A Growing Nation

Group 4 Direct Instruction

Today was The last group to teach and their topic was A Growing Nation. I enjoyed their classroom rules because they were an acrostic poem for the word Learn as shown. They were also read chorally which I really enjoyed because i think the rules stuck with them more that way and it was sure that everyone knew them, since they all had to read them out loud together. Their call and response was " Mac and Cheese, everybody freeze". The teachers then used a wordart to introduce the lesson and have the students identify words that they knew that would be in the lesson. Word Art has become a very popular way to conduct pre-assessments. I enjoy making them and will definitely use them in my own classroom.

The students were instructed to freeze and quiet down when this was said. I like the concept of this call and response, but i noticed the students did not actually freeze.  The teachers then explained how their behavior management system was set up and shown in the image provided. I loved this idea, a token economy is definitely my style!  The image shown is small but you can zoom in to really check it out ! Pre-Assessment came next, the group made a WordArt with the words treaty, gold, annex, wagon, Alamo and discrimination to assess the students knowledge before instruction,. This group decided to give out flip books for the students to take notes and I LOVED that idea! i will be sure to use flip books in the future for my students to take notes with! The instruction itself was smooth, they did a good job speaking. They also included a video which i enjoyed, students love videos and I think it benefits visual learners!  Check for Understanding included fill in the blank questions every two slides.  For Guided Practice, the students Played a vocabulary game . The class was separated into two teams and a person from each team had to swat the word that matched the definition that was read. The words included; Mexican War, Oregon Trail, Gold Rush, Manifest Destiny, Wagon Trail, Forty-Niners,Texas Revolution, Mountain Men, The Gadson Purchase, Gold Rush and Wagon Trail.For independent practice, the students had to complete a worksheet where they had to match the vocabulary.
GREAT JOB GROUP!