Oh what a week it was in 505 – starting a new unit on the events that led to the American Revolutionary War. I brought back some classic Eduprotocols and an Eduprotocols I haven’t used in 2 years.
Monday – Finished our Text Quest.
Tuesday – Great American Race
Wednesday – Sketch and Tell
Thursday/Friday – French and Indian War Graffiti Page
Monday
We finished the Text Quest with Colonial Regions and teams had 3 options for the bonus battle: Retell in Rhyme, Upside Down Learning, or Story Cubes. I cannot share the Upside Down Learning or Story Cubes because it came from the site www.emc2learning.com – check out the site!
The Retell in Rhyme comes from Dr. Scott Petri where he has students retell main details about a historical person or historical event in rhyme. The goal is to see how many rhyming couplets students can create within a given time period. Most students think this is easy, but they quickly find out it’s pretty tough.
With Upside Down Learning students write a fact from the lesson on top of the line, then they change the fact to be untrue underneath the line. It sounds simple, but students have trouble with this one as well.
The story cubes are simple, students choose 9 story cubes and relate the images to anything they learned in the unit. It’s a cool way to create forced connections and really pushes students to think creatively.
Tuesday
I started a new unit called Toward Independence – I introduced our unit goals and I can statements. Then we began the Great American Race. The Great American Race is a simple way to introduce vocabulary for a unit. Here’s how it works:
- I created 20 or more cards – one side has a number, the other side has a vocab word.
- I distribute the cards and tell the students, “Don’t reveal the answer on your card.”
- Students have 10 minutes to type 3-4 clues, add a picture, and their card number to a blank slide.
- As students are working, I collect and organize their slides into one shared slidedeck. This way I give feedback on their clues.
- At the end of 10 minutes, students then work to Google the clues on the slides and figure out the answers.
Wednesday
Wednesday was shortened class period day due to testing. Each class was 28 minutes long. It was a perfect day to start with a fast and curious with our new unit and to use some sketch and tell. The Sketch and Tell was used to further build background knowledge with important concepts – French and Indian War, Taxation without Representation, and The Stamp Act. These words were included with the Great American Race as well. I just simply had students look these words up and create a sketch and tell using Google Shapes. The idea behind the Sketch and Tell was to build background knowledge about the French and Indian War before Thursday’s lesson.
Thursday and Friday
I had to scrap Thursday’s original plan and keep it simple because I was absent. Instead of doing the French and Indian war digital breakout, I kept it simple with a graffiti page.
The graffiti page is supposed to keep students actively engaged as they are reading. Students draw 2 pictures, draw 2 bigs words to represent main ideas, and I wanted students to include causes and effects of the French and Indian War. It is similar to sketchnoting. Looking back I should have the students sketchnote next time.
Some of the Graffiti pages were great. I felt like the French and Indian War reading was good as it was written in a way that picked up the story from our Colonial Regions Unit. However, I felt the like the students didn’t make the connections. Most of them missed the effect of the war in the British claimed the Ohio River Valley and were then prevented from moving there by the Proclamation of 1763.
The plan Friday was having the students complete a Retell in Rhyme about the French and Indian War. However this was not happening because most needed to finish their graffiti page.
After some reflection, I need to do a better job at writing I can statements. I need to write more I can statements to help guide the students through the entire process of the unit.
Moler's Musings 