Lesson Description and Reflection

Lesson Description: 

The lesson I decided to teach was a New Deal Coalition activity. I wanted the students to understand what the New Deal was all about and also be able to learn about the complexities of passing legislation and the different moving parts that need to be in place for that to happen. This lesson was at the end of a unit on the Great Depression and New Deal (as an approach to fixing the economic crisis of the United States). The students had a lot of background knowledge on the topic already since they had studied the economic boom after World War I, the primary causes of the Great Depression, and how difficult life was for most of the people in the United States during the Great Depression. They had been introduced to a couple of the New Deal programs so it felt like they had a good preparation to be able to discuss what each different group (Corporate Executive, Black Activist, Labor Unionist, Wealthy Southern Landowner, Unemployed Person) wanted from the government. I divided all the students into six different groups by having card stock name tents at the front of the room. When they came in I asked them to grab a marker and write their name on one of the name tents. I had six different colors so later when the time was right I could just have everyone split up into groups based on the color they got. Before we got to that point in the lesson I used quite a bit of the information processing approach for learning by using cues to signal when we were ready to begin (3, 2, 1 countdown) so I could get the students attention. I also moved around the room and used my voice to keep their attention throughout our class. I used a video and brought up a few topics that they needed to remember from Causes of the Great Depression in an attempt to bring to mind relevant prior learning. And then before we started with our group discussions I wrote the four critical issues on the board as part of pointing out important information. The developmental theories I used throughout this lesson were Piaget's suggestions of using experiences from the kids life to help them relate to the information. As we discussed what it meant to have a Unified Government I asked them if they knew which parties were in charge of the Senate, House of Representatives, and presidency right now. They were quickly able to tell me that President Trump is a republican, Senator McConnell is also Republican, but Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a Democrat. Through this example I was able to show them what it means when the government is not Unified and how difficult it is to get legislation passed because they don't agree on what should be done. This helped them understand why it was easier for FDR to get a lot of his ideas and priorities passed in legislation because the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and belonged to the same political party as him. Another developmental Theory I used was Vygotsky’s scaffolding by using graphic organizers to help them structure their learning, and also depended on more knowledgeable others within each group that helped keep the team on task and helped follow directions more accurately. As far as the motivation theory I used in my lesson I can identify some of the Self-Determination Theory aspect of belonging when I had all the students create name tents so that stay realized how important it was to me to know who they were. This helped build a good rapport between us as I had conversations with each one of them and was able to use their actual name. Some of the students needs that I addressed in this lesson were: acknowledging them by calling them by name using their name tags, mixing up the groups so that the IEP kids were included and felt like valuable members of their teams, and then trying a new method of teaching because these kids deal with a lot of lecturing so I wanted to try something new to peak their interest. 

Lesson Reflection:

1- My learning targets included wanting them to be able to investigate the effectiveness of the new deal as a response to an economic crisis, and to be able to craft an argument regarding the role of government when responding to economic conditions. I feel that while they did learn quite a bit about these topics, the lesson had way too much information for one class. The kids were really engaged the whole time, and were asking really good questions as I checked in on the groups so I felt like they were “getting it”, but I wish we had had more time. Their presentations on what each group wanted the government to do about critical issues sounded really good and every student participated so that was great. We ran out of time before we got to the exit slip question but the teacher said they were going to continue discussing the matter the next class period. The students were very engaged because they hadn’t ever done this type of role playing group work, and the new material and discussions kept their attention really well too.

2- Even though the teacher said the texts were great, and some of the teams did just fine getting through all of it and picking out just what I wanted them to, I still think I should have had some more simplified versions if I would have realized how fast time would fly. I also would have liked to have given them the material to review and study before the class discussion, and then organized it in more of a fishbowl type debate. I think this might have allowed deeper understanding as each student had to prepare to make an argument and back it up with evidence from the text. Another thing I wish I had thought to do was to complete an example of the graphic organizer. By modeling my expectations I think it would have helped them figure it out quicker. 

3- The students were really engaged during the whole lesson. It probably had a lot to do with the novelty of having me up there teaching, even though I had been there several times to observe, but they responded really well to the material I shared with them and participated in the discussion the whole time. One aspect of the lesson that I think influenced student engagement was the opportunity they had to get up and move around several times as they changes seats to form groups, and as the got up to present. They also really seemed to enjoy working in groups, and did a great job of including everyone at their table. They had good questions, and did a great job of pulling up prior knowledge when I asked them about Progressive Era reforms that might sound familiar in our new discussion about changes in government regulations during the New Deal discussions.

4- I taught this lesson twice, back to back one day. One thing I noticed was that even though the first group was doing great in filling in their critical issues worksheet as the other groups presented, as soon as they heard they weren’t handing it in, several of the kids stopped filling it in. I told them they could keep it and use it to study, but apparently that wasn’t very motivating for them. They still listened and asked questions but filling it out wasn’t important anymore once they heard they weren’t getting graded on it. So for the next class I told them at the beginning of the discussions to do the best they could because they’d be handing it in and then they could use it to study once they got it back. Big difference! Extrinsic motivation still drives a lot of what they do at this point.