Required blog #2

The objectives where my students were most successful were the two related to the Great Plains (explain why people began settling the Great Plains and describe life for settlers on the Great Plains). I think the main reason that they were so successful on these objectives is because the lesson was very interactive. The students played the part of settlers while the railroad owner convinced them to move to the Great Plains. Because they “lived through it”, they seem to remember it better. Another reason the students seem to remember these objectives better is that we started the unit with a picture of a woman holding a baby in the middle of a wheat field. The students spent a lot of time examining and describing the picture. They both told me it was their favorite picture in the chapter. I think that because they were able to relate to the woman in the picture before we started reading the chapter, they were more involved in the lesson. As far as describing life for settlers, I had the students pretend to be settlers and write a letter home about their life. Both students seemed to really enjoy the assignment and wrote great letters. I think the fact that I was able to incorporate varied and interesting activities into the lesson helped the students to better master the objectives. (Also, the fact that this was the 7^th lesson I taught meant that the students were starting to get used to me and I was starting to get to know them better).

I differentiated learning well in the Great Plains lesson, because I used visual (looking at the picture), kinesthetic (acting out settling the Great Plains), and intrapersonal (reflection and writing a letter home). Also, by this point, we had noticed that one of our two students was a much weaker reader than the other. If you gave them both an assignment that involved reading, one would struggle and take much longer than the other. For this reason, I realized that I would need to rely heavily on other ways of getting information across. I wanted to make sure she fully understood the material and I did not want to embarrass her in such a small class where the differences were so apparent.

The objectives where my students were least successful was when I asked them to explain why congress passed the Pendleton Civil Service Act and to summarize economic acts passed in the late 1800s. I knew this was not going to be my best lesson ever, but I hoped that teaching it in summer school would give me an advantage when I actually have to teach it during the year. One reason it wasn’t successful is that I personally find Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur to be the most boring presidents in American History. This is MY least favorite time period in the book, so I really have to try to make it interesting and engaging for everyone involved. Also, the material itself is difficult because the students don’t have adequate background knowledge. Before you can understand the Pendleton Civil Service Act, you have to know what the civil service is and you have to understand the corruption that existed in the civil service before 1883. The economic acts aren’t any easier. The Interstate Commerce Act already involves two words that students don’t fully understand (“interstate” and “commerce”). Once students understand the meaning, you then have to help them understand that the importance of the act was to regulate the railroads (meaning you have to go back and explain why the railroads needed regulating). The whole chapter is like a foreign language, with issues and vocabulary that usually hasn’t been introduced until this point. Because of the sheer volume of information I needed to get across, I mostly lectured and gave notes during this lesson. I know that isn’t the best way to help students….I need to find a better way.

In the future, I would definitely take more time on the Hayes/Garfield/Arthur section. I need to take the time necessary to include more interactive activities to make sure that students get the more difficult concepts. I need to recognize my weakness as a teacher, which is that when concepts are extremely difficult, I resort to very neat notes and charts to get the difficult concept across. This is because that’s how I learn, and it helps some students. But there are others who need something else. Now that I see this weakness, hopefully I can be more innovative and recognize when I am shortchanging those students.