Alicia Hanson

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Video Analysis

The learning goals for this lesson were for students to visualize, identify, and

examine the differences in population and resource distribution. To begin the

lesson, the teacher gave her students arm bands with information about a particular

region of the world and engaged them in a class discussion about what their lives

might be like if they lived in that region. Areas of the world were mapped out on the

floor and the students used their armbands to identify where to stand on the

mapped areas. In this way the students could easily experience and visualize the

vast differences in population distribution and density. The teacher next began

handing out various amounts of candy and cookies to each region to represent food,

wealth, oil, and other resources. The teacher used guided questions to facilitate

discussion and critical thinking among her students and they really began to identify

the discrepancies among resource distribution in the various regions of the world.

The students began actively discussing these differences and making insightful

observations about things such as the level of waste some countries likely produce

because they have an excess of resources.

During the beginning of the lesson, the teacher’s employment of the

armbands full of information about different regions of the world hooked the

students’ attention and fostered immediate discussion. It was an effective way to

lead the students into the main simulation activity and the students were already

demonstrating critical thinking by postulating what their lives might be like based

 

on the evidence from their armbands. Creating a map on the floor of different world

regions and then further splitting those regions into urban, rural, and uninhabitable

areas was a really effective way of having the students visualize and understand

population distribution and density. The students demonstrated that they were

able to identify the differences, for example, by noting that Asia and Western Europe

were the most densely populated areas of the world. Distributing candy and cookies

as various resources such as food, oil, wealth, etc. was also an effective way for

students to visualize and grasp a more abstract concept. This was evident in the

way the students were able to identify and discuss t hat some regions didn’t receive

enough resources to support their entire populations while other regions got an

overabundance of resources, more than they needed. The teacher’s use of guided

questioning throughout each stage of the simulation was an efficient informal

progress monitoring assessment. The students were provided with several

opportunities to demonstrate their critical thinking and understanding of the

content through robust discussions.

Overall, the simulation appeared to achieve the learning goals of having the

students visualize, identify, and examine the differences in population and resource

distribution throughout the world. I thought that the teacher’s questions were

thought provoking, effectively moved the discussions forward, and encouraged

high-level thinking among her students. Having the students get up and move

around and participate in discussions clearly kept them all engaged in the material

and actively learning rather than passively receiving information. Some things I

think might be beneficial to add to this lesson would be a writing component and

 

some technology. I think having the students do a 1 – 2 page journal or essay on

what they learned from the simulation would provide the teacher with yet another

progress monitoring assessment, this time something formal that she could grade

and keep record of. It’s likely that not all of the students actively participated in the

discussions, so a writing component could be another way to make sure all students

demonstrate their mastery of the content. The new Common Core is all about

fostering literacy across all subjects, so having the students write a short essay as a

closure to this lesson would fall right in line with that. I also think that a technology

component would’ve been highly useful and effective for this lesson. I don’t know

when exactly this lesson was filmed, but if it was done in today’s classrooms I’m

sure the teacher could add some sort of interactive element using technology (like

maybe students taking a poll using Socrative via their smartphones) to provide even

more layers of progress monitoring assessment and student engagement.