Joe Buffa
4/3/13
CEP 800 – Lesson Reflection
Disclaimer – I apologize for the length of this reflection, but
I chose to create two lessons for my module 5 project and so I am trying to
summarize both of them which has proven to take a little more writing than this
assignment calls for!
Question Set One
What was learned? –
For my
lesson plan project I actually submitted two lessons for my US HST course that
I teach to 9th graders (spanning 4 hours because I am on block
scheduling). The reason that I did this is because the first lesson on the
Holocaust led into the next class discussion on the dropping of the Atomic
Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In addition, as a connection to how WWII still
directly impacts the world we live in today, I had students read about the
creation of Israel. That reading set us up for another day worth of discussion
revolving around the aftermath of WWII, the start of the Cold War, and why
Israel is such a contentious area today. On the front end students learned the
basics of these events, what happened, when, where, and some statistics. The
core of these lessons though was to dissect the “why” and to challenge them to
think beyond just the traditional timeline approach of history.
What were the learning goals? –
- What happened during the
Holocaust?
- How could the Holocaust have
happened?
- Where do we see aspects of the
Holocaust in U.S. HST?
- Should the U.S. have
dropped the atomic bombs on Japan?
- Why
was Israel created?
What were underlying assumptions? –
The intent was to expose students to opposing ideas about
the Holocaust and Atomic bombs that challenged students' previous assumptions
about both topics, forcing them to consider WWII in a different way. Students
tend to see both topics in black and white/right and wrong. The challenge was
to show them additional aspects of human nature for the Holocaust and opposing
theories on why the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs on Japan. The additional goal
was for these lessons to also help them become more open minded to what side
they might choose for their persuasive essays regarding the atomic bombs.
What are the affordances? –
To back
track, in these lessons I used a few pieces of technology including: Blackboard
(learning management system), video clips (posted on Blackboard), computers
(for composing persuasive essay), Powerpoint (covered more basic information on
Holocaust), and a Document Camera (for students to share work). Blackboard in
particular allowed me to effectively flip my classroom for these two lessons.
In the past I have lectured on the Holocaust and Atomic Bombs. By posting the Holocaust
lecture on Blackboard, it gave me the extra class time to explore these topics
from a different angle.
What are the constraints? –
Time still
is the enemy in these lessons. In order to piece things together effectively,
there were a number of primary source readings that we attempted to jigsaw.
Ultimately what happened is the Milgram Shock and Stanford Prison clips that we
were going to watch in class were viewed at home and followed up with as a
warm-up discussion before getting into the Atomic Bomb discussion. In addition,
I did have a few students who kept getting error messages from Blackboard
saying that they could not open some of the files (this has been an
on-again/off-again problem with our Blackboard system throughout the school
year). Therefore, I had several students emailing me asking me to send them the
files directly.
What learning theories were
considered/implemented? –
· Marzano (different teaching techniques being used in one
class… change things up. Audio/imagery from video clips &
imagery/information with the Powerpoint)
o
In addition to those ideas listed
above, after teaching the lessons I realized that simply having students move
into groups for the reading activities changed things up slightly enough that
students continued to stay engaged.
· Social Constructivist (allowing for small group work &
group discussion)
o
After teaching the lessons, this
definitely took place and was a focal point over the course of the two class
periods. What also took place though was that after each group presented their
summaries of their readings, students would ask the groups additional questions
because they became interested in what others had read.
· Behaviorism (providing immediate feedback after discussion
& writing prompt)
o
Upon teaching the Atomic Bomb
lesson, something that was implicit became explicit that I think falls under
Behaviorism concepts. The readings students did in class that day were
purposefully written as persuasive/argumentative writing pieces. I decided that
I should make this painfully clear to students instead of waiting for the
“ah-ha” moment, so that when they began writing their own essays in class, they
would have several models to look at.
· Embodiment Model (allowing opportunities for more active
learning)
o
Nothing really changed here.
What was the intention behind the lessons in
accordance with existing curriculum? –
In US HST
I have always covered WWII (Holocaust and Atomic Bombs included). These lessons
really were designed to enhance something that I have always taught that is
central to US HST curriculum.
How are important differences among learners
taken into account? –
I have learners in my classroom who are not fast/strong
readers. Therefore, I allowed students to read and discuss the articles on the
Holocaust and Atomic Bombs in small groups. I chose those groups and made sure
to try to put students in groups that they could succeed in without simply
becoming followers. Also, by posting everything on Blackboard, it allowed
students to not only look back but also look ahead for the upcoming materials.
