When they began the lesson, they started with geography. I really liked the way they asked students to use their imagination to pretend they were living in the mountains. Students had to think about what they thought the climate would be like, and as they continued the discussion they described the climate in China. One change I would make in this section is warning students that each one would have to share. I know a lot of students have anxiety about sharing with their peers, so giving them a chance to formulate an answer is always beneficial.
Throughout the lesson, a few of the students were inattentive and easily distracted. At one point, one student was even reading a book for another class. The unfortunate part of this program is that it takes place after students have already been stuck in school for a long day. By the time they get to us, they are very restless and looking to have fun. Classroom management is taken to a new level with these kinds of distractions. For our unit plan, I now have an idea of which students need to be separated to try to keep our lessons on track.
In the direct instruction, I really liked the guided practice Mike and Colleen used. Students were given four different color cards that represented one area of Ancient China they learned about (religion, culture, government, and geography). The teachers would give the students a fact and they had to sort it into the correct category. One change I would make is calling the burgundy card, red. I think some of the students we were working with were still a little young for such a specific name, and would have wasted less time asking what burgundy was five times. Here is my comment card for this lesson.
For the inquiry lesson, I thought the modeling was great. It definitely gave the students a refresher on the scientific method, and made it clear what was expected of them. Their task was to decide whether or not the Great Wall of China was a good thing. Students were given 8-10 minutes to research. I think after time constraints, this time was minimized a bit. After they formed their opinion, students used the research to defend themselves to the class. One of the things I really appreciated in this lesson was how much the students looked back at their research to explain their opinions. It meant that they took good notes, and that they had evidence to support their feelings. Here is my comment card for this lesson.
The last lesson, was the cooperative learning lesson. Students had to create a thinglink to use as a travel guide for Ancient China. I had never seen thinglink before, and now I can't wait to use it. The concept is really cool, and I think the students really enjoyed it. One of the biggest downfalls for this lesson was not Colleen or Mike's fault. As it got later, students had to leave for sports or other activites. By the time the lesson started, the pre-determined groups could no longer function, and students got paired off in a way that was not going to be positive. At one point, two students were refusing to work together. Colleen gave them a reminder that one of our class rules is to be respectful, and that in life we need to learn to work together even if we don't see eye to eye. I thought was an extremely appropriate reminder, as this is the exact attitude we are trying to foster with cooperative learning. Another downfall to having so few students is that Colleen and Mike ended up pairing off with the students. I think in this regard, the students ended up getting a lot more guidance than is needed in a cooperative lesson. Students should be more accountable for their own work, with minimal guidance from teachers. Here is my comment card for this lesson.
All in all, I think the unit plan flowed well. The lessons made sense together, and I think Colleen and Mike were comfortable and knowledge in the material. I think classroom management was the biggest problem, but that definitely comes with the nature of an after school program.
