ED4202 Final Assignment

Title: Land, Identity and Poetry

Subject: ENGL 2D
Time: 1 Class Period
Strand: Poetry

Desired Results
Lesson Description/Rational

This lesson is designed to incorporate Indigenous Learning Outcomes, Ontario School Board
Curriculum, High Leverage Practices and teaching within an Indigenous Knowledge
Environment.

At its core, the content of this poetry lesson consists of deconstructing Jeannette C.
Armstrong’s poem titled History Lesson. To meet our curriculum expectations, we are using
the interpretation tool called TPCASTT. TPCASTT is designed to help students understand a
poem through a holistic lens. The aim is to impart on students that to properly analyze a poem
one must consider all of its parts not just a single detail.

Simply presenting a PowerPoint on TPCASTT than handing the students a poem and a
worksheet isn’t enough to effectively teach students. Next in the lesson I would incorporate
the mode of an Indigenous Knowledge Environment called Interdependent Thinking. The idea
at the heart of Interdependent Thinking is both deconstructing what we believe we know and
consider why we know. I foresee this idea working well with The High Leverage Practice
called Leading a Group Discussion. The group discussion that best fits the needs of this class
is the Fish Bowl technique. Students will have the opportunity to discuss the answers they
came up with in their TPCASTT charts while also getting feedback from their peers. In this
activity, the mix of quite listening and vocal thinking allows all students to reconsider what
they thought they previously know.

After an activity like Fish Bowl where students have thought deeply about their prior
conceived notions, I will have students adjust their TPCASTT charts if they need more time,
or they can get started on a Journal Reflection. The idea I’d like the students to discuss in their
journal reflection is the relationship between land and identity within indigenous societies.
Students will hand in their journal reflection at the end of class.

Ontario Curricular Overall Expectations

1. Listening to Understand: listen in order to understand and respond appropriately in a

variety of situations for a variety of purposes
2. Speaking to Communicate: use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to
communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes;

3. Reflecting on Skills and Strategies: reflect on and identify their strengths as listeners and
speakers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful in oral
communication situations.

Ontario Curricular Specific Expectations

Listening to Understand

1.1 identify the purpose of a variety of listening tasks and set goals for specific tasks

1.2 select and use appropriate active listening strategies when participating in a variety
of classroom interactions

1.3 select and use appropriate listening comprehension strategies before, during, and after
listening to understand oral texts, including increasingly complex texts

1.8 identify and analyse the perspectives and/or biases evident in oral texts, including
increasingly complex texts, and comment on any questions they may raise about beliefs,
values, identity, and power

2.1 communicate orally for a variety of purposes, using language appropriate for the intended
audience

Reading for Meaning

1.1 read a variety of student- and teacher-selected texts from diverse cultures and historical
periods, identifying specific purposes for reading

1.2 select and use appropriate reading comprehension strategies before, during, and after
reading to understand texts, including increasingly com- plex texts

Developing and Organizing Content

2.2 demonstrate an understanding of a variety of interpersonal speaking strategies and adapt

them to suit the purpose, situation, and audience, exhibiting sensitivity to cultural differences

2.5 explain how their own beliefs, values, and experiences are revealed in their writing

2.6 revise drafts to improve the content, organization, clarity, and style of their written work,
using a variety of teacher-modelled strategies.
Lesson Goals (clearly identify what students are expected to know and be able to do, as if asked the purpose by a principal)
I will demonstrate my understanding of both the learning strategy TPCASTT and the poem of
interest
I will listen with the intent to understand and speak effectively to communicate my ideas
respectfully
I will demonstrate my knowledge of culturally sensitive issues such as indigenous Canadian
identity and culture in a historic context.

Success Criteria (teachers will identify the criteria they will use to assess student’s learning , as well as what evidence of learning
students will provide to demonstrate their knowledge and skills ; in student language)

I can demonstrate my understanding of the poem of focus through the mode of TPCASTT
I can listen with the intent to understand and speak effectively to communicate my ideas
respectfully
I can demonstrate my knowledge of culturally sensitive issues such as indigenous Canadian
identity and culture in a historic context.

