curriculum units -- seminar review

[Anonymous]

Dear Jonathon:

You are right, I need to hone the focus. Thanks for the input!!!! See you on Tuesday, I hope.

Elsie

[Anonymous]

Your lessons remind me of Joyce Appleby's work, Telling the Truth About History. In it she writes history "involves power and exclusion, for any history [is] told by that someone's point of view....a democratic practice of history__one in which an ever growing chorus of voices is heard [by] open processes and research, and engaged public discussion of the meaning of historical facts." (Appleby, 10) Your lessons epitomize that historical approach. Your first lessons serves to tease out the differences between philosophies. Not only does it present great information, the lesson requires students to compare and thus examine the nuances of a culture. I especially like the lesson on the role of women. Too often women, in any culture, are silenced through omission. Thanks for resurrecting these voices and empowering the young women through this lesson.Finally, the lesson on the Silk Road has many valuable attributes including the use of primary documents. Even though students might struggle with reading those primary documents, they certainly contribute to the " ever-growing chorus of voices." Even though these lessons are designed for an AP WOrld History class, I am sure they can be modified for 6th & 7th grade history as well.

[Anonymous]

I really like how your leasson is hitting higher order thinking. Instead of having the students answer questions on a primary document, your having them think about who this document effects and why this document is apealling. The one thing I really enjoyed reading was your acronym. It does a good job at discribing the different aspects of fascism, and easy for the students to remember. Is the essay going to be a full blown essay with supporting paragraphs, and several drafts? Overall I think you have a great lesson plan with alot of potential for the students.

[Anonymous]

I like how your forcing the students to analyze the poem. Not just tell you what the poem says but how the surroundings help write the poem. You can have them act out the poems which would be fun in my opinion. How much in detail are you going to go into the chicano and african american poetry? I'm only curious so because I want to know how the students will make their comparisons. Analysing the short Haiku's will be a challenge for the students, force them to think, and become better students over all which is why I like your leason.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Andrew for your great feedback! I feel that our elementary students can learn so much through cultural knowledge but due to time and lack of money we don't give them that option. Assessments are an aspect that I am constantly trying to improve upon but I ran out of time before I could really think of an authentic assessment. I usually give them multiple choice on geographical facts (On which continent is Korea located?), music notation (How many beats is a dotted quarter note?) and they answer in short essay on cultural issues (What mood does 'Arirang' exhibit? Why does it sound this way?). When learning about other countries and cultures, I also have them make connects (i.e. our Civil War and the great music that sprang out of that event).

There so many ways one could assess the understanding of a culture and its history through music. The possibilities are endless!
edited by gletford on 1/17/2011
edited by gletford on 1/17/2011

[Anonymous]

2nd review for Michael Oviedo

I was only listed to review one person, it looked like you only had one review so I reviewed your. Overall I thought it was a great leson plan. The only question I had was in regard to the English learners. Is there any vocabulary they would have difficulty with? If so, what type of activities would you do to front load them with the vocabulary?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the review. One thing you should know, my school and classroom is lucky enough to have enough computers for all students (usually). So all material is delivered to the student by computer and almost all work is submitted by computer as well.

[Anonymous]

This has been an amazing experience to come together with other professionals and learn about Asian countries. As an elementary educator, I believe it is important to introduce these concepts as early as possible.Children begin their schemas and social constructs of unknown cultures in the elementary years. Unfortunately, many misconceptions and stereotypes are in those constructs. Likewise as a global studies and music teacher, I use this truth to begin helping students gain a better understanding of these unexplored cultures. Throughout this course, I have developed a great Korean Unit that involved the students doing the Korean Fan dance, Sangmo dance and listening to ‘Arirang’ while deeply discussing Korea’s past and how it connects to the art Koreans have produced. We have analyzed the economies of both the Korea’s and predicted future outcomes while researching current events.

This course has certainly opened my horizons to help me be a better educator and world citizen! KamSamNida!!

[clay dube]

Hi Folks,
As you know, you are expected to develop lesson plans to cover about three days of classes. Some of you will want to develop full units and in other cases you'll develop standalone lessons that can be added to existing units. Please refer to the seminar requirements for details about what you are expected to do. In brief, your plans should be sufficiently detailed that someone could pick them up and make them work immediately. This means that you've thought out what discussion launching questions to use, you've identified vocabulary and other challenges in any reading selections, and so on. All this should be spelled out. Our aim is to have you fully think through the lessons so that you'll definitely put them to use.

As I explained in an email three weeks ago, we're trying something new with this group. Rather than just submitting your materials to us for review, we're asking that each of you offer colleagues suggestions on their units. This is intended to provide participants with more feedback sooner.

You are to post your draft units in this thread (please just hit the reply button, then change the subject line to your name and the name of your lessons -- e.g., Clay Dube, population and development). Then put in a brief statement (these are three lessons focusing on....). Upload your lessons as an attachment. Ideally you will put all the documents into a single file (use the insert command in your word processor) and upload them.

You must upload your materials by 11 pm on Jan. 8. Of course, if you upload them early, people can comment on them earlier and you can finish your revisions and submit the final version earlier.

You must comment on the two units you have volunteered for/been assigned by 11 pm on Jan. 14. Please just hit reply to the post with your assigned unit and then change the subject line to (e.g., Thomas Trojan comments on Dube lessons). Your comments should be about 50-150 words in length. Assess the appropriateness of the objectives, the methods used, and the materials employed. Offer suggestions for improvement (other resources, a different activity).

Consider the suggestions you've been offered while revising your unit. Submit the revised version in hard copy and in electronic form (on a cd, is best, we need to use this to retain it for our records) by Jan. 21. We'll mail the hard copy back to you with additional feedback in about a month.

[Anonymous]

I developed this from an existing lesson I have taught, centered around a story in our 7th Grade anthology called "Ribbons" by Laurence Yep. While the focus of this lesson is really on conflict resolution, which was a main theme in the story, the backdrop is China. It is easy to center more on China and the practice of Chinese foot binding if one needed to.

[Author]

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