* In the lesson I teach at my PDS, I hope to teach "responsively" by… (make reference to topic of your lesson and concepts from chapter 6).
* In the lesson I teach at my PDS, I hope to teach for (deeper) understanding by … (make reference to topic of your lesson and concepts from chapter 7).
In my lesson, I am planning to be a responsive instructor by allowing them to choose their own topic for the assignment I will give, making it possible for them to choose the topic of most interest to them. I also would like to encourage writing in my assignment so I plan to do a RAFT assignment, a strategy recently discussed in the seminar. The students will be able to choose their own event that affected the formation of the U.S. Government, and write a mock Facebook invitation asking a certain group to attend the event.
The lesson will encourage deep understanding by forcing the students to ask questions such as: Why do I want people to attend this event? What is important to know about this event? The point of using the Facebook idea for this assignment is that it allows the students to apply the events of the past to a setting they are familiar with and ultimately increase understanding. The students will then respond to each others' events as a critique to their events.
Looking back on this idea and after a little research, I now realize that the event invitation portion of my idea is very difficult to implement. I never intended to allow students to use Facebook for the assignment, but rather an online template not connected to the site. Unfortunately, finding this type of document has been impossible, so I am now changing my plans.
Is there a different way or medium I can use to carry out the original plans for my lesson, or would a simple writing assignment be more suitable? Will the RAFT writing technique be appropriate for a seventh grade class?
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I can't answer your questions about a different medium to use in your assignment, but I do like your idea of relating a lesson to something that is very familiar and popular with students. Anytime they can see a relationship to their "real" world, the more involved they will be. Even if you have to do a regular writing assignment, you could ask the students to pretend that they are "facebooking" with friends. But I do hope someone can answer your technology questions, because this sound like a great lesson.
ReplyDeleteSara,
ReplyDeleteIt was very interesting to read about your lesson plan. I think it is an excellent idea to connect the content of a lesson to the students’ lives. I think that your class will be receptive to technology and media with which they are familiar. My recommendation for the facebook group template would be to simply create your own "template" on Microsoft Word. Go online to facebook and copy/paste the question headings. Use these headings as the format for a Word document. They could type the answers on the computer or they could do this on paper. If you did the assignment this way, you would not need to worry about creating new facebook accounts or worry about students surfing the web instead of working on the assignment.