Reflection on Teaching and Learning

What did you learn about your students’ abilities to analyze content using skills related

to the specific subject area being taught in the unit?

I learned that my students have a very limited basis from which to draw. They are

economically, socially, and geographically challenged. Many, if not most, have never

traveled outside of the city limits. They have very little knowledge of what landforms other

than the Ohio River look like. This limitation seems to make it difficult for them to

adequately analyze and discuss with any depth, the landforms, people, and habits found in

other parts of the country.

How did your unit design, instructional strategies, and assessments support students’

abilities to develop and/or use skills related to the specific content/subject area during

the unit?

During the design of this unit, I thought about their limited knowledge and attempted to

find additional information that would help students to see the impact that these landforms

such as mountains, lakes, and deserts have on humanity. I brought in pictures of average

Americans cycling across the United States, poems written by people who traveled across the

country and songs by people who had the perspective of living through hard times and still

seeing the beauty of this nation.

The projects that I assigned were designed to first introduce students to the regions they

would be studying, then to take them to an in-depth study of a particular landform, and

finally provide a framework that would give insight to the future lessons in social studies

about the people that would inhabit the regions and depend on the landforms in those regions

for food, shelter, and clothing.

The assessment on classroom discussion was informal and mainly done through direct

observation. The formal assessments came in the form of rubrics that were used to grade the

maps and the diorama. Finally, students were given a test over the unit before they moved on

to the next unit which continued the learning by incorporating the material with early Native

Americans.

How can you improve the unit design, instructional strategies, and assessments of this

unit for a similar group of students in the future? Be specific and support your ideas

with relevant evidence from the portfolio.

In order to improve this unit design, I would engage students in more fact finding about

the areas of the country outside of their own city. I would bring in more pictures, stories

from people who have traveled, and perhaps even have someone talk to the students about

landforms they have visited such as the Rocky Mountains, Mojave Desert, or the Piedmonts.

As far as assessments, I would probably rearrange the order in which the students did the

projects. I would have them complete the regions map first, as I did in the lesson unit. Then

I would have them do the landforms map right afterward. Finally, I would have them create

the diorama. When they created the diorama, they did not have sufficient information on all

of the landforms. I also would have had them read outside literature rather than just their

textbook. Each student would be assigned a book about a particular landform. After reading

the assigned book, the student would then write a short report summarizing the book and

listing major features of his or her landform. This would have helped the students to think

more deeply and analyze how they would create their project.

The final test was good and most students did well on it. It was obvious after finishing

the unit that students had learned the material.