Cory Neil

Unit Plan Reflective Commentary

As with my yearlong plan, once again I feel that my ambitions were somewhat outside the
practical scope of my abilities for this project. I attempted to push myself outside of my comfort level
and I believe this is evident in my final product. This, however, is not to say that I am not proud of my
work I indeed am, and I think that my efforts and intentions are more than apparent throughout but
rather that I view what I produced as a start, albeit a high-quality start, but still a start all the same. And I
genuinely look forward to the opportunity someday to be able to teach this unit (and the course I created it
as a part of), and return to this plan and make it something truly great.
I can honestly say, without reservation, that this was an extremely challenging task that I will not
soon forget. I grossly underestimated the scope of the project, and for that I am disappointed in myself
at this point in my education I should have known better and given the project the attention and respect it
deserved and required. In not doing so, I put myself through an unnecessary degree of stress that I
regrettably feel is reflected in my work. That aside, I believe that I was still able to produce a piece of
work that is highly reflective of me as both an individual and as an educator.
What I found to be most challenging was maintaining continuity throughout the unit while
attempting to come up with varied and creative daily lessons and activities. The problem, I believe, is
two-fold: my comfort level with my own knowledge of Deconstructionism, and the fact that I was
attempting to design the lessons for a non-existent set of students this aspect being further complicated
due to my limited interaction up until now with actual students. When I made my initial decision to
design my unit plan for my unit on Deconstructionist theory from my yearlong plan, I was completely
confident in my understanding of the theory and my ability to teach it in a manner that would be both
engaging as well as highly effective. Even as I began conceptualizing the unit in my mind, I had no doubt
that I would be able to develop a thorough course of instruction. Yet as I began composing the daily
lessons, I found myself struggling to find new activities and modes of instruction and this began me to
doubting how well I actually knew the subject. Self-doubt in my abilities (and, in this case, my
understanding and knowledge) is an issue that I have struggled with for nearly as long as I can recall.
And while I often attribute it to being the aspect of my personality that enables me to consistently strive to
improve myself and perform to ever-higher levels of standards, at the same time I know that it can equally
function as my Achillesheel and, if left unchecked, most quickly become a paralyzing constriction for
me. In this case, it seemed to function more towards the latter of the two, and nearly stopped my work
dead in its tracks. This worries me to a significant degree as I get ready to begin my student teaching, and
I am hopeful that I will be able to get it under control and make it work for me (as I know it can) rather
than against me before I get too far into actually teaching this spring I cannot allow my own problems to

be a hindrance on my students educations. But I feel there is tangible hope for this, because I suspect
that it is directly linked to my limited experience with students and so a lack of first-hand feedback that
really only comes from authentic real-world experiences. I was planning lessons for something I had
never taught before for an audience I did not know and do not yet fully understand. As the days and
lessons of my unit progressed, speculation turned into skepticism and I felt uncertain as to where I should
take the unit each consecutive day. With my upcoming student teaching placement, I believe I will gain
the experience I need to get beyond this stifling aspect, and be able to concentrate my self-critical
tendencies into something entirely positive.
A major weakness of my unit plan is that I do not believe it demonstrates the scope of my
understanding of various methods and forms of assessment. During my planning as well as the drafting
of my lessons, I sought desperately to find and incorporate different activities that would allow for a range
of student assessment in their understandings both of the theory of Deconstruction as well as of the texts
they would be reading. Not wanting to divide the unit into two entirely distinct components the texts
and the critical theory, I decided it best to focus on the theory and utilize the texts as the tool by which to
explore it in hopes that in doing so the texts themselves would also be taught concurrently though through
the lens of Deconstruction. Instruction in critical theory is not an element of most secondary education,
and so is neither a part of secondary education training. Assessment tools taught to new teacher
candidates are focused around the demands of meeting local, state, and federal education standards of
which critical theory is not an express component. This greatly restricted my ability to demonstrate my
understanding of assessment as I was restricted to using largely real-time assessment during in-class
discussion as my major means of gauging student understanding. I had not anticipated this prior to
choosing my unit focus and beginning the unit plan, whereas had I been conscious of this limitation I
would most definitely have opted for a different theme and concept for my unit plan. But in this I feel
there is also a good strength, as this plan does demonstrate what I am capable of doing when I am
constrained in my options by the nature of the subject at hand. I think that despite not showcasing my
range as a teacher, it does serve well as a demonstration of my understanding of and ability to design a
class focused on inquiry-based learning. This is potentially highly valuable, as it is not (in my
experience) a method of teaching employed by conventional teachers and helps to reinforce my
philosophical ideals as to what teaching and education are all about namely, the highly individualized
and personal growth and development of the student.
In the end, although I feel I can do better and that my own decision as to the topic of my unit
significantly limited my ability to demonstrate the full scope of my skills and understanding of
pedagogical methods, I am proud of the unit plan I have created. If compared to those of other teachers at
this stage of their educations and careers, I have no doubt that it will stand out as unique, and a

respectable and quality attempt at a unquestionably ambitious topic of instruction. This assignment was a
true test of my abilities as well as of my resourcefulness and my personal resolve and commitment to
personal and professional improvement. I have learned much over the course of completing it too
much, in fact, to discuss here in its entirety, and (although entirely spent) I am nothing but grateful for the
experience. As I now take some time to relax and ready myself for the forthcoming semester and my
student teaching placement and all it will require of me, I do so with a deep sense of calm. I know that I
still have much to learn, and that the next several months will test me in ways I am yet able to even
conceive of; but despite this, I truly feel that I am well prepared and I am confident in my ability to meet
the challenges of student teaching head-on. This has been a taxing, but invaluably formative experience and I am certain I am all the better for it.