Lauren Gonzaba

11/10/2014
UTL 640EHaug
Reflection #2

Reflection #2
For my third and fourth lessons with my Academic English IV seniors, we finished
watching the 1997 movie version of 12 Angry Men and worked on how to analyze characters in a
play. In order to keep students on task and focused on the movie, I created a handout for students
to take notes on during the film. Students were asked to fill out a Venn diagram comparing and
contrasting the 12 Angry Men movie versus the written play. In addition to this Venn diagram,
students also filled in a table with characteristics about each juror, so they may refer to these
notes when writing their character analysis essays.
As I introduced this handout to class I gave them some examples of what types of
characteristics to note about the different jurors, especially reminding them to focus on potential
morally ambiguous characters. Though I did give the class examples, I did not take the time to
demonstrate how to take notes on the handout, which may have been very beneficial for students
in the long run. Had I given the students a model for how to fill out the Venn diagram and Juror
Characteristics table, I wouldnt have needed to keep prompting students about when to take
notes throughout out the movie. Mrs. Lawrence did mention that I could have paused the movie
periodically and asked students to discuss in groups what theyve seen so far, in order to ensure
students are appropriately reacting to the movie; students could have also compared notes during
this time. Time did not allow for this to happen, though, but I would consider implementing this
strategy the next time I do a movie lesson. Other than not specifically modelling how to take
notes on the handout or pausing the movie to check for understanding, the majority of the lesson
went very well. Mrs. Lawrence especially liked how I continuously walked around and
monitored the students to ensure they were all on task and taking notes.

Gonzaba 2

The following lesson definitely went a little less smoothly than my movie lesson. For my
fourth lesson, I planned to demonstrate how to analyze characters in a play so students could see
a model of what they were supposed to do for their own character analysis essays. I think overall
this lesson went well, but I did feel very rushed and little overwhelmed. First off, an hour before
I was about to head over to the high school to teach, Mrs. Lawrence called me saying she had to
leave school early for a family emergency. So, not only was I unexpectedly thrown into being the
sole instructor for the class that day, this was also the day my UT observer was coming to
observe (though a certified teacher from next door did sit in the class for liability reasons, I was
the only person teaching the class for the day). I didnt let this surprise discourage me too much,
though, as I saw it as an opportunity to really prove my worth as a teacher.
The only issue I came across with this lesson was time. Because the class still had to
finish watching the rest of Twelve Angry Men, I was left limited time to teach my character
analysis lesson. Though I do think the lesson went very well (the students were engaged with the
text and contributed to the class discussion), I did not have the chance to show the students both
examples I planned to use. I felt a little rushed going through the example with the class mostly
because there was so much I wanted them to learn about character analysis, and I didnt know
how much time I was supposed to divide between me showing them what to analyze and them
figuring it out on their own. I wanted to give them the time to work and learn with their groups,
but I also wanted them to have all the information before the bell rang. I really dont think this
time constraint could have been avoided, considering we were required to finish the movie
before I taught my lesson. Both Mrs. Conquest and Mrs. Massey (the supervising teacher from
next door) were impressed with my teaching and how well I was able to handle the situation I

Gonzaba 3

was given. After this experience, I am definitely more comfortable with taking over a class alone
now.
With my fifth observation, the lesson went well (according to Mrs. Lawrence), though
this probably isnt evident on my video. I was very anxious about this lesson for many reasons,
but mostly because I was being filmed (kids behavior is unpredictable when they see a camera,
plus that was just one more person evaluating my performance). The other reason I was so
nervous for this lesson was because I had to annotate an article with the students and teach how
expository writing is structured. Though I am comfortable annotating and analyzing texts on my
own, it is much more difficult to break down my natural thought processes into steps the students
could understand. Also, some of the main elements I was supposed to ensure students were
looking for in the article were Info Shots, which we had just learned about on Tuesday.
Though I do know how authors add description and detail into expository writing, I never
learned them as info shots, nor was I taught the info shot templates prior to that Tuesday. So, I
had just learned this completely new concept at the same time as the students, and I was expected
to turn around and teach the students how to implement this concept into their writingthis was
definitely a little challenging for me. I do believe this was probably my worst lesson, but Mrs.
Lawrence assured me that annotating a text with a class take a lot of practice and that my lesson
went better than I thought. She did mention, though, that I should model how to find and analyze
every element in the text with the students, since I only thoroughly modeled how to find the info
shots (granted, I was under the impression that the info shots were the most important element
they were supposed to be looking for, so I just focused on those more).
Aside from the nerves affecting my fifth lesson, I feel like all my lessons have gone very
well so far, and I am excited to implement what Ive learned into all my future lessons.