Week Five Journal Entry

I have taught Ms. T's English 10 class for three full weeks. I will continue to teach it for a couple of days this coming week as we review the unit, take the unit test, and present projects. I almost wish I could teach Julius Caesar again next semester because there are some aspects of my unit I know I could improve on.

As I taught the unit this time, I had made pencil notes in the margins of the teacher's textbook to remind me to elaborate on or examine certain parts of the text with the students. Now I believe that I should have made better lecture notes. Lecture notes would have helped me to stay focused on the big idea of the unit. Such notes would also have helped me to give a more consistent lecture to both sections of English 10. At times, I know I said things to one class that I didn't say to the other. For instance, I discussed the map of a Shakespearean plot with one class, but not with the other. These inconsistencies complicate my assessments because I would have wanted to ask Block 2 about how the typical Shakespearean plot related to JC, but it wouldn't have been fair to ask Block 3. I regret this, but I'm not beating myself up too much over it because there is no way to teach every possible angle of this play, and I have to remember that this is the students' first reading. If they continue to read Shakespeare throughout their lives (big if), they will learn more with every reading.

Two major tools I used to help the students understand the play included the DVD recorded performance and comprehensive act-by-act study guides. However, I did not ask the students to take notes during class. Simply reading and understanding the archaic language was enough of a struggle for many of the students. As I compiled the unit test, however, I began to regret not asking them to take some notes on major concepts. This is something I will do differently if I teach the unit again.

One thing I think I have done well is prepare the unit test. I learned a lot in Dr. Enger's class, and I believe I write good assessments.

As we were finishing our reading of the play on Thursday, characters were dying right and left. Brutus and Cassius both "ran on their swords," and in the end, Brutus' body is laid out on a table. Antony stood over him, proclaiming him "the noblest Roman of them all." I decided that we should have a funeral for Brutus on Friday, complete with reception food and a guest book to sign. After all, these students worked very hard to read 100 pages of Shakespeare, and this seemed like a legitimate way to have a little celebration. The students agreed to dress in black and bring food. As it turned out, I had to leave school during the day on Friday to take my younger son to the doctor; he caught the flu my older son had last week. I was extremely disappointed to miss the funeral proceedings, but I left all my plans for Ms. T. to execute. I look forward to going to school on Monday to hear all about it.