Lesson # 3 Reflection

This was the third lesson that Grace and I taught about Japan. This week, we taught the students about the civics of Japan. Before we got into the new content, we had them play a quick game of blooket to review the last two weeks. The students have a really good time doing this, and it is a great way to get their minds warmed up. Next, we introduced the topic of civics with our vocabulary words. This week, we had eight words that pertained to the topic of civics. We introduced these vocabulary words by giving the students a new set of words to put on their key ring. The students took turns reading out a definition. To make the vocabulary instruction more interactive, we had the students play a quick matching game. They matched the words to their corresponding definitions, and glued it into their notebooks. Our next activity was a KWL chart. KWL stands for “I know, I want to know, I want to learn.” Before we taught the students about the U.S. and Japanese government, we asked the students what they know about civics and the government. The students thought hard, and came up with some good ideas. An example of one of the students' answers was, “They make laws.” As for what the students want to learn, they came up with a lot as well. One of the things they wanted to learn was, “How does someone become a worker in the government?” After the students gave their ideas for the first two columns, we instructed them to watch a video about the U.S. branches of government on their chromebook. This video was about 3 minutes long. They all finished around the same time, and we then had a discussion about what they learned. We then recorded all of the information they learned on the KWL chart. An example of something they learned was the three branches in the U.S. government. After we recorded what they learned, we transitioned to teaching about the Japanese government. We did this by presenting an anchor chart that we made about the government of Japan. I read the information off of the chart to the students, and asked questions in between about how it was different or the same from the U.S. government. The students then filled out a compare and contrast worksheet about both governments. We gave the students about five minutes to do so. After comparing and contrasting, the students took a look at three primary sources. Using the teacher analysis tool, we asked guided questions to the students about the sources. Our final activity was doing a read-aloud of a nonfiction book. I read two pages from a non fiction book that was about the Japanese government. We did not have enough time to do the rights and responsibilities chart, so instead we asked the students to go around and say one thing we learned. We ran out of time shortly after that, so we cleaned up our area and said our goodbyes. 

There were a variety of elements in this lesson that went well. The students were actively participating and engaged in the lesson. They also used prior knowledge from the lessons we had before, and applied it to this one. They now have the hang of comparing and contrasting two different ideas, and analyzing primary sources. There were definitely a couple of areas of weakness during this lesson as well. One area of weakness was the lack of visuals for the vocabulary. The students would benefit from there being some pictures to correspond to the vocabulary words, so the meaning can process a little better. Another area of weakness was time management. Although we had an hour and a half, we had a lot of different activities planned. We were unable to get to our rights and responsibilities chart, which was unfortunate. 

Once again, all of the students met the learning objectives! The first learning objective for this lesson reads, “By the end of the lesson, students will be able to compare and contrast elements of the U.S. and Japanese government by making observations and describing them in their own words in their notebook/chart paper.” All of the students met this objective. The evidence is the compare and contrast worksheet that they pasted into their journals. All of the students wrote ideas in every section, and did it with 100% accuracy. The second objective reads, “By the end of the lesson, students will be able to analyze three primary source documents about the Japanese government using the Library of Congress primary source analysis tool.” This learning objective was measured as a formative assessment. We assessed students based on their participation, and the answers they gave to the guided questions. They gave great ideas about the pictures. The students noticed that all of the pictures were from around 100 years ago! They also noted that in one of the pictures, it looked like the people were taking a vote. The students all met the objective for this activity, as all of their answers were accurate and showed an understanding of the topic. 

There was a lot that I learned from this experience. First, I learned that it is important to incorporate visuals, even if it is not on a big poster board! Through teacher feedback, I learned that I should incorporate visuals for the vocabulary. I really like this idea, and I will be using it for the next lesson! Another thing that I learned from this activity is that it is always beneficial to circle the group and interact with the students as they are completing their work. It can sometimes be tough to go around and talk to the students as they are working because they are very focused. But sometimes, a student looking like their very focused could also mean that they are confused! Next week, I will be sure to continue to circle around and help all of the students. Even if they do not need help, it is still good to interact and hear what they are talking about. 

This experience will influence my professional identity in a variety of ways. The first way that this will influence my professional identity is that now I know that my handwriting is much better when I write with a large sharpie. I am left handed, and my handwriting can often be messy. However, when I was making my anchor chart about Japan’s government, I was very proud with how it turned out. My handwriting was a lot neater than usual. From now on, I will be sure to use materials that will result in my best and neatest work. It is important for students to have good visuals with neat hand writing so they can easily read it. Another way that this experience will influence my teacher identity is that I continue to be affirmed in the fact that I want to teach the older grades. I really enjoy teaching these lessons, and I always leave with a smile on my face. Going back each week reminds me of why I am working hard in school. This experience will affect how I plan in the future because now I want to create a lot more visuals for the students. I am looking forward to having pictures correspond to vocabulary words and having more anchor charts for new topics. I have a lot of fun making anchor charts, and I will continue to make them for each lesson. This experience will influence how I teach in the future by being more interactive. As explained earlier, I am going to make it a point to continue to circle around the students and interact with them as they are doing their work. This way, I can allow them to express how they are feeling about the topic, and anything they may struggle with as well. As for assessing in the future, I am going to continue to do formative assessments. The students are very relaxed during the formative assessments because they do not realize they are being assessed. Instead, they are just participating and trying their best. A student's success is not representative of a specific letter grade. Instead, it is based on their participation, effort, and how they answer questions.