Gold Rush Lesson Reflection

I really enjoyed teaching my Gold Rush lesson to the class. I was confident and felt it went smoothly. I used technology in my lesson, with myself using a PowerPoint and the students using links from our blog, and I was happy there were no hick-ups or errors. Everyone was able to access what they needed. Students seemed interested in the topic and engaged in what they were learning about. I enjoyed hearing the conversation amongst students discussing what they just read. I believe I accomplished my goal, being that students would learn how the Gold Rush affected the lives of other population groups. I feel like it was not too complicated and students understood the content well.

If I could do it again, I would assign students a single link to read, then put them into groups where they can educate and share with their peers what they learned. While I did not feel that each individual link was too long, I can see how reading all three in one sitting can accumulate to a lot, and real middle-schoolers would probably zone-out, take a very long time to read it all, etc.
Also, if I was doing this with an actual class of middle-schoolers, I would have had them take notes, or perhaps even provide them with some sort of graphic organizer, to help guide their reading.

Inspired by our previous class sessions, I enjoyed creating this lesson. I am proud to see an improvement in the way I construct lessons; if you asked me four weeks ago to do this assignment, it would have been quite a disappointment. Overall, I am pleased with how my lesson went and the positive and constructive feedback I received.