Kristin Tritch

Kristin Tritch

Social Studies Methods

Impact on Student Learning

11/17/11

Teaching my lesson about Indiana’s people and culture did not go as well as I had hoped. I intended for my cooperating teacher to give the pretest before I arrived to teach the lesson but she was unable to open it on her computer. I ended up giving the pretest, teaching the lesson, and giving the posttest all on the same day in the same block of time. This resulted in the lesson be slightly rushed and the results of the pre and posttests being slightly off. When I handed out the pretest, the students started to freak out because they didn’t know the answers to any of the questions. Both my cooperating teacher and I had to explain that this was a pretest, which is just to find out what they already knew and that the grade they received on this and the post test will not be put in the grade book. They were still a little freaked out but they got through it anyway. After all students were done with the pretest I handed out the construction paper to make the family culture thing we did in class a while ago. This was a big hit and they didn’t want to stop working so I could continue teaching. Looking back on the lesson now, I should have planned something more interactive and exciting for the kids. The majority of them were paying attention but they didn’t seem like they were really interested in what I was teaching. When we were going over the chart of different characteristics the students didn’t seem to know what characteristic went with which term. I explained to them what each characteristic meant and gave them one answer so they could see the relationship between the two. Some of them caught on after that and some of them were still confused.

After I taught the lesson I gave the students time to review the definitions of the “vocab words” that I was teaching about and the characteristics matching the words. Once they had time to look things over I passed out the posttest. Once again the students freaked out because some of them didn’t know the answers even though we just had gone over everything. I told them to do their best and think about what we read and talked about. I left the list of characteristics on the board but I erased which term they went with. That way, students had a list of words to refer to but I wasn’t giving away the answers.

When I went through and graded both tests, none of the students earned a lower score on the posttest than on the pretest, there were some who received the same grade though. There were also a few that received higher grades on the posttest. Two students even earned perfect scores on the posttest after not doing so well on the pretest. For the first question, three students had the correct answer on the pretest and 10 had it correct on the posttest. Two people had the correct answer for number two on the pretest and 7 had it correct on the posttest and zero had the third question correct on the pretest, 3 had it correct on the posttest. This is not huge improvement (the graph of scores is the last page of this document), but it is improvement none the less. While I was teaching the lesson I wasn’t sure if any students would improve, so the little improvement that was made, made me feel a little better about the lesson.

Lesson Plan

Lesson: ___Indiana’s People and Culture___

Length: ____15-20 minutes_____ actually took about 50 minutes_____

Age or Grade Level Intended: _____4th______

Academic Standard(s):

4.3.10 Identify immigration patterns and describe the impact diverse ethnic and cultural groups have had on Indiana (Individuals, Society, and Culture)

Performance Objective(s):

· After having a class conversation about different ethnicities, students will describe the impact of diverse ethnic groups on Indiana.

· After a class discussion, the students will describe the impact of diverse culture groups on Indiana.

Assessment:

Answers to 3 questions on a pretest and 3 out of 6 questions will be graded on the post test

Advance Preparation by Teacher:

Construction paper

Text books

Copies of pre and post tests

Procedure:

Introduction/Motivation:

Hand out construction paper and have students get out a colored pencil or crayon. Instruct the students to write their last name on the construction paper and then write words about their family, any food they have, any family traditions, any describing words, music their family listens to etc. Give students 5-10 minutes.

Step-by-Step Plan:

1. As the class is working its way through this lesson the teacher will have a chart on the board that lists the 3 vocab words (culture, heritage, and ethnic group) and a list of characteristics. As the class learns about each word, they will pick out the characteristics that fit.

2. After the students have completed their papers, ask “Can anyone tell me a family tradition?” Accept 2 or 3 answers. “Can anyone tell me the music their family listens to, or the food their family eats?” Accept 2 or 3 more answers. These are all part of your family culture.

3. Have a student read the 1st paragraph on page 31.

4. Ask “Does anyone know where their family immigrated from?” Give examples of different countries that families may have migrated from if needed. Accept 2 or 3 answers.

5. Ask “Does anybody know what that is called? Accept answers. Say “This is called culture.” Have another student read the first 3 sentences of the second paragraph on page 31.”

6. The last sentence that was read talks about heritage. Ask “Does anyone know what heritage means? Accept answers, then say “Heritage is the history that a group of people share. What heritage do the people in this room share?” Accept answers, then say “Let’s read to find out”

7. Have a student read the rest of the paragraph.

8. As students are reading paragraphs from the book have a graph on the board with different characteristics Culture, Heritage, and Ethnic Group share and have students figure out which characteristics go with which words.

9. Ask “Who thinks they know where the term Hoosier came from?” Accept answers and have someone read the last paragraph on page 31.

Closure:

“Let’s review, who can tell me what culture is? Who can tell me what an ethnic group is? Who can tell me what heritage means?” Accept answers. Ask “does anyone remember one possible reason we have been nicknamed Hoosiers in Indiana?” Accept answers. Take any questions students may have and say “put your name papers in your mail boxes and go back to your seat to get ready for science (if there is time, if not say “sit down in your seat and wait to line up for lunch”)

Adaptations/Enrichment:

Student with Learning disability in reading comprehension: This student will listen to the paragraphs being read

Student with ADHD:

The teacher will have a signal with the child, so when the teacher notices the child off task, he or she will do the signal to remind the child to pay attention.

Student with Gifts and Talents in Creativity:

This child can be as creative as he or she likes on the name activity.

Self-Reflection:

Will I be able to make any impact on the students with this lesson?

Will they show any growth from pretest to posttest?

Will this lesson be not interactive enough?

Will this lesson take more than the allotted time?

Pretest

Name_____________________________________________ Date______________________

Directions: Please answer the following questions to the best of your ability.

1. What does culture mean?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What is an ethnic group?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What does heritage mean?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Post test

Name_____________________________________________ Date______________________

Directions: Please answer the following questions to the best of your ability.

1. What does culture mean?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name 1 characteristic of Culture

________________________________________________________________________

2. What is an ethnic group?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name 1 characteristic of ethnic groups.

_________________________________________________________________________

3. What does heritage mean?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name 1 characteristic of heritage.

_______________________________________________________________________________