Mason+HS,+Mrs.+Pierce

__ NEW AVAILABILITY __ Tom: Available Tuesday and Thursday after 11:40, and all day Friday Cory: Available everyday before 10:20 (Wednesday before 12:40), Tuesday and Friday after 11:10 Steph: Available Thursday before 10:20 and after 12, Friday all day Chris: Before Noon on Mondays, 12-3 on Tu/Th, Fri after 12 Zack: Mon-Thur before 1:00, Friday all day

Athletics Schedule: http://www.highschoolsports.net/school/Mason-HS-Mason--Mason-MI/ Thought you guys might like to take a look and we can pick out a game to go to!

**Group Member Pages**

Steph Commyn Chris Foldesi Cory Hurst Zachary VanSickle Thomas Thornburg

**Lesson Plan - Classical Republicanism**






 * Lesson Plan **

**Reflections**

**Steph**
 * October 28 (1st visit): Our mentor teacher is very responsive to us, very open to having us be active in the classroom and in asking her questions/analyzing what we witness, and is flexible with all of our different schedules. On this day, we got to interact with the students by observing and providing feedback to those who were going to be in a play based on the book //Arc of Justice//. We also witnessed her typical teaching style and handouts/note-taking that are provided, which she was willing to provide a personal copy for us. Overall, it was a great 1st visit.
 * November 4: There wasn't as much interaction between the students and us (senior interns) today because she was teaching a lesson. It seems that lecture is her go-to teaching strategy, which is something I have a different opinion on. Although it is efficient, I'm not sure it's too effective. She also relies heavily on the textbook, which once again may be the most efficient method, but not the most effective. It is interesting to see how she acts differently with different classes, including her behavior, their behavior, the pace of the lessons, etc. Given that it's a civics class, I would love to witness a class debate. From what I've witnessed, I think the students would respond very positively to a debate- they have a lot to say, have some solid opinions, and seem to wish to discuss them. She said something that I'm very curious about, that she doesn't ask "does this make sense?" or "do you understand?". She didn't disclose why she avoids those questions, but hopefully this week I'll find out.
 * November 14: We did not go last Friday because Linda was not going to be at school. We went on this day after school to discuss our lesson plan. Our lesson plan is on Classical Republicanism (the Common Good) and will be taught on December 9th. We nailed down the activities and their progression for our lesson, including the focus and the information that will be included. I think we were all looking for a way to incorporate all of our ideas and our teaching strategies into one lesson, and overall it seems like a good mix of those. We really wanted to incorporate an activity, just because it isn't something we've witnessed in her classroom yet. She was very open and flexible with our ideas, and I think we were all really happy that the lesson is activity and discussion based. It'll be interesting to see how it all turns out and the feedback we get from the students.
 * November 18: The 1st 2 hours we watched the Courts to Schools assembly. It is where the 55th District Court holds session in the school auditorium. The cases were all young adults (17-24), providing the students the opportunity to see the consequences of actions that many probably don't consider to be a big deal, but technically are illegal and also dispels the "it won't happen to me" belief. It was a great experience to witness, and is very beneficial for the students. 3rd hour, Linda taught a lesson on the 11th-27th amendments, but there was a big focus on gerrymandering, with the students getting to practice it. I had to critique her lesson based on her activities and student engagement, which allowed me the opportunity to share the ReDistricting game website we looked at in class. The next (and last) visit will be the teaching of our lesson.
 * December 9: Today the lesson took place. The lecture ended up taking the entire class period, and the activity we had planned was scraped (although she said they would get to that on Monday). It was disappointing to not see the lesson in its entirety, especially because the activity was what we were most excited about observing, particularly the students' interactions and responses. Today was the last visit for this semester.

