MGED 3015 Commentary

1. Describe the lesson: This lesson was designed by me, and I was given the words from my supporting teacher, Mrs. Boling. I had the students group into pairs with a time limit of ten seconds because I did not want to waste time in class. Then I gave each group one of the vocabulary words. They had three to five minutes to write as many facts they could about their word. Then, I turned their attention to the Prezi I created for this lesson. I had the students tell me everything they knew before I we went over my definition. I also asked other students what they knew about the vocabulary word. Then I had the students read my definition out loud to the class. We did the same process with each of the words until all ten were covered. Then I asked if anybody had any questions, and I gave them their post assessment.

a. What grade/content: This was a sixth grade social studies classroom.b. Purpose of the lesson: This lesson was taught so that the students would get a first

glance at the vocabulary words they would learn during their European history standards/lessons. Then when Mrs. Boling went over them during class, the students would already know what the words were, so that she did not have to cover them. Academic language must be taught in order for the students to be overall better learners inside the classroom according to Zacarian (2013, p. 108). Therefore it is extremely important to include academic language in every classroom every day, so that the students are continuously being exposed to academic language.

2. Which standards/objectives inform this lesson: SS6H6 and SS6H7 were the standards where most of the vocabulary words were obtained from. Some of the words were not in the standards, but they are necessary to teach the students about European History.

3. Explain how this lesson helps your students make connections: It helped the students know what was coming in their social studies class. We also went over what the term “academic language” means before we started the lesson, so that helped the students make connections with other class’s academic language.

a. Connect to self: The students were able to identify what words they knew already, and identify what words they did not know previously before I taught the lesson.

b. Connect to contenti. This content: This lesson helped identify key terms the students are learning in

the future. It helps them to better understand European history. ii. Other content: Other than defining the term academic language, this lesson was

not interdisciplinary.c. Connect to the World: This lesson directly reflected on the World. Every term not only

affected European history, but every other Nation as well. Mrs. Boling always told her students the phrase “the sun never sets on the British Empire”. If the students grasped these concepts then they will do well in many history classes to come.

4. Describe what you know about the students and the learning challenges associated with this class: I honestly do not know a whole lot about the learning challenges associated with this classroom because I did my contextual factors on a different class in Otwell Middle School. I know we taught three classes that were higher functioning, and two classes that were on-track.

a. Explain the variety of needs in the class: Before we taught our lesson, we were told not to call on one particular student because they are disruptive to the class, and act as the “class clown”. There were no ELL learners to my knowledge or any kids who are in special education. One of the students was extremely smart, and knew more about the vocabulary words than I did. They were way above the other student’s level. Many of the advanced kids were extremely intelligent, and it showed in their knowledge of the vocabulary terms.

5. Describe the student’s prior learning as determined by your pre-assessment: At the beginning of the lesson, I asked the students if anybody knew any of the terms I wrote on the board. This was my pre-assessment. Most of the students did not raise their hands when I asked them that question. Therefore, I knew Mrs. Boling had chosen great words for me to teach the students.

a. Explain how your pre-assessment informed your choice of content vocabulary: I did not choose the vocabulary, but by the show of hands, it was determined that it was the perfect.

b. Explain how your pre-assessment informed you’re your choice of strategies: I mainly used the Multiple Intelligence Theory in my lesson. I appealed to students who are logic smart because I used a few different types in my lesson. For example I used linguistic intelligence because I had the students try and explain the vocabulary words for themselves first. I also used interpersonal intelligence because the students were paired together, and had to work together to determine what their word meant.

c. Explain how you helped the students learn vocabulary: I wanted the students to truly know the material they were learning, and therefore I allowed them to read off of the Prezi. This allowed the students to not only read it and physically see what the word meant, but hear it as well, and some students were able to read it out loud. Then I would ask a simple question while transitioning to the next word. For example I asked “What country did the Czar rule over?” after we talked about the Czar of Russia. This helped further the students understanding because there were given a question, and had to ask it.

6. Identify one example of Academic Language that you taught in this lesson: Prince Henry the Navigator.

a. Describe a key learning task from your lesson plan that introduced this word: The pair of students who had this term described as much information as they could use their textbook only if they had no idea. Then I gave other class members the chance to help them out and tell everything they knew.

b. Describe a key learning task from your lesson plan that allowed the students to practice this AL related term: I did not do this in my lesson.

c. Explain how you helped students learn syntax or discourse: When I asked the students short brief questions after I presented the term to them, I used discourse to help them understand. This allowed the students to answer out loud with the entire class before taking the quiz.

7. Describe the students learning (related to this lesson) as determined by your post-assessment. I present charts from my post-assessment showing students learned something. Most students

did well on this post-assessment. I had to throw question six out of my post-assessment because it was supposed to say after instead of before.

a. Explain how your post-assessment provides direct evidence of learning: It provides evidence because most of the students received a score of eighty or higher. Considering in the pre-assessment, most of the students did not know any of the words, this was a correct correlation to them learning something though my teaching.

b. Explain how your post-assessment will impact your future teaching in this classroom: I think this was a great opportunity given to me by Otwell and North Georgia. This was my first experience teaching in a real classroom. There are many “take-aways” from this experience. I know that teachers make mistakes because I had to throw out one of my questions because I messed up in writing it. I also learned that I should have done one more activity to further build their knowledge of the vocabulary terms. Overall, I thought this lesson went smoothly considering it was my first time teaching.