The time spent talking about the lesson plans was well needed and greatly appreciated. During my time at UR, there have been several lesson plan templates and different expectations. Some did not need/require specific detail which is what I was mostly lacking in my plan. I will be revising my plan to re-submit this weekend. The three column rubric also helps in knowing what you guys are looking for. This is my favorite kind of rubric. I plan on using this type of rubric through my teaching career.
I enjoyed the gallery walk activity (as seen in my lesson plan) but would have never thought about using that activity to do a picture walk through a book. While I love how we are doing activities in class that we can then take and use in our own classrooms, the fact that these activities can be used across several content areas will be most beneficial to me. I can see me using this activity to introduce many units across contents.
I can understand how the closing activity we did can be very beneficial to the teacher. It is a great way to see what the students learned along with what questions students may have. It seems to be very similar to an exit ticket. I need to start incorporating these kind of exercises in my closure part of my lesson plans. I noticed a teacher that had several different types of exit tickets on her desk when I was in her classroom this week. I meant to take a picture of them to have than as examples to use in the future but forgot to do so. I wonder if there is specific places to search for exit tickets and/or other exercises to use for closure.
Mike, I am glad that you are able to make connections between class activities and your own lesson plans. This is what we hope will happen. I think what I am most excited about reading in your reflection is the fact that you recognize these lesson can be used in a cross-curricular format. Go you. :0)
Keep us posted if you have questions.