The art and craft of teaching
Uncle Sam’s Picnic 1898
Content- We will be studying how Americans at the turn of the century saw their place in the world i.e. manifest destiny and their responsibility to what they believed were lower, less civilized races and societies. The students will continue to work on their OPCVL skills and translating this information into a succinct but comprehensive paragraph.
Continue reading “Imperialist sentiments leading to the War of 1898”
The following commentary addresses an 80-minute lesson designed for a 7th grade social studies class. The lesson is the first in a series of five concerning the Roman Empire and its decline.
Content –
This lesson seeks to build students’ knowledge of the Roman Empire while further developing their ability to write, speak publicly, and analyze information represented symbolically (maps). Relevant standards addressed include Oregon SS7.1 (historical knowledge of Roman Empire), SS7.8 (use of maps), and SS7.9 (analyze data to make geographic inferences).
Process –
Over the course of this lesson, students will be asked to participate in a teacher-led, slideshow-driven class discussion before applying knowledge acquired in that discussion to a small-group activity.
The main activity included in this lesson requires students to work together in small groups to interpret a detailed topographical map of the Roman Empire. Consequently, the lesson requires a map, assigned points of destination and origin for each group of students, colored pencils, and notebook paper for responses. The entirety of this lesson will take place during the block period.
Product –
Students will be assigned one of four roles within their group and what they produce will depend upon their assignment. One student, the group’s Artist, will plot the group’s route between cities on a map. The group’s Response will produce a one-paragraph written justification or explanation of the group’s route. The group’s Speaker will deliver a one-minute speech to the class explaining the choices the group made and the group’s Administrator is tasked with both assigning roles to her or his group members and writing a paragraph describing how the group worked together to come to agreements.
Evaluation –
Student learning will be assessed by the teacher according to their assigned responsibilities using rubrics customized for the unique responsibilities of each. Each rubric directs the rater to look for clear evidence that the student successfully interpreted symbols on the map, distinguished between potential paths to completing the assignment, and can describe the reasons the group had for selecting the route it settled on.
To what extent do students have options or choices regarding these lesson components?
Students have significant autonomy with regard to which of the four roles they adopt for the activity, although for groups of four students, final say over role assignment is granted to the group’s administrator.
Reflection: Having had the opportunity to discuss this lesson with my peers, it seems that this lesson has the potential to achieve its goals. Conversely, while the lesson is serviceable and nicely connected to students’ prior work in the class, it isn’t especially exciting. Any feedback that could help add some energy to this lesson is welcome.
Photo: LIGHTmatter Photography by Aaron Logan http://www.lightmatter.net/albums/Italy/colosseum.jpg
Greetings. I designed the following lesson to get students to interact with the material from multiple angles. This always helped me as a learner. I hope you enjoy.
Content
In 3rd grade Language Arts kids learn about story sequencing, and this 2-day lesson will cover the proper usage of related vocabulary. Kids will learn words and phrases to help them communicate their thinking in a clear, ordered way, and will demonstrate their use in a couple of activities.
A focus will be placed on learning sequencing keywords such as “first, next, then, before, after, finally, etc.” Kids will be presented with choices of keyword patterns and be asked to use the option that fits what they’re trying to say. For example, “In the beginning, then, after that, In the end” might be appropriate for a story summary while “Step 1, step 2, step 3,” would apply more to directions such as for a recipe.
Finally (wink), students will work in groups to produce a poster, and together will present their artwork and thinking to the class.
Process
The lesson will play out as follows:
Day 1
Day 2
Product
Working as a group students will produce a work of art related to their unique story/recipe/account. The artwork must be thoughtful in the sense that it has a clear connection to the related writing. As 5-6 kids can’t all draw on the same piece of paper, they will be asked to delegate responsibilities for the project among themselves. Ideally, some kids will produce art while others prepare themselves for the presentation. Groups will present their posters together, and must discuss the reasoning behind their ordering of the story elements, highlighting the usage of sequencing keywords. They will also discuss their decoration choices and how they relate to their story/recipe/account.
Evaluation
Summative Assessments:
The group posters will be evaluated based on the thoughtfulness of the connection to the related material and for proper sequencing of the paper strips. The presentations will be judged on level of preparation, clarity of communication, and proper usage of sequencing concepts and vocabulary .
Formative Assessments:
Formative assessments will be generated from class discussions and by interacting with students while circulating during group-work time.
Reflection
I had an unfortunate experience as I delivered this particular lesson. Due to time constraints the lesson was compressed into a 1 hour session. This meant cutting the presentations, which meant cutting the main motivating factor behind this lesson, being the desire to impress one’s peers (or fear of looking stupid in front of them depending on your predilection).
At any rate, I found myself talking way to much in the early stages of this lesson. The vocabulary pre-loading followed by the reading of a story left me dehydrated and the kids ancy. There were some behavior issues and by the end I had two kids sitting in the back of the class, banished from storytime on the carpet. This diminished the fun of the lesson for all involved, and was a result of the boiling over of pent up energy. I needed a release valve built into the lesson to give these kids a productive outlet for their energy.
Finally (wink again), the whole day came to a screeching halt when there was a fire drill, ending the lesson with me talking about the examples on the overhead. More of me talking. I didn’t blame the kids for getting bored. Sequencing was then folded into the next lesson and my paper strips went entirely to waste.
I feel this lesson helped reveal more of the style of teacher I want to be by giving me an experience of the opposite. I learned I want to lead a more interactive classroom and build in opportunities for kids to teach each other. I learned that both the kids and I appreciate structured times to blow off steam. I learned I get bad breath when I’m dehydrated (from 2 different kids, ouch!). But in the end, I’m excited to try again.
Photo: A snippet of Sebastian C. Adams’ Synchronological Chart of Universal History