Lesson 5 Reflection

 

    This lesson we taught was about culture. We talked about their own cultures as well as the culture of the Native people of Vermont. To start we went over the expectations and agenda. I took the time to really remind the students of the expectations because of the interruption problems we've been having the last few lessons. I not only went over them but asked how we can show how we follow each of these expectations. Then for this ice break we asked if the students could talk about their culture at home. The students seemed a little confused so we asked if they ate food that was different then their friends or peers or if they celebrated any holidays that were different. Maybe if they spoke different languages at home. The students didn’t know about their cultures and said they celebrate the traditional holidays in the U.S. Like Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Memorial Day. 

    Then we did a Pictionary vocabulary lesson. To modify the game I used hints to help them guess the vocabulary word. It was definitely not too hard but not too easy for the students and they enjoyed drawing. After the pictionary game we listened to a book about the tribe and did the anchor chart to start to talk about the Natives people of Vermont called the Abenaki Tribe. We made a venn diagram to compare mainstream American culture to the Abenaki Tribe where students stuck pictures to the chart. The students did a great job sticking photos to the chart in the correct places. 

    Next we made pinch pots like the Native Tribe would to make their dishes out of clay. We used air dry clay. I made a pot alongside them so we can model and stay on track with time. We also had one student absent so this can be used as hers when we decorate them at the last lesson to close out. The students enjoyed making the pots and they now have to dry. After this for our last activity we learned about many cultures. They watched a 5 minute video about cultures around the world that was turned into a song. Then we did a sort where they matched countries, languages, and pictures of festivals or common foods and dresses or holidays. 

    This week I learned how to better handle the students with their behavior. This week I went over the expectations very thoroughly to remind them of how we can show the expectations. I also showed them the air-dry clay and explained that to get through the activity and have time to play with the clay we needed to use our expectations and have minimal interruptions during this lesson.