Reflection
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Reflections and Modifications
Before going into the lesson, I knew that I had to address racism, but I did not want to address it overtly. I wanted the lesson to focus on the concept of bravery and have students draw connections between themselves and Ruby’s bravery rather than having the lesson be about what racism is. My objective was to address the topic without actually using the word. I was concerned about the way that I articulated my explanation and what I had said. After reviewing the written feedback, I felt more confident in my approach to discussing the topic. My Penn Mentor thought that I introduced the book in a digestible manner to the first graders. She thought that the reference to the bus was a particularly salient connection because it created a visual encapsulation for the students to concentrate on. While introducing the lesson, I told students that Ruby Bridges went to first grade in the year 1960 and explained that during that time, black people and white people had to sit in separate sections of the bus. If a white man got on the bus and wanted to sit down, a black person would have to move even if he had worked a long day and was tired at work. I explained that Ruby’s experience would not happen today and that she helped pave the way for a future where people of all colors can be in the same classroom together. The background information that the introduction gave students acted as a framework for their comprehension of The Story of Ruby Bridges.
After the read aloud, we discussed what Ruby did that took a lot of courage and created a web chart with her name in the center. Before going into the writing response, I showed a photo of Federal Marshals walking Ruby into school along with the Norman Rockwell painting, “The Problem we All Live With.” The painting elicited strong reactions from students along with several questions, including what the red stuff on the wall was and why people would throw tomatoes at her. I explained the concept of throwing tomatoes and pointed out that the tomato did not hit her, which shows that she is moving forward and helping to pave our future.
While explaining the writing activity, I felt that students wanted more direction on what to write. I wrote three prompts on the board for them to copy if they needed help getting started. This was not part of my plan but was beneficial for them since my Classroom Teacher often gives them writing prompts after describing an assignment. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would incorporate writing prompts into the design. I would also show the documents before creating the Ruby Bridges web chart since they seemed to generate a lot of discussion from the students. I would also incorporate a closing/conclusion into the design in order to nicely wrap up the lesson.
My Classroom Teacher commented that I should use more expression in my voice while explaining these concepts. In the future, I will use show more feelings in my intonation to increase student engagement and active listening. Now that I observed how well students responded to the book and particularly to the documents, I would show more documents in order to generate questions and observations. I would also ask students to do a think-pair-share after the read aloud in order to engage everyone in conversation. Asking students to think in small groups before the group discussion could have improved the discussion and students’ abilities to articulate. Even though both of my mentors thought that my explanations of civil rights issues and Ruby’s life were appropriate, I would better formulate different explanations and responses to students’ questions. I would practice having difficult conversations with others in order to formulate ideas of what I might say in response to students’ inquiries. Offering examples that highlight concrete images such as the segregation of a bus in 1960 would help create potential connections for students, and would allow me to feel more prepared to explain these topics if I were to teach this lesson again.
Before going into the lesson, I knew that I had to address racism, but I did not want to address it overtly. I wanted the lesson to focus on the concept of bravery and have students draw connections between themselves and Ruby’s bravery rather than having the lesson be about what racism is. My objective was to address the topic without actually using the word. I was concerned about the way that I articulated my explanation and what I had said. After reviewing the written feedback, I felt more confident in my approach to discussing the topic. My Penn Mentor thought that I introduced the book in a digestible manner to the first graders. She thought that the reference to the bus was a particularly salient connection because it created a visual encapsulation for the students to concentrate on. While introducing the lesson, I told students that Ruby Bridges went to first grade in the year 1960 and explained that during that time, black people and white people had to sit in separate sections of the bus. If a white man got on the bus and wanted to sit down, a black person would have to move even if he had worked a long day and was tired at work. I explained that Ruby’s experience would not happen today and that she helped pave the way for a future where people of all colors can be in the same classroom together. The background information that the introduction gave students acted as a framework for their comprehension of The Story of Ruby Bridges.
After the read aloud, we discussed what Ruby did that took a lot of courage and created a web chart with her name in the center. Before going into the writing response, I showed a photo of Federal Marshals walking Ruby into school along with the Norman Rockwell painting, “The Problem we All Live With.” The painting elicited strong reactions from students along with several questions, including what the red stuff on the wall was and why people would throw tomatoes at her. I explained the concept of throwing tomatoes and pointed out that the tomato did not hit her, which shows that she is moving forward and helping to pave our future.
While explaining the writing activity, I felt that students wanted more direction on what to write. I wrote three prompts on the board for them to copy if they needed help getting started. This was not part of my plan but was beneficial for them since my Classroom Teacher often gives them writing prompts after describing an assignment. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would incorporate writing prompts into the design. I would also show the documents before creating the Ruby Bridges web chart since they seemed to generate a lot of discussion from the students. I would also incorporate a closing/conclusion into the design in order to nicely wrap up the lesson.
My Classroom Teacher commented that I should use more expression in my voice while explaining these concepts. In the future, I will use show more feelings in my intonation to increase student engagement and active listening. Now that I observed how well students responded to the book and particularly to the documents, I would show more documents in order to generate questions and observations. I would also ask students to do a think-pair-share after the read aloud in order to engage everyone in conversation. Asking students to think in small groups before the group discussion could have improved the discussion and students’ abilities to articulate. Even though both of my mentors thought that my explanations of civil rights issues and Ruby’s life were appropriate, I would better formulate different explanations and responses to students’ questions. I would practice having difficult conversations with others in order to formulate ideas of what I might say in response to students’ inquiries. Offering examples that highlight concrete images such as the segregation of a bus in 1960 would help create potential connections for students, and would allow me to feel more prepared to explain these topics if I were to teach this lesson again.