Friday, November 9, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
What did I learn?
I learned several things throughout the creation and
implementation of this unit that I feel will greatly benefit me in the future
as I grow and develop as an educator. The first thing that I learned is that
collaboration with other teachers in your field of teaching is one over the
best ways to develop and grow your professional abilities. Through
collaboration teachers are able to see new ideas and strategies that would have
never found on their own. Just as there are so many different styles of
learning there are many different styles of teaching and it is important as
teachers that we learn from our colleagues so that we can develop a more
diverse style of teaching. The next thing that I learned from thing unit was
that it is our job as teachers to realize and understand that all students
learn differently. Just because we learn in a certain way does not mean that
our students should learn the same. I feel that many teachers including myself
teach in the way is easiest for them and expect their students to accommodate
to that teachers style of teaching. However I believe that it is the teacher’s
job not to teach in the way that is easy for them but to teach in a way that reaches
all students and their individual learning needs. This is not an easy task to
accomplish. The last and most important thing that I learned from this unit was
that if you are conscious of the fact that the students need differentiated
instruction and set goals to implement lessons to reach the different learning
styles in your class you may never fully accomplish a perfectly diverse style
of teaching, but you will greatly improve the success that your students have
in your classroom.
How did the students do?
Throughout this unit I really tried to be conscious of how
the students were doing and how engaged they were in the different lessons. I
assumed that all of the students would be engaged in at least one of the three
lessons, depending on what their individual learning styles were. To my
surprise it seemed that all of the students were engaged in all of the three of
the different lessons. I also saw that
there was an increase in class participation and quality of worked that was
turned in. the students took a quiz on the Unit after the first more
traditional lesson and did pretty well with an average of a 87% in my advance
classes, a 81% in my general class, and a 84% in my inclusion classes. The test on this unit because of how it fell
time wise was included on the end of the 9 weeks exam, which was a cumulative
exam. On the exam the students rarely missed any of the question on the types of governements.
Quiz
Exam
Exam Adv
"Be a Rebel" Lesson Plan
Lesson Plan 3
Teacher: Reynolds Unit: Types of Gov’t Date: Oct. 11-30, 2012
Be a Rebel
Description of Lesson
|
In this lesson students will be writing a persuasive
paper about a form of government that they would like to overthrow and why
they would want to overthrow that type of government. The students will have
to also choose a type of government that they would like to put in place of
the government that they are going to overthrow. This lesson will be done in collaboration
with the English teachers. Grading on this project will be done by both the
Social Studies teacher and English teacher. The grade will be based on a 100
point scale where 50 percent of grade comes from content of the paper (graded
by Social Studies) and 50 present of the grade comes from paper format and
grammar (graded by English). Through this lesson students will learn how to
research and write a paper. The students will also further their knowledge of
the different forms of government.
|
Design
Qualities of Context
|
Evidence
|
Design
Qualities of Choice
|
Evidence
|
Content
and Substance
|
ALCOS #
2
CCRS-
W.7.1
CCRS-
W.7.2
CCRS-
W.7.5
|
Affirmation
|
Students will be able to enter essays into a
Writing Contest at school.
|
Student
Friendly Objective
|
* I learned how to
write a persuasive essay.
*I understand the
positives and negatives of the different forms of government.
* I can compare and
contrast different types of government and decide what type of government
will best suit my needs and the values that are important to me.
|
||
Essential
Questions
|
·
What are the different types of government?
·
What are pros and cons of different forms
of government?
·
What forms of government do you like the
best? Why?
·
Why do
we have Government?
|
||
Product
Focus
|
“Be a Rebel” Paper
|
Choice
|
Students will choose the types of
governments that they would like to use in there paper.
Students will be able to use any of a
variety of resources to write their paper.
|
Organization
of Knowledge
|
Students fill out a graphic organizer that
will help them follow along through the activity as well as help them create
their constitution at the end of the lesson.
|
Affiliation
|
Students will have a chance to present their
papers to the class.
|
Clear
and Compelling Product Standards
|
Be a Rebel graphic organizer
|
Novelty
and Variety
|
|
Protection
from Adverse Consequences
|
-Ability to make choices on what they write
about.
- graphic organizer provide to help students
outline their papers
|
Authenticity
|
“Be a Rebel”
|
Purposeful
Optional Homework
|
·
Advance
students will research and cite 4 good sources.
·
General
students will research find 3 sources.
(will cite them in class)
·
Inclusion
students will read sources found in class, take notes on and, highlight
key elements that they can use in their papers.
·
All
students
Types of Government review game:
|
||
Differentiation
|
All
students
·
Will have a choice in the forms of
governments that they write about.
Inclusion
students
·
More structure outline to follow.
·
Help finding sources in class. (less sources
required)
·
Help citing and annotating sources in class.
General
Students
·
Only
three sources cited and annotated required.
·
Structure
outline
Advanced
students
·
Five annotated and cited sources required.
·
Less structured outline.
|
||
"Shipwrecked" Lesson Plan
Lesson Plan 2
Teacher: Reynolds Unit:
Types of Gov’t and Influences Date:
Oct. 8 - 10, 2012
Shipwrecked
Description of Lesson
|
Shipwrecked is a three day activity to help the
students learn about the different forms of Governments that exists in the world.
