Monday, March 27, 2017

Post Teaching Reflection







Instructional Decisions/Teaching (InTask Standard # 9):

Discuss the implementation process and describe what went well and what didn't go well during the implementation of your lesson?
The implementation of my lesson was a little bit rocky. The problems I had with my lesson didn’t lie within the lesson itself. Ultimately, I was very nervous and I’m always a bit shaky when doing a lesson. My execution of the lesson was way off. I was reading from the slides and I showed a lot more media from YouTube than I had anticipated. This made the lesson go really slowly and caused the students to zone out. What went well with my lesson was my ability to come back and finish my lesson strong. I felt that my artifacts were really solid and that the activities that I had planned for my students went a lot better than my actual lesson part. It was cool to see my students doing their own research and finding out about the Civil Rights Movement.     

How well was the alignment to objectives and standards maintained?
It was maintained fairly well. The objectives were met by my students and the standards were definitely maintained within my lesson. I kept my lesson on track and strived to make all of my content relevant to student learning.

Describe any modifications made during the implementation of the lesson?
Because of times issues I had to cut one of my activities off from the lesson. I was ok with that although, it would have been cool to be able to get both of my activities in the lesson.

Mechanics:

What technologies did I use (for the teacher and the learner)?
For the teaching aspect of my lesson I used a smartboard and I used google slides to help implement my lesson. I was also able to use YouTube to introduce videos on the Civil Rights Movement. The students used a Venn diagram to compare and contrast similarities and differences between the Black Lives Matter movement and the Civil Rights movement.

How were the technologies used (by whom and in what manner)?
The technologies were utilized in various ways. I used YouTube to help students learn about the Civil Rights Movement and I used The Venn Diagram to help students compare and contrast differences and similarities between Black Lives Matter and the Civil Rights Movement. I also had various websites available for students to explore. These websites contained information on the Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement.

My lesson was within the correct time frame

It was short because… My lesson was about 4 minutes short. It was short because I didn’t use my time well. I definitely was nervous and therefore I rushed my lesson plan and didn’t give students an authentic learning experience.  

It was too long because…
The lesson was within the correct time frame because...

Assessment of Learning (InTask Standard # 6): Refer to Assessing Student Learning

Include at least 2 digital artifacts that demonstrate what you or your students (peers) have created as a result of your lesson

Describe your students' level of success in achieving the standards and objectives for your lesson based on your assessment
My student success in achieving the standards and objectives set by myself was pretty good. I believe that they were able to create an artifact that accurately displayed their knowledge of the content area. I believe that the information that was conveyed in this lesson met the objectives set by myself.

Describe the level of success you had in teaching the lesson
I wouldn’t say I had a lot of success in the way I executed the lesson. However, I do believe that my students did learn more about these movements through the use of technology and media. What I failed to achieve was displayed through my use of technology and artifacts.   

How do your individual reflections support this?
I saw the survey that my students took and it came as no surprise to me that my body language and the way I executed the lesson was way off. Most of the comments said that I was “reading from the slides” and that I “didn’t know the content I was teaching” this was fairly accurate. I knew about the content that I was teaching but, the way that I taught it was not a good reflection of how well I knew my content.     

How do the comments from your classmates support this?
As you can read above, the comments from my students were very hard truths. They really let me know where I needed to improve upon. This will hopefully make me a better teacher in the future.

What did you learn from designing and teaching this lesson and how will you use this in the creation of future lessons/learning activities?
I learned that there is no such thing as a perfect lesson. I learned that everyone makes mistakes, everyone has off days. Designing and teaching a lesson is hard work and requires a lot of patience and durability.




Monday, March 6, 2017

Technology Lesson

History in perspective: Exploring Martin Luther King Jr.

Grade level: 5th grade

This activity is designed to engage 5th grade students in a research project that integrates a variety of technology and tools

Time Allotment: This lesson was originally based on a unit plan however, I have taken the lesson on Dr. King and have applied it to this assignment. This lesson would probably take a 40 minutes to an hour depending on how fast students work.  

AZCCRS: 5th grade social studies

Performance Objectives:

The student will be able to:

1. Use the following to interpret and create historical data:

a. timelines – B.C.E. and B.C.; C.E. and A.D.

b. graphs, tables, charts, and maps

c. Create and understand how to use a Venn diagram for historical events (e.g. The Civil Rights Movement). Venn Diagram will be used to compare and contrast events about The Civil Rights Movement and the Black Lives Matter Movement.

2. Construct timelines of the historical era being studied (e.g., presidents, civil rights movement, key events and people).

Lesson Implementation

Mini lecture

“Martin Luther King was born on January 15th, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a Baptist minister and his mother was a highly respected schoolteacher. His parents originally named him Michael, after his father. But later his father changed both of their names to Martin Luther, after the German religious reformer (Lambert 1993). As a child, Martin enjoyed singing, riding his bicycle, playing football and baseball, and reading. He spent many hours at his fathers’ church, listening to him preach, and singing in the choir. He was a very good student and he skipped grades in elementary school and in high school” (Adler 1986).

“Martin learned about discrimination first hand at a very young age. When he was five years old he often played baseball with the white sons of a nearby grocer. One day, when he went to ask the boys to play, their mother told him that her sons could not play with him ever again because he was black. Martin was deeply hurt (Adler 1986). When Martin was fourteen and in the eleventh grade, he entered a speaking contest in Dublin, Georgia, sponsored by the Negro Elks Society. His speech won first place. However, on the bus ride home, Martin was forced to give up his black section seat to a white person. He stood up for the ninety mile trip home” (Lambert 1993).

