The Potential is There

Teaching lessons in the classroom is one of the best ways to know if a lesson is successful. As you read in my previous reflection, my first social studies lesson looked great on paper, but when it was taught in the classroom, it was overwhelming to the students. There were way too many activities and I was expecting the students to remember way too much. So for the second lesson, I decided to use my reflection to create a minimalist lesson. I wanted students to have one topic or idea to focus on, with one main activity to help them understand the topic. Overall, I think I did a good job when considering my weaknesses from the previous lesson. But I still think I have a long way to go when it comes to writing great, meaningful social studies lesson. The potential is there.

Now for the details of lesson #2. Me and two peers decided we would teach a social studies lesson collaboratively. The challenge came when we were trying to find an activity that would keep all three teachers busy. The topic was geography, so we decided to teach states and capitals of the United States; the focus was northeastern and southeastern states. We came up with a game that used outlines of the states from each region, state clues, and blank maps. Students had just learned the northeastern states, so we figured they would be relatively successful with those. But as an added challenge, we chose southern states as well.

Challenges/weaknesses in teaching the lesson:

• Planning with two other people is always a challenge. We all have different ideas and opinions that we bring to the table. Three teachers was great for some aspects of instruction, but I do think this lesson may've been more effective had one person created it and taught it all the way through. I think we each had a different vision of how it would turn out. This was a great lesson on collaborative teaching in the schools though!
  
• The clues were difficult. We should've thought to write each of the clues on the board as the teacher read the clue from the note card. Students needed to see the wording of the clue while also hearing it read aloud. I even had a difficult time recognizing one of the states when the clue was read.
• I think the Smart Board would've made this lesson more fun. I think the students enjoyed how interactive the activity was, but our projection of the United States was too small. The outlines of each of the states didn't fit on the actual map, so we had students stick them on the screen beside the map. Again, this wasn't a huge weakness, but this is definitely something that would've made the activity more fun and engaging.
  
• Partnering students may've also made the activity more successful. Some of the students had a hard time identifying their state initially. To help with differentiation, I think partnering students according to their ability levels would've made that part of the process a bit easier for some of the students. Since there were three teachers, we each walked around and filled that role for students.

Strengths of the lesson:

• Well-planned and thoughtful lesson. The lesson was both fun and challenging for students. It encompassed states they had already learned, but also challenged them to identify southern states they hadn't yet worked with in the classroom. Students also had to work to identify the states on their blank map.
  
• Three teachers meant a lot of attention for the students. They enjoyed the lesson because they received positive attention from their teachers.
  
• The lesson was engaging and fun. Students were eager to participate. They wanted to come to the board to post their state on the map, but more importantly, they were eager to help their friends. And every student in the classroom raised his/her hand at some point during the lesson. Students were comfortable and excited to learn, which was fun to be a part of.
  
• Students were challenged. We caused a great deal of disequilibrium in some students. I think if we had the opportunity to follow-up with the students, we would've seen some improvements in the states and capitals that each of the students could recognize from a map.

Overall, I think this lesson was successful. There are clearly some things I need to work on when it comes to writing social studies lessons. I think writing lessons based on social studies and historical events has been one of the hardest tasks yet. I'm looking forward to tackling the challenge when student-teaching begins. I think the challenge with social studies lessons comes in trying to make a huge, complex idea or topic minimal and simple, so students can actually learn and understand it. I'm looking forward to seeing improvements in my own work and lesson writing because I know I have a great deal of potential.