Lesson Plan on What Does a Student Teacher Do: Part Two

When mentoring our pre-service and in-service teachers we need to describe and model both research-based and clinically tested best practices. This is one of many lessons we will be sharing on teaching Judaic content, lesson planning, models of teaching, differentiated and individualized instruction and learning activities designed to transform the classroom into a Jewish community of cooperative learners. The title of this lesson is What Does a Student Teacher Do. Since there are 13 elements in each lesson plan we will divide this lesson plan into two parts. The first part of this lesson plan is located here. The second part of this lesson on the roles and responsibilities of the student teacher follows.

Developmental Activity: (Set of procedures or steps to reach the objective)

1. Now that each student is a member of a quad, a team of four, each one receives a different clue face down on the table.

2. At a signal given by the teacher, each student turns the clue card face up and reads it to himself or herself, and then shares it with his or her teammates.

3. The four clues on the roles of a student teacher appear on the chart at the top of this post.

4. Students in quads discuss the information on their clue cards and try to determine what role the mystery person plays in the classroom.

5. When a team thinks it knows the answer to the mystery, the quad members raise their hands, and whisper the answer to the teacher. If they are correct, the teacher can give them another set of clue cards to investigate. See the four clues on the life of Golda Meir on the second chart at the top of this post.

Guided Practice: (Students apply new skill/s or strengthen previously learned skills during classroom instruction.)

Teacher prepares another set of clue cards related to the roles that other members of the instructional staff play in the classroom such as the teacher, the madrich or madricha, the madrich teacher, and the mentor teacher. Students are then challenged to work together and solve these mysteries as well.

Independent Activities: (Students practice new skill/s or strengthen previously learned skills outside of the class.)

1. Students can create their own clue cards for their quad mates or the other quads. These clues can relate to the seven areas of Judaic content discussed in the Toolbox.

1. Tanach (Bible)

2. Tefila (Prayer)

3. History

4. Hebrew

5. Hagim (Holidays)

6. Israel

7. Middot (Virtues)

Closure: (Activity that summarizes and ends the lesson)

1. In her own words, each student defines the role of the student teacher.

2. Teacher summarizes the role of the student teacher as a pre-service teaching candidate who is learning the art and science of actively engaging students in the study of Torah through (a) observation and discussion with the mentor teacher, (b) small-group instruction, and (c) teaching mini-lessons to the entire class of the mentor teacher.

3. The teacher explains that the students had engaged in a cooperative procedure called Simple Jigsaw, a cooperative learning procedure where each member of the team receives different information, but have the same question on its clue card. The objective of this cooperative exercise is for members to verbally share their clues in order to answer the question posed on each clue card.

On the next post we will begin the first part of a lesson entitled, “The Roles and Responsibilities of the Co-teacher, Madrich Teacher, Mentor Teacher, and Expert Teacher”.