The chosen group is the elementary 5th grade, and the area I am seeking certification to teach is Special Education.
The chosen event is the International Women’s Day 2021 whose theme was Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world. The two content areas for the lesson will be Social Studies and English.
I decided to choose this specific article because it is relevant – International Women’s Day happened on March 8. Additionally, the theme of this year’s women’s day is connected to COVID-19 which influenced the lives of every person all around the world. Therefore, it will be interesting for students to look at this holiday in the context of the COVID era. This article can be associated with the two chosen content areas. It is connected to Social Studies because the identified holiday focuses on creating and maintaining equal rights between men and women. It is also connected to the content area of English because reading such articles is a great way to improve English skills.
(26) Social studies skills. The student uses problem-solving and decision-making skills, working independently and with others. The student is expected to use problem-solving and decision-making processes to identify a problem, gather information, list and consider options, consider advantages and disadvantages, choose and implement a solution, and evaluate the effectiveness of the solution.
(19) Citizenship. The student understands the fundamental rights of American citizens guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. The student is expected to describe the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, including freedom of religion, speech, and press; the right to assemble and petition the government; the right to keep and bear arms; the right to trial by jury; and the right to an attorney.
(4) Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking–fluency. The student reads the grade-level text with fluency and comprehension. The student is expected to use appropriate fluency (rate, accuracy, and prosody) when reading grade-level text.
The students should be able to comprehend and differentiate the basic rights and freedoms of humans, identify problems and solutions connected to human treatment:
- The students should learn to gather and evaluate information, understand how to work independently, and choose effective solutions to identified problems.
- The students should be able to read and comprehend the material, identify key topics of discussion, and reflect on the article presented to them.
Since the discussion of the lesson will be focused on a specific holiday, the idea and history behind it, during the warm-up exercise students will be able to share information about the holidays they know and why they are so valued in contemporary society. Then, they will be presented with International Women’s Day and brainstorm what this holiday stands for, and why is it so important for women all around the world. This exercise will help them to listen to each and evaluate information as well as practice their English communicative skills.
My role as a teacher in the lesson will be to guide and help students understand the topics we will be discussing. I believe that it is not effective when the teacher lectures children and reads the material from the book, instead it is influential when students are presented with encouragement and an opportunity to learn. I will present students with specific information, for instance, a small history behind the discussed holiday and encourage them to work in a group and create a promotional poster for this holiday and then present it to the class in an organized and structured way. In order not to overwhelm my students with information, I will try to deliver it in an engaging way and ask interactive questions that will encourage them to think and reflect on the topic discussed.
Video materials will also be used in order to add to interaction and engagement. However, considering the fact that 5-grade students can easily be distracted and uninterested in the video, I will pause it a few times in order to ask questions and encourage them to share impressions and ideas, deepening their knowledge and understanding.
As mentioned earlier, I will use video resources for the lesson. For this reason, I will need specific technology, such as a laptop and a screen and a stable internet connection that will not bring unnecessary interruptions to my lesson. In addition, I will need paper, pens, and colored pencils in order to give children an opportunity to contribute to the creation of posters.
The role of formative assessment is to monitor the learning of students and achieve feedback that can help teachers improve their teaching and help children improve their learning. I am planning to accomplish this to organize a discussion at the end of the lesson where each student will have a chance to say one thing they learned. Moreover, each of them will be able to submit one sentence saying what they learned on a piece of paper.
For the summative assessment, I will ask the students to write a short, graded essay where I will look at their understanding of the topic we discussed and the effective uses of English language concepts we touched on during the lesson, such as organization, and clear delivery, and fluency.
As a homework assignment, I will ask each of the students to write a page of insightful information about the holiday that has a rich history and connection to the topic of social studies. The information should include interesting facts about the idea and history behind the holiday and be delivered in an organized way.