GROWTH MINDSET - HOW I HAVE EVOLVED

For this blog post I thought I would show how having a growth mindset has evolved my teaching. Here is a lesson plan that I wrote in 2012 when I was teaching Social Studies:

Unit Title: Geographic Focus on Southwest Asia and North Africa

Lesson Title: Mapping Southwest Asia and North Africa

Course of Study: World Cultures

Grade: 6th, Long

TEKS:

6.3C – Compare various world regions and countries using data from geographic tools including maps, graphs, charts, databases and models.

6.4F – Identify the location of world countries such as Nigeria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Iran

ELPS: 1C, 1E

Learning Goals:

(L1): The student will identify the location of major world countries in Southwest Asia and North Africa.

(L2) The student will be able to compare maps of regions at different points in history.

Pre-Assessment (15 minutes): Students will complete a K-W-L Chart (Interactive Notebook) stating what they KNOW, WANT TO KNOW, and later what they LEARNED regarding Southwest Asia and North Africa, including both physical and political locations . The “K” and “W” columns should be completed together as a class and shared out on a class-wide K-W-L Chart.

Formative Assessment (30 minutes): Using classroom maps, maps from textbooks, and globes, students will label place locations from North Africa and Southwest Asia on both a political and physical map.

Post Assessment (tbd): Students will identify Southwest Asia and North Africa place locations on a map quiz consisting of approximately ten physical and political place locations with a minimum score of 70% (L1).

Remediation (SPED, 504, ELL): Provide remediated students assessments based on their IEP’s. Possible supplements include: color coded map by country/region, pre-filled map, partially filled map, reduced number of place locations.

Extension (Pre-AP, TAG, students that show a proficiency on the topic): Include a supplemental physical features map of Southwest Asia and North Africa.

As you can see, it's very textbook based and on the lower-level of Bloom's taxonomy. It sounds nice, but all those IDENTIFY verbs make me cringe. It's all memorization and recall.

Here is a lesson plan from this year:

Content Objective - Students will analyze a problem and create a solution through engineering and coding

TEKS - §130.408. Robotics - (c) Knowledge and skills.

1. The student demonstrates professional standards/employability skills as required by business and industry. The student is expected to: (B) demonstrate the ability to cooperate, contribute, and collaborate as a member of a group in an effort to achieve a positive collective outcome.

Language Objective. - Students will SPEAK and LISTEN to their partners while completing engineering challenges. Students will WRITE in code-based languages to complete programming challenges.

FIRST 35 MINUTES: ROBOTIC KITS

Stimulating Background Knowledge / Warm-Up / Introduction: Students will LISTEN and SPEAK to their partners as they discuss their daily project goals in a THINK-PAIR-SHARE. Said activity will be used as a method to SELF-ASSESS their progress through the assigned class activities

Formative Learning / Implementation of Skills Learned / Activity

Students will work at their own pace to complete a series of ENGINEERING and CODING challenges. The assignments are listed as follows:

1) CREATE the tankbot (engineering)

2) CHALLENGE #1: MAKE IT MOVE (coding)

3) CHALLENGE #2: ULTRASONIC SENSOR (engineering + coding)

4) CHALLENGE #3: TOUCH SENSOR (engineering + coding)

5) CHALLENGE #4: COLOR SENSOR (engineering + coding)

Checking for Understanding / EXIT Ticket / Summative Assessment

Students will receive grades based on completion of each of the challenges listed above, as well as his or her group participation and collaboration.

NEXT 15 MINUTES: BRAIN BREAK

The two halves of the class will be partitioned with an intentional “BRAIN BREAK,” allowing the students to decompress before the next activity. During this time the students will be encouraged to “freeplay” with the classroom technology (no personal phones allowed), such as the game stations, Spheros, iPads, and LEGOS. A timer will be used.

SECOND 35 MINUTES: APPLE CODING

As part of Burnet’s APPLE CODING INITIATIVE, students will utilize the iPad’s to complete modules from Apple’s SWIFT coding platform. Students will complete (and be assessed for) coding concepts that are broken down into disciplines (such as COMMANDS, FUNCTIONS and LOOPS). Students are expected to complete one coding discipline each session.

As you can see, the students are operating on a higher order of thinking. Gone are identify verbs, replaced by analyze and create. Students are self-paced and working collaboratively. There is self-reflection and planned student-talk. Differentiation is still there, but it includes student-choice activities.

In all, I take pride in seeing my growth as an educator and hope my lesson plans today look just as obsolete in 10 years as my social studies' ones did. It will show that I'm still committed to a growth mindset.