Lesson Reflection # 2

This was the second lesson that Grace and I taught together, and this time we taught the history of Japan. The lesson started with a quick review of last week's lesson. Last week, we taught about the geography of Japan. Students used their chromebooks to partake in a Blooket activity. Blooket is a website that takes study questions and makes it into an interactive question and answer game. The students did well with this review, and asked questions when they had a hard time thinking of an answer. After students finished the review activity, we then went over how to differentiate a primary source from a secondary source. We used explicit instructions for explaining the difference between the two. After, the students were given a flash card with an example of it that they had to determine if it was either a primary or secondary source. The students did extremely well with this activity and got all of them correct, with the proper reasoning. Students were also given a vocabulary card for them to put in their suitcase. This week, the students learned new vocabulary words that pertained to the history of Japan. We went over words such as samurai, shogun, emperor, and more. We had the words written on the board as well, for when we went over each of the words. For brain breaks, we did two activities. The first activity was called chair charades. This was a quick brain break, where students stood behind their chairs and acted out whatever Grace whispered in their ear. Some examples are being a bird, going shopping, and exercising. The second brain break activity was a game called sparkle. This game is a spelling game, where students go around in a circle and each say one letter of a word they are supposed to spell. The student who says the last letter of the word has to say sparkle, and then they sit down. The words we used for this activity were the vocabulary words that they learned. The students were able to refer back to the visual so that they could have helped spell the words. The next instructional activity was analyzing primary sources with guidance from the teacher analyzing the template. Students were given three different pictures from historical Japan. They had time to look over the pictures with a partner, and make observations. We also gave students various non fiction books for them to look through, so they could see current pictures of Japan. After the students made their observations, we gave them a template where they compared and contrasted the old pictures, which were primary sources, to the new pictures, which are secondary sources. The students made great observations and connections to all of the photos. The next activity that we did as a group was create a timeline of Japan. For this activity, students were given a flashcard that had a date on it, along with a description from a point in Japanese History. The students were instructed to read their card out loud, and then paste it onto the anchor chart to the corresponding year. We did not have enough time left in the lesson, so instead of moving on to the cause and effect activity, we went right to the role playing activity. For the role playing activity, we told students that they had just become samurai warriors. We asked the students to close their eyes, and imagine what their life would be like. We then told the students that they will be a samurai soldier writing a letter to someone in their family, a friend or a teacher. Many of the students chose to write a letter to their teacher. They put a lot of thought and effort into the letters that they wrote. They recalled information they learned from this lesson and the previous one. 

All of the students met the objectives for this lesson. For this lesson, we had a total of five SLO’s. The first SLO reads, “By the end of the lesson, students will be able to compare and contrast the difference between primary and secondary sources by making observations and describing them in their own words in their notebook/chart paper.” The students met this objective, as they all participated and recorded the differences and similarities of both primary and secondary sources. They were able to identify what source each of the examples were, and provided correct reasoning to it as well. The second SLO reads, “By the end of the lesson, students will be able to analyze a primary source document using the Library of Congress primary source analysis tool and compare the past with the present through a group discussion.” The students met this objective as well. They analyzed the sources and came up with amazing observations and inferences for each one. They asked great questions, and were able to answer a few of them using a non fiction book that they were provided with. The third SLO reads,  “By the end of the lesson, students will be able to describe and organize significant events in their country's history by arranging events in a timeline.” The students met this objective, as they all participated while making the timeline as a group. The fourth SLO reads, “By the end of the lesson, students will be able to explain and infer how the historical events, expansion, and innovation (such as improvement in transportation) affected people of the country by engaging in discussion and completing a cause and effect table.” This SLO is inapplicable to the lesson because we were unable to get to it due to the timing. The final SLO reads, “By the end of the lesson, students will be able to compare and contrast how  people with different perspectives may view the same event in different ways through roleplaying.” The students excelled in this objective. They were so creative in their letters, and provided so much detail. All of the students used information that they learned from both of the lessons that we have taught so far. They even incorporated information from the nonfiction books that they looked through. For example, one of the students noticed a picture of a Japanese baseball game in one of the books. He incorporated that into his letter by saying he went to a baseball game. 

I learned a lot from this experience. One thing I learned is that over-preparing is very good! We had plenty of content to teach the students, with visuals to support them. Preparing all of those visuals was smart because it helped engage the students even more. I learned that the use of a visual agenda is extremely helpful for not only the students, but also the teachers! We would refer to it to remind ourselves of what activity was going to be next. Another thing that I learned from teaching this lesson is that it is great to let students use their imagination and creativity to showcase their learning. By having the students write letters, they were able to convey everything that they learned. It is very helpful for us teachers to learn what they were able to learn, and what specifically they enjoyed the most. 

This experience will influence my professional identity in a variety of ways. The first way this will influence my professional identity is the use of visuals. Before this class, I never took the time to make visuals with a lot of effort. However, it is the opposite for this class. I work hard on the visuals I make, and it makes a big difference in my teaching. I feel more confident, organized, and overall much better about my lesson. Another way this will influence my professional identity is that I want to implement more activities that will encourage students to be creative. Like I explained before, the students got really into the role playing activity, and showcased a lot of what they learned through their imagination. 

This experience will influence how I plan in the future by reassuring me that it is important to use visuals. The timeline and vocabulary wall were both visuals that helped not only the students, but also myself. I will definitely plan to use more in the future. As for teaching and assessing, I will be sure to implement formative assessments where I can observe how students engage in instruction and participate with their answers. Overall, this lesson was a very great time. I am very excited to go back again next week to teach the students about civics.