Chris

 * October 28- We each introduced ourselves to Linda. She seemed very open to our suggestions and interested in our observations. Linda is very flexible with her schedule to accommodate to our needs. The two civic classes that we observed were interpreting the articles of confederation. Most of the class was lecture based, Linda did hand out guided note taking sheets for the students to use on the lecture and chapters in the textbook. The class was also preparing to perform a skit based on the court case found in //Arc of Justice//. This first visit was very promising of a good experience with Mrs. Pierce.
 * November 4: Most of class was lecture. Students did have very brief discussions with their neighbor. We as inters have had few opportunities to interact with the students. I hope that changes. Today's lesson was looking and understanding certain articles of the constitution. Also understanding what the electoral college is and how it works. Linda has very good control over her class, there are very few instances of bad behavior by students. Class is also very organized. Mrs. Pierce is very objective with her lessons. We just have received the lesson that Linda wants to work on. Looking at the political theory of Classic Republicanism.
 * November 14- We went to Mrs. Pierce's classroom after school plan out the lesson that she wanted to revise. Working out the particulars, she did not really object to the ideas that we had planned out. She did reject the group project idea. We tried to make her PowerPoint more exciting for the students, having more pictures and less wording on each slide. Our lesson was steering away from solely lecture because lecturing the whole hour to the student can get quite boring for students, plus how much are students really learning when they are just listening to the instructor talk to the whole hour? We worked from around 5 to 8:30, we were all drained after.
 * November 18- Local district came to the Mason, set up the courtroom in the school auditorium. The students saw real court cases happen, everything from DUI charges, MIPs and theft. This was for the first couple periods of Mrs. Pierce's class. Then later students learned about gerrymandering and drawing political district lines in a state. We weren't really involved in the lesson, again just sat in the back of the room observing.
 * December 9- Today was the day that the lesson that we planned almost a month ago was going to be taught. The hook that we had planned didn't go over quite like we had thought it would, Mrs. Pierce seemed to just using it not actually trying to get the point across that we all expected it would. The lecture slides were changed to what she had prior to planning out the lesson, lecture took the entire class period. She completely skipped over the group activity. Finally, the note sheet that we created was thrown out and she used a note sheet that she solely created. It was very frustrating to sit their and see little or none of our work represented. I don't know if Mrs. Pierce was uncomfortable doing what we had in the lesson or any reason for not using our ideas/materials. As I was observing the lesson, I couldn't tell if the students were understanding the material/concepts. They were able to name examples but only showed a shallow understanding. I can tell from that lesson what I would already do differently.

**Tom**
 * 10/28- Today we went in for our first day at Mason High School. We met our mentor teacher, Mrs. Pierce during her planning period, and had a chance to briefly talk before her first class. We spent a good part of the two classes we were present for helping students rehearse lines for an upcoming performance of a play called "Arc of Justice". The students are performing the play (which is based on a book about a Detroit court case) in the Hall of Justice at the Capitol in a couple weeks.
 * 11/4- Today we went in for our second day at mason. Class was based more on lecture, and covered the U.S. election process. Mrs. Pierce spent most of the class lecturing on how the electoral college functions. Although the lecture seemed a bit dry, I thought it was an effective way to convey information about the topic. Students were able to ask questions, but the lecture didn't really seem to draw their attention.
 * 11/14- Due to scheduling issues, we met up with Mrs. Pierce after school to work on our lesson plan. While not quite the same as having class time around the students, this meeting allowed us to pick her brain while working on our "Classical Republicanism" lesson. We went into the meeting with the intent to make the lesson much more activity-based. After a lot of discussion, we wound up striking a good balance of lecture/activity that the students will hopefully be more receptive to.
 * 11/18- During the first two class periods today we were able to sit in on Mason's "Court to Schools" program. During the event, a district court actually conducts multiple hearings in the schools auditorium. Most of the cases were chosen to inspire feelings in the Mason students, like drunk driving, drinking underage, and small theft cases. In 3rd period Mrs. Pierce used an activity to explain the idea of gerrymandering to the class, which i thought was very effective.

