Artifacts

Student work:
Aligned to INTASC Standards 1,2,4,7, & 8

Assignment: Create a portfolio of your poetry, meeting a list of pre-determined requirements as assigned by the teacher. Below is my details sheet with notes for myself on grading.


Below are some samples of student work from this assignment as well as a photo of the wall I created to display some of the exemplary examples from the assignment.




 




Another assignment was to create an advertisement for a superhero to convince their classmates to vote for their hero using ethos, pathos, and logos. The picture below shows the winning hero from each class.



Worksheets that I've Created:


The next 6 worksheets are part of a "Gallery Walk" and are designed to work with any 6 poems - students work in small groups and rotate around the classroom completing each of the activities attached to the poem until all groups have seen all of the poems.

This worksheet was designed to fit any poem and covers anything and everything students would need to know about the poem while still allowing teachers the flexibility to require a written response prompt.


Lessons/Units Designed by me:


Connotation and Denotation


SIOP LESSON PLAN, ESL-433N BENCHMARK


Name: Jesika Miller 

Date: March 14, 2017

Class: ESL-433N, Advanced Methodologies of Structured English Immersion

Grade Level: 11th grade

Subject/Content Area: English Language Arts

Topic: Connotation, word choice and impact

Standards
  • · Content Standard:
    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.4
      • Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).
  • English Language Proficiency Standard:
    • I-35:
      •  interpreting figurative language, including simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, symbolism, and imagery in a literary selection.

Objectives:
  • Content Objective
    • The student will be able to identify words and meanings that have an impact on the text, including, but not limited to, those used in a literal, technical, or figurative way. Students will also be able to determine a words connotation and how this can impact the tone of a piece and to identify a synonym for the given word and connotation.
  •  Language Objective:
    • The student will be able to orally identify the words with strong connotative meanings after reading a written piece and to rewrite the sentences containing the identified words using synonyms or antonyms to either keep or change the original intent and meaning of the sentence. Students will also understand the importance of understanding connotation in any conversation, address or written piece and will use it to identify bias in potential resources.

Preparation:
  • Vocabulary: connotation/connotative, denotation, bias (examining each word with the class and giving the definition for each for students to add to their notes).
  • Video: demonstrating the different ways that connotation can rely on context and some of the ways that words can be used differently (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ3LE5hD96A)

Materials needed:
Building Background:
  • A question to the class: When you are writing a paper or a sentence, do you ever find yourself stopping to think of just the right word? You can think of similar words with similar meanings, but they just don’t seem to fit. Does that ever happen?
  • Can you think of any words that are spelled the same and pronounced the same but are used in totally different contexts or as different parts of speech? Does anyone know what the word ‘connotation’ means? 


Comprehensible Input:
  • Comprehensible input will take place in this lesson through ample and simple examples of the vocabulary at hand. Lesson delivery will play a large part of the ability of the students to understand the lesson; simply language will be used to accommodate those students with much lower proficiency levels. 
  • Comprehension checks at random points throughout the lesson will help to ensure that students are genuinely understanding the task at hand and that they are comprehending the information and can demonstrate their knowledge. Though one student remains at the pre-emergent stage of Language acquisition and they are likely in their silent period, they are still capable of watching and listening to peers and can still take notes to the best of their ability in their native language. This student would also be paired with a student who spoke the same language and had a higher proficiency level than the other student. This more-proficient student would act as translator and guide, ensuring that the pre-emergent student was receiving information that they could make use of and, potentially, could add to the conversation. 

Strategies:
  1.  Heavy-handed student engagement is a must in this lesson. When reading through each president’s speech (or a portion of each, dependent on time allowances), students will be asked to keep a list of the words that they believe has either a positive or a negative connotation. This requires them to follow along with the teacher visually, physically, and audibly. After the allotted portion of the speeches has been read, the teacher will go around the room and request a word from each student and a list will be compiled on the board. Students will vote if the word has a positive or a negative connotation. After the connotative words have been voted on, students will vote on if the entire speech had a more positive or a negative connotation.
  2.  A learning strategy included within this lesson will be the use of team work and peer review. After reading the speeches and voting on the connotative words, students will be split up into groups of two. Each student will pick three sentences from the speeches that contain word with strong connotation. Their job will be to rewrite the sentence, replacing the connotative words with either a synonym or an antonym that changes the overall meaning of the sentence. After this, students will exchange papers and examine the other student’s sentences. They will critique the sentences and debate among between them how effectively the connotation and meaning of the sentence was changed. 

