Luke A.

Meuler LTM 622 Field #3 Observation #1 Reflection Questions (July 16, 2013) What theorist(s) informed the design and/or implementation of this lesson? Explain. Urie Bronfenbrenner informed this lesson through the deliberate design of allowing students to create definitions of the term imperialism and then build on them as a class through discussion. Students have different backgrounds in terms of school and home lives so the concept/definition map allows for a variety of interpretations and explanations of the term imperialism. Students were able to access their prior knowledge by giving examples of empires. The lesson also gave students an opportunity to make creative associations with imperialism by asking what is it like? Students were able to draw from their personal experiences which will influence their thinking as well as learn from other students to consider new possibilities. The exercise extends student knowledge of the concept of imperialism and raises self awareness in terms of prior knowledge and through the consideration of multiple perspectives. Benjamin Blooms work also informs this lesson. Blooms taxonomy seems central to most lessons in high school social studies because students must learn to think critically on multiple levels. With this lesson, students were accessing prior knowledge, extrapolating information from a textbook, offering creative interpretations, and making important connections to identify why the information is important for future lessons. Students were able to begin to consider how the topic of imperialism will be important for understanding future events in history, most notably the start of World War I. If you were to teach this lesson again, what elements of the design and implementation would you retain? Would you change anything? Explain. I am confident that the strategies I choose were appropriate for the students I was teaching. The implementation of the definition/concept map of imperialism was successful in terms of accessing the prior knowledge of students and using a textbook as a source to produce a variety of definitions. I also believe that it was important that I used student explanations throughout the class to enhance their understanding and empower them to contribute to future discussion topics. While I believe that the graphic organizer on motives of imperialism is an appropriate choice for these students, I would adjust the lesson by having the students complete that exercise independently before class. Then I could have students compare and contrast their responses based on their interpretations of the reading. After students compare and contrast I could lead a discussion on how to comprehend and organize the information from a textbook so that all students had access to common information and explanations when the lesson was complete, as well as a leading to a better understanding of how and why students may see the same concepts from different perspectives. What particular approaches to your discipline/strategies from 622 did you incorporate into this lesson? Discuss their effectiveness. One essential component of 622 that I reinforced in this lesson was to encourage higher levels of thinking. A challenge with social studies classes, particularly history, is that there are many choices that have to be made in terms of content to build effective lessons that also support skill-building. To prepare for this lesson, students read a section of a World History textbook and completed reading comprehension activities. The reading comprehension activities included strategies to gather facts and strategies to encourage higher level critical thinking, particularly through asking open-ended questions. The students completed these activities and were able to use them during the quiz as well as prepare for higher level thinking through classroom learning activities. What dispositions towards teaching and learning were evident in this lesson? That is, if another teacher or principal saw you facilitate this lesson, what would they say about your dispositions towards learners and pedagogy? How did you, for example, do what it takes to help learners succeed? How did you differentiate instruction? I believe that my approach is student-centered and that anyone observing would agree. I work to model strategies as well as listening skills that are essential in a social learning environment. I am supportive of student ideas so that they can be confident in their ability to contribute positively to the discussion. I establish goals and organize activities so that students can build trust in me as a teacher to be prepared and supportive so that learning is the focus of our classroom time together.