What do teachers and learners need to know in
order for your lesson to be a success? –
As a
teacher, I had to be familiar with Blackboard, the basic concepts of the
Holocaust and Atomic Bombs, the readings that I was sharing with my students,
and potential struggles that students might have with those readings.
As
students, really they simply had to be familiar with how to use Blackboard and
how to write a persuasive essay (which I already knew they could do from talking
with their English teacher).
How did you assess what students were doing
and what they were learning from this activity? How did you hold them
accountable for the work they did? –
· Holocaust Lesson
· Group reports on their
Holocaust topics (5 pt assignment – 1 pt/question addressed)
o
How
does this topic relate to the Holocaust?
o
Which
events or features that comprise their topic are the most important ones?
o
What
does it illustrate about human potential for good or evil?
o
What
other questions do you have about the topic?
o
What
lessons can we learn from it today?
· After viewing the
Milgram and Zimbardo clips at home, respond to the following Writing Prompt:
According to Milgram & Zimbardo, under what conditions might normal
well-adjusted citizens be capable of committing harm towards others? How do
these experiments help us better understand events like the Holocaust? Where do
we see aspects of what occurred during the Holocaust in U.S. HST? (6 pt
assignment – due next class – will discuss)
· Review the Holocaust PPT
posted on BB & take “sum-it-up” notes (right column = summary of each
section read; left column = your opinion, a visual, or a question you have –
will discuss next class)
·
Atomic
Bomb Lesson
o
In
pairs, students read the 4 Atomic Bomb arguments and created a short outline of
each argument, highlighting the main points. Each pair was then asked to
contribute insight into each argument as part of the whole group discussion
that followed. (5 pt. participation assignment)
o
Atomic
Bomb Persuasive Essay (25 pt assignment)
o
Read
the “Creation of the State of Israel” located in the Supplemental Materials (Unit 6).
o
As
they read students make notes on the left side of the page “In the Text.” Then, have students read the article a second
time, reflecting on what they are thinking and recording it on the right side
of the page “In my Head.” (6 pts assignment due next class – will discuss)
Question
Set Two
What role does technology play in your lesson?
What advantages or disadvantages does the technology hold for this role? What
unique contribution does the technology make in facilitating learning?
As I stated in my actual lesson plan, I believe the
technologies I used were necessary to help me reach my goals for each lesson in
a timely fashion.
I then went on to give the following rationale:
· Blackboard allows me to post everything we do in class
online for students to review or look ahead (I actually already have some
students working on drafts for the Atomic Bomb essays even though they will not
be assigned until Wednesday).
· The video clips help give further insight into each topic
(Holocaust and Atomic bombs) for the students that help them consider each one
more in depth.
· Allowing students to create their essay using a
computer/word processor allows students to create a better essay (ex.
organization, spell check, etc.)
After teaching these lessons, I still maintain that these
technologies help up and aided me in reaching my goals. That said, there were
some disadvantages. Several students were unable to access files on Blackboard
from home because the system was not working properly. Also, I did have several
students who did not go home and watch the videos they were instructed to
watch, so they never fully understood some of the intended insight into human
nature (which showed up on their tests the following week). Finally, although Word
is a great writing tool, it still does not correct every mistake students make.
Using that as a backdrop, some of their essays were… bad…
What did you expect your students to make of their
use of technology in your lesson? How did they react when using the
technologies? What questions did students have, and how did you respond to
them?
I think
that for the purpose of this question I will focus again on the use of Word for
the construction of their essays since I have already addressed issues that
arose with Blackboard, and the use of the Document Camera really was a
nonissue.
Students
of course tend to not like it when they are assigned a writing assignment
(especially in a non-English/Writing course), but they were happy that they
were allowed to use computers/Word to construct their essays. The biggest
questions were not revolved around how to use Word (as I expected), but more so
on how to construct their essays and how to do some additional research. Those
questions were relatively easy to answer (I used the readings done in class as
prime examples of persuasive essays and reminded them how to conduct more
scholarly searches on the internet – which we have focused on all year). There
still are major issues though with students using Word as a crutch with their
writing. In general, I see students typing their papers and never re-reading
what they wrote. The only corrections that get made are if Word underlines
something (…yes I am guilty of this too…). So despite giving them the
opportunity to construct their essays on a computer, giving them time in/out of
class, and providing them examples of essays related to the topic of their
assignment, I still had a number of poorly completed writing pieces.
