High Expectations

I generally enter the classroom with high expectations. I like to think that every time I teach, I have the potential to learn something new that will equip me with another tool to add to my "teacher tool belt." Last Thursday was no different. I stayed up late finalizing my lesson plan, trying to think of each component of the lesson and how they fit together. Does the lesson flow? Do each of the elements connect? Are my goals reasonable? Is the lesson and material appropriate for fifth grade students? In answering each of these questions in my head, I was sure I had thought things through thoroughly enough to ensure that the lesson would be a success. But when I entered the classroom, everything changed.

My First Social Studies Lesson:
The lesson I taught last Thursday focused on geography in the United States. As an introduction, I chose to relate Louisiana to North Carolina, helping students see that even though Louisiana is almost one thousand miles away from NC, each of the states still share some similarities. By doing this activity, I was hoping to help students see that the oil spill has relevance in this state. Students colored in LA and NC on a blank map, filled out a Venn diagram with a partner, read a TIME magazine article for kid's on the oil spill, and also answered opinion questions about the spill during the lesson. Again, this lesson was all about the progression, going from a compare/contrast activity, up to the relevance of the oil spill on the lives of people from North Carolina. After I taught my lesson, I realized that it was over my students' heads. I had high expectations for my students, but they weren't entirely reasonable, considering I taught the lesson on the first full week of school.

I'm a planner and as you can tell from my lesson description, I had an abundance of activities planned. I honestly felt like each component of my lesson was essential in order to help students understand and connect to the gulf oil spill effecting the southern part of the United States. What I learned on Thursday is that teaching social studies is a lot harder than I imagined. It's easy to integrate other subjects in with social studies, but that makes teaching the subject a lot more complex.

Things I need to improve:

• I needed to use a book about the state of Louisiana that was on a fifth grade student's level. While I did the read aloud about the state of Louisiana, I should've had students jot down some of the state's characteristics. Expecting a fifth grade student to remember a list of characteristics and facts read aloud from a book is unrealistic.
  
• I over planned. Instead of choosing so many different activities, I should've focused my attention on one or two of the activities in order to help students connect to the material in a more effective and meaningful way.
  
• After teaching my lesson, I immediately wished I would've chosen the other states affected by the gulf oil spill to talk about as well. They were discussed, but students didn't learn anything about the other states. I could've focused my lesson on southern states...choosing important aspects of each state to talk about, while also comparing each of the states to North Carolina. That way, students would've been on their way to learning some of the states and their capitals in the southern region of the United States.
  
• I think I needed to be more directional and intentional with my activities. Rather than having students think about characteristics of each state, I should've stuck to the geographic characteristics of the state, helping them understand their cardinal directions, climate, and the type of ecosystem. Each of those elements is dependent on the specific area of the United States that's being discussed.
  
• I was naive. I thought each element of the lesson out prior to teaching, so I expected that students would understand the content right away. Specifically at the beginning of the lesson I should've helped students activate prior knowledge about North Carolina. I could've asked students questions about North Carolina, while writing the characteristics they came up with on the board. That would've helped them visualize the differences and similarities between NC and LA.

Things I did well:

• Thorough and thoughtful
• Organized and prepared
• Explicit, clear instructions
  
• Relevant activities/connections to real world
  
• Interdisciplinary - language arts, science, and social studies
• Students were given a variety of ways to respond to the material and content of the lesson - think-pair-share, small group, opinion questions
• Compare/contrast - requires higher level thinking skills

I can't say that I think my lesson was completely successful. Students learned about Louisiana and the gulf oil spill, but due to time constraints, I didn't get a chance to finish making the connection between each element of the lesson (this is a huge weakness). I think the activities were relevant and connected students to the real world, but I don't think I brought the lesson to an appropriate close because many of the students in my group had confused looks on their faces. That made me feel like a failure at the time, but I'm hoping that the experiences from this first social studies lesson will help me improve for my next lesson and into student-teaching in the fall.

I will continue to enter the classroom with high expectations because I think that's an important part of teaching. But I will also continue to be confident in myself as a teacher. One of the most important parts of teaching is trying new lessons and activities in the classroom. A teacher will never know if a new lesson is successful unless he/she tries it out with actual students. It may look great on paper, like this lesson did for me, but it could end up being a flop with actual students. In teaching this lesson, I learned the importance of actually TEACHING. I'm thankful for this experience, but I'm hopeful future lessons will be more meaningful for my students.