“Martin wanted to keep up the family tradition, so he decided to become a minister. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 and then went to Crozer Seminary to become a minister. It was at Crozer that Martin learned about Gandhi. Gandhi was an important leader in India. To get the British rulers of India to leave his country, Gandhi had the people protest non-violently. Martin was very impressed with Gandhi and he would later follow Gandhi's example of non-violent protests” (Sorensen 1994).

Show students a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. explain that Dr. King worked for civil rights, the basic rights and freedoms of citizens.

Online Journal and Media

History in perspective: Students will watch the first section of the “I Have a Dream” speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. After they watch this, they will log onto their computers and make a video journal discussing their initial thoughts and reactions to the speech. Students will also watch live footage of police brutality in Birmingham, Alabama. After the video students will discuss their thoughts and feelings in a video journal. In the journal students will answer the following questions “If you were asked to give a public speech in Washington, DC about what is needed today for a better America, what would you say? What is your “dream”? Compare the civil rights movement with the “black lives matter movement” today. Is there any similarities is there any differences?  How would you convince others to follow your dream?” Share as a class if time allows.

Tasks

After this students will start building a time-line. Students will reference important dates during the civil rights movement. Examples include: Martin Luther King Jr. Speech, Rosa Parks sitting in the front of the bus, Birmingham Alabama march, etc.

Students will start building a Venn Diagram comparing some similarities and differences between the civil rights movement (1954-1968) and what is happening in our world today e.g. “black lives matter” movement
 
Class Discussion
Once the timeline and presentation are completed, the class will meet together to share and discuss their thoughts and come to some conclusions about the civil rights movement. During the class discussion, each student will be encouraged to share any change in their personal ideas about the civil rights movement because of the findings presented.

Formative Assessment

Students will split up into groups of 3 and make a quick online Google slide presentation. They will use ideas and research from the internet to compare and contrast the civil rights movement to current events happening with “black lives matter” they will highlight key features of current events today and from the civil rights movement. Students will then use this information to make informed decisions on whether or not these movements are positive or negative. Or how they are effecting our world today.

Summative Assessment

The Individual Report: Once everyone has had a chance to share their ideas about the Martin Luther King Jr. And the Civil Rights movement, students will have the opportunity to write a final report about Civil Rights. This report can be done in one of the following ways: Students can write a book using iAuthor, students can create a google slide presentation or students can use iMovie to generate a powerful movie. 

Students will create their own individual report that includes the following elements:

·       The report must be generated using some technology publishing tool (i.e. Word, PowerPoint, Prezi, iMovie, iAuthor, other as ok’d by the teacher)

·       The report must include a Venn diagram that accurately compares the civil rights movement (1954-1968) to some of the issues of racism we see in America today.  

·       The report must answer the following questions:

Who is Martin Luther King Jr. and why is he important?

 Why do you think the civil rights movement was an important piece of history? 

What do you think the civil rights movement was trying to accomplish?

What did you learn about civil rights and civil liberties?

Do you think there is a connection between the issues of race today and the issues of race during the civil rights movement? Why do you believe this? What evidence do you have to support this?


MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

Students will need several tools to research, gather, organize, and publish your findings. 
·       Research tools, such as a web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer) and an Internet Search Engine (i.e. Google) to gather information, images, sounds, video and perhaps other media to help you answer the research questions.
·       Writing and multimedia presenting tools, to share your team’s findings (i.e. tools for the PC like; MS-Word, Google slides and Movie Maker.
·       Organizing tools, (i.e. MS-Excel, Open Office Calc, or iWorks Numbers) to list and organize your information in a way that it is easy to find.
·       Multimedia tools, such as image, audio, and or video editing to help create new media or edit some of the media you’ve collected during your research.  You may even want to produce a movie of your Ancient Structure. (i.e. Adobe Photoshop, LView Pro, or Audacity).
·       Timeline Tool: http://timeline.knightlab.com/


Media
                              






Bibliography

Lambert, K.K. (1993). Martin Luther King, Jr. :Civil Rights Leader. New York: Chelsea House Publishers.

Adler, D. (1986). Martin Luther King, Jr. :Free at Last. New York: Holiday House.

Sorensen, L. (1994). Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Vero Beach, FL: The Rourke Press, Inc.
































                                          
                                          
                               
Criteria
Approaches
Meets
Exceeds
Read and construct simple timelines
The report included a timeline that was mostly accurate and included some of the important facts about the Civil Rights movement
The report included a timeline that was well constructed and included most of the facts about the Civil Rights movement.
The report included a timeline that was well constructed and included all of the facts about the Civil Rights movement.
Use knowledge, facts and concepts drawn from history to create a Venn Diagram about the civil rights movement
The students provided a good Venn diagram that identified similarities and differences between The Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The students provided a compelling Venn Diagram that accurately identified similarities and differences between The Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement. 
The students provided a detailed and accurate Venn Diagram that identified similarities and differences between The Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement. 
Compare and contrast different events happening in different eras of history.
The report provided some evidence on why the Civil Rights movement was important in influencing the “Black Lives Matter” movement of today.   
The report provided plenty of evidence on why the Civil Rights movement was important in influencing the “Black Lives Matter” movement of today.    
The report provided all of the evidence on why the Civil Rights movement was important in influencing the “Black Lives Matter” movement of today.