Expected, Inspected, & Respected.
"Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice." Anton Chekhov
Today's lesson was outstanding from start to finish. I had their rapt attention and they really learned something! If you're interested in seeing my lesson plan, it's here. If you just want the highlights, read on. We started out by taking notes... in colour! Ok, nothing mind-blowing about that, but it was important to have some knowledge for the fun stuff that was on its way. They helped me fill in the labels as I drew this diagram on the whiteboard. They already knew most of these terms, but had never seen them in an organized, interconnected system. One student asked if it was possible for a solid to skip the liquid stage and turn straight into a gas. I was ready for the question and framed it as a secret forbidden knowledge that most Grade 5s don't get taught. That always makes them sit up and pay close attention! I drew a long red line with an arrow between the solid and the gas and labelled it sublimation. Immediately, another student remarked how the diagram looked like a face now, with the sublimation line looking like a big grin. I told him that neuroscientists have a fancy name for that called pareidolia - the phenomenon of seeing faces in inanimate objects. More bonus content! Next, I showed the students the following slideshow, explaining that each individual LEGO stormtrooper or person represented a molecule and how it required adding or removing heat to shift them from one state to another. Having seen the pictures, they were now ready for the drama portion of the class. I had them demonstrate solids, liquids, and gases for me as a class, immobile and bunched together in their solid phase, becoming faster and more spread apart as I turned up the heat, returning eventually to solid again as I cooled them down. The kinesthetic learners (i.e., everyone) loved being able to embody the concept and I could tell from their faces that it was a joyful learning experience. When I felt they understood the concept and had knocked over enough chairs as the speedy gases, I had them sit back down and handed out a sheet with four fill in the blank questions, just to check that they understood all the vocabulary. Finally, we played a review game where I would say something like, "liquid to a solid", wait for 5 seconds, and toss a ball to a student. That student would then (hopefully) say, "freezing or solidification by removing heat". I had a whole roomful of kids looking at me like: It was a great end to a great lesson.
0 Comments
I feel really good about today's fur trade lesson. The essential questions were:
I posted these two questions on the whiteboard at the beginning of class and asked the students to have the questions at the back of their mind, because after the activity, I would be asking them what the questions had to do with what we did. We did a quick review of the differences between primary and secondary sources, and I gave them a formative quiz using a one held up on one finger for examples of primary sources and two fingers for secondary sources. Then, we had some fun. I had them sort themselves into pairs and then sent half into the hallway while the other half arranged the room into an obstacle course. When it was ready, I had them lead their blindfolded partners through the obstacles they had set up. Next, I had the partners switch places, only this time, the blindfolded group would not be getting any help from their partners. The purpose of the exercise was to demonstrate how the fur trade would not have been possible without First Nations guides providing technologies such as canoes, moccasins, snowshoes, medicines, and various other survival, hunting, and trapping techniques. The group that had to navigate the obstacle course without the help of a guide was meant to show that when people first arrived in North America 12 000 - 40 000 years ago, they had no guides at all and managed to survive and eventually thrive in difficult environments with only their wits and the the materials available to them.
The point I wanted to drive home was that the primary sources we have available to us come mostly from white Europeans because they had written histories while Indigenous Peoples had oral histories. Europeans believed themselves to be superior to the people already living here when clearly they were not. However, Europeans were able to exploit the Indigenous Peoples through disease, alcohol, waves of immigrants, cultural genocide (residential schools), and broken promises. One thing I would definitely change if I were to do this lesson again, would be to require an exit slip at the end of the lesson. I would have them answer 2 questions:
I have to say a few thank yous in this post. First, I have to thank Kim Angus for inspiring room 19 with the quotes she posts on her whiteboard. I love this book of quotes she uses to find her daily words of wisdom. The quote that inspired today's lesson was, "Your best takes your time" by Thomas (The character in R.J. Palacio's Wonder). I borrowed the lesson from Sean Giesbrecht, who borrowed it from George Couros, who probably borrowed it from someone else, so I must thank the two of them as well. I took this wonderful, simple idea for a lesson plan, and adapted it to my fur trade unit. If you'd like to see the lesson plan, it's here. Instead of an image of a clock, I gave my 5th Grade students this image, and asked them to draw a a voyageur's cup as best they could in 10 seconds. 10 seconds later, I had images like these: Next, I gave them 10 minutes to draw their cup and told them the only rule was that they couldn't stop adding to their picture. After the 10 minute draw, the cups looked more like this: I had certain students in mind when planning this lesson who tend to think the work they do in school is a race and don't care about the quality as long as it is finished. I hope they got the idea that rushing might get the job done, but it doesn't get the job done well. Now I'll be able to ask my students if the work they are giving me is their 10 second work or their 10 minute work and they'll know that I'm simply reminding them that their best takes their time.
No, I don't think I could have been a voyageur, but today's lesson made me think I might make a quality teacher someday. If you want to take a look at my lesson plan, it's here. The real ceinture flechee and pieces of beaver fur were great activators, and the reading recorded by my friend Reid Noton in his best Quebecois accent brought the article to life. The audio also served as a scaffold for the striving readers so that they could better absorb the information. Everything went smoothly, the kids seemed to enjoy the treasure hunt aspect of the task, and this time, the timing worked perfectly. Even though it was the last period of the day and we were interrupted by the patrols leaving, the students were on task and interested for the whole time. I think the main reason it went so well was because I was well prepared. My wife always says, And she's right. I made sure I could play the audio from my iPhone on the speakers in the classroom when I got to school, I had the handouts and bits of fur ready on the desks when the kids came in from recess, and even had a video from the next day's lesson ready to go just in case the kids finished the task faster than expected. I'll put this one in the wins column.
|
David Wiebe
|