Making Connections Between Content and Pedagogy

Video Transcription

Hi, I'm Katie Hou, and thank you for joining me for Making Connections Between Content and Pedagogy. As always, this course is about you, the learner. So please feel free to pause, fast forward, rewind, or use any of the information from this presentation to better help you in your classroom. Let's begin by looking at the essential questions.

We're going to start out exploring, what is content? Followed by exploring, what is pedagogy? Then, we're going to talk about how these two are connected and how I can use this in my classroom. We're also going to explore, what role does technology play?

A few reminders before we get started. I like to use an application lesson to illustrate the point of the lecture. Today's application lesson is based on teaching Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The examples given will be in blue and the key terms will be in green. Remember, the key terms are important, so try to write them down. Let's get started by looking at, what is content?

Content is a deep knowledge of your subject area. In our case, it's a deep understanding of Shakespeare's work and Shakespearean language, as well as the Elizabethan era. Let's look at this practically with an extended example. I'm going to show how we can incorporate standards into the content that we're teaching.

We're going to use the common core state standards for ELA literacy, reading literature in the grade band 9 through 10. All of the standards for this grade band apply to the unit that we're doing. And those are standards one through nine. But we're going to focus specifically on ELA standard nine through 10.3.

This says, analyze how complex characters, for example, those with multiple or conflicting motivations, develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme. In our case, we're looking specifically at Brutus. Next, we have pedagogy. What exactly is pedagogy? I like to call it a teacher's tool bag for teaching. It's the how the teacher delivers the content.

Keep in mind that this should really be differentiated for the various types of learners that we have. And things that influence our pedagogy are students' background knowledge, their learning styles, and also teacher preference. For our extended example, some learning activities we might have in the classroom when we're evaluating Brutus's character and how he changes and affects the plays are, one, to create a mind map that visually charts the development of Brutus over the course of the play, we could have students annotate the play and look for characterization, they could apply learning to authentic problems by having students reflect on the changes they've gone through and compare them to the development of the character of Brutus.

I could have them make connections by comparing and contrasting Brutus with other literary characters that they've read. You could also have students question, create questions to ask one another in a Socratic seminar format that revolves around the characterization of certain characters, specifically Brutus. Or, we could have students great interview questions for Brutus that they would ask him about his transformation in interview after Caesar's death.

I've included a picture of a mind map, just in case you aren't familiar. This is just a visual way that students can organize their thoughts. We'll look at one that's specific to Julius Caesar and Brutus' character in a minute. So how can I use technology to make this a little bit easier or more accessible to my students?

Well, you can do an a lot of different ways. And here, I've just listed some of my ideas. But really the ideas are limitless. One thing I thought would be useful is assign different groups of students different characters in the book. So for example, one group might be looking for Brutus' characterization, another for Portia's, one for Caesar's, and one for Cassius'. Then, have them record their observations about that character's development on a class wiki.

Another idea is having students find significant quotes for their characters and create a word cloud using a website like Wordle. You could also have them create a mind map online. And I actually have an example of that below that we'll look at in a minute.

You could have them work on a paper with live editing from peers or a teacher using an online format like Google Docs, or have students take episodic notes by using a free comic maker. I really like having students choose episodic notes for Julius Caesar, or any Shakespearean work for that matter, because the language can be so difficult for them. But by using episodic notes, they're able to break down scene-by-scene and kind of put it in their own words.

Let's take a look at the mind map I created. This has to do with, who influenced the character of Brutus, and how so? And we also talk a little bit about the character of Brutus. Keep in mind, this is a really narrow view of characterization. Obviously, characterization is influenced by many more factors, but we're just kind of touching the service for the purposes of this lesson.

Next, is an example of using the comic strip for episodic notes. There are a number of free comic creators online, and students really enjoy doing this activity. So how can I use this in my classroom, and why should I?

Like, I've been saying in all of our lessons so far, I think it's really important for a good teacher to be transparent and intentional in everything that he or she does in the classroom, and by making a connection between content and pedagogy, it's forcing intentionality. It's saying, what do I want to teach, and why do I want to teach it?

It's also great for differentiation, because we want teachers to have that tool bag that they can draw from. Maybe you have a student who really is struggling, and the episodic notes might be great for him or her. Whereas, you might have another student who's doing really well and excelling. Maybe a Wordle would be a better way for them to explore the character.

And lastly, it incorporates technology into the classroom. And we do live and teach in a 21st century environment. Our kids are extremely tech savvy, and so it's really useful to be able to be on the cutting edge of what's going on with technology and incorporate that into your classroom, because it's really engaging for students.

Let's take some time to reflect. Name one way you will integrate technology into your classroom to make connections between content and pedagogy. So let's review. We've answered the essential of, what is content? What is pedagogy? And how are they connected?

We also talked about how we can use this in the classroom and why it's important to do, and what role technology plays in all of this. To dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure to check out the additional resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find links targeted towards helping you discover more ways to apply this course material. Thank you for joining me, and happy teaching.