Resource Evaluation

The central resource for my unit is the text “Brother Can You Spare A Dime”, linked here is the resource evaluation I created earlier in the semester for this text. For this resource evaluation I calculated the readability, discussed text organization and structure, language and syntax and a variety of other factors that helped me to analyze whether this text would be appropriate for my unit. I also delved into pre, during and post reading strategies that could be used with the text.

Performance Criterion 7.1: Candidates plan instruction by drawing upon knowledge of content areas to meet rigorous learning goals.

Through completing a resource evaluation I am able to draw upon my own knowledge of the content area to see whether the text is appropriate for the unit I am planning. This in depth process allowed me to put more thought into what reading skills and strategies can be applied to this text as well as, allowing me to begin to think about methods of implementing this text in a meaningful manner.

When reading and using texts in history/social studies I think there are two prevailing factors the texts level of language complexity and content depth, both of which can lead to students “drowning” in the text.With regards to content depth, it’s very important to be sure the text your are supplying is not too broad or too specific.One of the great things about history is the amount of content you have availiable to draw from in the subject matter, but that also means as an educator you have to consider whether the text covers the appropiate amount of content for its intended use. Historical texts also vary greatly in language complexity, and there is definitely a wide breadth of texts in a wide variety of formats within the content area. There are many variables within language complexity as well, before thinking about supplying a text to a student a teacher in my content area must consider things such as authorship, style of source (primary, secondary, tertiary), readability, how accessible the text is to a modern reader and so on. The list of thing to consider with regards to language accessibility is far from scarce.

I think one of the biggest takeaways I’ve had from the use of resources in my own teaching segments and in my placements, is the value of structured note taking exercises and options for historical texts. By providing students with a structured note taking option/assignment allows students to know ahead of time what content to focus on in the text and what I expect them to gain as learners from the text. For students new or uncomfortable with note taking, structured note taking resources can really help students build note taking skills.

Back To Back Mini Lessons

There were a fair amount of materials and resources I used for my back to back mini lessons, so I will do my best to include all of them and my purpose for their use. First here is my lesson plan, my lessons were two twenty minute segments investigating the Great Depression. These first two lessons were an introduction to a larger unit about the Great Depression and understanding historical perspective. For both of these classes my main content resource was “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” by Milton Meltzer. The two lessons were shaped around preparing students to read the text and use the text to support their own faux narrative piece

To begin the unit in the first lesson, I started with a 3-2 pre-assessment, asking students to write three things they know/think they know and two questions they have about the Great Depression. I used this to help me understand the level of comfort and understanding students had with the historical period. Afterwards to hook students, I played a recording of Brother Can You Spare A Dime, which is a period song sharing the same namesake as our text and is based on the struggles of an average American man a year after the market crashed in 1929. Next in the lesson I created a nearpod presentation on a few key vocab terms, such as interest, stocks, shares ect. Through the course of the presentation I had all the students read the definitions aloud and then redefine them in their own words. At the end of the presentation students each took a fill in the blank quiz on nearpod to demonstrate their learning of the vocab words.

Between classes I had students read the first three chapters of our text, to check for reading I had students respond to a low stakes, one question reading quiz that asked students to list one of the six causes of the Great Depression outlined in the text. Afterwards we read a portion of the fourth chapter of the text and then culminated the lessons with a short performance assessment. Students responded to one of two prompts and used information from the text to create their own fictional narratives. At the end of the lesson after finishing the prompts, I handed out the unit final assessment to students.

Performance Criterion 3.1: Candidates design learning environments that support individual learning marked by active engagement.

If there was one thing I was really happy with after teaching my two lesson segments, was the level of engagement and participation. Granted, I was teaching my peers and not an actual 9th grade classroom, I still feel though that even though I may have rushed or included too much content in my unit I was able to create an engaging classroom experience. Between group reading strategies that allowed everyone to read and attempts at more creative forms of assessment and content presentation I feel as though the lessons I taught at some level required each student to actively participate in a meaningful manner. I feel as though within the field of history it is easy to slip into a focus solely on teaching and assessing content knowledge, that it can be difficult to reach levels of understanding and to create meaningful performance experiences. I feel as though I created an engaging environment by extending past an emphasis on content knowledge. I gave students opportunities to understand and relate more with the content and an opportunity to “do” the content per se, through a short narrative write.

From this experience with regards to this Performance Criteria, I believe my next step to creating learning environments that support individual learning is to avoid content overload. I think if I were to teach this unit in a classroom setting I would have had too much content for 9th graders. So in the future I believe that I should plan my lessons more loosely and consider that students may need more time to learn and understand concepts. For instance if students are having trouble with a vocab word in a lesson, have time set aside so I can provide a different way of instructing the content.

Performance Criterion 6.1: Candidates implement multiple methods of assessment to monitor learner progress to  inform instructional practice.

Through pre-assessment, formal and summative assessment I was able to reach this criteria in my mini lessons. My first assessment, the 3-2 prea-ssessment allowed me to actually reconsider the part of the focus of my unit. Through asking what students know and questions students had about the depression I was able to have a better understanding of what they already know and they want to learn in the content area. Later on I was able to use nearpod’s built in quiz feature to create a fill in the blank quiz to formatively assess vocab through selected response. Then the final assessment, a performance assessment journal prompt allowed for me to assess student understanding of historical perspective as well as providing a more creative form of assessment. I honestly felt the best part of my lesson was my assessment structures and uses throughout the lesson. With regards to creating assessments in general, I haven’t had much experience forming selected response questions, so in the future I plan to be sure to take some time to practice creating meaningful selected response questions.