Give Me the Facts!

A Direct Instruction Lesson

on the Causes of the American Revolution emphasizing the Domino Effect 

Taught by Lindsay Roe and Nicole Bosi    

                                                                                         

Planning for Understanding of "Domino Effect": Creating a New Tool 

In planning our direct instruction lesson, Nicole and I knew that we were responsible for providing students with the facts associated with the causes of the American Revolution. Similarly, we were also aware that students would better understand and retain the facts if they understood the relationship between them. Instead of a presentation of seemingly disjointed slides that talked upon events as separately occurring incidents, we consciously tried to plan for students to recognize the facts as an interrelated story. This led us to the concept of the "domino effect" or as a fourth-grade student described in the video above, "a chain reaction." It was at this point that we began looking for ways to illustrate the domino effect at play in the causes of the American Revolution. We turned to the world wide web to try to find a suitable teaching tool that would emphasize how each cause led to the next, but only found graphic organizers such as these:  
                               

We felt that these graphic organizers left something to be desired, especially as they did not physically show how one domino hits the next which we thought would be more meaningful and concrete for students. Thus, not having a tool at our disposal that we felt would optimally capture students' attention and enhance the concept of one cause pushing into the next cause, we decided to create our own three-dimensional domino graphic organizer that students could utilize to take notes during the development phase of the lesson. 

Time to Teach: March 9, 2015

For the introduction of the lesson, using a Google Presentation, Nicole and I showed a video clip with scenes from the American Revolution. As it was the first lesson of the unit, the students shared vague understandings of the Revolutionary War, chiefly that colonists fought British soldiers for freedom. Many students volunteered to participate, and made statements that included what they saw in the video and what they thought the scenes represented. I think the students gave more general information as opposed to sharing specifics that they already knew, because I elected to use a video that encompassed many different ideas as opposed to pictures that pinpoint specific information. The more formal digital pre-assessment conducted prior to teaching provided more specific information as to students’ prior knowledge. As the students acknowledged that a war would occur and that the colonists wanted to be independent of Great Britain as part of the pre-assessment, I was easily able to transition to say, now I am going to present what led to war. Then, I introduced the concept of the “domino effect” by showing an example of the domino graphic organizer, which helped to describe that we would be discussing multiple interrelated causes today. One student quickly caught on, and said, “It will be like a chain reaction.”

A fourth-grade student takes notes on his 3D domino 

graphic organizer while following the lesson.

For the development, students utilized the new and improved three-dimensional graphic organizers to take notes, as Nicole and I presented facts on the causes of the American Revolution. In the corner of each factual slide was a domino with a number that matched the numbers on the dominoes in their graphic organizers. For example, students would need to find the "five domino" for the Townshend Acts when the Townshend Acts slide showed a five domino in the corner. The hope was that students would be able to better self-regulate when and where to take notes.  However, I did not anticipate how much assistance students would need in navigating the graphic organizer. I thought that showing the corresponding domino on the presentation and saying, “The number of the domino in the corner, is the number of the domino you write on for your graphic organizer,” would suffice as an explanation. After there was initial confusion on when and where to write notes, I modeled using a student’s graphic organizer. If I taught this lesson again, I would model the first two slides, stating, “I see only one dot on the domino in the corner of the slide, so I know I need to turn to my first domino. I will write down two details on the back of the domino.” When I turn to the second slide, I will say: “Now I see two dots on the domino in the corner, so I must turn to the second domino on my graphic organizer. Again, I will write two details on the back of the domino.” Another future change I would make is to better capitalize on students' eagerness to complete the graphic organizer. While in the throes of the lesson, I became more concerned with presenting all the content at a fast pace within the allotted time. Thus, I missed important opportunities to focus in on students’ questions about what to write for certain events. In the future, I will pace the content at a reduced speed, and provide students the opportunity to write more complete notes. I will be more flexible, and follow the students’ lead in how they want to engage the material.
           


