Luke A.

Meuler LTM 621 Observation reflection questions March 20, 2013 TAG for WWII Military Strategies 1. How did you incorporate strategies from LTM 621/ EDT 621 in this lesson? The essential strategy for this lesson is the Textbook Activity Guide (TAG). The TAG strategy is effective for supporting students to engage their textbook in meaningful ways. This particular lesson uses the TAG strategy to support student comprehension of the written word and visual maps. The questions that were written for the activity could be answered using either the written word of the textbook or the maps which provided both differentiated instruction and an opportunity to think critically about the content of the textbook. The core lessons of LTM 621 support teachers as they explore the essential nature of literacy in all education. Strategies like TAG are modeled in LTM 621 and can be effectively applied to the classroom. 2. LTM 621 Only: What knowledge, pedagogy, and dispositions from your work in either LTM 612 or LTM 631 did you bring to bear on this lesson in its design and implementation? The two key influences from LTM 612 came from applying Blooms work and multiple intelligences theory. Students are encouraged in this lesson to develop different levels of thinking as they answer both objective and subjective questions. The questions are designed to support students as they build towards higher levels of thinking about the content presented in the textbook. Multiple intelligences are recognized through the use of both the written word and visual maps to answer prepared questions. A third significant influence from both LTM 611 and 612 is the incorporation of character education through the work of Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg applied his research to his work through the creation of just communities within schools. This particular field placement at Nativity Jesuit Middle School is a practical opportunity to consider the work of Kohlberg because the school is designed to provide both character education and a strong sense of community. The specific lesson that I taught provides the roots for a discussion on how major military decisions during WWII will have consequences for many countries and people after the war. In particular the conversation about justice and nuclear weapons is relevant in both topics in history and current events. Students at Nativity Jesuit Middle School are immersed in an education where morality and decisions are essential to the entire curriculum. The most important lessons from LTM 612 provided teachers-to-be with the insight into how pedagogy and disposition impact the effectiveness of quality educators. I think teachers should develop a clear plan for each lesson and that each lesson must fit into a larger unit. Each unit must fit into a larger curriculum and the goals or mission of the school. While this planning and pedagogy are essential for a teachers preparation for the classroom, a teacher must also deliberately cultivate a positive disposition based on the individual learners in a classroom. Teachers must have a high invitational quotient so that each student grows while in the classroom. It is a challenging but essential balance for teachers to find a way to have an effective plan and make adjustments to respond to the needs of individual learners.

3. How do the Wisconsin Teacher Standards and Alverno Graduate Education Abilities mesh in this lesson? You need only address two standards and two abilities in your response. InTASC Teaching Standard #4: Content Knowledge Content knowledge is important in this lesson because students are expected to read a textbook which must make many decisions to limit content in order to provide an overview of history. The teachers content knowledge becomes an important resource for students in this type of learning environment. For this lesson, my knowledge of the content of military strategies during WWII gave me as a teacher the ability to answer student questions about objective content, but also allowed me to design subjective questions that require higher level thinking. The questions are also based on the knowledge of history after WWII so that students are able to see the relationship between the events of the war and future conflict like the Cold War. InTASC Teaching Standard #7: Planning for Instruction The planning for this lesson illustrates my ability as a teacher to engage students effectively and coordinate with another teacher. Working in a field placement requires flexibility because the cooperating teacher is responsible for the classroom and therefore all lessons must be appropriately planned based on his/her goals. This particular lesson was effectively planned because it incorporated strategies from the LTM program at Alverno and met the learning goals of the cooperating teacher. Alverno Graduate Education Ability: Coordination Coordination is evident through this lesson because I was responsible for arranging three teachers schedules: my schedule at the school where I am a full-time teacher, the cooperating teachers schedule at Nativity Jesuit Middle School, and my professors schedule at Alverno. It was also essential to set-up digital video equipment and provide hard copies of the days activity. Then students had to be coordinated as they worked both as a large class and in pairs for the different levels of the learning activity. Alverno Graduate Education Ability: Communication Effective communication was evident through this lesson because the strategy had to be clearly modeled for the students because it was new to them. I clearly demonstrated how the strategy works verbally and gave them a prepared written guideline that they could follow. The lesson also gave students an opportunity to view the textbook as a communication tool through both the written word and visual maps. 4. Explain to what degree did students achieve your objectives and the CCSS that were guiding the lesson. Students met the objectives of the lesson through a variety of learning activities. The first part of the lesson modeled the TAG strategy and I was able to formatively assess the class by having them offer verbal responses to questions. I was also able to watch students write responses as we worked through the activity together. Next students worked in pairs and I was able to visit each pair briefly to

view their written responses and give them verbal feedback. Then entire class processed the responses to the activity and I was able to formatively assess how they engaged the material and offer verbal feedback to their responses. Students also completed an exit slip where only two of eighteen students offered that they are not sure they understood the lesson, while none of the students responded that they did not understand. Finally, I read the students written responses to the homework assignment and gave them written feedback. It was evident that students understand the basic military strategies in both Europe and the Pacific during WWII. It was also clear that students were able to start formulating some ideas as to why there is tension among the Allied powers that will lead to the Cold War.