Fall-14 – Page 12 – Ed Methods

September 10, 2014

Constitution of the United States

Content: My 8^th grade students will explore the colonies’ fight for independence and the framing of the constitution in this lesson. This lesson will follow a unit on the colonies and prelude a unit on the U.S. Constitution.

This is defined by the standard that states: students will understand key ideals and principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the U.S. Constitution, including rule of law, separation of powers, representative government, and popular sovereignty, and the Bill of Rights, including due process and freedom of expression.

This lesson includes three major elements:

Higher-order thinking by creating, evaluating, and analyzing.
Student choice and reflection – students choose their ideas and topics.
Classroom strategies – students collaborating in small groups and working individually.

Process: The lesson is driven by a student-centered approach. Students begin by collaborating in small groups. Small groups are expected to create a list of what they think would be essential ideas/laws for the United States Constitution as if they were colonists in the late 18th century. Each group will then share and discuss their ideas in a presentation to the class. While a group is presenting, the other groups will evaluate and question the presenter’s ideas/laws. Students are expected to ask clarifying and thoughtful questions about the ideas/laws presented. I will work as a mediator, if needed, to help jumpstart questions. After every group has a chance to present and question other groups, students, as individuals, will then evaluate and analyze what they have created by free writing at least one idea/law they believe is essential for the U.S. Constitution. This gives every student an opportunity to evaluate and defend their higher order thinking. At the end of the activity, I will then present the original Constitution that was created by the colonists. Students will then be able to compare and contrast their ideas to the actual colonist ideas that still affect us today. A classroom discussion on the original Constitution will end the activity.

Product: Students will produce a small group list of the ideas/laws to present and discuss with the class. Students will also produce an individual essay that will evaluate, analyze, and defend what they created. The lesson will also give students the chance to present their lists, while other students evaluate, analyze, and question. This lesson will give students the opportunity to follow their own process rather than just learning the facts. Students will also engage in reflecting on their work and the work of their peers during the collaboration in small groups and classroom discussions. The lesson gives the students a chance to understand how the Constitution, created by the colonists, affects and applies to their life today.

Evaluation: Learning will be assessed through student essays. Learning can also be assessed within the classroom discussions, as groups peer-review and question each other’s lists. In order to participate in this lesson, students will need higher order thinking, which includes creating, evaluating, and analyzing. Students have options and choices in the components of the lesson by creating their own list with no “right” answer. Also, each student is evaluating and analyzing what they learned and created in their individual essay. They are able to choose their Constitution topic and what matters to them by reflecting on the group work.

Reflection: I really enjoyed this lesson exercise. Actively working through plans and making sure students engage in higher order thinking, gave me a chance to evaluate and analyze what goes into creating a useful lesson. The peer review and self-reflection process has also helped me gain valuable guidance and suggestions how I can continue to grow and advance my knowledge as a future educator. As I plan lessons in the future, I now know the importance of students engaging in higher-level thinking and the importance and effect of peer review and self-reflection.

Picture Credit: Constitution of the United States

September 10, 2014

Visit Islam-We have 5 pillars!

Mecca-click here for image source

My 7th grade students and I are going to explore the world of Islam!

To begin, students will turn to section two of chapter five in their social studies book-“Beliefs of Islam.”

We will read the chapter as a class. I will select a student at random via popsicle sticks and that student will read one paragraph out loud. After each paragraph, I will ask students brief questions to ensure they are comprehending what they are reading as we go along.

When we are done with the reading, students will have a discussion within their table groups. Since I am placed in a Catholic school, I will have students compare and contrast Islamic and Catholic beliefs. One group member will record the differences and similarities. They can set up the notes anyway the like-venn diagram, list, pictures-as long as they understand it. They will also discuss what they found the most interesting about Islam.

After seven minutes of discussion, groups will share what they discussed with the entire class. I will have each group go one at a time and talk about what they discussed.

Next I will assign what will be used to assess their learning. Students will create a brochure that describes the five pillars of Islam. The five pillars are a staple of the Muslim religion. Therefore, it is essential that my students fully grasp the five pillars in order to completely and fundamentally understand Islam.

The five pillars of Islam are:

Shahadah: declaring there is no god except God, and Muhammad is God’s Messenger
Salat: ritual prayer five times a day
Zakat: giving 2.5% of one’s savings to the poor and needy
Sawm: fasting and self-control during the holy month of Ramadan
Hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime, if one is able

I will encourage students to layout the brochure any way that they like. However, they must include in the brochure:

A description of each of the five pillars
An example of how to live out each pillar

Students will first create a rough outline-it could be as simple as a list-of what they plan to include in their brochure. They also will sketch a layout for their brochure.

At the next class period, students will share their brochure plans with the table groups. Other students will give them feedback on what looks good and what could be improved. They will have class time to work on their final copy of their brochures. At the next class section, the completed brochure will be due. Additionally, students will turn in a one paragraph reflection on what they changed after their peer review and how they think they did.

Reflection:

After doing this assignment, I now understand better the importance of peer and self reflection. I really valued getting to witness it first hand when we went over our assignments with our peers. In my lesson, I tried to emphasize student and peer reflection as well. It gives the students more autonomy and I think it makes them feel like they do have the ability to improve after citing it themselves, rather than an adult. In the future, I will definitely keep peer and student reflection at the top of my list when it comes to planning lessons.

September 10, 2014

What’s Up With the Constitution?

