The Journey Begins

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