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  • Essay / Engaging Students in Critical Discourse

    Table of ContentsSetting StandardsLearning ObjectiveApplications of Learning TheoryConstructivism is definitely at play in this lesson plan: Learning Adaptations: Resource Accommodations: Literacy Skills content-basedNew Media Literacy SkillsLearning Materials: Learning Plan ProceduresPhase I: Motivational ActivityPhase II: Input Activity (Teacher-Led): Phase III: Exit Activity (Teacher-Led) learner) Recording will begin Phase V: Extension Analysis of the learning plan References The learning plan described in this article involves asking students to debate a topic related to the Civil War. The topic of debate is "Was the Emancipation Proclamation adopted for moral or political reasons?" The main concept of this learning plan is to have students work collaboratively to research facts, recall, and use facts from the Civil War unit to integrate them into their arguments. (It should be noted that the learning plan described in this article will require several courses, but the procedures in the learning plan will only pertain to the class where the debate will take place.) It is assumed that debate skills have been taught in a previous course. Learning theory certainly incorporates constructivist aspects. They construct knowledge rather than absorb it. This constructivist approach is illustrated through the collaborative nature of the mission, as well as through the research that students must produce. In terms of technology and media use; Students will be asked to search for a source of information, on the Internet, related to their argument. They must submit a one-page analysis of the information they found along with a page of references. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay This should be submitted to the teacher one week before the scheduled debate. The teacher will evaluate the content of the article, but the references page will also be important. The teacher should assess the types of Internet sources used by students. The credibility of the Internet source and the strength of the student's research will be analyzed by the instructor. The goal is to assess the student's traditional literacy and critical analytical skills (assessed during content assessment), as well as information skills/interpretation of online material (assessed by reviewing the reference page ). Finally, the teacher will return the documents to the students and ask each group to use at least two documents from their group members in their group's arguments. Media and technology will also be integrated with the use of social media. The teacher will tell students that their discussions will be recorded and submitted to YouTube or a private school website (if privacy concerns are raised). Others will be allowed to view the video to assess the strength of each team's arguments. Based on viewer comments, a winner will be chosen (by popular vote). This popular vote will be included as a small percentage in the evaluation. This is done to enable students to participate in new media-related opportunities in an educational context. Background of the Learning Plan SettingThe high school will be a Bay Area high school, either in San Francisco or Oakland. There will be 25 to 30 students in an individual class. The lesson will take place the week after the end of the Civil War unit. It is expected that the unitlasts approximately two weeks, so the debate course will take place during the third week. The actual debate course will take one class period. The content area is United States History/Politics. The grade level is Juniors (11th grade). In summary, the curriculum unit is 11th grade, United States History/Politics and the Civil War unit. StandardsBased on the California Standards for History/Social Studies Literacy in grades 6-12. A student should be able to demonstrate analysis of primary and secondary sources and connect these ideas to understanding of the entire text. This ability will be addressed and assessed when students have to integrate the information learned in the textbook with the information obtained on the Internet and use both sources of information in their debate. The student's ability to undertake this task will be assessed by the teacher during the submission of the student's sources, as well as during the debate. (http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards.pdf.) Also according to California standards, students must be able to evaluate various explanations of events and actions. Learning Objective Students will be able to collaboratively demonstrate their knowledge of Civil War politics, events, and information, from the textbook and online sources, by formulating arguments to present in a debate. Applications of Learning Theory Constructivism is definitely at play in this lesson plan: The activity allows knowledge to be organized into patterns, concepts, and worldviews. This activity emphasizes the use of authentic activities in constructing knowledge through interaction with environments (Internet and peers) and applying them to real-life situations (debate). The collaborative component certainly illustrates constructivism; learners will help each other to create conceptual connections. Finally, students work independently with the help of the teacher as facilitator, support, and model (Ormrod, 2006). Learning Accommodations: Individualized Education Plan for Special Accommodations: On each team, all students will be assigned a role. For example, “speaker”, “writer”, “timekeeper”. A student's IEP will be considered when assigning roles. A student with an IEP will be assigned a role that best aligns with their IEP. For example, a student with ADD may be best suited to timekeeping since