Reflecting Assessment Lesson #2

Assessment of Learning 

     

The above artifacts are representing the student's progress over the course of the hour long lesson. The pieces of lined paper are what the students observed from the photo presentation that was projected onto the smartboard at the beginning of the lesson. The students were asked to write down the types of things that they observed while looking at each photo. These photos consisted of two from the civil war era and the modern day war era. The videos are the student's IMovie's about their life as a civil war soldier. Each student was instructed to create a movie that explains the daily life that they would live as a soldier from that time period. This movie had to contain morning, afternoon and evening events that they researched throughout the reading of letters. Both of my students achieved the standards and objectives extremely well. However, one of my student's was able to complete the entire project using all three parts while the other one completed only the morning and the afternoon pieces. I think that outside of the using of IMovie, that I succeeded in implementing this lesson really well. Overall, my students thought that the lesson went really well. The only thing they wish had been different is the explaining of the IMovie and how it works. I think that if we had had more time within this lesson that touching on the basics of how to work IMovie would have been beneficial to the learning and success of my students. 

Reflecting Materials for Lesson #2

Mechanics: 

     The technologies that were used in my lesson were the smartboard, personal computers and IMovie. The teacher used the smartboard and the students used the personal computers with IMovie. The presentation with the pictures for the anticipatory set was projected up on the smartboard which is where we discussed the things that the student's observed in each picture. However, students were asked to use their personal computers to research various letters from the civil war soldiers and use those to create their IMovies. This lesson was too long because the students had not had a lot of previous experiences with IMovie prior to this activity which made it more difficult to complete the requirements of the activity in time. As a group, we spent a lot of time trying to figure out how IMovie works and then adding our content into it. 

Reflecting on Instructional Designs Lesson #2

Instructional Decisions/Teaching 

     In the implementation of my lesson there was a lot that went well but there are several things that I can improve on for next time. My students were really engaged during the lesson and they seemed to like playing with the IMovie. However, my students told me that they would have liked to have more prior experiences with the IMovie before having the opportunity to use it for their creative artifact. I think that the alignment of the objectives and the standards were maintained well throughout the lesson. This lesson  was a lot more academic than the last one. During this lesson, for the sake of time I decided to scratch the idea of the venn diagram out and instead just allow the students to talk about the things that they observed within the four pictures. I am glad that I decided to cut that out of this one because both students had a problem finishing the creative assessment.

Materials and Resources

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES (4th Post)

In this section include any examples you have created for the students, resources (software, weblinks, books, crafting items, etc.) and other necessary items

Ken Burns' Civil War youtube videos 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN2huQB-DmE

http://www.civilwararchive.com/LETTERS/elliott.htm

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/letters-to-new-york/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Assessment

ASSESSMENT (3rd Post)

Procedure:
     Informal Assessments will be done through teacher observations during the lesson. The teacher will walk around the classroom to check for understanding while the students are writing down their observations as well as when they are creating their own IMovie renditions of the Day In The Life Of A Soldier.
     Formal Assessments will be done through the use of the student's IMovies. Students IMovies will be graded on a rubric that has been created by the teacher.
The rubric is as follows: (5 points for each section included)
     Name
     Sequencing (beginning, middle and end of the day)
     Items used that are appropriate for that time frame
     Photos or illustrations
     Descriptions for each moment of the day

Reflect on:

Planning Assessment (InTask Standard # 6):
     The assessments that are being used align with the standards of this lesson because it shows that the students have given thought to the different types of items that were used in the civil war by soldiers. It also proves to the teacher that the students have learned  to sequence events and take information from primary sources to create something of their own. All of the standards help the students to achieve the objective by demonstrating their knowledge. The assessment allows children to demonstrate their understanding of how events are sequenced throughout the day and how to use reading as a way to gain information that can be transferred to another assignment. Students are engaged in higher order thinking skills through the use of synthesizing the information and understanding. Each student's individual needs were met through the various modes of instruction and means of expression. The assessment demonstrates this by allowing the rubric to be adjusted to fit the needs of the child. Using this rubric the teacher can allow for more or less detail of the sequencing and descriptions. The students could be given the opportunity of discussing the photos/illustrations rather than through writing. 

Lesson Plan #2 A Day In The Life Of A Soldier During The Civil War

OVERVIEW 

Grade Level: 5th grade

Subject(s): Social Studies 

Topic of Study: Civil War 

Time Allotment: 60 minutes

Standards:

5.PO 4 Locate information using both primary and secondary sources. 

5.RL.3 Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact). 
5.RL. 9 Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics. 

Objectives: Students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of the day-to-day life of a soldier in the Civil War. 

Reflect on:

Assessing Prior Knowledge: 

     Students need to have basic knowledge about war and soldiers in the century that they live in. They need to understand why people are sent off as soldiers and some basic things that they have. They need to know what an IMovie is and the basics about how to use the features associated with it. Prior knowledge will be assessed through the anticipatory set. I will use the discussion at the beginning of the lesson about the pictures that are projected up onto the screen to observe the experience and knowledge that my students have before this lesson. I will probably teach a mini lesson about IMovies and how to make your own using the basic features before beginning this lesson. This way, my students are coming in with the exposure needed to complete the activity. Depending on their prior experiences with the discussion of today's soldiers and the wars going on in our world I might have to extensively go into a lesson about today's life of a soldier before I have them talk about those from the civil war.

