L4+Aceto,+Jason

Teacher’s name: Jason Aceto Date of lesson: 2 Grade Level: 6-8 Topic: Detailing the course of events during the Aztec/Spanish conflict. Student will understand that the expansion of European civilizations led to the demise of influential indigenous cultures in the western hemisphere. Student will know the Aztec Empire was thriving after the treaty of 1486 but suddenly fell apart after the Spanish invasion and ensuing occupation. Student will be able to create a ComicLife Story Board that details the events leading up to and following the treaty of 1486. // Maine // //Learning Results:// Social Studies-E.History E1 //Historical knowledge, concepts, themes and patterns//. Grade 6-8 "The Expansion and Interaction of Civilizations, 600CE-1450CE" //Students understand major eras, major enduring themes, and historic influences in the history of the various regions of the world.// b. Identify and analyze major historic eras, major historical eras, major enduring themes, turning points, events, consequences, and people in the history of the various regions of the world.
 * Objectives: **
 * Maine **** Learning Results Alignment: **
 * Rationale: This learning result will allow us to not only examine the course of events during this conflict, but it will also let us expand further into the major issues and enduring themes that surround this topic in history.**

** *I will have the students fill out self-assessment questionnaires before they form their groups. This will help me to see what they already know and what else they need to know. After they fill these sheets out, I will go over their responses with the entire class. The class will them split into groups and filter through a variety of sources such as books, pictures, and websites to decipher the information in this unit. ** This lesson will integrate type II technology in the form of comiclife software. This final product will require the students to utilize this technology to create a fun and interactive timeline detailing all the important events of the Aztec/Spanish conflict. This technology will allow students to present a relatively basic concept in a fun and creative way. Other forms of technology that will be utilized in the creation and presentation of this final product will be a wireless internet connection and an LCD projector which the students will use to present their newscasts. The integration of other subjects will come through by way of critical reading and writing skills which the students must utilize during their research and creating the text for their comiclife product. Other English skills that will be integrated will be analysis of documents. Finally, the students will have to understand the order of events in this cultural clash and must utilize their mathematical skills such as orderly sequential thinking. Students will enter the class and they will take their normal seats. I will group them by having the class count off by fours. This will make sure that the students are grouped randomly and they will not have to worry about wasting time by choosing their partners. This will ensure that groups will be comprised of members of all learning abilities and skill levels. By having the students work in groups for this project, it will allow for more collaboration on their research and the ability to utilize what they have learned from past lessons. Linguistic - students will be writing and reading while creating their comiclife timelines. Logical - students will be creating a timeline with the chronological order of the events that occurred during the Spanish invasion of the Aztec Empire. Spatial - students will be working with pictures detailing the Aztec/Spanish conflict which will enable these students to derive critical information about this topic through a different medium. Bodily-kinesthetic - students will be using the computer to create and to edit their comiclife timelines. Musical - Students will be allowed to create a musical jingle for their timelines. Intrapersonal - Students will be working independently on their research. Interpersonal - Students will be working in groups and then sharing their timelines with the class. Naturalist – Students will be able to work outside on their computers.
 * Assessment: **
 * Formative **** (Assessment for Learning) **
 * Summative** (Assessment of Learning)
 * *To assess what the students have learned, each student will be placed in a group with 4 of their peers. They will research a given event in the Aztec/Spanish interactions and create a comiclife timeline about it. Then after creating this timeline and sharing it with the class, they will fill out reflective self-evaluators to judge how well they felt they did on their project and suggest improvements. Also, as a class, each student will fill out the same self-assessment questionnaire to see how their knowledge has grown from their research. **
 * Integration: **
 * Groupings: **
 * Differentiated Instruction: **

To meet the needs of all students, I will encourage them to look for various mediums in their sources. Each student will be given the opportunity to discuss and work with their group members to answer questions or clarify information. Also, to accommodate any IEP’s, 504’s, or ELLIDEP’s I will review the needs of the given student and provide an alternative that will suite their learning style. An example of this would be to encourage a student with a low reading level to have their laptop read the information back to them, which will allow them to retain more of the content and allow them to participate fully. This assignment will help students achieve a higher level of thinking by challenging them to think about the way conflicts have progressed and compare these progressions to the War in Iraq. Students will be encouraged to take a look at how the War in Iraq has progressed and then examine their timelines to understand how this relates to the Aztec/Spanish interactions. Also, by viewing the timelines for both issues, the students will be able to see how indigenous cultures react to invasion and how they both eventually bent to the will of the invading society. I personally will have to gather resources to prepare for this lesson which will give students an idea of the course of events in the Aztec and Spanish conflict. This will also mean that I will have to obtain information that details this conflict from start to finish. Next, I will have to find tutorials that will assist my students in using the comiclife