Michelle Linge

12/13/04

General Methods

LESSON ANALYSIS 2

SUMMARY

My second lesson plan was on the Chinese philosophies of Confucianism, Taoism, and legalism. Before the students walked in I wrote a Do Now question on the board that asks the students to comment of the following quote: “Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent at throwing it at someone else, you are the one who ends up getting burned.” I asked the students to think about what this quote means and then asked if they could remember a time when they had been mad at someone and they only ended up hurting themselves. Some of the students raised their hands, and I quickly called on one student. The young girl explained that last week, when she was in a fight with one of her friends, she decided to write a really nasty note about her to another one of her friends. However, a couple days later her and her friend made up, and then soon after she found the nasty note that she had written about her a few days before. They ended up getting in another fight. I told them that this was an excellent example. Then I told them a story about how when I was their age, I got in a really nasty fight with my best friend. Instead of making up and just forgetting about it, I stayed mad at her for a really long time, especially when I found out that she invited some other girl to go on vacation with her family. A few years later when we were looking back and laughing about this stupid fight, I explained how I got upset that she didn’t invite me on the trip. She in turn explained to me that she had planned on inviting me, but since we weren’t talking, she thought it wouldn’t be such a good idea.

After a few more students shared some stories, I insisted that we move on. I then explained that the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius wrote this quote, and that for the rest of the hour we will be learning about Confucius and other Chinese philosophies such as Taoism and Legalism. I asked the students to then come up with a few ideas on what they believe a philosophy is. Many of the students raised their hands and I called on a few of them. Some of their answers included, beliefs, ways of living, how people view the world. I then informed the students that I would be showing them a PowerPoint presentation on these three major Chinese philosophies. I passed out a worksheet that corresponded with the PowerPoint, so that the students wouldn’t end up writing down every single word. During the presentation, the students frequently raised their hands if they had any questions or if they had any comments that they wanted to share with the class. At one point I had a series of three or four students sharing different ideas on what they had previously learned about these three philosophies, which I encouraged. After the presentation was finished, I followed up with asking the students to answer what they believed was the gist of each of the three philosophies. I had a few students answer with incredible accuracy, which surprised me quite a bit, since they are easy concepts to grasp.

For the next activity I explained that they are going to spend the rest of the class period in the shoes of a believer of these three philosophers. I informed them that these philosophies are a way of viewing and a way to react to certain situations. Instead of making them think of a situation that the ancient Chinese might encounter, I developed five situations that the students could very well encounter. I then flipped to the final slide and explained one situation. I told them to pretend that they had an older brother, sister, or friends that is cheating on tests and what would they do if they knew this. I explained that Confucians might talk to their brother or sister about it and then tell them that if they don’t stop cheating you would have to tell you’re parents. A Taoist would talk to them about it, but wouldn’t do anything else. Finally a legalist would just not talk to them at all and just go directly to the principal or their parents. Many of the students seemed to catch on to what I wanted them to know right away.

I then split the students into groups of 4, and had them answer the following situations from the points of view of a Confucian, Taoist, and legalist:

· You know that you are failing a class and that you will be in trouble with your parents once they find out. What would you do?

· Your friends started smoking, and are trying to get you to start. How would you handle this situation?

· Your parents have just spent a lot of money on a new outfit and when you were playing around with your friends you got ink all over it. What should you tell your parents or would you at all?

· You see an opportunity to take something you really want without being caught. How should you act?

· You have just found $50 in the school hallway, what would you do?

I explained to the students that they didn’t have to right down their reasons for the answers, but they must be able to explain it to me, once we regroup and share our answers with the whole group. I also told them that they would have the next 10 to 15 to work on this so they should get to work right away. The students got to work immediately and I roamed the room trying to answer any questions that they had. After this activity I had the students get back into their rows, and then asked them to share some of their answers. After going around the room and having the students compare and share their answers, I moved on to the conclusion part of the lesson.

I explained to the students that we have just looked at several different ways in which we could view the world. I asked them if they can see how arguments may happen if two people have trouble understanding other points of view. Many of the students nodded in agreement. I then asked them if the could think of a time when the had trouble understanding why people did certain things, that it would be reasonable to assume that they may understand how you do things. I told them that this is exactly why teachers try to teach you about other cultures and other perspective, teachers hope that in the end you will walk out of the class more accepting of how other people live. I had a lot of time left over, but it was designed this way. My cooperating teacher has not only two apprenticeship students, but he also has a student teacher that just began a week ago. So not only am I trying to fit in a two lessons, but he has his own curriculum that he is trying to finish in a specific amount of time. So for the rest of the hour the students worked on a project that he designed.

