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The second unit I planned while student teaching was on American Imperialism. This unit lasted about two weeks and contained a mix of resources that helped to incorporate a broad picture of what American Imperialism represented. This unit was planned for the first time using the backward design lesson planning model. For the second unit into the semester and for someone who was struggling a little with organization, I used this design to help guide how I would teach the unit and map out how I was going to enrich the lessons. This artifact shows the clear destination I wanted to arrive at, how I was going to get there, and how I was going to assess students' understanding and analysis of the content. This was one of my favorite units and I was able to teach the unit with relatively few hiccups because I had mapped out what I wanted to achieve.
I have also included the summative assessment for this unit and student artifacts. I designed this test, and while overall I think it effectively assessed content, it needs to be re-written to ensure clarity of questions. I never want to give a test where students are essentially being tested on whether they can take the assessment and not whether they know the material. The written answer questions are included to show student analysis of the content. The questions prompted students to analyze and cite primary documents we had covered and encouraged students to respond with their own opinion based on the information we had engaged with in class. Lastly, I have included a group project that I assigned during our unit on World War I. I was not quite sure what I was taking on with a group project when I planned the assignment, but I found that it was great way for students to express themselves and find ways to collaborate with their peers. The example provided displays some of the more thoughtful analysis and connections students were expected to make with the research they found. |