Interactions:
  • Interaction from peer-to-peer will take place during the portion of the lesson when student split into groups and examine each other’s rewritten sentences. Similarly, peer-to-peer interaction also takes place when students vote of whether the words selected by their peers contain a negative or positive connotation.

Practice/Application:
  • · Practice 1: 
    • Identifying the words with a strong connotative meaning in the speeches from President Obama’s inauguration and from President Trump’s inauguration.
  •  Practice 2: 
    • Rewriting sentences from the speeches to change or strengthen the connotation of each, using synonyms or antonyms for the connotative words.
  • · Practice 3: 
    • Homework; read through an article from and un-biased news website (students are given a list of sites that claim to be or have a reputation of being unbiased) and identify the words with a connotation, either positive or negative. Write a two-paragraph summary explaining how the connotative words impact the overall meaning and emotion the article or if they change the if the article is unbiased.


Homework differentiation for less proficient ELL’s:
  •  Locate any news article in either English or in your native language. Read it and identify words that have a heavy, emotional connotation. Create a list of these words and then a second list of their equivalent in English. Write a short paragraph (2-3 sentences) explaining why connotation is important.


Lesson Delivery:
  • Teacher: Alright, class… so we are moving onto a new topic. You may or may not have brushed on the subject before in previous classes but we’re going to go over it in more depth. I have a question for you. Have you ever been writing a paper and you were trying to think of the right word? You could think of some words that were close to the same or that meant the same thing, but none of them were just right, were they?
  • Can you think of any words that are spelled the same and pronounced the same but they are used differently in different contexts or they are different parts of speech?
  • (take suggestions from the class).
  • Good. Another example would be fly and fly – you can fly in an airplane or you can have a fly in the house. One is a verb and the other is a noun but this changes depending on the context of the word. Connotations can also give words a second meaning because of the emotions that we feel when we hear or see the word. For example, stinky and aromatic. If you walk into someone’s house and say “Your house is stinky”, they might be a little offended, but if you say “Your house is aromatic”, that’s much better – lasagnas are aromatic, but old trash is stinky. They have very similar definitions – to identify when something has a smell - but very different uses. 
  • Does anyone have any questions? No? Raise your hand if you feel like you understand so far. Good.
  • Alright, so let’s move onto the vocabulary for this lesson… Go ahead and pull out your notebooks so you can write these definitions down, that way you have them on hand later.
  • (each vocabulary word is written on the board, followed by the definition: connotation/connotative, denotation, bias)
  • Alright, hold onto those because you’re going to want them to study for the end-of-quarter test. Now, go ahead and get another piece of paper and fold it in half. At the top include two headings. On the left, write “Obama’s inauguration, 2009” and on the right, write “Trump’s inauguration, 2017”. I’m coming around to give you a copy of both president’s first inauguration speech.
  • (teacher passes out papers, spot-checking to see that all students have completed the paper with two headings and that the pre-emergent student is receiving the needed help from their translation partner)
  • Okay, let’s look at President Obama’s speech first. Please follow along on your own paper and add any words that have a connotation, either positive or negative, to the column on the left. Here we go. 
  • (read about half of Obama’s speech aloud)
  • Okay, now we’re going to do the same thing with President Trump’s speech, make sure you have the right one in front of you. List any words with a positive or a negative connotation to the column on the right side of the paper. Here we go.
  • (read about half of Trump’s speech aloud).
  • Alright… I’m going to ask you, one by one to give me a word that you wrote down from President Obama’s speech and then give me a word that you wrote down from President Trump’s speech. Please make sure you have a word for me that is not a word another student has given me. Alex, let’s start with you, and then Carla. 
  • (create list on the board of all the words given by students, each with their respective President’s name at the top)
  • Excellent. You all picked some very connotative words. Now we’re going to vote on if we think each word has a positive emotional connotation or a negative emotional connotation. 
  • If you think ‘grateful’ has a positive connotation, raise your hand. Negative? Got it. A unanimous 15 votes for positive. Next... raise your hand if you think ‘rebuild’ has a positive connotation. Negative? Okay, so 10 votes positive, 5 votes negative.
  • (continuing through lists, taking votes for each word)
  • Alright, so now let's look at how many we voted positive and negative. Based on this, we voted that the connotations in Trump's speech were more negative overall than those in President Obama's speech. What about the speech in general? What effect does this have on the whole speech?
  • (Take suggestions from class)
  • Right. The more negative words a speech contains, the more negative it sounds over all, doesn't it? While positive connotations cause an audience to feel hopeful, what do you think the negatively connotated speech makes an audience feel? Probably fear, stress, or anger because negative emotions are usually met with negative emotions.
  • Okay, so we're going to change pace again... From either of the speeches we just read, select three sentences with heavily connotative words. Your job is to rewrite those sentences and change the connotative words so that they are either more connotative in the same direction or you can change the connotation direction completely - from negative to positive, for example. You have five minutes. Go ahead and get started.
  • (Teacher walks the room and monitors student work, stopping to help those who may be struggling).
  • Times up, everyone. Pair up with your shoulder partner and share sentences. Give suggestions and feedback. What other words could your partner have used and how would they change the overall meaning of the sentence? Would this change impact whole speech at all?
  • (Students break into groups of two and discuss, teacher walks the room and continues to monitor)
  • Alright, so does anyone have a sentence and alternative words that they would like to share with the class? 
  • (allow students to present their altered sentences, providing them with an opportunity to practice speaking/listening and giving the teacher a chance to identify the students who may still be struggling with concept)
  • Okay, so now that we understand the difference between connotation, the emotional meaning of a word, and denotation, the dictionary meaning of a word, let’s consider the idea of bias. How do you think the two are connected? 
  • (teacher calls on student for suggestions)
  • Right. The connotation of the words, especially when multiple words are used with the same connotation, can alter the meaning or intent of an entire piece. It’s the same with the speeches, right? It demonstrates their beliefs and opinions – and when an opinion influences a person’s work, it is a bias. This, however, applies more to the people who are claim that they have no bias or that they do not allow their bias to influence their work. Think about news outlets. Some are very obviously biased towards a set of beliefs or political opinions while others a great deal more neutral and attempt to present only the information.
  • Tonight, for homework, you need to select one article from of the news sites on the list that I am passing out to you. These news sites all claim to be unbiased or have earned that reputation on their own. Your job is to figure out if they are truly unbiased by reading one of these articles and highlighting or listing all the words with a strong connotation. Following this, you need to write a two-paragraph summary about the effect that these connotative words have on the overall meaning of the article.
  • Keep your notes and altered sentences on hand because you will need them to study for the end-of-quarter test.

