Social Advocacy Lesson Reflection

     This lesson was a fourth-grade lesson centered around social advocacy, taught in a small group at Agnes B. Hennessey Elementary School. For our last lesson in our social studies interdisciplinary unit, students were challenged to think about how their actions can impact their community around them. We did this by analyzing primary source photos, learning about cause and effect, and creating our own script for a reader's theatre. This lesson was written and planned collaboratively, as well as peer-reviewed and teacher-reviewed. We remained professional throughout this experience as we got to know each student and their learning needs. We learned how to respond to challenging behaviors, and definitely gained experience with planning lessons with appropriate accommodations that fit our group.

    To adapt our instruction to meet the needs of the kids, we incorporated strategies such as anchor charts, visuals, graphic organizers, movement breaks, sitting next to students while teaching, and plenty of hands-on activities. The most successful area of our lesson was the extension activity. We challenged our group to rewrite a portion of "Finding Providence: The Story of Roger Williams," using language from their own generation. Each student expressed enjoyment in the activity while also demonstrating comprehension of the events that we were trying to highlight.

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    Overall, an area of weakness throughout this unit was timing and incorporating vocabulary terms throughout our lessons. The delivery of the vocabulary worked well for our group, but students had difficulty retaining terms over the unit. In the future, to help students incorporate the vocabulary more effectively, students could receive a handout with the vocabulary and definition each lesson, or create a vocabulary booklet that we add to each week.
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2. The objectives for this lesson are as follows: 

• Students will be able to identify a problem and its impact by completing a cause and effect chart.
• Students will be able to empathize with how people adapt to change by taking civic action to solve a problem through role-playing someone who made a difference in their community
• Students will be able to analyze a historical artifact from the Library of Congress to identify, describe, and discuss how people positively contributed to their community.

    During this lesson, our students met each objective as they participated and completed the assignments. 

                                

    We completed the above cause-and-effect chart as a group, working together to list three social issues in our world and their effects. Though the discussion was teacher-led, students were asked to think and share the effects of each given "cause". 

    Student 1                                                     Student 2

    

    In the above student work samples, students demonstrate understanding of the topic of social advocacy. 

    This experience has shaped the types of materials I consider using for a lesson. Hands-on activities proved to be interesting for students. When assigning a writing activity, I will continue to provide graphic organizers and sentence starters but also engage in a check for content understanding with students. We utilized teacher feedback in the planning stages by incorporating movement breaks such as dancing and yoga.

My professional identity is further developed as I continue to navigate new teaching experiences. By reflecting on what did and did not work during a lesson, I am able to use that information to create more accessible, meaningful lesson plans and activities in the future. Especially after reflecting on an entire unit! Being able to look back on student work and see where the lesson could use more clarification has been an interesting way to make changes the next lesson plan. This experience has changed the way I think about teaching social studies, as I realize there are so many thoughtful and engaging activities that can be used while learning about social studies topics!
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