Additionally, to check for understanding, we utilized "Contemplation Slides" complemented by an animated light bulb to signal to students that it was time to stop writing, and think. I found that the “Contemplation” slides were successful in making students think about how the causes relate to one another. The students’ answers indicated that students were following the content of the lesson and that by trying to verbally answer the questions, the students were making their own connections between the material: “An important finding from information-processing research is that students need to spend additional time rephrasing, elaborating, and summarizing new material in order to store this material in their long-term memory” (Rosenshine, 2012, p. 16). Requiring frequent responses, specifically student participation every

few minutes, “helps [the students] focus on the lesson content, provides opportunities for student elaboration, assists [the teacher] in checking understanding, and keeps students active and attentive” (Archer and Hughes, 2011, p. 3).  However, some students were more eager to participate than others when I relied upon volunteers. When I opened up questions for choral responses, asking for certain words to be repeated or for an answer I knew everyone would know such as “Taxing what item caused the Boston Tea Party?” all of the students seemed more confident responding. Knowing this now, in the future, I hope to incorporate more choral responding. Also, to try to involve more students, I need to improve how I was asking students to agree or disagree. For some questions, I would interject the statement, “thumbs up if you agree,” but the way I asked and followed up with this request for responses was ineffective in engaging all students. I failed to provide students another option besides simply agreeing. In the future, I will want to emphasize the agreement or disagreement participation element by providing students with two options and presenting this element as an expectation after all questions. Beyond this, I think that the “contemplation” questions I selected were appropriate and focused students’ attention on the essentials I wanted them to take away from the lesson. In particular, on the last contemplation slide, I think that the sequence of the questions and how they lead into each other helped to stress the concept of the “domino effect.” I especially liked how when I asked students to “put pencils down and think” for the contemplation slides, most students seemed to respond and once pencils went down, they made more eye contact and appeared to be following closely along. Also, I think that by asking students to predict what would happen next in the sequence, helped to show which students were following along, which acted as a formative assessment, and drew their attention to the next slides to see if their predictions were correct.

For guided practice, we had time for two activities. First, we rolled a 10-sided-dice using Smartboard Notebook 11. The number the dice rolled corresponded to the number of the domino on the 3D graphic organizer that students would have to discuss with their neighbors. The idea in planning was that this would provide students a chance to clear-up misconceptions and add notes to their domino graphic organizers that they missed in the development. If ever attempting this activity again, I would want to ensure that the classroom was conducive to my being able to walk around the classroom and hear the responses of all students. When circulating, I would be able to provide immediate corrective feedback to students. Also, I would want to make certain that I could quickly regain students’ attention and have students quietly listening to the responses the students shared with the whole class at the end.Then, the next activity was designed to be more challenging, because “when students demonstrate success, you can gradually increase task difficulty as you decrease the level of guidance” (Archer & Hughes, 2011, p. 2). Using Google Presentation animation, we showed students pictures of the causes of the American Revolution that slowly came into focus or became unscrambled. Then, using a hand signal of five fingers to zero, students knew when to share their ideas regarding the pictures. The students remained engaged, and unlike during other activities, the students stayed with me and responded to the signal for attention. Also, I believe that this activity was particularly important because it gave us formative assessment feedback on how the students would perform on the independent practice assessment which also required students to describe pictures relating to the causes of the American Revolution.

           

For closure, as can be viewed in the video above, we utilized the Smartboard Jeopardy Template to create a Jeopardy game on the causes of the American Revolution for students to play in small groups. Categories from which students could choose to answer questions included: "Acts," which focused on acts passed by the British, "Mailbox," which focused on correspondence between the colonists and Britain, and "Blame the colonists" and "Blame the British" which focused on questionable behavior from both sides. Groups wrote responses on laminated paper using dry-erase markers, and thus, more students were involved than if students were called to the board individually. In this way, the game was both engaging for students and efficient at reviewing content. For next time, I would want to improve upon signalling students’ attention for responses, and quieting down the classroom so that all students may hear the correct answers. Also, I did not have time to administer final jeopardy which was designed to have students explain the causes of the American Revolution in terms of the domino effect, which I had hoped would be a perfect closure transition.

Lastly, for independent practice, students completed an "Instagram Captioning Activity," in which they were given pictures of causes of the American Revolution and had to hash-tag the name of the cause and provide two details for the cause in the caption to meet the learning objective for the lesson: "“Given an instagram template with four pictures representing the causes of the American Revolution, the student will write captions describing the pictures for at least three out of four pictures correctly.” The students were motivated by the infusion of "instagram" into the assignment, making it appear as more than just another worksheet.

