In reading James Bellanca and Ron Brandt’s 21st century skills: Rethinking how students learn, I
have learned that there are five types of minds we need to cultivate in our
students. These five minds are the
disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the creating mind, the respectful
mind, and the ethical mind. The development
of each of these minds is of equal importance for that person to reach their
highest potential in life. “Among the
minds there is no strict hierarchy, such that one mind should be cultivated
before the others” (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010, p. 29). However, a pattern often does exist. For example, a respectful mind often is needed
to cultivate the ethical mind in a student.
That is why this particular lesson is so important because it really
develops at least three of the minds for students to succeed. It teaches the student to respect their
freedoms (respectful mind), and that freedom requires good citizenship (ethical
mind). Besides helping the students have
a greater understanding of the democratic principle of freedom, this project
also helps students develop as the future leaders of tomorrow. By participating in this service learning
project, students are developing the creating mind that is needed in our future
leaders. By sharing their projects with
the public, they will inspire others to value the freedoms we are blessed to
have as American citizens.
Bellanca, J., & Brandt, R. (Eds.). (2010). 21st century skills: Rethinking how students learn. Bloomington, Indiana.: Solution
Tree Press.
Shawn Nordheim’s Instructional Plan
Summary
Title
of Project:
What does freedom mean to you?
Description
of the Students/Course:
This unit will be geared toward Advanced
Placement U. S. History students at Pendleton County High School. This unit could also be modified for 8th
grade students taking U.S. History at Sharp Middle School. After much discussion with Brent Sowder (U.
S. History teacher Pendleton County High School) and Meagan Wood Ramsey (U. S.
History teacher Sharp Middle School), a flipped classroom approach is going to be
applied to this three-day series of classes.
Our goal is to offer a different class each week over a three week
period in September. These sessions will
lead into the League of Women Voters Service Project in October.
Student Learning Outcomes:
1. Students
will be able to list examples of how to be a responsible citizen.
2. Students
will demonstrate effective social interaction skills during class discussions.
3. Students
will demonstrate an understanding of the importance of responsible citizenship
in reflective journaling.
Unit
Timeline and Lesson using a Flipped Classroom Approach
Use of
Technology and co-teachers included in lessons
Homework prior to classroom session
|
Activities for classroom session
|
|
Week 1 session
|
Students
will watch President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 Inaugural Address
Link
to complete text of Kennedy’s Inaugural Address
Answer
reflective questions
Alternative
activity for Middle School Students:
Visit
Congress for Kids website and read about responsible citizenship and take
quiz
|
Teacher
will select students to lead discussion of the reflective questions
Bill
Mitchell, Community Development Director of Pendleton County, will act as
co-teacher in this session. He will
specifically address citizen responsibilities.
At
conclusion of session, students will be asked to reflect on what responsible
citizenship means to them.
|
Week 2 session
|
Students
will watch Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver his famous “I have a dream….”
Speech
Link
to complete text of King’s speech
Answer
reflective questions
Alternative
activity for Middle School Students:
Visit
Congress for Kids website and read voting tutorial and take polling places
quiz
|
Teacher
will select students to lead discussion of the reflective questions
Shawn
Nordheim, President of the League of Women Voters of Pendleton County, will
act as co-teacher in this session. She
will address voting rights and responsibilities.
At
conclusion of session, students will be asked to reflect on what freedom
means to them.
|
Week 3 session
|
Students
will watch the following videos: “How to take care of the American Flag” Video
“How
to fold the flag” Video
“13
folds of the American Flag” Video
Answer
reflective questions
|
Teacher
will select students to lead discussion of the reflective questions
Bryan
Nordheim, Director of Tactics at Wright Patterson AFB, will act as co-teacher
in this session. He will discuss flag
etiquette and serving in the armed forces.
At
conclusion of session, students will be asked to reflect on what caring for
the American flag means to them.
|
Formative assessments activities include weekly reflective
responses from the videos and in class discussion. Summative assessment would be completion of
the “What does freedom mean to you/” activity with a student product in the
form of a YouTube video, poem, song, or any other creative form the student
chooses.
Parent/Community
Involvement
Parents will be encouraged to help students in this learning
process. The collaboration of multiple
individuals will be necessary in order to make these classroom sessions and the
civic engagement project a success.
League members will meet to review the submissions and limit the entries
down to five from each school. After the
entries are limited down, the Mayor of Falmouth and the Judge Executive of
Pendleton County will pick the winning student from each school. By sharing the students’ final product with
the public, the League can remind other community members of the freedoms we
are blessed to have as American citizens.
I am also reading 21st Century Skills by Bellanca and Brandt. Students will definitely touch on the ethical and respectful mind, but I also think with this project they will be open to the synthesizing and creative minds as well. Within the synthesizing mind students have to sort through information and sources and decide what is important and how to put all of this information together to make sense to themself and others (Gardner, 2010). Within the creative mind students are willing to take risks, venture to the unknown, fail and try again (Gardner, 2010). I believe students have the opportunity to incorporate these two minds in the project/plan you have published in their journals and some of the activities you have developed. This is a great plan to extend students beyond schooling but to help them to become 21st century learners and more well-rounded individuals.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great unit. I am reading the book 'Active Lessons for Active Brains: Teaching Boys and Other Experiential Learners Grades 3-10' by Abigail Norfleet James, Sandra Boyd Allison, and Caitlin Zimmerman McKenzie. In the book the authors stress how important it is to provide a variety of experiences to the students in your class. This will help them develop different ways of learning. This is done through a more active approach to learning. (James, Allison & Mckenzie, 2011, p. 8)You have provided several different ways of learning for your students so this unit would go along with the authors' statements.
ReplyDeleteJames, A., Allison, S., & Mckenzie, C. (2011). Active lessons for active brains: Teaching boys and other experiential learners grades 3-10. (1 ed., Vol. 1, pp. 1-230). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
I love that you are going to try the flipped classroom approach! Please let me know how it goes :) I'm reading "40 Active Learning Strategies for the Inclusive Classroom." It is geared toward K-5 classrooms, but I think some of the active discussion strategies could be used in the higher grades as a way to encourage all students to be involved in the reflective discussions. That was my only "concern" as I looked at your plan, having all students be engaged in the discussion. Some of the strategies involve small groups which might be a good way to get the older students involved.
ReplyDeleteYour plan appears to be very comprehensive and engaging. I like how you are incorporating different engagement stategies, parents and community members as well as a variety of nultimedia/online interactive resources. I particularly like that you will be using this with AP History students as when my children took AP US history it seemed that they were simply memorizing information in massive amounts rather than learning in an interactive manner as described in your plan.
ReplyDeleteShawn...
ReplyDeleteI love the emphasis on patriotism.
This should be educational and inspiring for the students that participate as we are trying to help them realize the gift of freedom.
In looking for ways to increase participation, you could encourage some students to learn and present one of the speeches and present it to the class.
This would provide an emotional connection to the speeches. In Brookfield's book, The SKillful Teacher (2006), he talks about the importance of helping students to be connected by playing defined roles as they discuss a topic. This would allow them to be a part of the action.
This seems like a great unit! What a great way to involve the community. In Marazano's book, The Highly Engaged Classroom, he speaks to the point of competition in the classroom and how engaging it can be to students. I love to instill healthy competition in my classroom, it always seems to motivate most of my students to work to their highest potential. Great job!
ReplyDelete