Constructivism TIPR

Current Teacher Behavior
1. The teacher uses spiral curriculum by being aware of levels of complexity within concepts and adjusting the time spent on them accordingly. He knows that theme is still a tricky concept and approaches it like its fresh, asking for student input upfront to give their definition of it from previous school years. But something like POV (which is a simple concept pounded into their heads since first grade) he doesn't spend a ton of time defining, and instead asks students how it can be used to effect the story. For these simple concepts he'll use more tenets of constructivism; he asks lots of questions, has students experiment with them in their own hands-on writing, lets them fill the time with those experiments rather than lecture a lot. For more complex themes he sticks more to lecturing and modelling. He is constantly aware of readiness and has a rigid structure, but doesn't rely much on the students' intuitions or motivations in these lessons. Overall the only constructive activities students do in either case is their own writing, which I feel is good for an English class but some variety would help the students.
Student Needs
2. As mentioned in the last line above, differentiating some of the hands-on work students do would help the class not seem so routine. Giving the students time to experiment with and develop their own writing is great, but it's what happens every single day. An activity that incorporates visual learning such as drawing or another artistic outlet would speak to several of the students who I see drawing in their journals and notebooks.
Plans for your Lesson
3. For my characterization lesson, visualization of a character is an important element. I'd like to give some time for students to not only write down the characteristics of the character they're creating, but also actually visualize them. The class already has drawing supplies like colored pencils and things lying around, so I'd like to see students visualize their characters to actually be able to show me and the teacher what they look like and how that fits their character.

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