Padlet Unit Plan

The topic of racism and stereotyping have been in the news recently, both in the United States and internationally. I thought it was important to create a unit plan that reflected both current events, but also our country's troubled history on the subject. I think our history can serve to teach us the way forward on many topics, and hopefully on this one too.

My Padlet

I created the essential questions and unit goals for this lesson based on several different things: one was a lesson plan I found that focused on the topic, the other was recent news stories and incidents that provoked questions in my own mind about how we are handling stereotyping as a country, and the other was the historical perspective through which I've been viewing our country as I zero in on Social Studies as a topic.

I chose the apps and websites I did because it will give students the chance to not only express themselves, via YouTube and Google Docs, but also the opportunity to learn more about this topic, and others, if they so choose (the Smithsonian Channel's website). I also wanted to include a more multidisciplinary approach to the topic, which is why in my further reading section I include a psychology website, and the book "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Hope you all enjoy.

Share Ideas and Opinions: Google Docs

Google Docs

Google Docs About Page

Google Docs is a productivity suite offered free to Google users and something that has become increasingly common as a tool for students throughout k-12. Google Docs offers the user tools for creating documents, Excel-style sheets, or slides in a Power-Point-like format. What makes it so user friendly is that it comes loaded with dozens of templates that the user can use to create professional-looking reports or presentations.

Google Docs works perfectly in service of the share ideas and opinions learning strategy because it gives students an easy-to-use method for communicating their thoughts and ideas on a given subject; in my case, on Social Studies topics that I might want to teach them.

A good example is the Slides feature. Within the slides feature is a great template for doing book reports, which is a great way for students to express how they are interpreting a shared reading project. The template has a title page, an "About" page, a main characters page, and more, already ready for the student. By taking the formatting work out of the students hands, Google Docs allows them to focus on their own thoughts and feelings about historical works and figures. i would have my students read a short book about the American Revolution and then have them use the Slides feature to report on the main themes and figures from the revolution.

The only drawback to Google Docs is that it might make it too easy for a student to cut and paste information into the slides without much thought as to what is most important about what they are studying.

Supporting Instruction With Technology

This is the link to my Google Sheet
Interactivity #3

I chose this particularly lesson plan because it explores key topics in American history: stereotyping and multiculturalism. It's important as educators that we openly discuss the racial and cultural histories we share. 

From this lesson plan I learned that having students create their own original content, you can facilitate their learning far more than if you simply present them with someone else's original content. The idea of having students create a YouTube video (or DVD in this lesson plan) requires the student to gather source material but also to interpret it. Too often, students simply cut and paste source material into their papers and never delve deeply into their own thoughts on the subject. The video, teamed with the poem "Where I'm From," is a nice tool for getting students to think critically.

I believe this lesson plan aligned its curriculum goals, teaching strategies and technologies beautifully. It was clearly written a while ago, but have student immediately write their reactions to class material in ClassPress, then having them follow that up with their own video and poetic interpretations of the material is perfect synergy. At every step of the lesson plan, the teacher is developing students' abilities to interpret stereotypes and discover their patterns, while also relating these stereotypes and patterns to their own personal experiences. 

I think I could use Google Sheets for limited applications in my classroom; for example: I could have the students create graphic organizers for the material we read together in class, focusing on the key players and events in the events we study.