This project directly links my English, writing, and literature coursework to my education practices and knowledge. By directly combining the two subjects that make up my major and other interdisciplinary subjects, I am preparing myself for my career as an English educator. Converting my learning into physical lesson plans allows my future students to gain vital historical context and develop critical thinking and reading skills. With this project, my skills and knowledge garnered at UNE culminate in these lessons, showcasing my ability to translate guided classroom assignments into unprompted, coherent, and practical lessons. 

I believe it is critical to expose students to a variety of writing genres and authors across time periods to grow an understanding that writing practices and definitions of authorship are shaped by cultural and historical principles. Much of the standard curriculum excludes women writers because, until recent times, they faced barriers to authorship (published or not). When they did write, their work was not always valued or taken seriously. My goal is to find a way to integrate a wider variety of genres and women writers into the classroom, extending students’ learning and understanding of women’s history. Framing this unit by genre accentuates each writer’s creative work with craft, honoring these women’s contributions to history and their respective cultures while building students’ critical reading skills.

While generating this project, I developed a deeper appreciation for those who research, develop, and implement engaging, hands-on curricula. Most importantly, I found myself greatly enjoying the process of generating and refining lesson plans that are engaging to students. As a future educator, it has always been my goal to create more active, engaging, and effective lessons for English classrooms, which has solidified my interest. I believe this interest is displayed in each lesson plan from my project. For lesson one, it is the fairytale activity, in lesson two it is the pre-reading stations, in lesson three it is the introduction to discussion partner work, in lesson four it is the poster discussion, in lesson five it is the group share and discussion, and in lesson six it is the program cover creation. 

I also developed a deeper understanding of how the curriculum is built around the standards. Though they are challenging to implement, I believe I have developed the skills to incorporate the standards in each part of the lesson. Though the standards are woven into every part of these lessons, I believe this is obvious in the daily learning targets, the Trifles discussion questions, and the summative assessment. These items are derived from the standards and, therefore, illustrate the skills I have developed in implementing them throughout this project. The summative in particular is the final goal, similar to how the standards are goals as well.