Battle Decoding

Nicole and Christine's Unit on the Battles of the American Revolution 

Like Kelli's teaching on the causes of the American Revolution, Nicole and Christine planned and implemented direct instruction, inquiry, and cooperative learning lessons to develop fifth-grade students' understanding of the battles of the American Revolution. The structure of their unit allowed them to provide students with a factual knowledge base in the direct instruction lesson which was then utilized with reasoning skills in the inquiry lesson and social interaction skills in the cooperative learning lesson. Of the three lessons taught, I found their inquiry-based lesson the most impressive and valuable for me to observe, as it was the first time I was exposed to QR (Quick Response) Codes. 

Direct Instruction 

       


To activate prior knowledge and warm-up students to start learning about the battles, Nicole and Christine presented pictures related to the causes of the American Revolution that Kelli taught previously. The students were able to quickly and accurately share their ideas regarding the pictures. Then, Christine and Nicole delivered many facts to the students at a fast-pace, checking for understanding with "Stop and Think" slides. As Christine and Nicole lectured, the students were asked to take notes by filling in the blanks on guided notes that were identical to the Google Presentation slides. The guided notes increased students' active participation within the lesson and hopefully helped students to focus in on key

terminology. Considering note-taking is still not a fully mastered skill in the fifth-grade, the use of guided notes "supports students during note-taking by reducing the cognitive demands that are required to successfully complete the task" (Haydon, Mancil, Kroeger, McLesky, and Lin, 2011, p. 226). However, a fear that I have about guided notes is that it is possible for students to just look for the missing word or phrase on the slide and copy that word or phrase without actually reading the entire sentence or grasping the intended fact. Thus, I think it is critical that if teachers are going to utilize guided notes, that they conduct frequent and rigorous checks for student understanding with verbal or visual prompts throughout the lesson as well. Following the development, as guided practice, the teachers created an interactive timeline using Smart Board Notebook. Unfortunately, technological difficulties dampened the impact of the planned activity in the classroom, however, students still worked towards mastering the facts by sequencing the important battles and events of the American Revolution. For their second activity, Christine and Nicole again made use of the Smart Board to engage students by choosing student volunteers to come up to the board and draw lines connecting terminology to corresponding definitions. Many students were eager to participate, motivated by the Smart Board, and when students did not have the answers, they were encouraged by Nicole and Christine to ask their peers for assistance. For the last guided practice activity, each student was given several pictures of important figures in the American Revolution, the teachers then read clues and required students to hold up the picture of the figure about whom they were talking. The students were excited to participate in this activity as well, however, this also

led to a lot of talking between peers which was difficult for the teacher candidates to control. In the closure, students were asked to share what they had learned from the lesson, what they were interested by, and one question that they still had. For independent practice, students were asked to describe pictures related to the battles of the American Revolution. Overall, this lesson was successful in developing students' factual knowledge of the battles of the American Revolution, thus targeting the lower levels of Bloom's taxonomy pictured here. 


Inquiry Instruction
 

To discover the relationship between
the direct instruction and inquiry
 lessons, scan the QR code above. 

  As the engagement phase of the inquiry-based lesson and to review previously learned facts, Christine and Nicole displayed pictures relating to the battles of the American Revolution in their Google Presentation. Students were then asked to share their ideas about the pictures and to agree or disagree with statements made by their peers. This warm-up showed that the students had retained many of the facts that they had learned in the direct instruction lesson. Then, Christine and Nicole reviewed the inquiry process with the students, and recognizing that these fifth-graders had struggled to create hypotheses the previous week in Kelli's inquiry lesson, Nicole dedicated additional time to reviewing the concept of hypothesizing using sports analogies. Then, Christine and Nicole introduced the question students would be using the inquiry process to answer during the lesson. They told the students that each group would be given clues to lead them to certain a individual who was important during the Revolutionary War. First, the students hypothesized about who their individual was based on a picture on the outside of the group folders. Then, each group was given five paper bags each containing a QR (Quick Response) code for students to scan to reveal a clue that they then analyzed to determine if the clue supported or disproved their original hypothesis. Eventually, after revealing and analyzing all five clues, students had to evaluate whether their hypotheses were correct or incorrect. I found the QR codes to be very motivating for students and effective in guiding students through the inquiry process. Students were able to further take on the role of investigators by decoding the clues and then evaluating them.

  After students concluded which historical figure their group's clues defined, the students were asked to present their inquiry project to the class. The presentations were structured so that the presenting group asked the class the questions they had been asked through the process, and of course not having been privy to the same material, the class did not know the answers. Instead of structuring the presentations in this way, I would have instead focused upon the process that the students themselves underwent in their groups to arrive at their historical figures. I would have liked to hear the group's original hypothesis and then how each successive clue either helped them to strengthen their original hypothesis or led them to create new hypotheses. Even though the presentation format could have been improved, I still feel that the lesson was extremely successful in engaging students in the inquiry process, specifically, collecting data to draw conclusions. As you will read below in the "In My Future Classroom" section, I am definitely thrilled to have been introduced to QR codes in Nicole and Christine's lesson and plan to use them in my future teaching! 

Cooperative Learning Lesson 
          

For their cooperative learning lesson, Nicole and Christine reviewed prior learning using pictures and also assessed students' knowledge of teamwork and cooperation. Then, they introduced the day's challenge to create a board game on the battles of the American Revolution. They reviewed the rubric for creating the board game, explained the roles that students would be assigned within their groups, and informed the students that teachers would be walking around to observe students' teamwork skills. Similarly, Nicole and Christine presented a worked example of a board game that they created. The students were very excited to be creating their own games; one group designed their board based on the "Shot Heard Round the World" from the Battle of Lexington and Concord.  By having each group create one board game, Nicole and Christine assured positive interdependence was achieved. However, the assigned roles and peer and group evaluation forms ensured that students maintained individual accountability and that all aspects of the project were completed. In terms of social skills and face-to-face interaction, I was pleased to see that the students were engaged in group decision-making often discussing with each other what would look "cooler." Students' ownership of their board games could easily be observed in the group presentations shown in the clip above, when students described their projects and more importantly, their reasoning behind why they created the projects as they did. Overall, this lesson was successful in establishing genuine cooperative learning as opposed to just "group work," all of the students were motivated to participate to achieve a quality product. Johnson and Johnson (1988) assert that unlike group work, cooperative learning requires that there, "be an accepted common goal on which the group will be rewarded for their efforts." 

In My Future Classroom

After observing Nicole and Christine's teaching, I saw QR codes being used in another fifth-grade classroom as a part of English Language Arts stations. Motivated by the success of both these observations, I am now eager to use QR codes in my own classroom for all content areas. Monica Burns, in her blog,"Five Reasons I Love Using QR Codes in My Classroom," asserts that QR codes: "Eliminate the frustration of long web addresses, take students directly to a designated website, save time, are easily made, and change up the normal routine." Thus, QR codes can engage students and be easily incorporated into my lessons at the same time.

References

Burns. (2013, January 23). Five reasons I love using QR codes in my classroom. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/using-qr-codes-in-classroom-monica-burns

Haydon, T., Mancil, G.R., Kroeger, S.D., McLeskey, J., & Lin, W.J. (2011). A review of the effectiveness of guided notes for students who struggle learning academic content. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 55(4), p. 226-231.


Johnson, R.T., & Johnson, D. W. (1988). Cooperative learning: Two heads learn better than one. Transforming Education, 18, 34.