8^th Grade Social Studies Lesson Study

Content – As we introduce our unit on the United States Constitution, we will examine the intent and underlying philosophies of the framers. The learning goal is to understand the concept of basic rights and the role of government.

Process – The students will be split up into groups of 5. Each group will be given a different scenario to analyze. The scenarios will focus on the tension between personal rights vs. the good of the community.

1) You want to build a mountain bike trail in the woods near your house, but in doing so you would be damaging rare bird habitat.

2) Your neighbor wants to turn his back yard into a hog farm, causing strange smells to waft through your window.

3) In an effort to curb obesity, the school no longer allows the drinking of soda or other sugary beverages in school.

4) The school implements a new zero tolerance policy for cell phone use. If a student is found using her phone during school hours, the phone will be confiscated for 1 week.

The groups will be given 10 minutes to discuss the possible outcomes and issues with their given scenario. We will then come back together and a representative from each group will explain their scenario to the group, identifying the central issue that is being argued, who are the main actors, and which side they support. The students will take notes on each other’s scenarios during the presentations. For homework, after reading the chapter in their textbook on the framers of the Constitution and their guiding philosophies, they will write a reflection of the exercise they did in class and how it fits into the issues at play in the crafting the Constitution.

Product –The students will have briefs of the scenarios from class and a written reflection.

Evaluation – The students will be evaluated informally by their participation and engagement in the exercises, and their ability to apply the concepts discussed in class to the history of our Constitution.

What kinds of thinking will students need to do to participate in the lesson?

The students will use strategic thinking such as formulating, assessing and analysis when they discuss the scenarios. For the reflection the students will need to use extended thinking like connecting and applying to make the connection from the classroom exercise to the history.

To what extent do students have options or choices regarding these lesson components?

The students can interpret the scenarios any way they choose. They have the option to align more with individual rights or the collective good, either answer is correct as long as they see that there is tension between the two. For their reflection they can choose what they found meaningful and how it relates to the history.

Personal Reflection

This project proved quite challenging for me because it involved both a lesson planning aspect and a technology aspect. These are two areas in which I have little experience. My original lesson was very much like a traditional lesson, there was a lecture, a worksheet, and a little bit of group work for the students. This is the way I was taught and is my first instinct when it comes to designing a lesson. However, we have learned repeatedly that students need to have more control of the learning to truly understand concepts. Through the peer review process I was able to rewrite my lesson to put almost all of the learning in the hands of the students. As the teacher I simply designed the lesson, but the students came up with all the content. I even decided to leave out the lecture all together and have the students try to make the connections themselves from the exercise to the homework reading. I can always fill in the blanks if the reflections reveal a lack of understanding of the concepts. Going forward I will attempt hold my lessons up to a standard of maximum allowable student interaction. I will see where I can replace my talking with student activity, discovery, and hopefully, understanding.

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we the people photo: Wang

reflection photo: essentialscafe

September 10, 2014

Batty About Bats

Batty About Bats Unit: Stellaluna Character Inferences and Development

Content

As per the Oregon standards for 3^rd grade, the students will work on their ability to make inferences and track character development in a work of fiction. In this lesson, we will be looking specifically at Stellaluna by Janell Cannon while meeting the guidelines set in the following standard 3.RL.3:

Process

Together as a class, we will read Stellaluna. Before reading, I will also ask the class to pay special attention to how Stellaluna changes in the beginning, middle, and end. Then, I will model the inference-making process via a poster on the board so they can see what the expectations are for this activity. To begin, I will redirect the students to the beginning of the story, point out a sentence, and ask them to think about how Stellaluna is feeling or thinking based on what the author has told us. Is she scared? Happy? Hungry? As a class, we will come up with at least 1 inference for each section. Then, the students will brainstorm additional words for their final product with the help of their table group and the teacher(s).

Product

For the final product the students will create the following:

Inside the bats, the students will write the inferences they have chosen to describe Stellaluna at each part of the story. In the boxes they will provide the textual evidence they used to make the inference, paraphrased in their own words. The teacher will use the product to evaluate the students’ understanding of making inferences and character development. Then, they will be displayed around the room so the students can see their work and the work of their peers. The students may work in their table groups if they wish, but each student will make their own poster.

Thank you to Linda from Around the Kampfire for her inspiring lesson on bats from which my activity template was created. If you want to see how she used the template to create a lesson on Stellaluna’s responses to different situations check our her fantastic blog post!

Evaluation

If I want to do a formal evaluation process, I will use this rubric. Students will shade in the boxes with the faces/point values that they think best describe their work. Then, they will write comments to further reflect on the activity. I will circle the faces/point values I think they deserve and write in my own feedback. The rubric should be returned to students so they can accrue a sense of their progress and make note of how they can improve for next time.

Reflection

After creating my first lesson plan study assignment, I have learned quite a bit through not only the creation of the lesson, but also through the feedback of my peers. I came to class a little unsure of my work since I have not drafted many lesson plans in the past. However, I found that at the end of the day I was excited to try out my activities thanks to the enthusiasm of those who edited my lesson. I received thoughtful feedback that was both constructive and encouraging. My peers challenged me to look more closely at how my students will receive the lesson. Will they understand all the terms I’m using? Will they be able to finish the assignment in the time given? What are ways students with limited written communication can participate? Through these questions and others, I was able to alter my lesson plan so that it better fit my students. Thus, I really enjoyed this lesson plan study. It helped me build upon my ideas and improve them in a way that I would not have been able to do on my own. I look forward to continuing to work with this class and constructing more lessons!