Febuary 23rd and 24th

In this lesson the students were asked to fill in a map of Mexico that depicted Aztec culture. I was surprised to see how many students had retained information seen in the movie. The students were working on a large plain map of México where they were asked to fill in cultural information about the Aztecs. I asked the student to list some main food items of the Aztecs, while also listing representations of the Aztecs (i.e. agriculture, music, religion, landscape, etc.) I told the students that I would be grading these maps, which held them accountable for the assignment. I was happy to see that many of the students put effort into this assignment and I encouraged them to go above and beyond my expectations. While the students were working on this assignment, I met one on one with the students to talk about their grades on a previous assignment about the movie on the Aztecs. I first talked to the students to see if they understood what they were to do in their current assignment, and then went on to talk about the previous assignment with them. This previous assignment was a graphic organizer (that was graded as an informal assessment, on effort, not content) that the students were to fill out while watching a video.

This graphic organizer, I handed back to the students because I felt that having an extra resource to refer to while creating their maps. As I have been receiving their maps, they seem that thy have gained a great deal of information about the Aztecs while finding much of the information very interesting.

Day two of Unit - Video - 12 February 2009

On this day the students were to build more background about the Aztec civilization by watching a video. The video I showed was from the History Channel. I was very impressed with the content and the excitement of the descriptions of the Aztec civilization. The students were asked to fill in a graphic organizer. This assignment was graded as an informal assessment, on effort, not content. My main purpose for grading this assignment was to assure that all students were on task. I informed students that they would be getting a grade or effort on this assignment, which encouraged them to say focused during the video.

The graphic organizer asked students to:
· Name three things that you learned while watching the video:
· What did you see that was the most interesting to you?
· You would like to learn more about…
· Lingering questions that you have:

These questions were written in Spanish as well as in English. The students who exceeded the standards went above and beyond listing things that they had learned and found were interesting to them. Overall I was very impressed with the amount of effort the students gave me on this assignment.

Day one of Unit - 9 February 2009

This day was my day one of the beginning of a unit (see weekly check-in to see plan for day 1). I had set up the room for a chalk talk and three cultural stations. The chalk talk was quite successful; in my first group, I saw that not all of the students were taking the chalk talk 100% seriously. As I saw different groups, I reminded the student that they are highly capable to finish the task in a mature manner; this made a difference in these groups. I saw that in the chalk talk there was a great deal of misconceptions, especially on the side for “Mexico”. Many of my students wrote: Taco Bell, sombreros, mariachi, ponchos, and so on. I thought that this is a huge opportunity to address misconceptions and really teach some truths about Mexican culture, reminding my students that much of what they had written were stereotypes. I was happy to see that many students wrote questions on the “los Aztecas” side, showing that they wanted to learn more about what the Aztecs did, who they were, what they looked like and so on. It seemed that there was a need to know more about the ancient civilization. I was also happy to see that on the “los Aztecas” side many students had referred back to a pervious activity (a brief paragraph in Spanish which talked about the Aztecs). I was shocked to see how many students remembered some valuable content from this text.
After the chalk talk and mini discussion on the content of the chalk talk, students were assigned to stations where they would be able to listen to instruments and sounds that pertain to the Aztec culture, eat the typical foods of the Aztecs and discover the art of the Aztecs. The students really enjoyed this activity because they were able to discover independently and create their own learning and build their own background knowledge. I was very excited to see how well the student responded to this activity. While working in stations, students were asked to fill out a graphic organizer (below in blue)


¿Cuáles instrumentos oíste?
What instruments did you hear?



¿Qué sonidos oíste?
What sounds did you hear?
Nombra los cuatro elementos de la comida de los Aztecas.
Name four main foods of the Aztecs.

¿Por qué esa comida fue tradicional para los Aztecas?
Why was this food traditional for the Aztecs?
¿Qué tipo de arte tenían los Aztecas?
What type of art did the Aztecs have?

¿Que viste que crees que es interesante en el arte de los Aztecas?
What did you see that you thought was interesting about the art of the Aztecs?

This organizer would help students gain some general knowledge about the Aztec culture. The entire day gave me a pathway which I would plan the remainder of my unit. In the chalk talk, I saw that the student wanted to learn more about the Aztecs, their religion, human sacrifices, the food, where they settled and so on. I was excited to get this information and I absolutely used my students as a resource in the planning a development of my unit.

4 February 2009

The lesson that I did today I felt was a bit too unstructured. This lesson branched off of the previous lessons I had done with both the Element and Evolution teams. I find it hard many times to maintain good classroom management when the students have more freedom. It is always important to imagine that I am a student and I will be taught this lesson. I need to ask myself, if I would be able to understand this material presented in this particular format. In my lesson today, the students were to label and color out all the countries in Latin America. I had planned on just using an overhead transparency that the students could copy the names of the countries down from. It was too late when I realized that the font on this overhead transparency of a map of Latin America was too small. For about twenty minutes of my first period class students were up in the front of the classroom copying down names of countries. Almost every student had to get up out of their seat to clearly see the names of the countries. I could have planned this much better. Therefore for the next class I had decided to read each of the names of the countries on the overhead transparency and I saw a great improvement and less frustration on the students part, but this lesson still needed improvement, for many of the students were working on other parts of the map when I was reading off while showing the countries. In the third class I saw a much better improvement. I supplied books to the students where every two students looked on together and copied the names of the Latin American countries onto their own maps. I found that when each student had a book in front of them they were able to see everything clearly and further able to complete the assigned task. I have modified my lessons throughout the day because I know that there is room for improvement in my lessons. I constantly self-reflect and ask myself, “How could this lesson have gone smoother” I did this with the cognate lesson as well.

One of my biggest challenges is going to be classroom management. Maria constantly tells me that the students will test me and see how far they can go, and she is right. I have noticed that the students are sometimes more relaxed and feel that they cannot listen and not get in trouble. I am not scared to tell students to stop talking or to get back on task, but I do not want to send students out of my room. I need to find a system that I am comfortable with that promotes discipline, but also learning. I do not feel comfortable taking a student out of the classroom because I feel like I am taking their opportunity to learn away. I feel that there are more effective was that discipline can take place. I will experiment with different forms of discipline that promote learning as well as a respectful and safe classroom community.