Lesson Reflection Three

 This lesson focused on civics. We did a voting activity followed by a discussion on government in Vermont and then we performed a play. To start the lesson we went over the agenda with the students and did a quick refresher on our expectations. Then we started our ice breaker that was about the students wanting a shorter school day or a long recess. We asked this to open up the voting part of our lesson. The students mainly all wanted a short school day so they could hangout with their friends at home. Then we started with a vocab matching activity with flashcards. We set up all the definitions and the students voted which vocabulary word went with which definition. The students got almost all of them right except for switching up two words. We then did a quick voting explanation about what happens and what it looks like and what you vote for on a ballot. My co-teacher and I then did a quick campaign and had the students vote for us. We had students vote on two ballots, one that was about school and one that was about the environment and money. Next we talked about the levels of government and what each one is responsible for. I then gave the kids a few scenarios and they were expected to tell us which level of government was responsible for each scenario. Last we did a play with characters that were enforcers. The play was about following rules and laws and why it was important. As we read each scene I had the students tell me who the enforcer or enforcers were in each scene. To wrap up we read the M is for Maple book about the state of Vermont.  

In the future I will stick to more hands-on activities. I have learned that my group does not like to write in any way. I have to make activities so that the students don’t have to write sentences in any way. As long as they do something like a fill in the blank or finish the sentence they are fine. I have also noticed the students get restless so in future lessons I think we will do a brain break so they can do something non academic for a few minutes.