Prof.

Rooks, Keeley
EDUC 302-303
Caleb John Frens
Self-Reflection
The first day I started constructing my unit plan was the first day I was at Forest Hills
Eastern. Ms. Taber had already emailed me, telling me that I would be part of both a creative
writing and world literature class. She laid out the lesson plans early on and let me choose which
one I thought I would like best. When I chose Siddhartha, Ms. Taber was kind enough to give me
all of her material on the subject. I was going to teach the first section of three from the novel.
Understanding that I would have to hand my lesson off to Ms. Taber, I thought it would be
important to really hammer down Siddharthas central concepts so that the students could engage
with the book later on. For that reason, I focused on Hinduism, Buddhism, Hermann Hesse, and
Carl Jung. I thought that they were all central themes or persons that prominently affected the
novel. Thus I tried to incorporate some Buddhist or Hindu thought along with the novel through
a video, poem, or project, every day of class.
In regard to the content that I included in my lesson, I tried to push the central concepts
of Siddhartha as well. I started off each day with three simple parts. First, I would show the
students an example of Hindu of Buddhist thought through a famous example of media. Second,
I would have a student read aloud a Hindu saying from the novel that captures some of the
central themes. Third, I would give the students a quiz or reading reflection that pertained to the
chapters they had due. The rest of the lessons were then differentiated depending on the day. No
matter what, thought, I made sure to reference or connect with Hinduism and Buddhism. On
Monday and Tuesday I did it with PowerPoint and on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with a
project that connected media, Siddhartha, and Hindu or Buddhist thought. My content was
definitely centered around the foreign concepts that Siddhartha is based on, even to the extent
that I focused on the concepts more than the novel.
Frens 1

Along the way, my personal perspective also influenced the way I constructed and
implemented my unit play. The content of Siddhartha was extremely foreign to my students and
to myself. But, our classroom was a world literature classroom and our job was to explore the
world and its cultures in order to gain an appreciation for them. For that reason, I really tried to
stress the beliefs that were influencing the book. I tried to teach said beliefs with fairness, but at
the same time push them where they didnt seem to make sense. I found myself more often then
not comparing Hindu or Buddhist beliefs to Christianity because I knew more about Christianity.
I was not directly promoting Christianity, but it was touched on throughout my lessons. My
perspective, then, did not drastically influence my teaching, but it left its mark here or there.
Now, moving on to sum up the effectiveness of my unit plan. At the end of the day, I
think I gave my students a good base to encounter Siddhartha. I presented them with key
concepts and allowed them to ask questions about the novel throughout the unit. However, I do
not know how well the concepts sunk in with the students. The final project was supposed to be a
great crescendo, but finished offbeat. Partly do to my rubric and instructions, the project wasnt
what I expected it to be. So, I think my unit gave the students an opportunity to engage with
Siddhartha, but in a manner that left engagement up to the students. I wish I could have designed
my unit to force learning a bit more, make the students a little more gruntled. If I had to do the
unit over again, I would change some things up.
To conclude, although my unit did not become the glorious learning experience I
dreamed it would be, the unit helped me understand myself more as a teacher. I found things that
I would keep and would change, would fix or leave the same. I also experienced the joy of
forming relationships with my students. Yet, I need to work on establishing a more teacher to
student relationship as opposed to a ho-hum friendship with my students. I enjoyed how close I

Frens 2

got with my class, but I felt like proper level of respect was not always there. And I think that
respect will also come with age along with learning.

Frens 3