Planning Instruction:
     The content of this lesson should be taught at this grade level because students are old enough to grasp tough topics with an understanding that may be unclear at an earlier age. I feel like at this age the students will have had enough experience through their life to have basic knowledge of the concepts that will be talked about. From an academic stand point, the standards for language arts fit with the historical concepts and themes behind this lesson.

This lesson will be taught in the second or third quarter of the school year depending on where the student's are at with their reading ability, and writing. The standards that I am using are geared to be taught towards the beginning of the school year. However, I believe that lessons should be aligned with the student's abilities regardless of when the standard is supposed to be taught. Which is why I thought that a majority if not all of my students will be prepared to complete this lesson's objectives and standards successfully by the second or third quarter. The objective is broad enough to include the standards that I have picked. Through the standards, the students are demonstrating their knowledge of the events that take place during the day to day life of a soldier from the civil war.

Implementation of Lesson #2: What Will This Look Like?

IMPLEMENTATION (2nd Post)

Procedure:

• Students will walk into the classroom and be instructed to sit down at their seats and pull out a sheet of paper with a writing utensil. 
• The teacher will ask the students to take a look at some pictures that are going to be projected onto the screen and write down any thoughts or comments about what they are seeing. 
• Students will be given approximately 10 minutes to view four pictures (two from the civil war period and two from the modern era) and jot down some observations. 
• From there, the teacher will lead the class in a whole-group discussion about what was observed when looking at the pictures. 
• This discussion will help the teacher to start designing a class Venn-diagram about the similarities and differences between the two time periods. 
• Once this discussion has concluded, the class will move onto the next activity.
• The teacher will hand out some letters that were written by soldiers who fought in the civil war. 
• The class will read this letter as a group and make a list about what the time period was like back then, the kinds of outfits that were worn, food they ate, how they stayed dry, things that they took with them etc. (This list will be used as a reference sheet when the children are making their IMovies about what their life would be like if they were a soldier in that time period.) 
• Teacher will direct the students back to their individual computers and explain the next activity. 
• Students will be instructed to open up IMovie and begin to create a movie version of a comic strip based off of what their daily life would be like if they were a soldier in the civil war era. 
• Teacher will walk around providing assistance and giving each child a score guide (rubric) of what they will be graded on within regards to their IMovie. 
• At the end of the period, teacher will collect the IMovies and keep them to use for assessment. If the students finish before the time is over then students will be asked to present their IMovie and lead the class in another discussion about the similarities and differences between their peer's movie versus the time period. 

Technology Integration:
     The technologies that will be used in this lesson are a master computer, projector and a screen for the teacher to use to project the pictures of the two time eras. For the Venn Diagram we will be using the smartboard to construct our interactive class comparison. The other piece of technology will be the IMovie which will be created using individual computers. Students will be using the computers to create their IMovies.
     

Differentiated Instruction: Describe how you will differentiate the instruction for each of the following:

• Cognitive delay- For students with an intellectual disability the instruction of this lesson will be more scaffolded to assist in helping the students with misunderstandings. Students will be given prompts on the observations to make should they require this for the beginning of the lesson. The teacher will make accommodations depending on the student's needs but overall, the students will be provided with a more scaffolded version of this lesson. However, the expectations will not be lowered for the completion of the assessment but they will be modified to fit the student. 
• Gifted- For students who are gifted in intelligence the lesson will be modified to challenge the students. These modifications include having the students evaluate how their life as a soldier during the civil war would be different depending on where they are from, what kind of families they are from and how their lives would be different if they fought for the other side. 
• ELL- For students who are secondary English language learners the lesson will be modified to allow for understanding to happen without a huge language barrier. The teacher will modify the language to avoid bias and help each child to achieve to their best ability. The students can be partnered with strong readers to make the reading portion easier so that the child can focus on the topic. 

Reflect on:
Designing Instruction (InTask Standards 7 and 8):

I am using the instructional methods that I have described because they are what is best for every child. My lesson allows the children to reflect and analyze things that are seen through observation. It allows for the students to work together as a class to communicate their thoughts and ideas. The most important thing about why I am using these methods is because it allows for each student to be engaged and creatively respond to the learning through various means of expression. From my methods classes I have learned that students need to be engaged in their learning and they need to be given guidelines of what the teacher is expecting from them. The teacher will get better results if they allow the children to know what it is they are looking for. I am engaging my students in creative and higher order thinking skills throughout the lesson in multiple ways. First of all, the students are being asked to take the pictures that they are viewing and analyze what the time period was like. Through the creation of their IMovie they will have to synthesize the information that was discussed during the lesson to come up with their version of a day in the life of. The integration of technology in this lesson will help to provide a way for the content to reach every child in a way that makes sense to them. It allows children the opportunity to interact with the content through different means of expression.