Day 17 - Observation numero uno

Today was the day of our first observation! Our UF supervisor came to watch us teach and give us feedback on our performance. Our grade for this 9 credit internship is riding on these observations, so it's important that we do well. Since it is Thursday, we were teaching 1st period, so by this point you probably realize that this is the class that presents us with the most challenges. We took a risk in planning a special lesson for this class; we delivered it for the first time today. Crazy, I know, but here is why we did it:
- Our goal is to keep 1st period a day behind periods 4 and 5. Since we have no school on Friday or Monday, we had to find something to fill in this space. We haven't started a new chapter yet, so today was the perfect day to try something different.
- We need to teach a global studies lesson at some point during this internship and write a reflection paper. The assignment isn't due until April, but since we just taught it, we can get that assignment out of the way now. AND we have to do a 30 minute micro-teach of a global studies lesson for our classmates and ta-da! We already have one!
- Finally, we knew we were taking a risk with this lesson. But if it bombed, so what? We would have room for improvement.

For our entertainment and enjoyment of rhyme, we can call today's lesson a Haitian Investigation. Our teacher subscribes to New York Times: Upfront, which is a magazine for students about current issues. There was an article about Haiti and the recent earthquake, so we decided to use it as the inspiration for today's lesson. I am going to try to give you the briefest possible outline of the lesson:
- Anticipation guide (students respond "agree", "disagree", or "don't know" to statements about Haiti)
- Video: Special Report- Obama on Quake Relief (students took notes as they watched/listened)
- Article: "What's Next For Haiti?" (page 6 in Upfront)
- Discussion: What should be the role of the United States government in Haiti? We split the class in half. One half was going to argue that the U.S. government should have a very strong, leading role in the post-earthquake relief efforts. The other half was going to argue that private organizations, individuals, and other nations should be the major contributors. The procedure for the discussion was as follows:

• Pairs- With a partner, students examined resources we provided to find the best points supporting their side of the argument.
• Small groups- Three pairs met up to compare their arguments, consolidate them into the best possible arguments, and select a speaker.
• Presentation of arguments- There were two speakers for each side of this issue and we alternated back and forth. First one student argued for private organizations, individuals, and other countries to step up, and then the side in favor of strong U.S. government involvement got a turn. Then we repeated this with the other two speakers. After each speaker gave his or her argument, the class got to ask questions.
• Small groups- Back in their groups of six, the students looked at the notes they took about the opposing side of the issue. They then formulated what they thought was the best argument in favor of that position. This makes sure that they have thought about both sides of the issue.

This is as far as we got in class. The next step, which the students will do for homework, is to refine and articulate their own personal opinion about U.S. involvement in Haiti. They will then answer some reflection questions. Everything listed above we did in 100 minutes! I am really impressed that we got that far- the amount of structure we provided was helpful, I am sure. Hopefully this carries over when we do the gallery walk lesson with them on Tuesday (maybe they will be the only class to get it all done). We will be sure to come back to this on Tuesday before we begin the next lesson, to make sure we don't ignore all the work they did today.

Our UF supervisor had so many good things to say about our lesson and our teaching- it really made me so happy. The students (most of them, anyway) seemed to enjoy the topic, too. The best compliment we got was that one student told us, "You're making us think too much today." Get used to it, my dear!