Index Setting Standards Learning Objective Applications of Learning Theory Constructivism is certainly at play in this lesson plan: Learning Allocations: Resource Allocation: Content-Based Literacy Skills Content-Based Literacy Skills new media Teaching material: Learning plan procedures Phase I: Motivation activities Phase II: Input activities (teacher-led): Phase III: Activities output (student-driven) Recording will begin Phase V: Extension Analyzing the Learning Plan References The learning plan described in this document requires students to debate a topic related to the Civil War. The topic of the debate is “Was the Emancipation Proclamation issued for moral or political reasons?” The main concept of this learning plan is to have students work collaboratively to research facts and remember and use facts from the Civil War unit to incorporate into their arguments. (It should be noted that the learning plan described in this document will require several lessons to complete, however the learning plan procedures will only cover the class in which the debate will take place.) It is assumed that debate skills have been taught in a previous class. Learning theory certainly incorporates constructivist aspects. They are building knowledge instead of absorbing it. This constructivist approach is illustrated through the collaborative nature of the assignment, as well as through the research that students are asked to produce. In terms of the use of technology and media; students will be asked to search for a source of information, from the Internet, related to their argument. They must submit a one-page analysis of the information they found along with a page of references. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. This must be sent to the teacher one week before the scheduled discussion. The teacher will evaluate the content of the paper, but the references page will also be important. The teacher must evaluate the type of Internet sources used by students. The teacher will analyze the credibility of the Internet source and the strength of the students' research. The purpose is to assess the student's traditional literacy and critical analysis skills (assessed during the content assessment) and computer literacy/interpretation skills of online material (assessed by examining the reference page). Finally, the teacher will return the documents to the students and instruct each group to use at least two of the group members' documents in their group's arguments. Media and technology will also be incorporated with the use of social media. The teacher will notify students that their discussions will be recorded and posted to YouTube or a private school website (if privacy concerns are raised). Others will be allowed to view the video to gauge the strength of each team's arguments. Based on comments from public viewers, a winner will be chosen (via popular vote). This popular vote will be incorporated as a small percentage into the evaluation. This is done to enable students to participate in new media opportunities within an educational context. Context of the Learning Plan The high needs school will be a high school in the Bay Area, San Francisco, or Oakland. There will be 25-30 students in an individual class. The lesson will take place the week after completing the Civil War unit. Yesexpect the unit to last approximately two weeks, so the debate class will take place during the third week. The actual debate class will take up one class period. The content area is United States History/Politics. The school level is Juniors (11th grade). In summary, the curriculum unit is 11th Grade, United States History/Politics, Civil War Unit. Standards According to California standards for literacy in History/Social Studies in grades 6-12. A student must be able to demonstrate analysis of primary and secondary sources and connect these insights to understanding the entire text. This ability will be addressed and assessed when students are expected to incorporate information learned from the textbook with information obtained from the Internet and use both sources of information in their debate. The student's ability to carry out this task will be evaluated by the teacher both with the presentation of the student's sources and during the debate. (http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards.pdf.) Also according to California standards, students must be able to evaluate various explanations for events and actions. Learning Objectives Students will be able to collaboratively demonstrate their knowledge of Civil War politics, events, and information from textbook and online sources by formulating arguments to present in a debate. Applications of Learning Theory Constructivism is certainly at play in this lesson plan: The activity allows you to organize knowledge into patterns, concepts and worldviews. This activity emphasizes the use of authentic activities by building knowledge through interaction with environments (internet and colleagues) and applying it to real-life situations (debate). The collaborative component certainly illustrates constructivism; students will help each other make conceptual connections. Finally, students work independently with the help of the teacher as a facilitator, supporter, and role model (Ormrod, 2006). Learning Accommodations: Individualized Education Plan for Special Accommodations: On each team, all students will be assigned a role. For example, "speaker", "writer", "timekeeper". The student's IEP will be considered when assigning roles. A student with an IEP will be assigned a role that best fits their IEP. For example, a student with ADD may be better at timing because their attention span is