Today I taught in front of an entire classroom of students
for the first time with my classmate, Nicole! I experienced a whole range of
feelings. I was extremely nervous for the challenge, but I was also super
excited to begin what I want to do for the rest of my life. My unit plan
started with a direct instruction lesson teaching the events of the American
Revolution. To get the students’ attention at the start of the lesson, I did a
warm-up of pictures of the causes of the American Revolution that Kelli had
taught the week before. I think pictures are a fun way to display information
when testing prior knowledge. If I had more time on the activation of prior
knowledge, I might have done a think-pair-share activity with the students.
This activity would take about ten minutes or so to complete. I would give the
students a worksheet and have them independently think and write as many of the
causes of the American Revolution as they could remember. Then, the students
would pair up and share their individual thoughts. Every student would be able
to see which causes they may have forgotten. The partners would choose one
cause to share with the class. Different pairs would share a cause someone
didn’t already say until most were stated. This is a way for students to see
what they remember individually as well as put their ideas altogether to recall
the information.
This picture represents the slide I used to activate prior
knowledge with the students.
I felt that in order to get through
the material in the class period and be able to practice learning with the
students, fill-in-the-blank notes were a good option. Also, this allowed for
the students to be able to listen to me explain the material as well as look at
the pictures on the slides. Throughout the lesson, stop signs were inserted on
slides with a few questions to check for students understanding of the
material. This also was a quick way to make sure the students were paying
attention and comprehending the information being taught. I learned that it is
important to make sure everyone agrees with a student’s answer. I had a
tendency to call on a student and only receive an answer from him or her. For
my next two lessons, I will have all of the students raise their hand if they
agree or keep there hand down if they disagree with a classmates answer.
I am gradually releasing the responsibility of the material
onto the students throughout this lesson. After all of the information has been
taught, it is time for guided practice or we do. The first activity was
interactive on the SMART Board including a timeline with dates from 1775 to
1783 typed and several different events typed at the top. Different students
volunteered to come up to the board and drag the event to its corresponding
year. As I mentioned in my first blog, I find the SMART Board very engaging for
students. I had at least ten volunteers raise their hand each time because they
wanted to use the board. As stated, “…other
students can stay engaged by chorally calling out vocabulary or steps, helping
the student through "phone-a-friend" or by assisting each other,
writing down information, making predictions, discussing with partners, etc”
(Herrmann 2014). The other students were available to be phoned for assistance
when a volunteer did not know the answer. I engaged the other students by
having everyone put their thumbs up if they agreed with the student’s choice
before he or she dragged it over. The second activity was similar to the first.
This was a matching game on the SMART Board that included people, vocabulary
terms, battles, documents, and other events. Students would volunteer to come
up and draw a line connecting the term with its description. The other students
would respond in the same way. Below shows one slide of the matching game that
the students completed.
The third guided practice activity was called “Who Am I?”
Every student was given images and names of significant leaders in the American
Revolution. I would say a clue and the students would have to think of what
person matched the clue given for about thirty seconds independently. I would
have the students hold up the person and name on the count of three. I did not
have students hold up the person when they knew the answer because I wanted
everyone to have an equal amount of time to figure out the answer. Also, I did
not want students looking at the person someone else held up and just holding
it up. I would then ask, “Who am I?” and the students would chorally say the
name of the person. The students really liked this activity, which was a good
feeling to have them practice the material in a way that is enjoyable. The only
problem I encountered was that the students would talk to their peers sitting
around them and discuss what they thought the answer was. I tried to redirect
them multiple times to tell them that it should be quiet and everyone should be
working on their own. Do you have any suggestions for how to get the students
to be quiet during the activity?
I wanted the students to think about all the material they
learned and write down three things they learned, two things they found
interesting, and one question they still have about the American Revolution to
close the lesson. As many students as we could fit in the time left shared
facts they learned and found interesting. For the questions students still had,
other students would try to answer to help clarify information or think of possible
answers to the question if it wasn’t taught in the lesson. As I wrote in my
third blog, ninety percent of students retain information teaching others. It
was nice to see a student answering another student’s question because it will
help them remember the information learned.
The idea of
the independent practice was the same as the warm-up in the beginning of the
lesson, except in writing form. The students were given events, people, and
documents that occurred in the American Revolution. The students had to
describe the scene, what the person was known for, or what the document was
written for in a few detailed sentences next to each picture. I liked this
activity because it was based on exactly what was learned in class. Also, the
pictures were on the PowerPoint slides. The students just had to recall the
information learned.
I took on my first challenge, I am ready for more!
~ Christine Brown
Works Cited:
Herrmann, E. (2014, February 12). The importance of guided
practice in the classroom. Multibriefs:
Exclusive. Retrieved February 28, 2015, from http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/the-importance-of-guided-practice-in-the-classroom
