When you walk into room 226 in River Dell , NJ you will discover students are working on an authentic learning task that challenges them to raise awareness about current genocides around the world. As you look around you might see a few students silently reading Night by Elie Wiesel, a student meeting with the teacher editing a piece of writing, and other students working on the computer viewing information on current genocides around the world. Welcome to Maria Meo’s resource English class at River Dell Middle School.
Throughout this process of shifting the instructional paradigm of your classroom, what has been the greatest success or pleasant surprise?
The greatest success in this shift was the transfer of understanding. My students are not only able to identify what genocide is, but they are aware of the significance of making a difference. They don’t just define what genocide is, but they understand why people kill and they try to focus on the solution. For this unit, they understood that people continue to kill because of lack of knowledge. So, “Raising Awareness” has forced open a door that would otherwise be left shut. They are eager to go above and beyond just writing an editorial. They are excited to embark on the adventure of using their editorials to raise awareness and raise money for the victims of Darfur. Furthermore, despite their fundamental knowledge of genocide, they are able to recognize what one is despite the term “genocide” being used. They see it in movies and passages and can correctly identify genocide. One student just watched “Rambo” in theater and was able to identify the “war zone” as genocide within that country.
What has been the greatest challenge?
The greatest challenge was to unlearn the four years of teaching that I was taught in how to execute a great lesson. Many times, we are trained to execute lessons that are hands-on. We focus on engaging students rather than presenting units as big pictures. We run the risk of planning an activity because it’s fun, not because it helps uncover the essential questions. Always, we were taught to focus on the activities of a unit, instead of focusing on the unit. I had to challenge myself to determine the big idea first…the authenticity of the unit studied…then plan the activities that correlated to the essential question.
How has authentic problems helped your students connect to the curriculum?
Authentic problems helped my students connect to the curriculum because they were able to use life experience to what is written in the curriculum. As 8th graders, students read Night by Elie Wiesel. Instead of just reading another book to connect to the Holocaust, students use the idea of raising awareness to transfer their knowledge of genocide, to helping people suffering today from this problem.
What has been the experience of special ed student using how- to sheets to support their instruction?
Special Ed students, as well as all other students, benefit from concrete instruction. Many people can follow written out instructions. How-to Sheets provided great guidance for those students while working on the assignments. This gave students the opportunity to continue working without being hindered because other students need further instruction. Students were able to work in their pace, and get the help they need.
What resources from the IDEportal have you tried using this year?
I have taken advantage of unit projects and meshed it with other activities and resources to make my own. I’ve used the scaffolding sheets and how-to sheets.
Links:
Raisig Awareness (Word document or PDF File).
How-to sheet for Journal (Word document or pdf fILE).
Ms. Meo’s e-board.