software that will be vital for the making of their products. I will also have to create a pre-assessment as well as group evaluators. Collecting a graphic organizer for this will also be vital as it will help organize group research better. During the research portion of this lesson the students will be using their text books and internet search engines to uncover more information on their own. In terms of how technology will be used, it will be imperative that I instruct them as to how they will be setting up their comiclife products. As I have never used comiclife before, it will be crucial for me to find out how to use this software in order to better serve my students in this area of the lesson. Pre-Assessment Sheets Project Description Handout Wireless Internet Network Comiclife software LCD Projector Graphic Organizer Group Evaluation Sheets Product Rubric Source for lesson plan and research: http://www.pbs.org/opb/conquistadors/mexico/mexico.htm the webquest which will allow students to take a look at the timeline of Aztec rise and fall as well as including the conquest of their Empire. http://si.unm.edu/si2002/JOHN_M/TIMELINE/TIM_0032.HTM great website full of information about the Aztec and Spanish interactions which will help all students get vital information for their final products The students will enter the room and find the class set up with the usual two tables slid together in the back of the class, and two tables up front angled inward on the right and left hand side of the class. While the teacher’s desk may be located at the back of the class, the teacher will be giving instruction primarily from the small desk in the font of the class which will hold the LCD projector that the teacher will use to display the various handouts. The teacher will then briefly welcome the class and take role call while settling the students into the learning environment by using content questions. Welcome Hook (http://www.pbs.org/opb/conquistadors/mexico/mexico.htm ) Group Students Students move tables to group workspaces Lesson Introduction Handout pre-assessment Explain project guidelines Handout product rubric along with the final self evaluation Allow the remainder of class to be spent researching. Check in with groups Send students to their next class The students will enter the room and take their seats in the usual classroom setup. Once this has happened, I will then welcome all of the students and the briefly explain that we will be starting a new lesson that will draw on the previous lesson’s topic of the Spanish and Aztec conflict. I will explain that instead of looking at specific events, we will now be looking at the big picture of this topic by constructing a timeline of these events. It will be important to make them aware that during this lesson each student will be grouped with three of their peers at random and expected to utilize the comiclife software on their computers to create a unique timeline. I will give them a link to a great website by PBS that gives an overview of the Aztec/Spanish conflict and what events transpired during this time. This hook should not only engage them, but it should also give them a good starting point when deciding which information is most important to include in their own timelines. After allowing them to surf this site, I will ask the students to consider the order of events that have occurred in the War in Iraq and try and ponder how this could relate to the Spanish invasion of the Aztec Empire. A brief class brainstorm will happen which will allow students to show what they learned from the previous lesson and also give them an understanding of where this lesson is going. After this is through, I will begin to prepare my students for the project guidelines and pre-assessment. As students ponder the questions from their discussion and eventually begin to research the events of this interaction they will start to understand the major historical influences and enduring themes from this ancient culture and their cultural conflict relate them to our own modern day society. **Where, Why, What, Hook, Tailor: Intrapersonal, Linguistic and Visual (10 minutes)** Next, I will explain that in this lesson the various groups will all be researching and looking up the events of the Aztec and Spanish interactions and creating a timeline. The students will be expected to present an this timeline to the class in a creative and fun way which will show the class a variety of opinions on this conflict and how it compares to the course of events taking place in the War in Iraq. The students will then be given pre-assessment questionnaires that will ask very general questions about this topic. The groups will be researching this information equally in order to complete their comiclife timelines and come up with enough graphics to produce their final product. Their timelines must be creative and accurate while sticking to the factual information surrounding this topic. This will stretch their creativity and how well they researched the information about the conflict and related it to the War in Iraq. Once I have explained the expectations for the final product I will ask the students to fill out their pre-assessment questionnaire which will help me to better understand what they know and what they will need to know during this lesson. One they are all completed, I will collect them from the students and explain that they will not be graded on this assignment, only that these sheets will be used to show them how and what they have learned during this lesson. After having filled out this worksheet, I will ask the class to count off by fours and once they have done so, I would ask them to get with their group members and more their materials to separate tables and move them to designated work places. Once the students have moved to their designated workspaces I will handout their graphic organizer which they will use to record any information vital to their final product. After filling out the pre-assessment questionnaires I will allow each group to obtain their textbooks and laptops to prepare for their research. Each group will have their own tables which they must move to another part of the room to use as their personal workspace which will allow minimal distractions between groups. I will make sure that each group understands that each individual works equally during the group research. This will ensure that all may come to understand the major enduring themes and historical influences