Taught a brief lesson for the first time today. I think I stressed about it entirely too much. My mentor had me teach a theme in Chapter 6 in his AP World History classes. I never really took a world history class, so to speak. I mean, Ive had classes that covered specific areas in the world, like Imperial China, and narratives of colonized peoples do provide insight into historical world events -- but not always in a popular manner. Therefore, I was slightly worried that these high schoolers would absolutely destroy me with their history knowledge. I spent much of my preparation reading whatever I could find on the topic at hand: Ancient Indian civilization.
I hope this isn't news to you when I say that India is freaking huge. Maybe not geographically, but their history and their people are hella deep. Not to say that other histories are not as deep, but I was supposed to figure out how to teach a succinct, 10-15 minute lesson on ancient India and all of its deepness. It was like standing at the edge of a chasm.
Luckily, I settled on a topic that I felt could be explored within my allotted time frame: the Varna system. Basically (and please do destroy me with your knowledge if any of this is inaccurate), the Varna system was a social order based on the Vedic religion, divided into strict classes. My focus question was "How did religion organize ancient Indian society?" The takeaway for my students was to understand how the Varna system set occupations to specific groups of people. A secondary objective was to teach the students how to make concept maps. I'm not a big fan of concept maps myself, but I have to admit it can be a useful study tool. This was relevant because they kind of have a test on this stuff on Thursday.
After reviewing the varnas, I related them to reincarnation and dharma. I then kind of jumped into doing concept maps as a way to organize all this information (my example above). Once I had explained the concept of the concept map, I assigned a concept map explaining ancient India's diversity. It was a little difficult for me to actually come out and say I was assigning something, like I was pulling the trigger on someone's grade.
I guess it went OK. I did it twice, but I have to admit that the first time around felt more natural. I had a plan on what I wanted to do, but for the most part, I freestyled. The second time around, I had a page of comments from my mentor teacher, as well as an appearance by my field instructor to handle. It was less freestyle. I wish I had remembered to push the "record" button during 1st hour, because I would have liked to go back and see the difference.
Regarding freestyle, I think I almost prefer seat-of-your-pants teaching. It's probably not as effective, the more structured 4th hour class' takeaway was that religion was used to control the populace by forcing them into duties and discouraging rebellion (I DID NOT PLAN FOR THAT). My preference for freestyle teaching most likely comes from B-boying and substitute teaching. Both require me to do things on the fly. You could even throw in being a radio DJ in there as well. I guess you could say that my career has consisted of not planning.
Yeah, I know. It's not good. Good planning means a lot of positive things, among them class coherence and classroom management. So I guess my question is, how do I plan a lesson well, while still allowing room for freestyle? Can I have both? Or am I hoping for a contradiction?
Good teaching? Or just dancing?