their attention span is not as focused. They may be keen to change the pace of the group's discussions and, therefore, they may be keen to keep track of time. Language development needs: when assigning Internet searches; the teacher will give ELL students a website to navigate to, instead of letting students navigate the Internet themselves. The teacher will give explicit instructions as to where to look on the website so that students do not feel too overwhelmed by the English language. The teacher will ask the students to try to understand some of the information, but if that proves too difficult, the teacher will ask the students to find 15 to 20 words on the website that they did not understand. The student will then find the meaning of these words in their own language. They should write at least one paragraph about Civil War unity incorporating five of the words they found on the Internet. Also, at least two of these words must be integrated into their team's arguments. Needs of the Gifted and Talented: This is a difficult element to consider because a gifted/talented student does not necessarily mean aacademically rigorous. To truly tailor the lesson to the interests of a gifted/talented student, the teacher will then need to become familiar with the personality of that particular student. However, some situations will be discussed here. First of all, according to research, the lesson itself is suitable for a gifted/talented student. Competition, which characterizes a debate, generally suits the nature of gifted/talented students. The first situation to consider is that of a student who is gifted/talented, but not academically rigorous. This student will be given a leadership role within their team. May be responsible for organizing/managing all student ideas. It is he who will receive the grid of what the teacher evaluates by observing the discussions and arguments of the team. He is the manager and he will be evaluated on his ability to keep his team on task. This way, this student isn't necessarily doing more "academic" work, but he or she is facing a pretty tough challenge. A second situation to consider is having a gifted/talented student who demonstrates academic rigor. The teacher will give this student a second component to add to their research work. The student must relate content from textbooks and the Internet to today's American politics. This increases the cognitive process from analysis (which all students must do with their research papers) to evaluation (Anderson and Krathwol, 2001). The student may choose to incorporate this additional element into their team's arguments. Resource Accommodation: Low tech: There are no computers, projectors, or Internet access in the classroom. If this is the case, the teacher may need to allocate time in different lessons to use school facilities where computers are available. Computers should be used so that the teacher can show students the types of credible websites, as well as use sites, like YouTube, to show students examples of debates. Use of a computer is required and the teacher may need to take time before or after school to meet with students (who are willing) to show them the websites mentioned above. Mid tech: A computer connected to a projector is available in the class. The teacher can use this computer to show examples of credible websites, as well as to show examples of online debates. High tech: The class is equipped with several computers. Teams can log in themselves to view debate videos and launch research for their article. This way, the collaborative nature of the lesson will begin even earlier (in the pre-planning phase). Content-Based Literacy SkillsIn terms of text-based literacy; students must integrate information from their textbook into their arguments. Critical thinking, reflective thinking, and text-supported thinking will be demonstrated as students make connections between information available on the Internet and information in the textbook while writing their analysis/research paper. This connection will be evaluated when the student has identified their sources in their article. (This explanation will also illustrate students' information literacy.) New Media Literacy Skills Performance: This skill is demonstrated when students view examples of Internet debates and use them as performance models in their own debates. Collective Intelligence: This skill is acquired when students are part of their respective teams and must rely on their own ideas, research andknowledge and that of others to formulate solid arguments. Judgment: This skill is demonstrated when students must judge which websites and information should be included in their research/analysis paper. Networking: Once again, this skill is demonstrated when students are required to search, connect, and analyze information on the Internet for the purposes of their research/analysis paper (Jenkins, 2001). Learning materials: Textbook: Learners will need a textbook to be able to recall the information.Paper, pen: Students will need these to be able to write the information.Rubric: the needs of the learner and the teacher. Learners need this to become aware of what is expected of them when working in a team and formulating their arguments. The teacher needs this so that they can refer to it when assessing the team's progress.Notes: Learners will need this as a reference when formulating their arguments.Stopwatch/watch: This will be handed out to the student whose job it is to keep time.Video camera: Used to record the debateLearning plan proceduresPhase I: Motivational activityThe teacher will show a short clip of a very powerful and interesting debate. Maybe a presidential debate. The clip will only show the most poignant (according to the professor) part of the debate. Hopefully