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The following is a collection of materials I have created for various teaching scenarios. They showcase what I feel is my ability to work with socially and academically diverse groups of students, as well as my creativity and organizational skills. They are organized by order of importance/in reverse chronological order, and also by school/faculty member whom I worked under at the time. All .PDF/PowerPoint files will open in a new window.
Xavier High School
Michelle Wehrman-Flores; Master Teacher
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Teacher Work Sample
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Description:
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A required component of my Masters program with the University of Phoenix; the TWS encompasses not only activities planned for students, but an analysis of their structure, execution, and overall success. My Teacher Work Sample focuses on my nine-week instructional unit with Mrs. Flores' sophomore students, who read and researched aspects of T.H. White's novel, The Once & Future King.
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Vocabulary Quiz
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Description:
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Mrs. Flores encouraged me to create classroom materials similar to hers; sophomore students were tested weekly over a set of 20 words from their vocabulary books (Level F, produced by Sadlier-Oxford).
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Sonnets
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Description:
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Mrs. Flores' AP Brit Lit seniors studied Petrarchian/Italian, Spenserian, and Shakespearian sonnets, during which they were given worksheets and handouts to supplement information in their textbooks.
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Macbeth
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Description:
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Mrs. Flores' seniors studied Shakespeare's Macbeth, on which they were quizzed after reading independently and prior to classroom discussion. Some quizzes (one on each Act of the play) were administered as open-book, wherein students answered each prompt with a quote from the source material.
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17th & 18th Century
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Description:
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Mrs. Flores' AP Brit Lit class studied an eclectic mix of British writers from the 17th and 18th century, including Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock. Students found the greatest success during class discussions of the material when allowed time for small-group work.
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Madeline Hunter Lesson Plans
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Description:
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Mrs. Flores preferred the Madeline Hunter style of lesson planning (the educator, not the romance novelist). I personally found Hunter's methods easy to use, and a great way to practice effective time management during class; on the other hand, the style does not allow time for reflection, a key component of my student teaching practicum. Below are links to a number of lessons for both Mrs. Flores' AP Brit Lit class (grade 12) and her sophomores, who read The Once & Future King for the majority of my time at Xavier. In addition, all of my lesson plans aligned to respective grade benchmarks for literacy set forth by the Iowa Department of Education.
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Dennis Ferguson; Master Teacher
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Romeo and Juliet
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Description:
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Mr. Ferguson's freshman-level students were eventually required, per Xavier High School, to research and write a paper on an aspect of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. As this was the first work of Shakespeare many of them had read, the stage was set, so to speak, for a number of supplemental materials to aid them in their understanding of the play.
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The Pearl
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Description:
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I worked with a group of remedial-level freshmen, who read John Steinbeck's The Pearl after their expansive Romeo and Juliet unit. Using supplemental materials to explain the context of the novella, including the song by indie artists, Fleming & John by the same title, students were able to discuss and reflect on a culture and time period that was previously unfamiliar to them.
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Cold Sassy Tree
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Description:
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Post-Romeo and Juliet, Mr. Ferguson's intermediate-level freshmen read Cold Sassy Tree, and learned about the surrounding culture of Georgia in 1906. Students discussed how the novel agreed (and/or disagreed) with their own Catholic faith, and created Facebook ads that showcased understanding of various characters, as well as the concept of an anachronism. The unit was topped off with student-led PowerPoint presentations on segments of the latter portion of the novel.
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The Pigman
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Description:
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Mr. Ferguson's remedial juniors read The Pigman. The unit involved heavy class discussion, and open-book quizzes that focused largely on students' ability to analyze rather than simply recall information.
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Family History Research Paper
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Description:
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Per Xavier High School, all junior students were required to write a paper researching an aspect of their family history. Previous forms of the assignment involved simply reporting facts about one's history; Mr. Ferguson aimed for this class to construct a thesis statement and analyze how said history affects the person whom each student feels that he/she is. Class time involved extensive instruction and practice of research paper construction, using a white board and worksheets for students to check their individual understanding.
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Vocabulary Quizzes
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Description:
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Mr. Ferguson's remedial juniors worked extensively throughout the school year on vocabulary, focusing weekly on a new set of 20 words from their textbooks (Level C; created by Sadlier-Oxford; linked above). The purpose of their vocabulary quizzes was to know how to use each word correctly, rather than simply recalling it. Parts of speech were also a focus during my student teaching practicum.
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Other
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The Great Depression
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Created for use in Dr. Baynes' 7th grade Social Studies class; Shaw Middle School, Spokane, WA, Spring 2007.
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Description:
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Dr. Baynes' 7th grade students learned about the patterns of war, racism, and the economy on the United States. Along with several small projects, classroom discussions were springboarded from the use of a PowerPoint, which was based largely off of material from students' Social Studies textbook, and encompassed, "Causes and effects of two World Wars and everything in-between".
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Internship Presentation(s)
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Created during my Spring 2004 internship with Odyssey Youth Center in Spokane, WA.
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The main purpose of my internship was to take the academic skills I had learned as a Psychology student at Eastern Washington University, and provide some sort of service for the community at large. My interests led me to Odyssey, a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender outreach facility, where I led discussions on several aspects of gay history and culture. I would later contribute to Odyssey's quarterly newsletter (recent issues - June 2006 to present - are available at the Odyssey Youth Center Web site) with an article on the importance of knowing one's history.
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Newspaper Articles & Essays
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Written for my Alma-mater's student newspaper, as well as various online pop culture-related sites and archives of the era.
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Description:
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Below is a collection of articles related to campus activities, facilities, and student issues during my time as an undergraduate at Eastern Washington University (Cheney, WA, Winter 2003 - Winter 2004). All of these seem to still exist on The Easterner's Web site with a simple name search, but I have collected them into a single file here for easy access. In addition, I have included a handful of pop culture-focused editorials and essays from the same time period.
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