Post-Curriculum+Reflection

So far, I was only able to teach the engagement piece of a unit that I planned. The unit was intended to teach students about author's purpose, point of view and intended audience. I plan to teach more components of the unit after our Celebration of Learning. Through teaching the engagement component, I was able to get my students to begin thinking about author's purpose, point of view and intended audience.

I felt like the differentiated grouping and actual primary media texts (newspaper articles, fliers, photographs and songs) were engaging for my students, so in that way my first lesson to met its goal of engaging the learner. I also felt that the whole-class discussion following the small group tasks helped illuminate the media literacy concepts (author's purpose; point of view; intended audience). Without a specific assessment at the end of the lesson, I'm still a little unsure of my students' proficiency in relation to the learning targets. I did some informal assessment through discussion after the tasks were complete, but the tasks themselves didn't inform me directly about the students' understanding of the media literacy learning targets.

A more direct way to engage my students in thinking about these concepts while simultaneously reviewing and extending their knowledge of the three case study topics (The Little Rock Nine, the lunch counter sit-ins and the Freedom Riders) would have been to ask them to take on the role of newspaper reporter, segregationist flier-maker, caption-writer or songwriter. In these various roles, students could be given a purpose (write a flier inviting others to attend a rally; write a song intended to raise spirits of protesters and annoy prison guards; write a newspaper article describing a particular event) and develop a point of view that would make sense for their role. This approach might help drive home the concepts, and prepare students to identify those same features in primary source examples of similar media texts.

Part of my intention when planning this lesson was to experiment with different ways to differentiate instruction (based on a variety of learner profile characteristics like readiness, learning preference, interest, etc.). In that respect, I felt successful in my first attempt. My students took the pre-assessment to provide me with information about their learning preference, and I was able to provide them with a task that matched that preference. This strategy also helped me create flexible groups, so the students weren't working with the same kids they work with during guided reading or math.