Assessment
Assessment Mode: oral/ performance/ written
Assessment Strategy:
Assessment Tool: ( please attach)
Of As For
Journal reflection. At the end Following the fishbowl During the initial
of this activity I will have activity, students will have introduction to TPCASTT I
students’ hand in their an opportunity to add or will have the opportunity to
journal reflections. I will change their TPCASTT monitor what students know
write meaningful feedback charts. Students here will as I walk around the room to
on their work adjusting their have listened to what their assess what students have
thinking where necessary. peers have to say and can grasped while they are filling
adjust their work. I will be out their TPCASTT chart for
able to monitor student the poem. If I notice patterns
improvement or change in students’ errors, I can
because students will be address them as a group or
given another coloured individually.
writing utensil to make
assessment more obvious.

Materials
 - TPCASTT PowerPoint
- TPCASTT Organizer
- Journal
- Poem
- Two colors of writing utensil

Lesson Format : What Teachers Do/Say

Motivational Hook/engagement /introduction ( 5-10 min) Minds on

A Socratic seminar discussing the idea of identity and land. This theme will continue
through class and into their journal.

During /working on it/action ( Hands on) What the students are doing
To begin the lesson, I will look to learn student prior knowledge of TPCAST and poetry in
general. I introduced students to terms and concepts that dictate the structure of how a poem
is made. Now I will introduce a TPCAST PowerPoint to teach students how to deconstruct a
poem.

I will hand students the poem titled History Lesson. Students will have some time to fill out
their TPCAST for the poem. Students will be asked to do this activity on their own. I want
students to try this out on their own first before they learn from their peers.

Next, we will engage in a fish bowl conversation. Five chairs will be placed in the middle of
the room and students will have the opportunity to join in on the conversation. Those
outside the fishbowl have to simply watch. The teacher will provide the students the
questions they will discuss. The questions will relate to students rational for their answers to
the TPCAST works sheet. Students will have the opportunity to learn from each other and
change or add to their answers using a different coloured writing utensil from before. A
different writing utensil is used to make it obvious to me and the student what information
they came up with on their own as well as what they learnt from their peers. Peer support is
very valuable. During the fish bowl conversation, I will steer the conversation in a way that
touches at issues such as land and identity, thus preparing students for the next activity.

After: Consolidation : Reflect and Connect (10 min)

To conclude I will have students sitting back in their desks and I will ask them to write a
journal response discussing “what is the relationship between land and identity that is shown
in this poem.” Students will hand this in, and I will mark it as assessment as learning. The
next class I would start by discussing the responses to this question. I want the students to
understand the interconnected nature of the term’s identity and land in the context of
indigenous peoples.

Lesson Reflection: Teacher and Lesson

I want you to know that my feedback comes from a place of humility in that you are surly
more well versed in this topic than I am. However, from my brief experience with the ideas
this is my feedback. I feel comfortable including the ILO’s and the Indigenous Modes of
Knowing in my teaching toolkit because I think they are skills I have been developing. I
don’t want this to be taken as a scathing review but if I were to think of criticism for these
ideas, I would say they aren’t all that unique. For instance, the tenants of the Four Modes of
Indigenous Knowledge are Experiential Learning, Interdependent Thinking, Storytelling and
Practicing Humility. I could make the case that not only does Western education include
these ideas, but it has successfully institutionalized these values and has since flourished
because of it. It is possible to cherry pick cases where Western education doesn’t include
these practices, but I think across the board these ideas are already in every classroom. The
issue I see is if the goal is to create a coherent set of ideas that are uniquely indigenous but
also fit seamlessly in a Western institution one could become overly reliant on focusing on
the blemishes of the western tradition. Potentially what you have come up with is already
part of the western tradition. This begs the question, if the ideas fit so well in a western
institution maybe they were always there in the first place.