while also understanding that the Aztec/Spanish conflict shares common threads with the War in Iraq today. Before setting the students to work, I will remind them that they must use their critical thinking skills when looking through the internet for information on this topic and to try and decipher what is appropriate information for their final product. Also, it will be important to remind students that when they have finished researching that they must try and think creatively about how they can set up their timelines in a way that can effectively present their research in an engaging way through the use of their timelines. Finally, I will set them to work on their research and make my rounds about the classroom to observe the groups work on their graphic organizers and begin to construct their products. . To assess my students I will be giving them a final product rubric that will inform the students that they must follow the criteria listed in the rubric in order to achieve the highest mark possible. This will give my students a clear understanding of what I expect from them and what their product must entail. The final self evaluation will be explained as part of their grade and I will explain that these evaluations should be a reflection on how the student felt that they worked on this product and what they learned. I will explain to them that each group member must participate equally and that through my observations I will be grading them on participation and their efforts during the group research. At the end of class I will make a quick check in with each student to help them assess what is left for them to do in order to complete their timeline. If need be, they may only have to finalize the setup of their timeline for homework, while other individuals may have to stay after school or come in during recess if they are behind with their research or are having any sort of difficulties with the software. It is important for them to know that I will be prompt and available if they need any help or need to discuss an extension. Finally, once all the students have been check up on, I will allow the students to pack up their belongings and head on to their next class.
 * Modifications/Accommodation: **
 * Extensions **
 * Materials, Resources and Technology: **
 * Maine **** Standards for Initial Teacher Certification and rationale: **
 * // Standard 3 - Demonstrates a knowledge of the diverse ways in which students learn and develop by providing learning opportunities that support their intellectual, physical, emotional, social, and cultural development. //**
 * Rationale ** : This lesson meets the Maine Standards for Initial teacher certification by taking into a consideration that students learn in different ways and providing them with different learning opportunities. Students will also be following the product rubric to create their timelines and must stay organized and efficient in their research. Students are also provided with a safe and comfortable learning environment. Any mistreatment or disrespectful attitudes will not be allowed and will be discouraged as they not only are disrespectful to others, but they also disrespect the learning environment.
 * // • Standard 4 - Plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, curriculum goals, and learning and development theory. //**
 * Rationale ** : This lesson meets the Maine Standards for Initial teacher certification by providing students with the proper information they need to complete this project. Students will be taking another look at the Aztec and Spanish conflict and the importance of understanding the order of events and how they related to one another in this conflict. The students will also be made to think and make modern day connections to this topic by looking at accounts from the War in Iraq and thinking about how the order of events in both conflicts had common threads and ultimately led to the same ending point. This allows students to make a deeper connection to the subject matter by applying it to their every day life, while still reaching the goals set out in the MLR for this unit.
 * // • Standard 5 - Understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies and appropriate technology to meet students’ needs. //**
 * Rationale ** : This lesson meets the Maine Standards for Initial teacher certification by meeting the needs of eight different learning strategies. These eight strategies include linguistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalist, logical, and spatial. The students will also be utilizing a type II technology in the form of their comiclife timelines which will be a key component of their final product. Each student will be accommodated because their final products will be a multimedia presentation that will accommodate all learning styles.
 * // • Standard 8 - Understands and uses a variety of formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and support the development of the learner. //**
 * Rationale ** : This lesson meets the Maine Standards for Initial teacher certification by assessing students in many different ways and by a variety of individuals. Each group member will be expected to participate fully in the research and collaborative efforts. The students will be assessed on this area of the lesson by filling out group evaluation sheets which will ask questions about how they felt each member of their group worked during the research portion and how they felt that their final product came out. I will also be assessing their effort and participation by circulating the room and observing each student. Students will also be evaluated on the overall quality of their final product. The teacher will go through the rubric and assess whether or not each student has hit the required benchmarks in order to receive a certain score on their product. Students will be given this product rubric when they first begin and will be able to reference this in order to understand what will be necessary to receive the highest possible score.
 * Teaching and Learning Sequence: **
 * Agenda: **
 * Equip, Explore, Rethink, Tailors: Visual, Linguistic, Intrapersonal (20 minutes) **
 * Explore, Experience, Rethink, Revise, Refine, Tailors: Interpersonal, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Intrapersonal, Visual, Linguistic, Naturalist. (45 minutes) **
 * Evaluate, Tailor: Interpersonal, Spatial, Visual, Linguistic (5 minutes) **

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