Self- Reflection
Within the successful planning of the unit, various barriers can be identified. Primarily, I did not have great knowledge about the branches of government and the Civil Rights Movement. Thus, while planning, I had a difficult time trying to be creative within the lesson because I was not entirely comfortable within my unit topic. Nevertheless, I purposely chose to write a unit on the three branches of the government because I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone; this goal was accomplished. Also, I would of liked to have more time to plan and prepare the unit. If I had a longer amount of time, I would of done more research, and talked to other teachers about advice that they had about teaching this unit. Barriers can be found within planning the unit.
The implementation of the unit had barriers as well. The students have been testing the whole month of April from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.. Testing caused two barriers: one, I could only teach a lesson once a week in the afternoons, and two, the students had a hard time sitting still during the lessons (since they had testing in the morning). Despite the time gap, the students did very well in recalling the information that I taught the previous weeks. For example, when I asked, “Who is the head of the Supreme Court?” several students blurted out “John Roberts!” which made me smile that they remembered his name a week later. The students also had a hard time focusing and being quiet. In every lesson, I noticed that students were itching to get out of their seats; they were constantly stretching, talking, or lying their heads down on their desks. Barriers can be found in the implementation of the unit.
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Throughout planning the unit, I experienced personal growth. Since this is the first time I have created a unit plan, I learned much about how to properly fill out the unit overview and unit lessons. Also, I learned from Brown and Silvestri (2014) how to creatively engage students in an abstract topic, like the branches of the government. Through this article, I used their sources of the Civil Rights Movement to make connections to the branches of the government. In addition, I realized that a lesson is never done. While one day think one idea would engage students, after seeking advice from peers and professors, I learned of better ways to teach the branches of the government. Personal growth occurred in the planning process of the unit.
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Personal growth also happened in the implementation of the lesson. In teaching, the only way to get better is to teach. With having little experience teaching in a classroom setting, I was nervous to teach each lesson. I wanted to give my scholars the best teaching possible, because that is what they deserve. Thus, I felt guilty when I messed up, because I knew that more experienced teachers could convey the information better than myself.. However, over time, I realized that I am on a journey to become a teacher, and “failure” is one of the best teachers. Rather than beat myself up about what did not go right, I decided to learn from those experiences, and simply do my best to be engaged with and love my content and students. Implementation of the unit helped me to adjust my expectations from perfection to gaining wisdom about being an effective teacher.
Through looking at student learning, I evaluated the unit’s success. When I reviewed the branches of the government poster, I witnessed students recalling basic facts about each branch of government, i.e. the judicial branch interprets laws. At the end of the judicial and executive branch lessons, I had the students complete exit tickets. One question from the executive branch exit ticket asked, “who is the head of the executive branch?” 78% of the students either said the president or donald trump, while the other 12% said the chief justice, which is the head of the judicial branch that we discussed the week prior. Finally, I had the students participate in the three branches of government review game. When I asked the more complex question of, “what is this an example of, judges declaring a law unconstitutional”, about half of the students said the judicial branch. Reflecting on the assessments that I gave my students, I would conclude that the unit was successful in teaching the basics of the branches of the government, but I could have implemented more higher order thinking so the students could understand the government in a deeper, more holistic way. Overall, my unit was successful in conveying the basic facts about the branches of government.
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Bibliography
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Brown, E., Silvestri L. (2014). Grassroots Activists and the Three Branches of the Government: Key Players in the Civil Rights Movement. Social Studies and the Young Learner, volume 27 (1) pp. 13-18.