Standard 2
STUDENT DEVELOPMENT
The teacher understands how children learn and develop, and can provide learning opportunities that support a child’s intellectual, social, and personal development.
The teacher understands how children learn and develop, and can provide learning opportunities that support a child’s intellectual, social, and personal development.
Evidence
Lesson: Epic Poetry
During the first week of my student teaching experience, I used this handout to introduce students to the characteristics of epic poetry. The characterictics of epics are listed in the first column and the second column should contain discussion notes. I believe students have a deeper understanding of a concept when he or she connects the concept to prior learning. Before working on the handout, we discussed the definition of "epic" and created a list of modern-day epics in the entertainment industry. Troy, Avatar, and 300 are three examples we used during the lesson. Next, I divided the students into groups based on the movies listed. As a class, we discussed each characteristic listed in the first column of the handout. After each discussion, each group applied the concept to one of the movies and listed examples to share with the class. I believe this activity was beneficial to the students' learning because they had the opportunity to connect literary terms and complex concepts to what they know. Without this activity, the terms and concepts could have distanced the students from class and other learning opportunities associated with future lessons.