the clip won't be more than 5 minutes long. (If there is no computer available, the teacher must bring their own computer.) In a classroom of 30 chairs/tables. There will be 15 chairs/tables on each side of the room. They will face each other. Learners will enter the classroom and immediately sit down with their team. The teacher will then play the video as soon as the class is seated and quiet. This activity is carried out to motivate, encourage and remind students what good debate looks like so that the outcome of students' debates can match skills such as speaking (clear and concise) and eye contact of debaters in the video. .Phase II: Contribution activity (teacher-led): During this course, the teacher will only serve as a facilitator, so few activities will be teacher-led. However, after the video, the teacher will remind students of the rubric they were given and tell them that it is up to them to help with the logistics of the debate (time, flow, managing emotions if it becomes a problem). ). The teacher will also ask students to take notes on each other's arguments, as this will be important to their assignment. It will also remind the student that they will be recorded. The teacher will tell all students to remove their rubrics. He will review some key points of the evaluation grid in relation to the debate. The teacher will tell students to be sure to keep these key points in mind because these points will be evaluated during the debate. The teacher will ask students to post their rubrics for the whole class so that they can monitor their team's progress themselves. The teacher will formally review key questions from the rubric that they hope teams will have incorporated into the nature of the debate (clear speech, eye contact, concise points, respectful behavior) as well as the content of the debate. In terms of the nature of the debate, questions might sound like "Is my team quiet/respectful when the other team presents their arguments?" ", "Aren't my responses to the other team's arguments insulting? " etc. In terms of debate content, questions might look like: “Did my team internalize the facts from the textbook? ", "Did my team use at least two credible Internet sources in the argument? ", "Has my teamfollowed special instructions assigned by the teacher (e.g., incorporating ideas from IEP students, ELL students, gifted students)? » This activity and these questions serve to remind students of the importance of the collaborative nature of the learning objective. They also serve to remind students that they must be able to demonstrate their understanding of the unity of the Civil War, as well as their understanding of outside sources in the context of an argument. Phase III: Exit activity (learner-led) Students will participate in a debate. The topic is “Was the Emancipation Proclamation adopted for moral or political reasons?” » This activity will illustrate the learning objective in several ways. Firstly, the collaborative nature of the previous courses will finally be demonstrated. Second, students must illustrate their knowledge of Civil War politics in their arguments. Third, both sides' arguments must include information from outside sources. The teacher will select a team to present their arguments first. Recording will begin. The speaker from that team will stand up and come to the front of the class. They will present their team's arguments. In the argument, they must mention the sources from which they obtained their information. For example, if they obtained a particular piece of data from the manual, then they should indicate “As presented in the manual…”. If they obtained particular data from the Internet, then they must declare: "As presented on a so-called website, or by a so-called author..." They must also explicitly state how they used the data. “special instructions” from the teacher. . For example, “(ELL student name) discovered that “compromise” was not a possible solution to the Civil War. » In this example, it is assumed that the compromise was on a list of words that an ELL student did not understand. He/she presented this list of words to his/her team. The team reviewed the list and chose to use the word compromise in their argument. The student will complete the presentation of his argument. The teacher will ask the next team to present their argument. The team will follow the same procedure as above. The teacher will then stop the recording of the debate. This debate will naturally lead to questions and comments from both the teacher and the students. Phase IV: Culmination The teacher will ask the groups to clear up any misunderstandings or misinformation the teams may have had in their argument. This is about giving other team members a chance to talk about the argument, which strengthens the collaborative effort of the lesson. The teacher will also ask students how their or the other team's information and debate skills differed and how these things were similar to the debate presented at the beginning of the class. In a smaller activity, the teacher will ask all students to offer a question, comment, and critique of the other team's argument. This assignment will illustrate each student's understanding of the Civil War unit because it challenges students to relate, connect, or counter-argue their own knowledge of the unit. This question will be submitted to the teacher.Phase V: ExtensionFor homework, students will write a one-page analysis of the opposing teams' arguments. The student will address the arguments of the opposing camp. He/she will evaluate the weaknesses and strengths of the argument; and why he/she disagreed or agreed with the points that were made. Analysis of the learning plan Formative assessments will include analysis of the collaborative efforts of.,