Review/Assessment Evaluation:

  • Vocabulary Review: Vocabulary review will happen in two parts after the original lesson occurs; because the list of necessary vocabular words is so short, it should not be a problem for students to recall with ease. 
  • The first form of vocabulary review will occur the next day when students enter the classroom. The classroom ‘bell-ringer’ or ‘warm-up question’ will be to give a definition for each of the following words: ‘connotation’, ‘denotation’, and ‘bias’.
  • The second time that the vocabulary for this unit is reviewed is during the final class before the end-of-quarter test. Students will spend at least half of the class period playing review based team games and the vocabulary words from this lesson will be among the reviewed materials.

· Informal Assessment of Lesson Objectives:
  • Informal assessment options for this lesson plan include the homework assigned at the end of the lesson, the ‘warm up’ that the student will complete the next day, and afterwards during the next peer-review session needed during the essay-writing process when students will be asked to find “an occurrence of strong connotation” in the essay. The end-of-quarter test serves as a formal, or summative, assessment and occurs several weeks after the completion of this lesson; because of this, it serves as a good indicator of what information has been stored in their long-term memory, implying complete comprehension of the lesson.



Shakespeare's "Macbeth" Unit:
The entire unit is too long to neatly place here, but the link is provided below so anyone can view the unit and download should they choose to do so. I am particularly proud of this unit and hope that I someday have the chance to teach it.

 Macbeth Unit


Technology integration:

These are the PowerPoints that I put together to introduce my students to:

Blackout Poetry

Figurative Language

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

Hyphens and Dashes

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