Christopher Columbus (Lesson 1)

(Taught 3/15)

It seems as though the amount of work in the ed school has increased and intensified exponentially, and for some reason, things all seem to be due at the same time. Because of this, it has taken me a while to actually have time to sit down and reflect on this lesson.

TP (Teaching Partner) and I divided up our unit lessons so that we are each teaching on two explorers and then we are team teaching the final lesson, which will serve as a review lesson where students will make connections as well as distinquish between the explorers. My first lesson was this one, on Christopher Columbus.

We have had a great deal of trouble finding times to go in and teach. On this particular day, the students only had 25-30 minutes for content instruction due to a trip to see an art exhibit at a nearby high school. Ms. K. decided it would be best for us to just teach a short lesson that day (since it seemed impossible to find another day that would work for everyone). This was fine, since most students knew a great deal about Columbus already, but it made me nervous sincec I had never taught such a short lesson (our lesson are typically 45-50 minutes). I planned a few activities: I would facilitate a discussion to see what the students already knew, read a poem about Columbus and have the students participate in a reader's theater activity. At the close of the lesson they would fill in their "detective books" answering a number of questions about Columbus. Finally, they would (as a class), place and icon on a timeline that would be added to (with icons representing other explorers).

These activities, for the most part, went remarkably well. The students came into the lesson with a great deal of prior knowledge about Columbus (as TP and I had expected). They pretty much had all of the key facts from the start. The readers theater was great for the students because allowed them to take on the role of the explorer, instead of just hearing about it. The kids seemed to enjoy this a lot, and Ms. K also liked it. (She asked me if she could keep an extra copy to use in her explorers unit next year, which was incredibly exciting!). The students were excited about the detective books, which they filled out over the course of the lesson. The purpose of these books was to fill them out for each explorer, and then use the booklet to study for their unit tests (Ms. K also liked this and kept a copy of it as well!).

We were able to get through everything in the short time given, and from looking at their completed sheets (in their detective books) it seemed as though the kids not only enjoyed the lesson, but that they grasped the material as well!