Lesson Plan 1 – History and its Cultural Legacies: Democracy for the Greeks

GANAG Format Lesson Plan:

Subject Area: Social Studies

Grade: 7^th

Goal: Students will know about the cultural legacy of democracy for the Greeks, during the period of time from the 6th century B.C. to the 4th century B.C; then they will be able to begin comparing it to their current lives, specifically to their school community.

Access: Students will draw a map of Greece without aids, with the details they remember of the political map we saw in the last lesson of Greece in the 6th century B.C., and with the most details they remember of the physical map they replicated from the current Greece.

New Information: The teacher will present the topic of democracy for the Greeks, based on the reading students had to do on the topic, describing how it was born and giving details about its development during the time frame from the moment it was created until the time of the suppression of democratic institutions because of Macedonian hegemony in 322 B.C. and will answer students’ questions. Students will individually write a question regarding something they want to know about the topic, and then share the question with the class.

Apply: Students will then compare what they learned about democracy in the Greeks and what they know about democracy now. They will in pairs make a chart with the following columns: characteristics of democracy in the Greeks, characteristics of democracy in their school community, similarities between both, and differences between the two. In the exercise it has to be clear what they think democracy is about, its essence, topic in which we will go further in the following class.

Generalization: At the end of the lesson students will write individually a definition of democracy in their own words and post it on the wall of the classroom.

Decision Making and the Brain

Here is my presentation on decision making and the brain.

goo.gl/WQ82Ah


Best Regards,

Reflection 4 – How to promote a growth mindset in your students: A practical approach

In the last reflection I gave an example of how inclusion can be achieved through differentiated instruction, in this reflection I will give an example of how a teacher can guide the students so they can have a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset in various spheres of their life; this taking into account what we saw in class about mindsets. Having a growth mindset is paramount for a person throughout their life. This is why it’s very important that teachers become conscious of their role as guides of the students in this process; a teacher, through different activities, can show them the importance of the following: effort, strategy, process, resilience, perseverance, discipline, and improvement, and can teach them to know their own abilities and to develop them. I will show in this reflection a practical example where a teacher can help their students in this process while learning many other important things. The example is for the social studies class; however, it can be applied to other subjects. The first day of each week in which we have class, two students will together present a positive news which has to be related to what we saw the previous week (or to the topics of the subject if they don’t find the latter). They will present it to the rest of the classroom in a creative way. Subsequently, they will promote the participation of their classmates so they can give their opinions on the topic; for example through a debate, where it’s important that the following topics are discussed: how the news connects to the class, what makes the news positive, and its relevancy. The teacher will define with the students which are the characteristics of positive news. This activity will help them to: improve in their growth mindset process, see different positive role models that can inspire them, understand that in the world and in the country there are many positive things, learn to connect the subject with the current events, understand that the topics of the subject are meaningful and relevant to them in their daily lives, use prior knowledge to understand new information, and learn about the abilities we mentioned before and practice it in their own lives, among others. The assessment of this activity will also help them in this process, because they will need to connect to the emotions of their classmates and the teacher through the news they choose, in order to promote participation. A small activity can make the difference for our students.

   

Reflection 3 – Inclusion through differentiation: sequential learners, global learners, and exploratory learners

On the last reflection I talked about metacognition, and how it can be achieved through the formula of deduction plus discovery. In this reflection I will address the importance of taking into account the multiple intelligences in education, specifically the broader categories; this considering the reading assigned and the presentation on the topic in the last class. For us teachers, it’s very important to teach our subject considering the multiple intelligences, in order to engage all the students in class in the learning process and give them opportunities according to their strengths; this is really what education is about, inclusion. With reference to the three broader categories: sequential learners, global learners, and exploratory learners; here is an example of how to address each one of them in the classroom. This example is for the social studies subject, and it takes into account the importance of using different types of repetitions in the learning process, the same topic can be taught in such a way that it will include the three broader categories we talked about, the key is differentiated instruction; the topic is the French Revolution. In this case the teacher has already analyzed each student under the scope of multiple intelligences, finding their strengths according to the broader categories. First the teacher will set the goals for the day, then he/she will carry out an activity to access to the prior knowledge of students, and subsequently the teacher will present general information on the topic, giving information on the causes that led to the occurrence of the French Revolution. Then will come the opportunity to differentiate through the activities students will carry out. The class will be divided in groups which will be chosen by the teacher according to the strengths of the students. There will be three groups based on the following categories: sequential learners, global learners, and exploratory learners, each group will subdivide to be able to carry out the tasks assigned. In the sequential learners’ group the task is to create a timeline where they will find all the important events that took place during the French Revolution, which they will present to the class and help them understand this event as a process, step by step, from parts to whole. The global learners group will carry out an activity where they will present graphically to the class the French Revolution, specifically the main consequences and the motto of this event (liberty, equality, and fraternity), and compare it to Colombia today; for example its influence in the Political Constitution of 1991. The exploratory learners group will have the task of recreating a main historical event of the French Revolution, for example the storming of the Bastille (what do the people demand), creating the scene and the scenario, so they can share with the class the experience of this event.