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Master’s Portfolio Project: Content
6/2/2020
Brenna Kennicker
University of Alaska Southeast
Beth Hartley
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Content Abstract
Candidates demonstrate their ability to plan and design instruction that supports every student in
meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, cross-disciplinary
skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context. The
Candidate demonstrates the understanding and use of a variety of instructional strategies to
encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to
build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
Content Statement
Attached is a unit I created as part of my student teaching completed in fall of 2018. This
five-lesson unit was on the topic of opinion writing. Normally, the lesson would be designed, and
then materials and resources would be gathered. However, in the case of this unit my student
teaching class was already using Scholastic News as a large part of the ELA curriculum and I
was asked to include that into my unit.
Immediately looking at this unit I can tell my focus was unclear. Was the point to have
students be able to identify opinions, or write their own? I had in essence forgotten a major part
of the backwards design philosophy, identifying the knowledge and skills needed (Wiggins &
McTighe, 2008). I ran into this head-first as the unit began. As we began the writing portion of
the unit, I discovered that many of my students didn’t know how to write a formal academic
paragraph. This meant I was having to throw in supplemental mini lessons on how to format a
paragraph and how to edit. In designing the unit, I had failed to heed the words of philosopher
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Sun Tsu, “If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle” (1988).
I hadn’t done any sort of pre-assessment to see where students were at in their writing, and
ultimately the unit struggled as a result.
While students seemed to be engaged with the writing prompts, and did indeed seem to
enjoy the process of writing an opinion paragraph, I could have done more to make the process
collaborative. As I continued to work with this class over the course of the school year, I realized
they were a group of kids who really enjoyed working together. I think engagement could have
been even better had I included some debate style discussions, or allowed more peer interaction
in the writing process. Attached here and here are two examples of final drafts. As you can see,
there is still room to improve in formatting, grammar, and overall writing skill.
If I were to rewrite this unit, I would start off by doing some sort of low-key writing
assessment to see where students are at in regards to their writing ability. With a class like this, I
would be sure to introduce paragraph writing concepts and give ample practice before diving in.
Then, I would shift the focus of the first two lessons from being able to identify opinions and the
information used to form them, and focus more on enhancing student understanding of opinion
texts (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007). I realize now, especially with opinion pieces it is not enough to
be able to solely identify the person’s opinion, a reader must also be able to read between the
lines and pull from prior knowledge in order to see where the writer is coming from.
Something else to consider in my rewrite of this unit is how to link this unit to other
learning in the classroom (Rosaen, 1990). Because I was trying to build a unit around a resource,
I felt as though the unit was somehow disconnected from the rest of the subjects. Opinion writing
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is a key skill, and bridges many different subjects. Knowing this, I would plan on ways to
connect it to perhaps our science or social studies curriculums.
This lesson was not a complete failure. It got students thinking about their personal
opinions and gave them the opportunity to practice sharing those opinions orally as well as in
writing. The seeds of a good lesson are here but needed a lot more tending.
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References
Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007) Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension for
understanding and engagement. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse
Rosaen, C. (1990). Improving writing opportunities in elementary classrooms. The Elementary
School Journal, 90(4), 419-434. Retrieved June 2, 2020, from
www.jstor.org/stable/1001939
Sun-tzu. (1988). The art of war. (T. Cleary, Trans.). Boston, MA: Shambhala.
Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2008). Understanding by design Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development
