This week we continued with our unit on the Constitutional Convention. Our question is, “Should the Constitutional Convention be considered a success?” Students are weighing multiple options – a stronger national government was created. However, at the same time, the Constitution was created without the consideration of enslaved persons or women.
The supporting questions we explored this week were:
- What argument over representation led to the Great Compromise?
- How did slavery influence the writing of the Constitution?
- Why did the Founding Fathers keep slavery in the Constitution?
I used a variety of EduProtocols this week including Sketch and Tell, Number mania, and the 3xCER. The Sketch and Tell works great with the Great Compromise. This helps students visualize structures of the legislative branch that was proposed. The Number Mania paired with the 3/5ths Compromise was okay. I always love the 3xCER as this was our third rep this year.
We had a weird week with en Election Day interruption. Plus, we had Veterans Day on Friday. Happy Veterans Day, and thank you, to all veterans for your service!!
Monday – Fast and Curious, Thin Slide, Sketch and Tell
Tuesday – election day (no school)
Wednesday – Fast and Curious, Number Mania
Thursday – Egg Dash Challenge, Fast and Curious
Friday – 3xCER
Monday
The question to begin the day on Monday was – What argument over representation led to the Great Compromise? To begin class, I had up a Fast and Curious using Quizizz. The Quizizz had 10 questions, and the class averages were as follows: 54%, 52%, 50%, 33%, 45%. The questions focused on the Virginia Plan, New Jersey Plan, the Great Compromise, and basic legislative branch questions. I expected these class averages because 8th graders (and a lot of people) struggle with government related stuff.
The next step for the lesson was a Thin Slide. I gave students 5 minutes to add a picture of a state, add the name of the state, add the amount of representatives for the state, and how many the senators for the state. I quickly learned that I needed to directly link the House of Representatives and the US Senate to the instructions. When the timer went off I asked the students, “What do you notice?” Right away, they noticed that every state had 2 senators and the amount of representatives varied. Then. I asked, “Why do you think one number stays the same and the other number varies?” They had some guesses, but this was the point of the lesson for the day.
Next we moved onto a Sketch and Tell. With these ideas of a house, a senate,and representatives, students have a hard time visualizing these things. This is why I love using Sketch and Tells with government content. Some classes, I let them go and they did their thing. Other classes we did an I Do, We Do, You Do. Students filled out a chart with information then created a sketch to show the structure of Congress as proposed by the plan. When we ended the lesson, students took the Quizizz again and the class averages were all between 75% and 92%.
Wednesday
On Wednesday I began class with a Spot the Differences photo. I went to 270toWin and took screenshots of the 2020 election map and the 2022 election map. Students had to spot 10 differences.
One by one, students came up and circled differences. When we were done, I told the class, “The number represents the amount of representatives, plus two senators.” Then I asked, “Why did Ohio go from 18 representatives to 17 representatives in 2022?” I was hoping students could use their knowledge of the house of representatives to guess…..and they got it right!!
Then we switched gears to a Number Mania and the 3/5ths Compromise. Before out Number Mania, I combined Great Compromise questions with 3/5ths Compromise questions. The students did well with Great Compromise questions, and awful with 3/5ths Compromise content.
Next, I had students read an articles on the compromises over slavery. I had them choose two numbers related to compromises, 2 numbers related to effects of those compromises, and another random number. The Number Manias were okay, I need something else to pair with the article (textbook section) I have for the students. Here are some examples:
Thursday
Thursday, I wanted to extend the Constitution and Slavery compromises lesson to a SHEG lesson on, “Why did the Founding Fathers keep slavery in the Constitution?” However, someone threw water all over the hallway, I slipped and fell, I cleaned up the water, and drama was happening. It wasn’t even 7:45 AM. I decided I needed a lesson to cheer me up so we did the Egg Dash Challenge. This is a great review game from EMC2Learning.
I don’t want to give away all the detail, but here is a link to John Meehan’s blog about the Egg Dash Challenge. I had the plastic eggs, I created 21 questions, and I gave the students 20 minutes to answer as many questions as possible. The first 5 minutes they could not use their Chromebook.
The students had a blast, I had a blast. This was a much needed lesson for the bad start to my day. At the conclusion of the lesson, I had the students do a Gimkit with similar, and the same, questions from the Egg Dash. The final class averages were: 82%, 84%, 83%, 81%, 89%. The questions were copied from the Quizizz I used for the Great Compromise, 3/5ths Compromise, and previous Gimkit questions about the Articles of Confederation.