not as focused. They may be anxious to change the pace of the group's discussions and therefore may be anxious about keeping track of time. Language Development Needs: When Assigning Internet-Based Research; the teacher will provide ELL students with a website to browse, rather than leaving students to browse the Internet on their own. The teacher will give explicit instructions about where to look on the website so that students do not feel too overwhelmed by the English language. The teacher will ask the students to try to understand some information, however if this proves too difficult then the teacher will have the students ask them to find 15-20 words from the website that the student did not understand. The student will then find the meaning of these words in their own language. They must write at least one paragraph about the Civil War unit incorporating five of the words they found on the Internet. Additionally, at least two of these words must be incorporated into your team's arguments. Gifted and talented needs: This is a challenging component to consider because a gifted/talented student does not necessarily mean a rigorous studentacademic. To truly tailor the lesson to a gifted/talented student's interests, the teacher will need to be familiar with that particular student's personality. However, some situations will be addressed here. First, from the research, the lesson itself is appropriate for that of a gifted/talented student. Competition, which characterizes a debate, usually suits the nature of gifted/talented students. The first situation to consider is a gifted/talented, but not academically rigorous, student. This student will be assigned a leadership role within their team. He/she may be assigned the task of organizing/managing all students' ideas. He/she will be given a sheet of what the teacher evaluates by observing the group's discussions and topics. He/she is the manager and will be evaluated on his/her ability to keep his/her team engaged. In this way, this student is not necessarily doing more “academic” work, but is being challenged in a rather difficult way. A second situation to consider is having a gifted/talented student who is academically rigorous. The teacher will give the student a second component to add to his or her research paper. The student must connect textbook and Internet material to American politics today. This is increasing the cognitive process from analysis (which all students must do with their research papers) to evaluation (Anderson and Krathwol, 2001). The student can choose to incorporate this extra component into their team's arguments. Resources Available: Low Tech: There are no computers, projectors, or Internet access in the classroom. In this case, the teacher may have to set aside time in several lessons to use school facilities where computers are available. Computers should be used so that the teacher can show students the types of credible websites, as well as use sites, such as YouTube, to show students examples of debates. Computer use is necessary, so the teacher may need to take time before or after school to meet with students (who wish) to show them the websites mentioned above. Medium Technology: A computer connected to a projector is available in the classroom. The teacher can use this computer to show examples of credible websites, as well as examples of online debates. High-tech: The classroom is equipped with several computers. Teams can go online to view videos of the discussions and start research for their article. This way, the collaborative nature of the lesson will start even earlier (in the pre-planning phase). Content-based literacy skillsIn terms of text-based literacy; students must incorporate information from the textbook into their arguments. Critical thinking, reflective thinking, and text-supported thinking will be illustrated as students draw connections between Internet-based information and textbook information as they carry out their analysis/research paper. This connection will be evaluated as students indicate sources within their article. (This explanation will also illustrate students' information literacy.) New Media Literacy Skills Performance: This skill is illustrated when students view sample debates on the Internet and use them as performance models in their debates. Collective intelligence: This skill is acquired when students are within their teams and must draw on their own and others' ideas, research, and knowledge to make strong arguments. Verdict: thisskill is illustrated when students must judge which websites and information should be included in their research/analysis paper. Networking: Once again, this skill is illustrated when students must search for, connect to, and analyze information on the Internet for the purposes of their research/analysis paper (Jenkins, 2001). Teaching materials: Textbook: Students will need textbooks so they can remember the information. Pen and paper: Students will need this so they can write down the information. Rubric: Both the student and the teacher need this . Students need this to be aware of what is expected of them as they work in groups and formulate their arguments. The teacher needs it to be able to refer to it when evaluating the team's progress. Notes: Students will need this as a reference when formulating arguments. Stopwatch/Clock: Will be given to the student whose job is timekeeper. Video Camera: Used to record the debate Learning Plan Procedures Phase I: Motivation Activities The teacher will show a short clip of a very powerful and interesting debate. Maybe a presidential debate. The clip will only show the most touching part (according to the teacher) of the debate. Hopefully