Zack VanSickle
 * 11/4- This was my first day at Mason High School, because I was not able to attend the first week. I had a scheduling conflict from a previous engagement at my old high school where they wanted me to talk about China. The first day was very exciting, because I had the opportunity to finally meet our placement teacher, Mrs. Pierce. She seems to be a very kind teacher who cares about student successes and failures. As student observers, we were not able to participate much within the class because this day was a great deal of note taking and partner work. The lecture was good for what she was teaching, because the material was really quite dense and dry. I was surprised at how involved some of the students actually were in the lesson. A specific student was asking multiple questions through out the class period and it brought a question to the forefront of my mind: When you have a student with so many questions, how do actively remain on task with your lesson plan without discouraging that students thinking? I hope Mrs. Pierce will be able to answer my questions next week. It will be interesting to see what Mrs. Pierce does for her lessons on a daily basis, in order to get a better understanding of her teaching style.
 * 11/14- This day was a meeting that we all decided upon to plan our lesson for Mrs. Pierce's class. The chosen lesson was that of Classical Republicanism and understanding the key ideas that the founding fathers chose to implement into the United States system. She said she did not like this lesson and felt it was weak, because every time after she finished her lesson, students still did not understand key ideas like civic virtue. So, on this day we spent four hours in the evening trying to create a plan of attack for the lesson. We decided to take a more active role in the class and create an interactive lesson that would hopefully engage the students on a more personal level, in order to further develop the concept in their minds. It will be interesting to see how the class reacts to the new lesson and if they are responsive to this sort of classroom or not. This could explain why teachers teach the ways they do in classrooms and could also demonstrate whether or not certain age groups enjoy interactive classes. After this session, I really began to understand the amount of detail that was required to create an effective lesson and think that there is still some more work to be done under the metaphorical hood before we are all completely ready to take this process on by ourselves.
 * 11/18- Today was Mason High School's bi-annual Courts to Schools program. This program was held at the high school and provided an opportunity for every grade level to see the local justice system in action; exactly how it operates. The class was surprisingly engaged at the assembly-esque hearings and all remained focused on the cases at hand. I liked the fact that all of the cases that came in front of the students were applicable to their lives, right now. There were MIP, petty theft, etc and the students seemed to understand the severity of these actions. After the first two sessions were used in this way, we headed back to the classroom where Cory and I spent the next session helping Mrs. Pierce with office work that needed to be done (i.e. copies, delivering items to other teachers). Learning to use a copy machine in a high school requires a specialization within itself and caused Cory and I many troubles. Though, we can now safely say that we know every single place a copy machine can be jammed; every single one.
 * 11/22- Today was the day before Thanksgiving break and the students were surprisingly focused on the material. I had the opportunity to see the class on another day besides Friday, which was also very nice. Today the class worked on reviewing for the quizzes that they were about to take and also worked together in groups to find the answers to the study guide that Mrs. Pierce had handed out to them. Each row personally worked on a separate portion of the constitution that they needed to prepare. After they prepared they planned to report back to the class the key ideas that they will need to know from the assignment. I really liked this activity, because it allowed the students to take the responsibility of learning into their own hands and caused them to really work hard to find the true answers to the assignments. By placing the pressure on the students to present the information, Mrs. Pierce succeeded in creating an effective working environment for the students.

**Cory Hurst**
 * October 28, 2011
 * This was the first day that our group of five visited Mrs. Pierce's classroom at Mason High School in Mason, Michigan. After a very welcoming introduction, we set to work. The first period of the day, for this trimester, is a planning period for Mrs. Pierce. This worked our very well, for we were able to get to know one another better and could discuss her classroom, classes, and the work we are to do throughout our time at Mason High School. After the planning period, we spent time with two of her civics classes. We were introduced to the class and then were able to observe a lesson on the Articles of Confederation. Halfway though each period, we assisted students as they practiced their lines for an upcoming reenactment of the //Arc of Justice// at the Hall of Justice at the Capitol next week.
 * November 4, 2011
 * During Mrs. Pierce's planning period this week, she was very kind and led us on a tour of the school. She showed us where copy rooms are and where the cafeteria and library are. In addition, she showed us step by step how to work the copy machines and how to unjam them. For the two periods of civics class, we observed as Mrs. Pierce taught lessons on articles of the constitution, including the electoral college and the powers of congress. Most of the class periods were devoted to lectures, and there was only limited time for students to interact with one another. Therefore, there was no time for our group to interact with the students in the class this day. We also received an email today about the lesson plan we will be creating for Mrs. Pierce's class. The topic will be Classical Republicanism.
 * Novemeber 14, 2011
 * Due to the trimester format at Mason High School and our group's schedules limiting us to Friday visitations, there were days that we were not able to attend during our semester. Instead, we decided with Mrs. Pierce that we would meet one Monday after school to meet about our December 9th lesson on Classical Republicanism. Our group came to the meeting with a lesson that we had created. We went over the lecture and activity with Mrs. Pierce and fine tuned it. We also spent time creating a PowerPoint for the lecture. In the end, I feel that we came out will a very good lesson. It includes a good balance between lecture and activity. I am excited to see how the lesson goes.
 * November 18, 2011
 * For the first two class periods of our visit, we witnessed the program called Courts to Schools. This is a bi-annual program is put on with collaboration between the Mason School District and the 55th District Court. The program seemed to be very beneficial in that it allowed high school students to see, firsthand, how the court system works and also teaches a valuable lesson about what happens to you after you commit a crime. Students were very attentive and seemed to grasp the information well. For the last class period, Zach and I spent time in the copy room preparing worksheets and tests for Mrs. Pierce. It was a good opportunity to learn how a copier works and how to solve problems with it. In addition, Zach and I also ran errands for Mrs. Pierce. While we were not observing her class, it was helpful to learn some of what goes on behind the scenes in the school and what the teacher must do outside of the classroom.
 * December 9, 2011