Field Experience -- Assignment 3B

            As noted in the prior posting, I taught my lesson to a group of 7 students made up of two 8^th graders, their parents, and my wife.  The lesson centered on the American political parties in existence at the time of the ratification of the Constitution and the media from that era.  The culminating assignment was for the students to draft a newspaper article documenting the events from that period and addressing the viewpoints of the two parties.

            The pre-assessment consisted of a Power-Point presentation with information about the two political parties (Federalists and Democrat-Republicans) and their core tenets.  Before showing each slide I would pose a quick question to the class asking them about a particular aspect of the upcoming slide (i.e. what were some of the central beliefs of a Federalist?).  This allowed me to gauge the amount of prior knowledge my class had about some of the concepts we would be discussing.  Plus, I found that it served to engage the class in the lesson as they were active participants instead of merely sitting idly by as I droned on and on.

            Next, I showed the class an article from a newspaper from that era.  We briefly examined the structure of the article and how the author provided vital information within the first paragraph explaining the key information to the reader.  I used the article as a means to have the class analyze it and answer questions I posed to them.

            I organized the class into pairs and provided them with key events from that period that required analysis based on the dueling viewpoints of the political parties (e.g. the National Bank).  The purpose of pairing the class up was so that each student could represent a side in the debate.  They would research the topic and then each of them would draft their portions of the article to demonstrate their side’s argument for or against the issue.  The students would combine their findings into a single article that addressed both viewpoints.

            After the students had had enough time to draft their articles, we reconvened and I had a member from each group read aloud their article.  I would stop the reading periodically to have the class discuss why each side would be for or against the particular issue.  At the end of class, I had each group turn in their articles, which is how the lesson would be graded.

            In terms of assessment, I was able to keep an eye on the class for the entirety of the lesson.  During the pre-assessment section, I asked several questions of the class to determine the amount of prior knowledge they had about the subject.  I circulated through the room during their time drafting the article to ensure they were understanding the concepts of what was being taught.  During the class discussion at the end of class, I assessed their understanding of the concepts as applied to various issues from that time.  Finally, the submission of their articles would serve as the means to grade their understanding of the material.

            Most notably, I learned how invaluable the pre-assessment phase in the lesson is.  This stage sets everything up and can ensure that the information provided is something they can understand.  By providing a thorough pre-assessment presentation, the students (all of whom had no real background with this information) could understand what was expected of them for the day and what they needed to learn.

            Based on the importance of the pre-assessment, what I would change is how I imparted the information to the students.  In this particular instance, I felt I needed to provide a history lesson to my class due to the fact they were sitting in on a one-time class with no background knowledge of the material.  What I would hope to do with a real class would be to have the pre-assessment focus on more student led discussion.  I feel that such collaboration amongst peers, both with the entire class and in smaller groups or pairs, can create a more engaging learning environment and experience for the students.

What I enjoyed the most from this experience was the discussion with the students.  It felt amazing to have them be engaged in the material and to be answering questions with well thought out answers.  I could see it in their eyes as they gave answers to questions that they were enjoying themselves.  Even more, I loved seeing them think through the questions and provide answers that they discovered on their own.  It was truly exhilarating to have them respond to the material and to the manner in which it was delivered to them.

Field Experience -- Assignment 3A

For this assignment, I used a mixture of two 8th Grade students, my wife (a kindergarten teacher) and the parents of the two students for a class size of 7 people.  I began the lesson by explaining the purpose of the lesson as well as the assignment that they would be completing.  As my “students” came from many different backgrounds, I figured it would be best to provide a bit more historical background for the lesson. 

            For my pre-assessment I prepared a Power-Point presentation with additional information about the political parties in existence at the time of the ratification of the Constitution.  During this presentation I tried to ask questions of the class as a means to gauge their level of understanding and knowledge of the subject matter, but for the most part I was lecturing off of the PowerPoint.  I also provided a clipping from a newspaper article from that time era.  We will discuss the contents of the article as well as some of the political aspects that it documents (notably the  

            The class responded well to the pre-assessment activities.  They listened intently to the power-point presentation, raised interesting questions about the material, and provided thoughtful answers to questions posed to them.  The extensive information provided to them at the outset served to show them what was expected from them for this lesson.

            In order to ensure that my rubric was a fair measure for the students, I focused on how the two 8^th graders were performing during the pre-assessment.  They were quite engaged in the material and answered my questions with well-reasoned responses.  The difficulty lies in the fact they are top students in their class, so they do not represent the majority of students I will encounter as a teacher.  Thus, the expectations in my rubric may be too difficult for many students to attain when compared to these two students.  Still, based on these two students, I would not alter my rubric.  They were able to easily follow the lesson and what would be expected of them to complete the assignment.

            By providing my class with a thorough pre-assessment introduction that provided them with a lot of information, it made the remainder of the lesson easy for them.  I had given them all the background information needed in order to complete the assignments and to understand what was expected of them in the class.  I provided an information dump that they fortunately were able to process and understand.

            I found that my lesson, especially in the pre-assessment phase, was spent mainly lecturing and providing information to the students.  I did this intentionally as I did not know what information the students would be bringing to this particular class, which would affect their ability to complete the work.  I tried to incorporate questions to the class in order to assess what they knew of the material and how well they were understanding the lesson.   Still, due to the disparate backgrounds of the students, I felt I had to provide more information than I ordinarily would.

            In essence, this provides an example of how important bridging is in moving from one lesson to the next.  In a normal class, I would be providing a bridge from the previous day’s material to today’s material, and the information in today’s class would be built upon the prior day’s knowledge foundation.  If I have done a good job laying the foundation in previous classes, then the bridging can serve as a supplement to that prior lesson.  Instead, as shown by what I had to do in this particular class, if they do not have that foundational knowledge, a great deal of time must be spent providing that information.

            What I would certainly change in a regular class would be to provide a more student led lesson as opposed to having me lecture for so much of the pre-assessment period.  I would prefer to determine what they already know through a question and answer session and have them spell out what they hope to learn from the lesson.  In the end we can look back upon what they hoped to learn with what they actually learned as a means to reinforce the information provided to them during the lesson.  Such strategies would keep the students more engaged in the lesson while also reinforcing the material learned previously.