WHAT WORKED

I thought that my hook or do now question worked very well. The students seemed to understand the gist of the quote right away. Many of the students offered up responses as to instances when they got hurt by simply being mad at someone. I think that this do now worked was because the students could relate having a hot coal in their hand to being mad at someone. I think that this quote also gave students an introduction to what a philosophy is. The students could see first hand how someone in particular viewed being angry and the repercussions of being angry.

I also believe that when I asked the students to brainstorm what a philosophy I was able to assess the students’ previous knowledge of what a philosophy. Many of the students had trouble coming up with mottos but I was able to give them a few examples, and it seemed then that the students were getting motivated to learn about the various Chinese philosophies.

I also thought that the PowerPoint presentation went very well. I designed the PowerPoint much like my first lesson on Hinduism and Buddhism. I simply outlined all the key points of the three philosophies, and then created a worksheet that went along with the presentation. I thought that this was very useful, since many of these students have trouble figuring out what the important information is. The students were able to see all the information in required in understanding the entire concept of the philosophy, but they were also able to identify the essential information, based on what I had them fill in on the worksheet. This worksheet also enabled the students to look back on their notes while they were doing the second activity.

During the second activity I asked the students to work in groups to come up with responses to situations that they might encounter, based on the idea that they followed Confucius, Taoist, or legalist philosophies. I thought that it was essential for the students to work in groups to help them explain and further understand these three philosophies. I think the only reason that this activity worked was because they were able to work in groups to come up with answers. The also prevented the students from feeling embarrassed if they were completely off in their responses. I believe that if the students had been working alone, they would have had a lot more difficult time coming up with the answers.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK AND WHAT I WOULD CHANGE

Overall I believe this lesson went over really well. However, during the second activity I encountered some big problems. I got the idea for this activity off of the Internet, and at first I thought that it would be far too difficult for students of this age level to look that in depth and that complexly. So I decided that I would change some of the situations, so that in may make it a lot easier. I also made sure that the students could look at the information that would make it easier for them to come up with a response for each one of the philosophies. However, the students did not seem to catch on to the general idea of what kind of answers I was looking for. Many of the students had trouble looking beyond their own egocentrism, and imagining that they believed in a different philosophy other than their own. However, I think that I attempted to use group work to enable those students that were not on the same cognitive level as their more able peers. If I were to do this lesson over again, I think that I might spend more time before the activity, assessing the students and making sure that the students understand the basic concepts of the three philosophies. However, I do believe that I did the very best that I could have, especially for it being only my second activity.

I also noticed that I had more trouble allowing for wait time when I asked the students questions. I know how incredibly important it is for me to do this, but I am just so nervous that I can’t help but get really excited when my students answer my questions. My goal for next semester will be to work on using wait time much more, and to develop my own comfort level in front of the class. I also think that it will be important for me to look around the room more and try to get as many students as possible to answer at least one question during the lesson.

REFLECTION ON PHILOSOPHY

During my second lesson I think that my philosophy that all students are capable learning the material was more obvious than any of my other philosophies. I have always believed that students are able to learn the material that I present before them, but it is up to me to make sure that all students are able to succeed. This was obvious during this lesson because I made sure that I gave each and every student the materials to do well on the second activity. I made sure that I provided them with the most important information through the worksheet that I had them fill out during the PowerPoint. I think that this helped many of those students who have trouble picking and choosing the information that the teacher feels is the most important. Grouping them during the second activity also helped the students to learn the material through their peers.

I also believe that I tried to encourage all the students to begin thinking beyond their current stage of development. This was very obvious during the second activity where the students were forced to imagine that they believed in the three different philosophies and then decide how they would react to various situations. Students who were in a higher level of cognitive development, got a chance to practice thinking in more abstract and theoretical ways. Those students who were not able to think at the same level as their more able peers, they got a chance to try out and begin to start thinking in more complex ways.

Overall, I believe that my two lessons went very well, especially since they were my first opportunities to make my own lesson plan and then implement them in a real life classroom. I really believe that by writing out these two analyses’ has helped me to think ahead of time and anticipate problem when creating lesson plans. I also believe that as a future educator it will be incredibly important for me to reflect back each hour on what worked and what didn’t. This way not only can a change and modify my lessons for the rest of the day, I can revise my lessons for next year.