Reflection on Unit/Lesson Plan

Integrated Technology Unit/ Lesson Plan Reflection

Nelly and I wrote and Unit Plan and Lesson Plan on the Civil War. For the most part, I thought we did very well. A lot goes into planning a Unit Plan and organizing a lesson. I thought this was a good experience to have before we actually become teachers in the near future. Areas that I thought we did well in included the planning of each individual lesson, and incorporating in with another subject. We had a total of four lessons, and for one we incorporated economics and math, reading/comprehension, Civics, and Technology. It is really important for students to get cross curricular lesson plans, as it works towards higher order thinking for the students. I also thought we did well in incorporating technology into the lesson plan. Students love to play games and many are also big on visual learning too, which we had a game over the Internet and a video about the Civil War to show.

Areas that I think we needed to work on include having a specific set of rules for the Jeopardy game. Nelly and I did not how active students would be in the game, and now that we saw how they were we both agreed that for any classroom game to be played, a detailed set of rules must be followed in order for the class to not get out of control. However, this game did turn out to be a success because many students learned a lot of facts and retained the information during the game.

In order to teach this lesson, teachers need to have a strong knowledge or background in history, specifically the Civil War. In order to pass on the knowledge to other students, they need to have all their facts straight. Resources needed to teach this lesson include the Social Studies Textbook and various attachments and worksheets for the students. If technology was not available the teacher would still be able to teach this lesson, technology is not required. However, in the technology integrated unit, it serves as a great tool to aid to the teacher’s lesson as a study tool, and a way for students to comprehend the information. Overall, I think we did a great job, and I think this experience will help us to become better teachers in the near future!

My lesson is related to the TPCK Model because it combines the content knowledge, the Pedagogical knowledge, and the technical knowledge all in one lesson. The content knowledge relates to history specifically th Civil War. The Pedagogical knowledge or how to teach the lesson uses a variety of ways. In the beginning of class the teacher leads the discussion after the video trying to engage the students. Then the lesson advises to guide the teaching and have students work in groups as the teacher walks around, and the third is to have a whole group session where the whole class interaacts. Technological knowledge is use through out the whole lesson, first by showing a video to th class, second having the students research websites and learn how to use the internet. Lastly, the students play a game and learn that technology can be used as a study tool. I think it is important for teachers to include the TPCK Model in their lessons because it brings the most out of a lesson, and has students reach towards higher order thinking

References: http://teched2010.wikispaces.com/TPCK+Model