Month: March 2019

This week I enjoyed the opportunity to practice lesson planning and discuss lesson planning with peers. It is very valuable for me to have time to discuss with others how they approach their teacher-in-training lesson planning (Ex: how long does it take, where do they begin, which portions of the lesson plan do they struggle with the most, what are some “go-to” activities they like to use in their lesson plans, what types of formative assessments do they like to use). We didn’t have sufficient time to get to all of these questions during the class, but it was really nice to share ideas with one another. For me, I have trouble quickly rewriting an example lesson plan on the spot into the UR lesson plan format as though I was making it my own. For me, it would be helpful to be able to do this type of exercise as a homework assignment and then come back to class prepared to discuss my results in small groups. I liked the opportunity to work on the assessment project independently, and I would love to see how my results compared with others. I think this “make this lesson your own” activity could work very well in the same manner – if we each think about it individually and then come back together to discuss.

I am not sure that I communicated it very well in our last class, but what I was trying to say with my closing comment is that I think the reason that you don’t provide us with “ideal” lesson plans is that we need to figure out how to create a lesson plan on our own first and then compare what we have done to a model lesson plan. Although it would be great to have some sample lesson plans, I think that it wouldn’t fully teach us how to make the additional lesson plans that we need to create. For example, if we have a great sample lesson plan on the Civil Rights Movement, it is not going to help us to create a lesson for photosynthesis, for biomes, or even for another social studies topic because we will need to know a variety of ways to teach the material and assess students’ progress. It’s not just a copy and paste exercise. I really struggle with lesson planning and it takes me way longer than it should, but I do find value in the productive struggle, and I think this practice will help me once I need to write real lesson plans for my future teaching job. I would, however, love to hear helpful tips about how teachers learn to do this process more efficiently.

Finally, I enjoyed the review of children’s literature and the helpful resources that were shared. I think it will take practice to make sure that we are providing our students with materials that are free of bias, but I think I learned some great strategies that will be helpful as I begin to establish a classroom library.

I am excited about how the next four weeks of classes are structured. I like the pairing of the group presentations on books for a particular time period with examples of possible instruction choices to cover that time period. I really enjoyed literature circles and the Depression era book selections, so I am excited to hear the other presentations to learn more about potentially using those books in the classroom.

The close look at the Jamestown map exercise was interesting. It is useful to practice doing the same exercises that we will ask our students to do. I would definitely use this type of activity with my students. I think many students will find maps to be interesting. My children have always loved reading maps from Busch Gardens or Kings Dominion, and I think students will enjoy time to work in groups to discuss what they notice and wonder about maps that are new to them. I could even introduce the activity by asking students about what types of maps they’ve used previously, if any, and why they used them. It does make the map much more meaningful once you consider the purpose and the intended audience, especially when the students have time to decide what those might be based on their background knowledge and what they see. I love the notion of comparing and contrasting the past map to the present map and discussing what must have been important to the users in both instances and discussing how we come to those conclusions (what support we have). I think this activity allows students to think critically, logically, and analytically while they are also learning the required social studies standards.

I am curious about going to the Jamestown Archaearium. I had never previously heard of it, and it would be interesting to see the collection of the Colonial period American Indian artifacts. I think I will try to plan a trip with my own children this spring or summer. It is great also to know that they are familiar with Blood on the River and will incorporate relevant details into a planned school tour. Do you have a list of some of the field trip locations that you mentioned potentially having teachers visit the next time you teach this course? If you have a list of these places or at least a few of them, I would love to check them out. Sadly, I feel like I don’t know our history as well as I should, so I am trying to relearn as well as learn new information as much as I can before I begin teaching.

I am still a little confused on which grade levels the following SOL standards (Va Studies, US 1, US II, etc.) are covered in different VA schools. Is there a way to know which localities cover which standards each year? Is this on each local school divisions website? Otherwise, I think the class is going well. I am just continuing to build up my comfort level with the subject matter and with taking some risks as I build my lesson plans and learning and growing from my mistakes as I make them.

 

The Document-based Question presentation demonstrating how this type of assessment and experience can be applied with a Kindergarten classroom was very valuable. I learned a lot from listening to both teachers share experiences from their first year trying out this technique. The step-by-step photographs of local students presented made it easier to imagine how I could apply this technique in my own classroom. It was great to hear genuine stories from the teachers about what they and their students thought about the experience. It was also helpful to see some of the end products (drawings, writings, oral statements) created by the students. My initial reaction prior to the presentation would have been to think that this type of instruction and assessment might be too complex for the Kindergarten grade level. However, after seeing a first-hand account of how this can be done, I understand how DBQ can be used in a primary classroom. Also, I understand how this experience could provide the students with a much deeper understanding of the content they are learning. I love how the teachers activated the students’ background knowledge at the start of the lesson by taking time to learn about what students know about Thanksgiving, and I also love how they incorporated the required standards about past and present into this lesson. I think students would love the movement and interaction that this type of experience provided. It was almost like an in-house field trip with the gallery walk of images set up in various school hallways. I love the tip that the teachers shared about managing students’ behavior by teaching the students that when they go to a museum they must be quiet and polite and respect the works that they are examining.  Rather than feeling like strict rules for the students, I imagine this explanation of what was expected of the students probably added to the excitement by making it feel like a special experience.