Library of Congress: Lesson Plan

In searching the Library of Congress online, I came across a lesson that looked interesting to me. It's title is: Around the World in 1896; and it is a lesson for grades 6 - 8. When I first looked at the lesson I kind of squirmed a bit because it is very intense. However after looking at the length and depth of the lesson, I scrolled back to the top to notice that this lesson is to take place over 3 weeks. Even though it is loaded with information, it still has the core components of a basic lesson. Standards set by the district, student objectives, some form of introduction (background) or engagement, an exploration activity, explanation, an extension to what was initially done, and an evaluation of what the student got out of the assignment.

Yet, because this is coming from the library of congress it also provided a bibliography of primary resources to pull information. In addition, each activity of each step had step-by-step direction of exactly what to do. With good reason, because everything needs to done online so it needs to be very detail oriented. Most regular classroom lesson plans would not this detailed, but I know that when I have a technological lesson and I project it so that all of the students can see I have to be just detailed. It cut down on confusion and it aids in having the students complete the task exactly the way it is supposed to be.

Another thing noticed about the lesson plan, which is good practice for anyone planning on using Internet sources for their student's assignments, is that they hyperlink all online resources exactly where the students are supposed to use it. This is something that I should have done in my Social Media lesson plan, it looks "cleaner" when you do it that way and it definitely leads to better student understanding.

Everyone should take a look at this site and notice the manner in which the lessons are developed. Even for everyday lessons this may be the key for better concept understanding. All the way down to the goals of the assignment which are listed at the end, in which you expect to meet. This gives me a new outlook on planning!

B.

"Second Life Amendment"

I need to make an amendment to an earlier post that I made about Second Life. I had very minimal knowledge about it and its capabilities...and I still do. However, after being in my Paperless Classroom class tonight, I was exposed to a few of the capabilities and how it can be used as a teaching aid. I mean hell...you can pretty much go anywhere at anytime without leaving your computer seat: different parts of the world and even back in time. Again this is something that I would now definitely lobby for in my classroom, it is the perfect way to differentiate instruction by 'what your doing and exposing the students to' and 'how you are doing it,' using technology.

See it, Do it, Teach it!

B.

Eliot, The Waste Land

I think that Eliot ends the poem in the manner that he did to address all parties involved in the war, crossing language barriers identifying the many cultures...