Current Events Presentation

For our current events assignment, Dr. Smirnova asked us to find an article from newsela.com that discussed a current and relevant event/information. Two of my peers and I decided to select an article about the different types of government that exist. Newsela.com is an excellent resource to use in a classroom. There are an abundance of articles about various social studies topics. The articles are organized by grade and reading level as well as content area. Each article has an assignment attached to the end. Four multiple choice questions allow teachers and students to check for understanding after reading the article. After reading the article and taking the assignment, my group and I determined how we would use this article to teach a lesson in a classroom. We decided to use a KWHL chart. We asked students questions that prompted them to fill in the KWHL chart, such as "what do you know about the type of government the United States has?", "what do you want to know?" and "how will you learn about this?". Students were then asked to read the article together in small groups to complete the KWHL chart.
My group and I gave this presentation to our class through the Big Blue Button online class. Giving the presentation was challenging at first, but eventually our peers began to participate in the discussion and fill out KWHL charts together. Overall, our lesson was successful. It went as planned and we met all of our goals. Click here to see the slideshow we created!

PIGS, SIM, CL

In social studies methods, Dr. Smirnova allowed us to learn about PIGS and the Social Interactive Model along with Cooperative Learning in a way that allowed the class to truly experience the process. Dr. Smirnova had us break up into groups and each member of the group was assigned to be part of an expert group. There was an expert group for each letter in the PIGS acronym. The expert groups had to work together to learn about their aspect of PIGS. Once this was done, we would return to our original groups and each member of the expert group would teach the other group members what they learned.
My expert group had the task of researching the Cooperate Learning lesson plan requirements and outline. I worked with three of my peers. Together, we familiarized ourselves with the CL lesson plan. Becoming familiar with this type of lesson plan and then explaining it to our peers was crucial because prior to this class, none of us wrote or conducted a cooperative learning lesson plan. Click here to see the slideshow I created with the members of my expert group!