Category: Student Posts

 

The Lesson Study assignment was useful in the development of  a potential lesson plan.  My lesson study was about the reasons the American colonies were able to defeat the British Army in the American Revolution.  I was going to do this by having a series of “tug-of-war” games with different caveats thrown in to represent different factors in the American Revolution.  Through this the students will be able to gain knowledge of how the American Revolution in a more concrete way.

I had some concerns about the idea and wanted to come up with ways to modify it to make it better.  There were some concerns about the separating of the kids between “bigger kids” and “smaller kids”.  And it’s true, no matter how you try to split up the teams, you have to have a team that will win easily for the simulation to work.  I have thought about other ways to simulate this possibly by having the kids create some kind of replication but I haven’t thought of a good replacement yet.  Another concern was about the participation of the White team (France).  While it would be very easy to have me and my CT participate in the instruction and take over the role as the French, I do think it’s important to note the French’s role in the simulation and the fact that they were closely following the war.  I’m just not sure how to fully incorporate that yet.

 

Overall, I thought it was a good experience.  I got some good advice for my own lesson and got good ideas from my partners.    It seems we all have the goal to make learning more interactive, engaging, more fun, and more meaningful.

 

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

This past week’s lesson study prompted some interesting and insightful dialogue in class with my colleagues regarding our prospective lesson plans in our respective student teaching placements. It quickly became obvious that though we share a singular passion for social studies, many of us have found ourselves teaching subjects and curriculum well outside our expertise and experience. Such is teaching.

I chose to focus my efforts on a human geography class I’ll be teaching at some point in my spring placement. My lesson plan revolved around evaluation and analysis of the agricultural revolution and its far reaching, though by no means worldwide, effects. Given the interest of my cooperating teacher and I in a cooperative learning environment, students would be broken into small groups and asked to evaluate the social, dietary, and environmental effects of an agricultural society compared to a nomadic one. They would have to support their evaluations with documents (pictures, video, and research articles) and then present their findings to the classroom. The students would engage in higher level thinking, critiquing a mode of life to which they’ve become more than accustomed, and comparing it to a lifestyle that’s all but extinct in the developed world.

 lesson study was incredibly helpful when it came to simply putting my thoughts to paper in a more free-flowing manner of writing. The lesson plan format can often hamstring the loftier ideas one might wish to convey in the classroom; the lesson study helped to bear such goals in mind while focusing my efforts on the stringent requirements of a traditional lesson plan. It acted as the necessary intermediary between pedagogy and applicability. Discussion with my peers allowed for constructive criticism of our lesson plans. I, for one, would alter my lesson plan significantly after hearing the input of others. Having to vocalize and justify my lesson to my peers helped me realize that my plan was not easily explicable. If I could not explain it to a group of fellow educators, how might I explain it to a group of skeptical high school students?

 There seems to be a legitimate effort on the part of myself and my peers to make lessons as engaging, interactive, and educative as possible. Few, if any, stuck to the traditional formula of lecture and assessment. Student-centered lesson planning on the part of prospective teachers portends a positive evolution of the educational system. Our work has just begun in the college classroom. The real difficulty lies in our success at applying what we’ve learned to a room full of learners.

By: Tom Malone

Through this lesson study, I saw my thought process through the perspective of other people. After explaining my lesson’s content, objective, and process, I found major gaps because peer feedback provided angles that I previously overlooked.

I hope other students found this concept useful. I’m sure I noticed aspects of my partner’s lesson plan that he didn’t originally see. From this multi-perspective lens of a single lesson plan, I was able to better approach my lesson’s effectiveness.

I gleaned ideas from other students’ lesson plans as well. By pairing with classmates with like-minded units and strategies, I found ways to apply their ideas to my lesson’s situation.

During the large class discussion, I grasped one concept in particular: what is the objective that I want my students to reach? What is the point of a lesson if the end result doesn’t reflect a learning goal?

I enjoyed the varied teaching approaches that the class took. Some focused on a lecture approach, while some wanted to utilize a student-centered activity.

While the concise explanation of an individual lesson seemed difficult for some, I think this speaks to our excitement as educators to implement our lesson creativity in the classroom.

In short, this activity worked. I was able to see lesson brainstorming from kindred subjects, yet from different perspectives. Some ideas don’t fit my style, while others will enhance my vision as I advance as an educator.

During the early stages of learning a new skill or piece of information, I always like to take in as many views as possible. I recognize my mind has certain tendencies and limitations that might prevent me from understanding something fully, and what might be obvious for one person might never cross my mind. That’s why the lesson plan study we took part in was so beneficial. Listening to how others approached lesson planning helped to fill in some of the gaps I had. By reconciling my approach with those of my class mates, I gained a more holistic perspective.