Standard+7

Home Page - Standard I - Standard II - Standard III - Standard IV - Standard V - Standard VI - Standard VII - Standard VIII - Standard IX - Standard X **__Standard 7 __** //The teacher organizes and plans systematic instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, pupils, the community, and curriculum goals. //
 * Teachers are able to plan different kinds of lessons. **

Evidence:

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">Students need to have a variety of different lessons throughout the day, lest they get bored and zone off into the world of daydreams. Varying the curriculum is good, varying the types of lessons is better. With that in mind, I developed a new spin on our ancient Greece debate of whether Athens or Sparta was a better city. Instead of simply writing an answer down, students have to write a persuasive letter about it and then debate with another class over it through Skype. Knowing that they not only have to answer the question in the form of a letter, but they will also be debating it, gave the student’s inspiration to research their cities beyond the simple facts. They went in-depth and knew that if any questions were asked of them that they had better know the answers. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;"> This lesson plan was developed through EDT 658 and implemented in our social studies curriculum while studying ancient Greece. It was used to not only hone the student’s language arts skills, but also their research and debate skills. Students learned to ask questions, how to respond to them intelligently and politely, and how to take criticism. Overall, the lesson went well. While we have yet to actually debate another class over Skype, we debated another class in our school. The student’s thought it was pretty neat when we separated them by their preferred city and not their homeroom teacher. It gave them a greater sense of unity over their choice. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;"> This lesson impacted my teaching by proving to me that my students retained more information when I approached curriculum from multiple angles. Students are still able to rattle off a slew of facts about their cities, something I don’t think they would have been able to do if it was just a question on a worksheet. The students dug deeper into the content than they normally would have and found many interesting facts about ancient Greece. For some, this sparked a greater interest in Greece and they went on to get wrapped up in the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. As for the curriculum, it is unfortunate that we can’t spend this much time on every concept, but we are implementing more long-term projects like this one to help the students stay focused and improve their skills in more than one area. **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">KSD **

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">**7.K.2 The teacher knows how to take contextual considerations (instructional materials; individual student interests, needs, and aptitudes; and community resources) into account when planning instruction that creates** **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">an effective bridge between curriculum goals and students’ experiences. ** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">Sometimes a lesson can be more about the experience for the student than the actual content. This is a lesson that is about both the content and the experience. Students are able to debate amongst peers that they don’t normally see during the course of a day. They prepare for it well because they don’t want to be beaten or caught off-guard. At the end of the day, they learn a great deal about their subject, but they also relish the experience of debating. **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">7.S.2 The teacher plans for learning opportunities that recognize and address variation in learning styles, learning differences, and performance modes. ** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;"> This lesson includes a research aspect, a persuasive letter aspect, and a debate aspect. Many different learning styles are covered and students are able to display their knowledge in a variety of ways as well. **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">7.D.1 The teacher values both long-term and short-term planning. **

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">From a day to day aspect, this lesson requires a healthy portion of class time. Short term planning is needed to get students on the right track and redirect them when needed. Long term planning is needed to find another class to debate and giving your students enough time to be prepared.