Lesson Plan: Introducing the Metro

Situating the Lesson:

This lesson will occur a few lessons into the unit. Students will have already been introduced to Washington, DC, its sites, and its neighborhoods. After that background knowledge has been established, this lesson on navigating the city will be done.

Methods of Inquiry: Students will be given ample opportunity to ask questions throughout the lesson.

Instructional Goals:

Students will be able to explain how to effectively use the Metro to navigate around Washington, DC and be able to explain how to use the internet to research how to use public transportation to get from point A to point B in the city.

Essential Questions:

What is the Metro?

What is WMATA?

How do I use the metro to travel?

How do I get to school from my house via Metro?

Where are important sites located along the Metro?

Standards:

3.1.3: Identify and locate major historical sites in and around Washington, DC.

3.1.4: Describe various types of communities within the city.

3.1.5: Describe the ways in which people have used and modified resources in the local region.

Instructional Materials:

Map of the metro

Internet computer connected to projector (or computer lab)

Location along metro of major monuments and sites (for teacher)

Smart Trip Card

Metro Fair Card

Pencils

Mystery Box

Worksheet: Point A to Point B

Set Induction:

I liked Jenna’s idea for using the mystery box, so I’m stealing it. Introduce mystery box, have students ask yes/no questions to try and figure out what is in the box. In the box will be a metro fair card. After they see the metro fair card, I will then show them a SmartTrip card and explain the difference. This part of the lesson will be conducted in the classroom. Following the completion of this portion, we will head to the computer lab.

Procedure:

1. Set induction

2. Discussion: What is the metro? Who uses the metro? Have you ever used the metro and where have you gone on it? Where can we get from the metro? Teacher guided discussion of the children’s background knowledge of the Metro.

3. Have students go to wmata.com and show them how to navigate to the interactive metro map.

4. Have students describe the map: what do you notice? What do you think the colors mean? Where is the school located?

5. Direct instruction of how the metro works, paying for fair cards or smart trip and how basic navigation on the metro works.

6. Review of instruction: ask students how they would get from point A to point B on the Metro.

7. Independent Student Practice: Students complete the A - B worksheet. The worksheet contains a list of several of the historical sites located we have previously discussed, the students need to use the website and internet to determine how to get from the school to each of those sites.

8. When worksheet is complete, hand out the homework, a blank sheet of paper, and a map of the metro. Students are to draw a loose map of how to get from their home to school via the metro

Assessment/Closure:

Students will demonstrate their understanding of basic metro navigation in two ways: the in class worksheet and the at home map. Students complete a worksheet telling me how to get from the school to various historical and other sites around Washington, DC, illustrating they know how to use the internet to find the location of such sites, and how to use the WMATA website to learn how to travel. Their homework will also demonstrate to me that they understand how to use the metro as they draw me a map from their home to school and tell me how to get there via the metro.

Learning Process 2

I really like the concept of Takaki's book, providing history and details about minority groups of people that are often overlooked in our social studies curriculum, or looked at in passing. Too often in our classrooms, we do not integrate the history of these peoples into our daily instruction. We might include these groups in the curriculum, but as an afterthought, such as "Black History Month." Takaki's book puts many of these different races and ethnicities on the forefront. Each chapter focuses on the history of a different group or people. I think this is both a strength and weakness of the book. One of the issues I'm gathering that Takaki has with current social studies instruction is that these groups are not integrated into the curriculum and he brings that to our attention by providing us with a book that provides a synopsis/timeline of important historical facts regarding the history of these different groups of people. At the same time, I view this concept as its own weakness too. This is because Takaki takes each of these groups separately and provides the history separately, not integrated into true American history, which seems to be what he wants educators to do. So what does this mean for educators? It means that Takaki's book is supposed to be used as a supplement. It is great that it provides us with an organized background of these different groups. To effectively use this in the classroom, as our units progress, we need to incorporate the histories of these peoples into daily instruction. If we are teaching a sequential history, we use Takaki's book as a guide for recalling what happened to various groups during that particular period in history and integrate it during that lesson, rather than go back to it later. If we teach our students about these groups of people as afterthoughts to the curriculum, that's exactly how they are going to view them, as unimportant side stories to the development of American culture.

I wish I could include something about what I am learning in the classroom with regards to social studies, but we still have not begun social studies in my classroom. The farthest we have gotten is giving the students their textbooks.

Mini-Ethnography

• Description of the class

· What subject matter is being taught?

• I did an hour and a half observation spanning writer’s workshop and word studies (we haven’t started social studies in the classroom yet).

· What are the class demographics, including race, ethnicity, and gender?

• There were 21 students in the class, 11 boys and 10 girls. Ethnically, they are a diverse group consisting of 10 African Americans, 1 Middle Eastern student, 5 Caucasian students, and the rest of Latin American descent. 3 of the students are English Language Learners and 1 student is special education.

• School Culture

· How is the school structured?

• The school is Pre-K-5^th grade. Each grade consists of one class. Pre-K-2 is 1 teacher and 3^rd-5^th grade is departmentalized. Each classroom consists of 1 teacher and 1 permanent aid.

· Are students tracked?

· How do the social studies figure into the overall curriculum?

• Social Studies is a secondary thought to my classroom’s curriculum. It is something my teacher would like to include and they even have textbooks; however, it is something she has not yet had time to include in the daily schedule. Every day focuses on reading, writing, and mathematics.

· How long are class periods?

• There are no set class periods, but any given subject tends to be taught for about 45 minutes at a time.

· Are there bells?

• The only bells are the morning bell signaling the start of school and the end of the day bell signaling time to go home.

· What is the racial, ethnic, and socio-economic composition of the students, teachers, and administrators?