This activity allows students to research the different forms of government
and develop their own government with their own rights and laws. In this
activity students will be placed into groups of 4 or 5. The groups are then
told that they have been shipwrecked on an island and there is no ways they
will be able leave their Island. They are also told that they must form their
own government on the island in order to survive. The students are sitting on
table cloths that represent the island that they are stranded on. To assist
the students in this process the teacher will guide the students through a
series of 8 different steps called “days”.
Through each of the 8 days students will have different challenges or
task to complete. The students will fill out a graphic organizer to help them
keep track of the different task and challenges. All These steps are labeled
as days on the shipwrecked power point and the shipwrecked graphic organizer.
|
Design
Qualities of Context
|
Evidence
|
Design
Qualities of Choice
|
Evidence
|
Content
and Substance
|
ALCOS #
2
|
Affirmation
|
Students will be able to share their type of
government that they created with the rest of the class.
|
Student
Friendly Objective
|
* I learned that it was
not easy to write the Constitution and that is took compromise.
*I learned that people
have many different opinions and this is a reason why we have so many
different types of Governments.
*I understand the
different forms of government.
* I can use my
knowledge of different types of gov’t to create my own.
|
||
Essential
Questions
|
·
What are the different types of government?
·
Why do we have our type of government?
·
What are pros and cons of different forms
of government?
·
Why do
we have Government?
|
||
Product
Focus
|
Completed
Graphic Organizers
Reflections
Peer
review sheets
Scamper
activity (advanced only)
|
Choice
|
Choice is needed in every aspect of
Shipwrecked!
|
Organization
of Knowledge
|
Students fill out a graphic organizer that
will help them follow along through the activity as well as help them create
their constitution at the end of the lesson.
|
Affiliation
|
Working with others in Shipwrecked!
|
Clear
and Compelling Product Standards
|
Rubric for Shipwrecked
|
Novelty
and Variety
|
Shipwrecked!
|
Protection
from Adverse Consequences
|
-Ability to make many choices
-Group work in Shipwrecked!
|
Authenticity
|
Shipwrecked!
|
Purposeful
Optional Homework
|
Types of
Government review game:
|
||
Differentiation
|
·
Students will have choices to make about
every part of the Shipwrecked activity.
·
Shipwrecked address multiple styles of
learning.
·
Logical-mathematical- Students
will need to use critical thinking to decide what type of government they
will be creating and how to deal with certain challenges that they will face.
·
Spatial- Students
will create maps of island & Graphic organizers.
·
Linguistic- Students
will be able to talk with other students and write down their thoughts throughout
this activity.
·
Bodily-kinesthetic- Students
will be out of seats on islands and will be able to move around while working
·
Musical- Students
will learn an Theme Song for this activity
·
Interpersonal-
students will be working with their group members and will have to make compromises
in order to establish a working government.
·
Intrapersonal-
Students will need to help the group reach compromises.
·
Naturalistic- Students
will have to think about what it takes to survive on their island and
students will have to create physical maps of their island.
|
||
"Who Rules?" Lesson plan
Lesson Plans 1
Teacher: Reynolds Unit:
Types of Gov’t and Influences Date:
Oct. 1 - 4, 2012
Who Rules?
|
Description of Lesson
|
This lesson will take 4 days and will be divided
into 2 parts. The purpose of this lesson is to educate the students on the
different forms of government and why different countries use different
forms. This lesson is a more traditional style of lesson. In this lesson
students will: listen to the teacher
lecture, take notes, have classroom discussions, and complete an individual
handout activity. The first part of
this lesson consists of a power point lecture with guided notes and the
second part will consist of a handout activity that will assist and assess
the information obtained in the power point lectures.
Handout activity- http://icivics-icivicsinc.netdna-ssl.com/sites/default/files/uploads/Who%20Rules.pdf
|
|
Design
Qualities of Context
|
Evidence
|
Design
Qualities of Choice
|
Evidence
|
|
Content
and Substance
|
ALCOS #
2
|
Affirmation
|
Completed Who Rules Handout
|
|
Student
Friendly Objective
|
*I can identify the
different forms of government.
*I understand the
different forms of government.
* I can use my
knowledge of different types of gov’t to create my own.
|
||
|
Essential
Questions
|
·
What are the different types of government?
·
Why do we have our type of government?
·
What are pros and cons of different forms
of government?
·
Why do
we have Government?
|
||
|
Product
Focus
|
Completed
Notes
Who
Rules Handout
|
Choice
|
N/A
|
|
Organization
of Knowledge
|
Guided Notes
Handout
|
Affiliation
|
Discuss with other students
|
|
Clear
and Compelling Product Standards
|
Completion of Handouts and Guided Notes
|
Novelty
and Variety
|
N/A
|
|
Protection
from Adverse Consequences
|
Guided Notes
|
Authenticity
|
Who
Rules
|
|
Purposeful
Optional Homework
|
Finish
classwork if not finished
|
||
|
Differentiation
|
Inclusion students- Fill in blank Notes,
work with partners on handout
General Students- Fill in blank Notes
Advanced Students- Less structured note
taking guide
|
||
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