short story and
use evidence from the text to support their claim. After determining
the learning target, I found the Common Core and ACT Standards that
would meet my instructional objectives. Finally, I planned my lesson,
incorporating learning strategies (such as the Character Analysis
handout) to reinforce the learning target. I demonstrated my ability to
evaluate myself by realizing what I could have done better within my
lesson. For instance, I believe I should have incorporated more time
for comprehension questions and character analysis while reading the
text (as opposed to discussing characters after finishing the text).
Therefore, when I teach the follow up to this lesson, I will spend more
time on character analysis and delve deeper into comprehension.
Two of the Alverno Graduate Advanced Education Abilities that I
demonstrated in my lesson are Coordination and Communication. I
was able to demonstrate coordination by setting a clear instructional
objective/learning target for the lesson and utilize resources that were
appropriate to reaching those goals (PowerPoint, Character Analysis
handout). While I believe I could have used more class time to focus
on comprehension questions and further character analysis, instead we
finished reading the story and will be able to delve deeper into those
matters during our follow-up class. I showed self-confidence while
teaching and maintained my professionalism. In addition, I
collaborated with my Cooperating Teacher on the lesson prior to
teaching it and assessed my own performance after teaching it. I
believe I demonstrated communication by making the goals of the
activities clear. The learning target was explicitly stated prior to
beginning our lesson, thus all students were able to understand why
we were filling out a character chart to analyze character traits. I
presented materials that would hold student attention and used
popcorn reading to engage all students to follow along as we read
the text aloud. I communicated thoroughly through my written words
(PowerPoint) and through my spoken words by using proper volume,
pitch, speed, and pacing in my communication. I consistently
maintained enthusiasm and maintained eye contact with students
while instructing. Finally, I provided examples to support learning. Not

only did I explain my own example of how I analyzed Mr. White in

The Monkeys Paw, but I paused while reading aloud to provide an
example of a character trait of Sergeant Major Morris to further
emphasis what they should be looking for as we read the text.
I believe that I successfully demonstrated the Common Core
Standard Literacy.RL.9-10.3: Analyze how complex characters develop
over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance
the plot or develop the theme. I also believe this lesson
demonstrated the ACT Standard CLR 202: Draw simple logical
conclusions about the main characters in somewhat challenging
literary narratives. This lesson focused on analyzing quotes/passages
within the story to analyze specific character traits. As the students
were filling out their charts, I asked them to think about how the
characters changed throughout the text. For example, How did Mrs.
White behave in the beginning of the story? How did she behave at
the end of the story? What evidence do you have to support your
claim? This lesson fit into the curriculum by working as an
introduction to the new fiction short story unit they are starting. I
utilized several Depth of Knowledge questions. Level one questions
included: What is theme? How do you identify theme? and How
would you write a thematic statement? Level three questions
included: What facts would you select to support your analysis of the
character? and What would happen if one of your wishes came true
but went horribly wrong?