Civics Lesson Morning of October 1st:
In this lesson on conflict resolution, students learned about different forms of conflict and how their responses to conflict can impact the consequences. All students participated in a SMART Board activity and created a comic strip to demonstrate what they had learned.
Government Lesson Afternoon of October 1st:
In this lesson on the executive branch of the United States government, students learned about the various powers and responsibilities of the President. All students participated in a PBS kids online Presidential quiz, completed a graphic organizer while watching a TED Talk video, and played a game of Two Truths and a Lie related to Presidential powers.
I had a lot of fun teaching these two lessons. I especially enjoyed teaching the conflict resolution lesson because I am very passionate about this subject and want to teach students how to be good people in our society. I would love to have more time with this lesson to have a conversation with students on how to solve conflicts in the best way possible. Someone also suggested if we had more time to add more role plays to solve the problems. I thought that the conflict resolution lesson went very smooth and I can’t wait to teach this to actual elementary school students.
The other lesson was different for me to teach but was still really fun. I enjoyed the interactive quiz on PBS for the students to decide what they would do if they were the president for the day. It took a little long for my group and I spent more of my time on this then I had planned on. I also enjoyed doing the two truths and a lie for the students to guess which was the lie. I thought this lesson was very well organized and I loved the activities with this lesson to keep the students engaged. I would agree with both Megan and Elisabeth that we needed way more time for this lesson to make it more in depth.
I enjoyed both of these lessons and the use of technology and the SMART Board activities. I think the PBS kids link was great and that students would really enjoy it. TED talks are also great is good to keep in mind for using in an elementary setting rather than only secondary or post secondary classes. Thanks for your lessons!
I really liked your use of technology to engage us and present information/topics in an interesting way. I also thought that the Two Truths and a Lie game and thought that it was an awesome way to teach us facts about the presidency that are often not really taught to kids. I felt like this activity was a great way to combine individual and group work as well. Overall, I really enjoyed your lesson and thought you did a great job!
I enjoyed the game online, but I agree that it would be worth trying as individuals. You could have a guided worksheet that went along with it to keep students on task. Overall I really enjoyed both lessons and how you incorporated technology! In your first lesson, I liked how you presented the vocabulary words on the Smartboard. Made reading definitions a little more exciting.
I agree with Megan that I would have LOVED to have more time for both lessons. We had so many great ideas that it was hard to choose which ones to include in each lesson plan. I think we had some great responses from our classmates (thanks, guys!) and I personally feel more confident teaching the civics/government branch of social studies in an elementary school setting. I hope we helped others in the class see ways to teach civics/government as well!
I feel like the teaching of these two lesson went well overall. Students seemed to really enjoy the variety of activities we planned. The integration of technology into the lesson helped to increase student interest in our lesson topics. We had more planned for our lessons than we had time for. If I was to teach either of these lessons again, I would like to take more time to extend each of them. It was suggested that the PBS kids quiz be changed from a group activity to an individual activity, which I think would have worked much more smoothly. I really enjoyed participating in our “Celebration of Social Studies”, so many great ideas!