· What are the general academic and behavioral expectations for students at this school?

• The daily expectations of the students in my classroom are: be on time, complete all assignments to the best of your ability, be respectful of each other and of the teacher, keep your hands to yourself, respect and listen whoever is speaking.

· How does the school fit into the organization of the school district?

• Charter school

• Classroom arrangement

· How do students group before or after class (assuming they are not allowed to do this during class)?

• The only time they can group themselves is during recess, which usually consists of girls grouping together and boys grouping together.

· How does the teacher group the students?

• The teacher typically groups the students according to ability, this is especially true with reading and with word studies. Literature groups are based on student reading level, and word study groups are based on reading/writing level.

· How does the classroom arrangement affect student learning?

• The arrangement allows students free reign of motion during appropriate times. The tables are fairly close together so students can interact with students from other tables during appropriate times. The carpet provides a nice place for everyone to come together and receive directions.

· How does the classroom arrangement reflect the teacher’s beliefs about what it means to be a teacher and a learner?

• The arrangement seems to reflect a belief that a classroom should be open and welcoming. Students sit together and the adults wander the room assisting individual or groups of students as needed.

• Student behavior

· How do students interact with each other?

• Student interactions vary a great deal. One student, MA, who I have observed several times, is often very proud of his work and wants to share it with everyone. During writers workshop, he will often start talking with his two table mates about what he has written. He also will walk to other tables and talk about his story. He is not self-centered, however, as he seems to always ask everyone else what they are writing about as well.

· How do students interact with the teacher?

• The students have a great deal of respect for the teacher. They always appear to be a little upset with themselves when they seem to have let her down in some way. They often walk up to share their work with her or the other adults of the room.

• Teacher behavior

· How does the teacher interact with the students?

• The teacher is very welcoming. She is often firm, but fair. She asks a lot of her students but very clearly enjoys all of their work.

· How does the teacher engage the content material?

• The content in these areas of observation is very simple. The teacher typically does a read-aloud, asking questions throughout and after to check for student understanding and comprehension. She is very firm about having students raise their hands often saying, “Hold your volcano.” During word studies, students are put into groups based on ability and different adults of the room work with different groups individually guiding them through the activities.

• Pedagogy

· What are the observable goals or objectives of the lesson?

• The goals of the lesson are always made clear to the students at the beginning of the lesson. The teacher explains what the class will be doing and what she helps they will walk away knowing. During writer’s workshop, the goal was for students to continue developing personal stories about themselves.

· What specific teaching/learning methods does the teacher use?

• The teacher utilizes read-alouds and thematic units to help teach students about new things in the classroom and different styles and story elements so they can develop their own stories better.

· What specific teaching/learning methods do the students use?

· How does the teacher transition from one activity to the next?

• The teacher typically will transition from one activity to the next by bringing all of the students back to the carpet. This is signaled by a ringing of a bell and the directive to come to the carpet for new directions.

· How do students interact with the content material?

• When listening to read-alouds, the students are extremely engaged. At the start of the stories, most students are sitting upright focused on the story. Depending on the length of the story, by the end, some are often getting fidgety and restless, but still interested in the outcome of the story. When writing their own stories, they love to share with each other and the adults what they are writing about. During math, the students often play “everyday math” games. They enjoy these games, but quickly get bored with them and want to learn new ones often. They are usually pretty active in their work, but they need to have several small activities planned in advance to keep them focused. This is evidenced by the fact that during writer’s workshop, after about fifteen minutes, students start to get up and walk around to other tables and the teacher has to use the bell to get their attention and redirect their focus.

· What resources are used in the lesson? How are they used?

• There are three adults in the classroom for writer’s workshop who walk around and help the students as needed. Writer’s workshop is preceded by a read-aloud and discussion of literary elements. There are several styles of worksheets with varying numbers of lines and smaller room for pictures. Colored pencils, markers, and crayons are all utilized for the illustrations.

· What/who is the focus of the lesson?

• The focus of the lesson is always the students. Additionally, for writer’s workshop, the focus is on developing more detailed sentences and combining sentences to make coherent stories. When helping students, the adults always ask the students who read them their stories different questions to help get more details out of them such as “how they feel, what they saw, etc” and ask the students to expand on it and write it down.

· What kinds of questions do the teacher and students ask?

• Most of the student questions, in fact, almost all of the student questions during writer’s workshop are about spelling. At this point, we as the adults, help the students phonemically sound out the words and write it down.

• Assessment

· How does the teacher check for student understanding of the material?

• During read-alouds, the teacher checks for understanding through comprehension questions. Additionally, she likes to use thematic units. Currently, we are doing a read-aloud unit on Mo Willems. Everyday she reads a different Mo Willems story and asks the students to recall other Mo Willems stories, how they are similar, how they are different, and what literary elements he uses.

· What does the teacher acknowledge as assessment to the students?

• The teacher has not started true assessment of the students yet. She always collects work and goes over it. She has been building a foundation of knowledge on where the students are at educationally. She introduced yesterday the concept of rubric to the students and informed them that next week she will start grading their work on a four point scale to help push them to do the best they can.

· How does the teacher assess students informally?

• As just mentioned, the teacher assesses the students informally through the collection of all of their work. She uses this work as a basis for understanding student needs and uses it to differentiate instruction and create groups.

· What do the assessments look like?

• The assessments come in the form of worksheets and feedback. The students write their stories on worksheets as well as fill out math worksheets. Everyday the teacher brings the students back to the carpet after writer’s workshop and reads a couple of the students’ work out loud and discusses with the class the work and what was good about it and how the other students can incorporate this kind of practice into their own work. Again, formal assessment has not started in the curriculum yet.