Lesson Planning Analysis Guidelines

Part 1. Lesson Description

I chose this specific content, because it was the area of focus for the social studies class at
this point in the quarter. In my previous lesson plan analysis, I talk about how I was given a
choice between reactions to imperialism and the regulator movement. However, I was given the
opportunity of teaching on the regulator movement, because that is just how the scheduling
worked. Going into this lesson, I knew nothing about the Regulator movement, so I had to delve
deep into the supporting document, scholarly articles, and teacher resources to find out the main
points of this movement. This is an eighth grade standard, which worked out perfectly since 7th
grade was having a summative that day. Luckily, the seminar room, an empty classroom
reserved for Socratic seminars, was empty that day. I chose to do guided notes, so that the
students have a reference for their follow-up work and future summatives. In my previous lesson,
I mentioned that I wanted to focus on engagement, so I had the students really delve into the
content. That is why I created nine different activities for the students to do so that they can do
what they want, while still having to state similar information about the movement. I went
through the Tate strategies and picked out some from different chapters. Some students chose to
draw a representation of the movement, a timeline, a brochure, a Venn diagram, or a poem. I
tried to make it as diverse as possible. I also added a summary choice, for students who would
rather just do that. I also chose them to search through the textbook briefly, so that they have
pages that the information is on, and refreshing that background knowledge.

Part II. Learning Connection

I really focused on the Tate strategies to help come up with the nine activities. I also
focused on choice. I wanted the students to have the choice to work alone, with pairs, or with a
group. I also wanted students to be able to choose what kind of project they wanted to choose. I
also brought in the classical background music, because I have learned in previous classes that t
helps with noise level. When I taught the lesson, I only used music in one class block and the
noise level was completely different; the class with music was quieter.

Part III. Open Reflection

I incorporated cross-curricular instruction by having the students reference back to their
previous ELA knowledge. I did this by having students write poems, take on different
perspectives, and summarizing the information. The timeline really made them research the topic
and find dates for the major events. Additionally, the weakest part of my lesson is searching the
text. Since, I have already taught this lesson I now know that the students do not know how to
skim the text. I should have modeled skimming the text for the students, that way the activity
could have been more useful. I believe, from the words that the students stated, they were just
finding random words from the text. Towards the end of the lesson, the words they had written di
do not specifically correlate with the topic and therefore they did not learn what the word meant
throughout the lesson. I also was very nervous the first lesson, since there were a lot of students,
so I forgot to play music and have a timer. I think this definitely negatively impacted my lesson;
however, my lesson still went as plan and the students enjoyed the activities I had for them.