Standard 1.2 Effective & Knowledgeable Teacher: Candidates implement the principles of effective teaching and learning that contribute to an active, inquiry-based approach to learning.
“Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.” -Chinese Proverb. When students are actively involved with their learning it leads to a deeper understanding. I had the opportunity to collaborate with a fourth grade teacher to revitalize a social studies unit on Native American cultures. When I approached Donna with the idea of collaborating, she immediately shared her concerns regarding her student’s note taking strategies and how she disliked teaching the unit on primary and secondary sources.
Since integration across subject areas is a huge push at our school, we decided to incorporate the areas of writing and social studies. Donna was very eager to have someone besides her typical team members to plan with. The artifact selected is one lesson based on a ten-day collaborative unit plan. The goal was to design an introductory lesson that would engage students while they learned about Maryland’s diverse Native American cultures. The conclusion of this meeting resulted in a project where our students would use note-taking strategies to create a time capsule artifact from the 1600s. The time capsule would contain both primary and secondary sources. Students would need to decide, will their source be a primary artifact created by someone who traveled to the New World, or a secondary artifact that was created in England by someone who never traveled to the New World? The time capsule turned a rote lesson on note-taking into a memorable project that would lead the students towards authentic inquiry-based learning during this unit.
In order to engage the students, I planned to read a storybook titled, Letters to the Tooth Fairy. I chose this book because all students can relate to loosing teeth and it would get them to start thinking about how letters are a personal account of an experience. To get the students moving around, they would be asked to do a blind-sort of various resources. This blind-sort would require students to think critically about the connection between the resources. This sort would also be a means of pre-testing students on their current knowledge of primary and secondary sources. After giving more guidelines as to how I would like the resources sorted, students would talk with their peers to re-sort the materials. This lesson would be introduced during the students’ media class. Donna particularly liked the idea that the students would already have the prior knowledge needed so that she could get right into teaching. This discovery-based learning would help give students an understanding of the similarities and differences between primary and secondary sources.
To foster the inquiry process further, I feel a need to break this lesson down into two parts. My concern would be the students’ retention of information during a single lesson plan. I would schedule an additional media block for the students to come back later in the week. This additional media time would give Donna and me an opportunity to co-teach.
The most rewarding aspect of this experience was seeing Donna become so excited about collaborating. We felt that the creation of a time capsule made the lesson a stimulating, inquiry-based approach to teaching by making the experience authentic. If Donna and I were excited to teach together, then our students would likely share that same enthusiasm and become further motivated in creating an artifact that would reflect student’s new learning of that time period.
Since integration across subject areas is a huge push at our school, we decided to incorporate the areas of writing and social studies. Donna was very eager to have someone besides her typical team members to plan with. The artifact selected is one lesson based on a ten-day collaborative unit plan. The goal was to design an introductory lesson that would engage students while they learned about Maryland’s diverse Native American cultures. The conclusion of this meeting resulted in a project where our students would use note-taking strategies to create a time capsule artifact from the 1600s. The time capsule would contain both primary and secondary sources. Students would need to decide, will their source be a primary artifact created by someone who traveled to the New World, or a secondary artifact that was created in England by someone who never traveled to the New World? The time capsule turned a rote lesson on note-taking into a memorable project that would lead the students towards authentic inquiry-based learning during this unit.
In order to engage the students, I planned to read a storybook titled, Letters to the Tooth Fairy. I chose this book because all students can relate to loosing teeth and it would get them to start thinking about how letters are a personal account of an experience. To get the students moving around, they would be asked to do a blind-sort of various resources. This blind-sort would require students to think critically about the connection between the resources. This sort would also be a means of pre-testing students on their current knowledge of primary and secondary sources. After giving more guidelines as to how I would like the resources sorted, students would talk with their peers to re-sort the materials. This lesson would be introduced during the students’ media class. Donna particularly liked the idea that the students would already have the prior knowledge needed so that she could get right into teaching. This discovery-based learning would help give students an understanding of the similarities and differences between primary and secondary sources.
To foster the inquiry process further, I feel a need to break this lesson down into two parts. My concern would be the students’ retention of information during a single lesson plan. I would schedule an additional media block for the students to come back later in the week. This additional media time would give Donna and me an opportunity to co-teach.
The most rewarding aspect of this experience was seeing Donna become so excited about collaborating. We felt that the creation of a time capsule made the lesson a stimulating, inquiry-based approach to teaching by making the experience authentic. If Donna and I were excited to teach together, then our students would likely share that same enthusiasm and become further motivated in creating an artifact that would reflect student’s new learning of that time period.