The bolded number above (81%) came from my 7th period. When I first began the Gimkit, they were talking and randomly clicking. I stopped the game 3 minutes in. They were not happy. However, I explained to them (I’m know for my off the cuff speeches – sometimes rants):
“I stopped the game because this class has failed to get over a 58% class average on a Gimkit we have taken 4 or 5 times. It appears I’m mad at you, but I’m not. However, I’m confused. I’m disappointed. If anything, I’m mad at myself. Mad at myself because I’m a teacher of the year twice over and I can’t figure it out. I can’t figure this class out. I tried to motivate you by asking everyone to answer 20 or more questions, get a class average of 70% or higher, and I would give you 4 extra credit points. But that didn’t work. I can’t lower the bar to 60%. That’s the equivalent of me asking you to practice hard for only 10 minutes at practice. How good are we going to be at football, basketball, or wrestling if I ask you to work hard for 10 minutes at 2 hour practice? Do better. Be better. Not for me, but for you.” That’s not word for word, but that’s pretty damn close.
We tried again, and the class average miraculously went up to an 81%. I jokingly said, “I can’t give an impromptu motivational speech everyday.”
Friday
On Friday we went back to the lesson I wanted to do on Thursday. There is a SHEG lesson about slavery in the Constitution. The perfect pairing with this lesson was a 3xCER that I learned from Ariana Hernandez.
We began the lesson by discussing the grievance on slavery removed from the Declaration of Independence. We looked at these questions:
- How did Jefferson describe slavery?
- Who did he blame for the slave trade?
- Why do you think they removed this grievance?
Then I copied and pasted four quotes from the Founding Fathers, and two historian interpretations on why the Founding Fathers kept slavery in the Constitution. I love using the 3xCER with this because it allows the students to practice using claims, evidence, and reasoning 3 times as opposed to once with the original lesson.
Some of the classes, I did an I Do, We Do, You Do. Other classes, I reminded them about a claim and the purpose of reasoning. Here are some examples:
One Final Thought
You can follow me on TikTok now – @moler3031. I posted a video on TikTok about changing the settings on a Google Doc, Slide, or Sheet to prevent people from copying your file or prevent students from copying and pasting. I just made a video to share something that could be useful.
In 2 1/2 days, it has been viewed over 33,000 times, 2,300 likes, favorited 750 times, and many many comments. Like most things, 90% of the comments are great. However, I’m going to address the 10% negative comments…
- “You’re just trying to control student engagement.” – No. I don’t turn copying and pasting off every time. I only turn that off when I need students to think, and write something from their own mind.
- “He’s just trying to sell books.” – Yes, I’m trying to sell books. But I have given many, many books away because I want to. Plus, read this blog – I open up my classroom and give it away.
- “Make a more engaging lesson and students won’t copy and paste.” – I have many engaging lessons. Not every lesson is engaging. It doesn’t have to be. However, I don’t always turn off the copying function. Certain lessons, however, I do because I want the students to write on their own.
- “Did you notice he said he copied and pasted a textbook section to a doc and turned off the ability for students. Ridiculous.” – I do copy and paste sections and articles all the time so I can change some of the vocabulary or remove some of the fluff. I think textbooks add too much irrelevant stuff – that’s why I do that.
- “Why? Sometimes I want students to copy and paste text evidence without typos.” – Great! I don’t turn off the copying function EVERY time. Even if a student has a typo, the computer spell check feature, or Grammarly, will catch it.
I just turned off the comments. Sometimes as teachers, we are all or nothing. My 1 minute video isn’t suggesting to turn off the copying feature every time you share a Google Doc or Slide. I’m not suggesting that students are horrible cheaters. I’m simply throwing an option out, another tool, for teachers to use if it’s needed.
My last thought…One thing I would never do is comment on another teacher’s stuff in a negative fashion. I have no need to say something negative to a person I don’t know, or have never met in person. Plus, I have never visited that person’s classroom. A 280 character tweet, a 1 minute video, a picture doesn’t define the day in and day out stuff of a classroom or a teacher. Therefore, I refuse to comment negative, or critical stuff to another teacher. I may be turning comments off in the future.
Moler's Musings 