Backpacking Through Europe
Evaluation
All of the children are very excited about traveling through Europe and I believe that the mini-unit has been very successful thus far. I only wish that I had started the mini-unit earlier so there would be more time for traveling. We were not able to leave on our trip until the third week in this placement because the students needed to bring in supplies from home. If I were to do this again, I would start sending notes home to the parents before I started in the classroom so the supplies would be ready and the class could begin traveling sooner.
Overall, the scrapbooks have turned out to be a fabulous way for the students to savor all of their memories from each place visited. They can draw pictures and add information to the guide sheets. These will be useful for the students when they look back to compare the surroundings in one country compared to another. I am so glad that my co-op uses these every year with her class, otherwise I would have only been able to use travel journals for the traveling adventure.
The lessons in the mini-unit have gone very smoothly and I only wish that I had more time to research more information to present to the class. They love to hear everything about these countries, but there are only so many childrenŐs books that present the information in text that is at their reading level. Also, the students enjoy learning how to speak different languages. I think having guest speakers in the class to instruct them worked extremely well. I made each child a language book, which will hopefully help them to remember the words that they were taught.
The progression of lessons is very logical as each week we were in a different country. While we were visiting we learned everything that we could about that particular country during that time. While traveling, they learned about the particular form of transportation that we would be using which proved to be a great transition from the lessons about the individual countries. The transformation of the stage in the gym into a plane was very effective in getting the students excited about the trip. They really thought they were taking an actual flight. From there the transformations continued to making the room look like England, to boarding a ship to get to France and so on. This is very time consuming, but I really think that it is worthwhile because the students are so much more enthusiastic about the trip when it seems real to them. I really appreciate all of my co-op's help in decorating, as she seems very excited about the mini-unit as well.
In the future, I would hope to be able to spend more time looking for movies and music that are authentic to the various countries, so there would be more of a mixture with the mediums in which information is presented to the children. Also, I hope to adapt many books to make them age appropriate, so the students could read them on their own during their free time. Many books are written in a manner that is too difficult for second graders, so I would have to read the information aloud in a way so that they could understand. While this is effective, it should not be the only way that the children are finding out about these countries.
Overall, I feel that I am lucky to have been able to decide the topic of the mini-unit on my own. I am really enjoying traveling with these second graders, as they are so enthusiastic and eager to learn everything that they can. I hope to be able to adapt this lesson to other classrooms in the future, as it has been not only fun but a great learning experience for the students.
Evaluation by Fall Advisor
My Fall Advisor observed a lesson from the mini-unit. It was about the boat trip that we would be taking from England to France. Mrs. Douglas seemed to be very pleased with the lesson and she also found it to be very fun for the children. She thought that the lesson went very well, as nearly all of the children were attentive throughout the reading of the book. They all made different types of boats using the torn construction paper and she was able to walk around the room to watch the children construct their boats. She commented on their excellent creativity. Mrs. Douglas liked the idea of having them only use torn construction paper as this makes students think differently than they usually would during art projects. She made several suggestions including adding more higher level thinking skills throughout the lesson and setting limits on the amount of construction paper used. She suggested asking the students questions before reading the book so they would be more focused during the reading. Another higher level thinking skill that she suggested is to stop to ask the students what it would be like to work on the ship, and what jobs they would like to perform aboard the ship. I feel that both of these ideas are excellent and I would definitely implement them if I were to repeat this lesson. I also plan on adapting these ideas to other lessons I will teaching. Overall, she felt that my enthusiasm kept the children involved and that they all enjoyed the story and enjoyed making their own boats.
Evaluation of Airplane Flight Lesson
The students were all very eager to contribute to the discussion at the beginning of the lesson. They all wanted to share their own experiences on an airplane. Most of the students had visited Disney World before, so we figured out as a class how much longer it would take to fly to England. All of the students seemed to enjoy the book, but some were more restless than others. They were all so excited to participate in the airplane trip and they could not stop asking when we would be leaving. During the time allowed for constructing their backpacks, the students all shared ideas and added very creative items to bring with them on the trip. The only problems occurred when the scrap box ran out of the popular colors, which caused me to have to go to the back of the room and cut more paper for the students to use. During this time, two students decided to wander around the room and try to bother other students. However, it did not take me long to cut the paper and then get the two students back on task. In the future, I will cut more paper of the colors that I know the children enjoy. Overall, this was a very successful lesson and I believe that I would do it again in the future. All of the children seemed to enjoy it, and it was a great kickoff to our flight the next day.
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