Purposes of the Assignment:

For the individual presenter:

• To improve ability to research, design, and adapt activities for use in English class

• To become more comfortable conducting an activity with a group

• To increase awareness of effective use of time, voice, posture, directions, classroom organization, etc.

• Through systematic observing, to improve attention to important practical details of teaching

• Through debriefing, to improve ability to infer principles and justify choices in teaching

• To acquire several useful techniques that might be useful in actual classes

Directions:

1. Using Tchudi and Mitchell, the methods bibliography, sources linked to this site, resources in the library, information from teachers you know, or other sources, choose an activity appropriate for an English class in grades 6-12.
2. Meet with the instructor to discuss your plans.
3. Prepare a 15-minute presentation in which you simulate how you would conduct the activity with the group of students you have in mind. Others in class will perform the tasks you set, which might include reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, or other aspects of the English language arts (see especially Wisconsin's Model Academic Standards for English Language Arts and Guide to Planning Curriculum in the EnglishLanguage Arts).
4. Conduct the presentation, explaining as needed the context for the activity, its intended students, etc. It may be helpful to start with a brief explanation before starting the simulation, which should comprise the bulk of the presentation.
5. Prepare and distribute a one-page handout explaining the activity you presented. This should be useful as a reference for others in the class. It should include the following information:

• Title or name of the activity

• Purpose

• Context (students, unit, time of year, etc., as needed)

• Language skills emphasized

• Source

• Steps in the activity

• One or more suggested variations (a "plan B")

• Evaluation plan: What performance will you look at to determine whether the goal was met?

Immediate feedback, spoken and in writing, will be provided by other participants in class as well as the instructor.

Suggested Activities for Presentation

Here are some activities that can be demonstrated pretty well in 15 minutes. Many others are possible.

Introduce a short story, play, or novel

• Apply vocabulary-building strategies
• Write a personal or autobiographical piece
• Administer an opinionnaire or scenario (see Smagorinsky, et al., TRIP booklet)
• Teach a concept using analogy
• Prepare for reading with guided imagery (see Zemelman and Daniels, ch. 11; take class on an imaginary excursion)
• Use an anticipation guide

• use "concept attainment" (have class infer the concept after examining carefully chosen examples and nonexamples)
• demonstrate the concept through an activity (e.g., the need for effective speech communication)

• use drawing to stimulate writing (e.g., mandalas, timelines--See the Burke text for ideas)
• have students write with partners
• emulate a model (a short poem or prose piece) closely, noun for noun, verb for verb
• write in response to a picture, role-play, or reading

• simulate a communication situation
• have readers' theater (Teacher and/or class converts a work of fiction to drama form)
• conduct a formal debate on a situation in a story
• write an interpretation or mood piece based on listening to music

Respond to each item below by circling the appropriate number in the scale to the right: 5=Strongly agree; 4=agree somewhat; 3=not sure;
2=disagree somewhat; 1=strongly disagree.
 

1. The activity engaged my interest	5   4   3   2   1
2. The plan (sequence, timing) made sense  included preparation, guidance, independence for learners  planning and organization were evident	5   4   3   2   1
3. The activity was suitable for the intended students and purpose(s)  it was consistent with current theory of teaching and learning  it reflected relevant knowledge of adolescent development	5   4   3   2   1
4. The activity was presented skillfully presenter used voice, posture, gesture, and movement well  materials or visuals were neat and understandable  presenter was alert to conditions and student responses  I was encouraged in my effort to learn	5   4   3   2   1
Overall rating:	Total points ____x 5= ______

What was learned as a result of participating in this activity?

Please write a few additional comments on the other side.

John Zbikowski, Department of Curriculum and Instruction  Comments on this web page? Email zbikowsj@uww.edu Last updated September 16, 2006  URL: HTTP://facstaff.uww.edu/zbikowsj/activity.htm