Nate Sloat

Lesson Reflection 1
1. The learning target was mostly achieved. Students were asked to determine if
the Dark Ages were really as dark as their name suggests. At the beginning of
the lesson students were asked through a formative assessment how they
would define a dark age. They had varying beliefs but in general hit the
primary attributes assigned to the dark ages. Worse education, fewer
freedoms, lack of central government, decline in art and scientific
achievement, people just going through the motions. Students drew some
conclusions based upon the fairly limited resources that were provided to
them as primary and secondary sources. During the activity Oworked with
students on several of the guiding questions that challenged them to get an
idea of their level of progress. After the activity we had a class discussion.
Students were able to recognize both sides of the argument from the data
that was presented. For the most part students fell somewhere in the middle.
Students were also able to acknowledge the problems with the resources
they were provided. These included having limited perspectives (many
dealing with monks, and not with different social classes), only having male
perspectives, not covering enough geographic space, or time. Students were
asked what would be an acceptable amount of information and it ended up
being fairly large for students to be satisfied. They were asked if such labels
should even be attempted. Many replied that they should not because they
cover up the complexities of history.
2. If I was going to teach the lesson a second time, there are several things I
would do differently. First and foremost, I need to improve my wait time skills.
I also would try to know more of the students names, so that I could call on
those who were off task to pull them into the lesson. I would also go through
the slides more slowly, as well as practicing them more so that I could do a
better job of highlighting the important information. Lastly I really liked the
way my teacher concluded the lesson after I had finished. He had all of the
students stand up and go to the end of the room for if they thought the dark
ages was good, or vice versa. This got them off their feet and made them
make a decision. As an exit ticket Mr. OGrady had the students write a thesis
statement on if the dark ages were dark or not. This helped to wrap
everything up much better on an individual level then a group discussion did.
3. The next lesson I play to teach is on the Columbian Exchange. I am going to
format this lesson differently than my other lessons. The first two lessons I
taught have primarily had the students evaluate primary sources, respond to
guiding questions and then discuss. The Columbian exchange will deal with
the idea of cultural dispersion; how different goods took time to move
geographically. They will be making a map that tracks the movement of these
goods over time. Second students will be working with data on populations
for different regions. They will be looking to see if there is any impact of the
Columbian exchange on regional populations. To do this, students will be
asked to graph the data in excel. They will also be using excel formula tools in
different ways and evaluating if these different strategies make the data

clearer. Lastly the students will be comparing their map with dates, to the
data that they collected. They will be looking for patterns and correlations. If
there is time students will be asked is if this is merely a correlation and not a
causation, what other information would provide more clear evidence of
causation. By utilizing excel to do real work students will learn some valuable
transferable skills.