HIT5_ClEvRf17.

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1. Last Name, First Name, and subject area:

Scorzo, Samantha
English and Journalism

2. Title of class (e.g. 11th grade American Literature, AP History, French II)
9th grade Honors English

3. Context of instruction. What has the class been studying? How does your teaching,

described below, fit in this context? What will students be doing immediately after this instruction?

The students were supposed to have read Fahrenheit 451 over the summer. While many did,
many did not understand the text. Before beginning a close reading unit on Fahrenheit 451, we
had a class discussion about the themes presented in the novel: utopia vs dystopia, censorship,
and individuality vs conformity.

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Claims-Evidence-Reasoning for HIT5:

I. Consulting the rubric for this HLTPIdentify a s

trength of your enactment, then:

4. Make a claim about the strengths youve identified in your effort to enact this HLTP:

In my effort to enact this HLTP (leading whole-class discussion)- my content for discussion was
strong as well as as my planned questions and transitions.

5. Present evidence that supports your claim:

The discussion was centered around establishing the meaning of the three main themes
presented in the novel Fahrenheit 451: utopia v dystopia, censorship, and individuality v
conformity. This content clearly ties to standards in my lesson plan, especially
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2 (Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in
detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and
refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text). This discussion ties to this
CCSS because it was meant to help prepare the students to close read for these themes and
analyze how they develop through the storyline.
In terms of planned questions and transitions-I believe that asking them to define the word, and
then about how these words/themes are present in their own lives was able to capture students
attention and engage them in the conversation. In the next (6th) hour, I asked them to talk to their
shoulder partner about each of the words (instead of just once like I did in 5th hour), which helped
engagement as well.

6. Explain your reasoning. That is, explain how your evidence supports your claim.

My content for this class discussion is to set up the unit so that it matches common core
standards. My content for discussion surrounded the themes of this novel, and it was needed and
effective. After an impromptu essay on the novel, it became apparent that students did not
understand the themes presented in the novel- the majority of each class didnt know what the
term conformity meant and couldnt comprehend the meaning of the novel. Therefore, we

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decided to go over these themes and connect what they meant in their personal lives and in the
real world (establishing links to make these themes relatable and to bring the text to life by
showing them that the messages within the text matter!).

II. Consulting the rubric for this HLTPIdentify a limitation of your enactment, then:

7. Make a claim about the limitations youve identified in your effort to enact this HLTP:

In terms of my moves leading discussion, I want to keep working to improve following

unplanned lines of thinking and giving students more opportunities to interact with each other. I
realized that I got much better the second time around, however I ran out of space to record.

8. Present evidence that supports your claim:

From watching my video and reading my cooperating teachers notes on my discussion I realize
that I need to give students more time to discuss with each other. The second time I lead this
discussion, I made sure that students had more time to think and discuss with each other and I
used more follow up questions. Additionally, in terms of a usable record, pictures of the lists we
made on the board about each theme was put on google classroom.

8. Explain your reasoning. That is, explain how your evidence supports your claim.

I find following unplanned lines of thinking difficult sometimes because its hard to give up control
of the conversation, but after leading discussion a few more times I think Ive gotten the hang of it
a little more. Additionally, my CT advised me to walk around the room during their partner
conversations and I found this really helpful because it gave me more questions to ask when I
pulled the whole class together again.

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9. What other people/resources helped you think through and plan this discussion; if
any?
My CT carried out this discussion with the first two hours and I lead the class the last two hours.

10. Reflect: What did you learn from your efforts in HIT5? Focus primarily on
transferable skills you have honed, insights about this particular practice, and what you
might do next time.

I found this HIT to be very helpful in making me realize the differences between leading a
discussion vs presenting. I was getting comfortable with presenting the information to the
students, but discussing is actually way different and can make the class way more engaged and
into the conversation. I also realized you really cant prepare for the connections students will
make- each classes discussion went differently based on the outside/ background knowledge the
students brought up. I definitely want to keep working on my discussion techniques because I feel
this is a HIT that's especially important to ELA classrooms.

11. Plan: Share your written plans/documents for HIT5. Create your own HIT5 folder in your
methods classes OU Google Drive Folder and upload your lesson plan, your task (&/or your
teaching notes). Use the format: lastname_HIT5_task.docx (or .doc/.rtf). E.g.
francis_HIT5_task.docx.

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12. Teach: upload any evidence you collected representing your efforts for this
teaching practice (for instance: video, audio, PowerPoint slides, worksheets,
completed reviewer forms, etc.). Upload your evidence in the same HIT5 folder you used for
#12. Use the filename format: lastname_HIT4_filename.type (e.g. olson_HIT5_audio.mp3 or
olson_HIT5_worksheet.docx)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnvJOsL2_SE

Lesson plan, video recording link above, my discussion notes, and my CTs notes can be found in
my HIT 5 folder in my google drive.

HIT5_ClEvRf17.docx