the clip is no longer than 5 minutes. (If there is no computer available, the teacher must bring his or her own computer.) In a classroom of 30 chairs/tables. There will be 15 chairs/tables on each side of the room. They will find themselves facing each other. Students will enter class immediately and practice with their team. The teacher will then show the video as soon as the class is seated and calm. This activity is done to motivate, encourage and remind students what a good debate looks like so that the outcome of students' debates can match skills such as speaking (clear and concise) and eye contact of debate participants within of the video .Phase II: Input Activities (Teacher-led): During this lesson, the teacher will only act as a facilitator, so not many activities will be teacher-led. However, after the video, the teacher will remind students of the rubric they were given and tell them that it is up to them alone to assist in the logistics of the debate (time, flow, managing emotions if this becomes a problem). The teacher will also instruct students to take notes on each other's topics because this task will be important for their homework. It will also remind the student that they will be recorded. The teacher will tell all students to get their rubrics. S/he will review some key points from the column in relation to the debate. The teacher will tell the students to make sure they keep these key points in mind because these points will be evaluated during the debate. The teacher will instruct students to display their rubrics to the entire class so they can monitor their team's progress themselves. The teacher will formally review key questions from the rubric that he or she hopes teams have incorporated into the nature of the debate (clear speech, eye contact, concise points, respectful behavior) and the content of the debate. In terms of the nature of the debate, questions might be along the lines of: “Is my team silent/respectful while the other team presents their arguments?”, “Aren't my responses to the other team's arguments offensive?” etc. In terms of debate content, questions might be along the lines of: “Did my team incorporate facts from the textbook?”, “Did my team use at least two credible Internet sources as part of the argument?”, “ My team followed special instructions as assignedby the teacher (e.g. incorporating ideas from IEP students, ELL students, gifted students)?” This activity and questions serve to remind students of the importance of the collaborative nature of the learning objective. They also serve to remind students that must be able to demonstrate their understanding of the Civil War unit, as well as their understanding of external sources in the context of a topic Phase III: Output Activity (student-led) Students will take part in a discussion L he topic is “Was the Emancipation Proclamation issued for moral or political reasons?” This activity will illustrate the learning objective in several ways. First, the collaborative nature of the previous lessons will be demonstrated. Third, students must illustrate their knowledge of the politics of the Civil War. arguments from both sides must include information from outside sources. The teacher will select a team to present their arguments first. The speaker from that team will stand up and come to the front of the class. They will present their thesis In the argument they must cite the sources from which they obtained the information. For example, if they took a particular data from the textbook, then they must indicate "As presented in the textbook..." from the Internet, they must state: "As presented on the so-called website, or by the so-called author..." They must also explicitly state how they used the teacher's "special instructions". For example, “(ELL student's name) found that 'compromise' was not a possible solution to the Civil War.” This example assumes that the compromise involved a list of words that an ELL student did not understand. He/she presented this list of words to his/her team. The team looked at the list and chose to use the word compromise as part of their argument. The student will finish the presentation of his topic. The teacher will tell the next team to present their argument. The team will follow the same procedure as above. The teacher will then stop recording the discussion. This discussion will naturally lead to questions and comments from both the teacher and the students. Phase IV: Culmination The teacher will ask the groups to clarify any misunderstandings or misinformation the groups may have had during their argument. This is to give other team members a chance to talk about the topic, strengthening the collaborative effort of the lesson. The teacher will also ask students how their team's or the other team's information and debate skills differed and how similar these things were to the debate presented at the beginning of the lesson. As a smaller activity, the teacher will ask all students to come up with a question, comment, or criticism of the other team's argument. This assignment will illustrate each student's understanding of the Civil War Unit because it challenges students to relate, connect, or counterargue their knowledge of the unit. This question will be submitted to the teacher. Phase V: Extension For homework, students will write a one-page analysis of the opposing teams' arguments. The student will address the opposing side's arguments. He will evaluate the weaknesses and strengths of the argument; and why he disagreed or agreed with the points raised. Learning Plan Analysis Formative assessments will include analysis of team collaboration efforts, each team's behavior during the presentation.,