References

Archer, A., & Hughes, C. (2011). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Rosenshine, B. (2012). Principles of instruction: Research-based strategies that all teachers should know. American Educator, 36(1), 12-19, 39.

  

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.

Experience + Reflection = Meaning

Through my pre-service education program at Mount Saint Mary College, I have learned the value of reflection. To prepare us for edTPA and our careers, every education course contains the "reflection" assignments. For every hour spent teaching, a multiple of that hour is spent scrutinizing over our own performance and comparing it to the pedagogical ideals presented to us by our professors, textbooks, and the countless videos of exemplary teaching to which we aspire. Just as teachers work to help students in developing their own meta-cognitive and self-evaluative skills, we must use reflection in our own work to improve our own skills as teachers: "Rather than just following preplanned lessons and techniques, reflective teachers consider what they know about the children in their group and about child development theory to better understand and delight in what happens in the classroom. Reflection allows teachers to make effective, meaningful decisions about how to respond to and plan for children" (Carter, Cividanes, Curtis, and Lebo, 2010, p. 1). Therefore, in Social Studies Methods this semester, we are being provided the opportunity to not only reflect upon our own teaching, but also to reflect upon the teaching of other teacher candidates. John Dewey, an educational reformer and renowned philosopher of the twentieth century, argues that reflection is what makes an experience meaningful (Rodgers, 2002). 

       

Reflection in Practice: Learning from Kelli 

In the week of February 11, 2015, I observed Kelli Flannery teach direct instruction, inquiry, and cooperative learning lessons on the causes of the American Revolution to fifth grade students. In a unit titled, "The Road to Revolution," Kelli provided students with facts in the direct instruction lesson and then switched to indirect strategies in the later two lessons to allow students to develop reasoning and social interaction skills. 

Direct Instruction

           

Kelli began the lesson by activating prior knowledge and enticing student interest by having students view pictures related to the causes of the American Revolution. Immediately, students began offering ideas, and each idea gave Kelli insight into the information students already knew which she could draw upon later in the lesson. Structuring this pre-assessment more informally, without relying on a traditional question/answer format allowed students to be much more motivated to participate, and more confident giving answers. Then, for development, the teacher provided facts at a fast-pace, and was complemented by

Kelli's "Check for Understanding" Slide

a Google Presentation titled, "Road to Revolution." On the slides, she utilized a star symbol to indicate when students should be taking notes on their corresponding graphic organizers. Similarly, for the slides that checked for understanding, she utilized the phrase “stop and ponder” and showed a picture of Albert Einstein thinking. I think that these symbols helped students to self-monitor what they were supposed to be accomplishing, without the teacher having to interrupt the fast-pace of her instruction. I later decided to use this technique in my own direct instruction lesson. Still, I think that the development

could have benefited from more "Stop and Ponder!" slides to help students identify connections between the material presented, and so that the teacher could quickly correct any misconceptions. Kelli also provided two guided practice activities: a Smart board interactive "Whack-a-mole" activity and a picture identification activity.The students appeared motivated by the activities, which focused upon reviewing facts of the content to build mastery. Lastly, the teacher continued to focus on the facts when students engaged in the Kahoot closure activity.The students were engaged in the closure, liking the competitive spirit of Kahoot. However, the results of the Kahoot game indicated that there were many questions for which the students either did not know the answer or did not have time to answer. I wish that there had been time for the teacher to review why the correct answer was indeed the correct answer, or have a student explain the correct answer to ensure students were correcting misconceptions. Lastly, as independent practice, the teacher assigned a selected-response matching item with the same number of premises and responses. For next time, I would urge Kelli to utilize more responses than premises because it, "provides greater coverage of information and is a better indicator of knowledge by reducing guessing of some correct answers that occurs if the same number of premises and responses are used and each response is used only once" (McMillan, 2011, p. 187). Still, the pencil-and-paper item should help Kelli to see which facts the students now know as a result of her teaching. Overall, I felt that Kelli delivered energetic and fast-paced instruction that maintained the students' interest and clearly provided facts. 

