How did it go & how do I know?
I measure my success in teaching this unit in many ways.
The more tangible ways are easy to identify, I can look at the quizzes that happened at the end of each week and the few assignments handed in along the way. In this regard, the students scored below average the first week and below average during the second week. Part of this measurement depends on the questions I wrote for each quiz, the second was intentionally less difficult than the first after noting that some scores were lower than average. But the particular observation that I made is that students struggled making the connection between each specific goal and it's expression during the early 1900's and today. Students missed more questions when they were asked to synthesize their information.
However, it is the discussions and thesis statement work that showed me that students were or were not learning. We worked with the a choice of claims “Women get/don’t get equal respect in society because…” AND we attempted a fish bowl discussion where students would use what they had been reading, watching, and hearing to reason together about the amount of respect women get in society.
Below I will highlight examples of how I can intelligably speak of success or lack thereof:
GREAT SUCCESS
[What three things do I believe went well (and what does “well” mean?) and what evidence leads me to make that assertion?]
#1 – US History Assembly line: making 4th, 5th, & 6th hour Cola
For this lesson we had previously watched a video clip, took notes in lecture, and read in the book about how efficiency was fostered in this time period. So, I selected 3 different 'shifts' of 4 students to make cola for their class. I made an assembly line and time how long it took for 4 stations to make 5 bottles, complete with writing/cutting/taping on the construction paper and placing that onto 2-liter bottles --- the students worked as quickly as possible to finish their product while I, their "boss", yelled and put pressure on them.
I told each class that I was looking for the most effective workers from each hour and the most effective company (hour) to sell soda pop. I recorded the times on the whiteboard and many students pleaded to be part of the assembly line. Each class began to cheer for each other and act very competative about the other hours...serious smack talk.
Each class talked about the lesson for days and said they wanted to do more 'things like that.' But the greatest measure of success was found in the 3-4 "sleepers" that I have. In 5th and 6th hour I have a few students that seemed narcoleptic all year, yet all stayed awake to watch the assembly line work and 2 even participated!
#2 – Thesis Write, “Women get/don’t get equal respect in society because…”& Fish Bowl Discussion
I had previously dealt with the proverbial 'crickets' when attempting a discussion, it seemed students could just try say "I don't know" and sit in awkward silence to avoid talking. Yet in this lesson I had students start the hour with a pre-write to get their responses on paper, which would they would take with them into the fish bowl. The questions they had to first reflect prior to discussion were: If you could be any Disney character, who would you be and why? What comes to mind when you hear the word “feminism”? What traits of women do you see portrayed in the clip? & What is you reaction to the clip? I view this move as an improvement in preparation, especially when contrasted with earlier in the year.
I had also covered what a thesis and what support was, and we watched a clip about gender roles in the documentary Mickey Mouse Monopoly...which was provocative and challenging.
The successful discussion happened in 5th hour, 4th hour was mediocre (do partly to having 7 ESL students), and 6th hour was a disaster which will be discussed in the section below.
So, back to 5th hour; I started by setting up ground rules and asking students share their answers. After students began to weigh in, I played devil's advocate to stir the pot. Before too long, I had little to nothing to do with a thriving discussion. I could see the young people invest in the talk when things got heated after a few chauvinistic comments...several young women asked to get back into the fish bowl to challenge a few of the young men, and did so with very articulate and thought criticisms.
Further Proof:
"This is a great lesson. You are designing lessons that are meant to get at some really big issues. This is, as you are finding I’m sure, extremely difficult to talk about. I think you are running up against the ways that people are kind of entrenched in a single way of thinking about some things."
- Jim Garrett's comment
#3 – Hip-Hop: Beyond The Beats Documentary and DiscussionThis lesson started as a way to look at patriarchy and sexism as it is expressed in the genre of hip-hop music. For starters, my students at Everett unanimously agreed this style of music was thier favorite and had been asking me to bring in more hip-hop. In addition to this, Byron Hurt's critical lens provided a surprizing and challenging view that many students had never encountered.As we watched a 10 minute clip, I made sure to set it up, pause it, and discuss it after we viewed, all to unpack meaning and to help students 'watch' what they were seeing. This active viewing led to students asking where they could find the documentary so they could rent it or buy it. It spurred angry words in defense of and accusation of specific artists. The room was buzzing and the sleepers were wide awake and even talking! My mentor and I felt that we had stumbled on a moment that had to be seized, thus we decided to take an extra day and a half to watch the entire film.
GREAT SUCCESS...NOT
What three things do I believe went poorly (and what does “poorly” mean?) & what evidence led me to make that assertion? What exceeded my expectations & what did not?
#1 – Fish Bowl Discussion in 6th hour
"The fishbowl was a little bit odd. It seems like before you have them speak to each other, you need to introduce them to some of the key ideas of media literacy…that ALL media messages are imbedded with value statements."
- Jim Garrett
"After watching the clips of MMM, I am wondering how students engaged with this movie. I might have you set them up a bit more extensively, particularly if this is their first foray into media analysis."
- Jim Garrett
I had expected that all the classes would like and understand the task set before them. After 5th hour went so well, I forgot to lay out some of the directions about ground rules and I should have taken special effort to harness a few notoriously disrespectful individuals.
In sum, 6th hour was a disaster when I attempted to conduct the fish bowl discussion. The class seemed very scattered and unfocused when they came into the room. They were getting into small arguments with each other and interrupting me as I attempted to get the lesson off the ground.
Many of the students who participated in the activity seemed a bit confused or attempted to domineer the others. A few who sat on the outside of the bowl chimed in at random and several others refused to participate. Jim Garrett happened to be there to observe and he noted that the students didn't seem to know what was asked of them or ready to speak in turn.
#2 – Slides: 4 Goals of Progressivism & Reading Chapter 9 Section 2 as a class & fill in the Web.
Many students slept, talked, and sent text messages during this lesson. My mentor commented that the students were bored and disinterested...I can't help but agree. I expected that students would simply listen and read, but it seemed like the material acted like a sedative.
Upon further reflection and discussion with my mentor, I need to either have a 'hook' or an activity where the students could actually do something creative and constructive with the information they were gathering.
#3 - The disconnect between the four goals of progressivism and actual examples now and then that illustrate those goals.
When I attempted to ask questions like, "What goal was accomplished by the assembly line?", I got a lot of blank stares. On the first quiz, students scored about 10-30% lower across the board.
My hunch is that I taught the goals of progressivism without properly attaching the example that illustrate each goals, nor did I verbalize and stress these connections aloud the way I could have. This poor aspect of the unit is no doubt connected to the prior aspect in that I assumed attention spans and interest that were not there.
Yet, if there was a redemptive angle to this disconnect, it was found in the review day that was placed on the tail end of the unit. My mentor had talked about being very clear and concise in making connections, something that was accomplished with more precision several days later.
