Learning Objectives and Rigor The common core learning standards in grade 8 English for the mentioned lesson were set as the determination of a theme or central idea of the text and analysis of its development over the text course. It also included its relationship to the characters, setting and plot; determination of the meaning of words and phrases as the area used in the text, in addition to figurative and connotative meanings along with the analysis of the specific words' impact on meaning and tone. Effective engagement in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 8 topics and texts so that building on ideas and creating expressions become easy for the students was another common core learning standard addressed. As the lesson objectives indicate that word choice in the poetry is essential to express what the poet is feeling about, the word meanings and their usage in the poetry would help the students in understating what each word usage in specific context means and what the poet wants to express. The comprehension abilities of the students would be enhanced too. The content used for this purpose was Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven" and it was ensured that all the students, including the diverse learners, were engaged in rigorous thinking process by creating a list of words, thinking upon the questions in the mini lesson, formation of groups for certain activities, and giving an assessment in the form of homework that included selection of one stanza of the poem and replacing its difficult words with new ones.

Question 2: Teaching Strategies and Assessment

The teaching and management strategies that I used in the lesson included the prior knowledge of the student related to metaphor, similes, personification and literary devices such as themes, moods and tones. Other teaching strategies involved word choice activities that allowed the students to gain knowledge of connotation and denotation. The pupils were encouraged to work in groups to form pair of words. The lists were shared in the class so that students can have a look at other students' work. In addition to that, there was a guided activity for watching "The Raven" clip so that they were able to interpret the poem and its meaning from a holistic...

The reason for showing the clip to the students was to let them search for words and explain their importance to the poem. The identification of the literary devices, teaching the class what they learnt from stanza exercise and accepting the questions enabled them to gain extensive understanding of the topic and fulfill common core learning standards. The diverse students' learning strengths with which I tried to capitalize my teaching enhancement on included their already attained prior knowledge, entailing knowledge of literary devices, symbolism, assonance, and consonance etc. I assessed the impact of these strategies and their outcomes by scoring their homework assessment: the students who scored 2 or low needed assistance in comprehension; the students who scored mid-level to low-level 2 needed assistance; students who scored above 2 were known to be fast graspers. No adjustments were made in the instructional practice since it was a learning activity related to the lesson topic; rather, I provided assistance to the students who scored less and helped in understanding of the concepts more clearly.
Question 3: Professional Growth

In the beginning, the metaphor and similes lesson produced some problems among the students since they were not familiar with how words could be used in various contexts and how their actual meaning could be hidden within the words. They were confused and could not determine the words accurately. I tried to simplify the lesson by pairing them in small groups of two students and asked them to question each other about the lesson. Each student was asked to score the other, and in the end, the students who had the most problems were given explanations by me on those topics, again, along with those special topics that were considered the hardest. My goal and student learning outcome for this lesson was to make them able to comprehend the meanings of metaphors and similes as quickly as possible so that whenever they come across words of this kind, they are able to understand their meanings within no time. The obstacle faced while achieving this goal was the students being incapable of understanding the topic. I had to stretch my lesson up to two days; although, I had planned it for one day and one…