Inquiry Instruction

Next, it was time for the students to build reasoning skills and construct generalizations from the facts they now know from Kelli's Direct Instruction Lesson. Thus, Kelli created an inquiry lesson focused on having students evaluate the causes of the war to advise a "governor" in writing on which side he should take in the American Revolution. In addition to reviewing the content in the engage phase, Kelli also pre-assessed students knowledge of the role of historians and the steps of the inquiry process. Next, to engage students in the task, Kelli created a Voki character, the "governor," to introduce the problem that the students would explore using the inquiry process. The Voki character was unexpected, but perfect for introducing the problem in a creative way. I was so impressed by the Voki's effectiveness in Kelli's lesson, that I opted to use Voki in my own inquiry-based lesson. Next, the teacher modeled the first step, creating a question and then handed out investigatory folders containing data for students to read and evaluate. There was some student confusion as to what they were supposed to be doing despite having an investigatory report to guide their learning. Even though Kelli and supporting teachers were able to clarify group-by-group, I think more explanation in introducing the task would have led to less confusion later on when students were on their own. During the explain phase, students had to share their findings with their group members. The teacher was wise to structure the questions on the recording form to require the participation of all group members as each group member had different reference material to consult. For closure, students were asked to pick a side, patriot or loyalist, and explain why they decided upon that particular side. Most students were able to cite particular evidence/circumstances, one even quoting reference material, to explain their decision. I particularly enjoyed that the teacher had students station themselves in different parts of the classroom depending upon their view, which forced every student to make a decision. The students appeared comfortable sharing their ideas, I just wish that there had been more time for further conversation between classmates as opposed to a teacher question/ student answer format. Lastly, for independent practice, Kelli asked the students to write a letter to the governor with their findings adhering to a rubric she explained to them beforehand. Overall, I thought Kelli was successful in developing an inquiry-based lesson that motivated students to assume their roles as investigators. For future inquiry-based lessons, I would only suggest that further development of discussion in the expand and closure may lead students to better develop generalizations. 

         

Cooperative Learning

On her third day teaching, Kelli designed a cooperative learning lesson in which students came together in small groups to create a timeline that way students could further develop their knowledge of the causes of the American Revolution as well as practice social interaction. In the introduction, Kelli asked students to list on a piece of loose-leaf as many of the causes of the American Revolution that they could remember. Then, she asked students to discuss the purpose of timelines and the value of teamwork. To pre-assess for the social interaction learning objective, Kelli showed pictures of teamwork and asked students to explain what is important when working in groups. Next, as the development, Kelli handed out group folders and asked students to allocate a role for each student in the group. To increase individual accountability, Kelli explained that: “Everyone has a role, and for the team to get a good grade, everyone needs to do their part!” She described to students that their task was to: examine the five pictures in their folders, put them in chronological order, paste them on the timeline template provided, provide a description for each event, and then create a title and decorate the timeline. Kelli then circulated around the classroom to monitor students' progress, however I did not observe her taking anecdotal notes. Kelli successfully facilitated four of the five elements of cooperative learning. Positive interdependence was achieved as there was only one assignment/template to be handed in for the entire group. Individual accountability was achieved by having students responsible for their individual roles. Social skills and face-to-face interaction were achieved as the group sat together in small circles around the classroom and had to make group decisions for the timeline. However, I wish there had been more time devoted to group processing. The students independently filled out peer and group evaluation forms at the end of the lesson as part of the closure, however, they did not have time to discuss ideas for improvement with their groups which is a crucial part of group processing because, as I described when explaining why teachers must reflect, experience without reflection does not create maximal meaning. However, Kelli did ask students to reflect on how they would improve independently in their Social Studies journals as independent practice, following groups sharing their timelines in the closure.

Implications

I am glad that I was able to observe and reflect upon Kelli's instruction because it helped me to further brainstorm and plan for my own teaching. I chose to adopt practices that I felt were effective and engaging for students, like the use of the Voki introduction in the inquiry-based lesson, and alter practices that I felt had the potential to become effective and engaging, such as using more check for understanding slides in the development phase of direct instruction lessons to better prepare students to form generalizations from facts. 

References

Carter, M., Cividanes, W., Curtis, D., & Lebo, D. (2010). Becoming a reflective teacher. Teaching Young Children, 3(4).

Dewey, J. (1916/1944). Democracy and education. New York: Free Press.

McMillan, J. H. (2011). Classroom assessment principles and practice for effective standards-based instruction. (5th ed). Boston, MA:. Allyn & Bacon. 

Rodgers, C. (2002). Defining reflection: Another look at John Dewey and reflective thinking. Teachers College Record, 104(4), 842-866.