How would you describe how students were
making sense of the content with the technology?
Through
responses from the writing prompt and class discussion regarding the two
psychological experiments, I could tell that students understood the
purpose/conclusions of the tests and were in fact able to connect it to one of
our focus questions, “how could the Holocaust have happened?” Therefore, I
think the technology aided in their understanding. I believe the same could be
said for the Powerpoint on the Holocaust that they took notes on. Students
could give me some of the basic ideas behind it, and then wanted to talk about
some of the images as well. Further, a few days later I brought in artifacts my
grandfather brought back from the war. In one of the pictures there was a train
car behind the soldiers and immediately students raised their hand and pointed
out that there was a Star of David on it. Without any prompting they concluded
that in all likelihood it had been used to transport Jews to the concentration
camps (in the Powerpoint there was a picture of a railcar). For the essay, the
majority of students were able to create a well-organized essay using Word, in
which they presented their argument for or against the use of Atomic weapons
during WWII, and backed their argument with research facts.
A brief description of your lesson plan,
noting any changes you made since your original draft in Module 5.
In
general, over the course of two days students worked together to read different
takes on the Holocaust and Atomic Bombs during WWII. They had time to discuss
in small groups and as a whole class. They watched video clips regarding the
two concepts that were meant to challenge their original thoughts on these
topics. They then had to create an independent persuasive essay arguing for or
against the use of Atomic Bombs during WWII.
I mention
the changes in more detail in question set one, but the two changes were that I
had students view the psychological experiments at home because of timing
issues (thus we had to dedicate a little time the following day to debrief),
and that I explicitly made it known that the atomic bomb arguments they were
reading in class were models for how their essays should be formulated.
A brief narrative of your implementation of
the lesson. Who were the students and how did everything go?
These
lessons were given to my two 9th grade US HST classes. Overall they
went very well. Students for the most part were engaged, and there was valuable
group discussions that took place. I began each lesson quickly by asking
students to share what they knew about the Holocaust (day 1) and the Atomic
Bombs (day 2). From there the lessons played out as they were described in my
lesson plans (aside from the two changes notes above). Students had strong
reactions to the topics covered in both days. During our Holocaust discussion
students had trouble understanding how the U.S. could know about what was
happening in the concentration camps as early as 1941 but not really do
anything directly about it until 1944. They also had a hard time wrapping their
heads around the Milgram Shock and Stanford Prison Experiments. They understood
the studies and what they were saying, they just had a hard time stomaching the
influential power of authority. On day 2 the highlight was the “Duck and Cover”
video. A few days prior we had a long discussion about propaganda and how it
was used in WWII along with its features. When we watched the video they had
lots of comments and it really geared them up for their essays (this was the
intended purpose). So overall, the in-class experience was wonderful, however,
I still had similar issues with several students not completing the homework
assignments (I address this a little bit below).
The
assessment pieces that students were graded on were actually higher than
expected. The reason I say this is because as I have been transitioning from a
traditional, direct instruction mentality, to a more interactive/flipped
mentality, I have noticed some growing pains for both my students and myself.
The writing prompt piece regarding the two psychological experiments had an
average grade of 4.5/6 (it would have been higher, but I had several students
turn it in late/not turn it in at all). Further, the average persuasive essay
grade was a 18/25 (again would have been higher but had several students turn
it in late/not turn it in at all). Finally, the more telling piece is what they
got on the WWII test at the end of this unit. The average score for the
constructed response test (there were 12 questions) was a 17.5/23. I was still
happy with this average again because there was no multiple choice for students
to be able to guess the right answer and that average is well above passing
even when factoring in the lowest scores (it is important to note that the
students who performed worst on the test also did not do well on the writing
prompt, the essay, and never turned in their Holocaust notes from the
Powerpoint). Therefore, I still need to
continue to find ways to get students to do their homework. Next year I might
try to spread these lessons over the course of another day just to give
students a little more time to work/digest and potentially give me the opportunity
to cover some more things in class so that they are doing the psychological
experiment prompt in class (as originally intended) and therefore I will know
for sure that at least they understand that concept.
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