Lesson 2: History of California

     

    This week, my partner and I led a lesson focused on California's history. We started off with a community builder, asking students, "If you could travel to any time period, where would you go?" It was a great way to get them thinking about the past before we dived into our interactive word wall.  My partner and I transitioned the students to observing primary sources.  The worksheet we gave to students to use during their observation was about their senses. My partner quickly reviewed our senses and how we will be applying them to the activity of playing "hide and seek" in the primary source photos.  My partner displayed a photograph of a primary source from the 1950s about segregation. While the photo was displayed, my partner and I provided the student with specific examples of the sense that they could experience in that situation. After the timer went off, I showed the students the second primary source and had the students complete the same task. When the time went off, we moved on to the history of California. My partner and I both took turns reading sections from the books we chose from this lesson. Before we read the last book, westarted to notice the students were getting a bit fidgety and off task, so we decided to do our movement break to get their sillies out. After reading the last book, we moved on to the interactive timeline. Each student got the chance to go up to the timeline to place the event and time period that went with each one. The next activity we did was writing a letter. I modeled to the student how to write a letter using step by step instruction. We then passed out the template to the students and explained that they are going to pick a time period that we have discussed, and write to a friend, family, or character from a book we read earlier. Both my partner and I provided support to the students during this process. After the writing activity, we started our role play script about Jackie Robinson. Unfortuntly we would not be able to complete this activity due to time. 

Some things that went well during this lesson were the students engagment during the hide and seek and the timeline activity. An area of weakness for our group is student focus. During the lesson, I noticed multiple times our group's focus was on things unrelated to the topic. This caused many distractions and made it difficult to get everyone back on track. After the lesson, my partner had some great ideas about bringing in fidget toys, providing more hands-on activities, and possibly having more activities for downtime while other students finish their work, like during the writing assignment part of the lesson. 

The students met the objectives in the lesson by completing all activities with limited teacher support. The evidence of this is with their interaction with the primary sources, interactive timeline, and the writing a letter activity.  

Observing student engagement was my main takeaway from this lesson. During the lesson, there were students who were not engaged and completely off task, and focused on other things not related to the lesson. It became difficult to keep them focused on the tasks in front of them. In the future, to help keep all students focused and engaged in the lesson, I plan to incorporate more hands-on activities and tools to keep their focus on the task in front of them. This will lesson shaped my professional identity and teaching style. I am committed to meeting my students where they are. This means proactive planning for flexible seating, sensory tools, and frequent movement breaks based on the energy in the room. I've learned that paper and pencil tasks can't be the only way I teach or assess my students. I want to build lessons that are naturally engaging to keep participation high.