Lansing+Otto+Middle+School

"Where You 'OTTO' Be"

= Lansing Otto Middle School Field Placement = Mrs. Curtis with Intern Mrs. Stewart American History 2nd and 3rd Hour Tuesday/Thursday 0930-1205 Seniors: Kam Bouchard Lizzie Appel Matthew Drause Matt Lantzy Matt Snyder


 * Special Ed Kam/Matt x 2**






 * November 1, 2011**

Our time spent at Otto thus far has consisted of Intern (Ms. Stewart) led lessons about Thomas Jefferson. While Ms. Stewart teaches the lessons, we sit with students at their tables and this helps with classroom control. There was a great emphasis put on the idea of highlighting important facts in a reading. This was to help the students write notes, rather than paragraphs in note taking. Ms. Curtis explained to us how not taking is an important skill students must learn before high school. Despite the fact note taking is not explicitly a Social Studies skill, it shows how our subject area can be used to teach multidisciplinary skills. Once the lecture portion of the lesson is done, we help the students with their task and make sure they are receiving all the help that they need. We have a very active role in the classroom and are looking forward to the constant student engagement.


 * November 3rd, 2011**

On our second day in the classroom, the students were in the computer lab for their second day. They were working on making graphic organizers about Thomas Jefferson and Monticello based on information found on a web quest. The graphic organizer would be used to write a paper in their English class, meaning this assignment was part of what Ms. Stewart and Ms. Curtis framed as a "double grade". Although the idea of framing an assignment as such seems beneficial to students and like a sweet deal, the students did not seem to think much of the "double grade". Some stayed on task, while others worked slowly or fooled around. It was a challenge for even 6 authority figures to keep students on task or off games. Overall we found the more structured the assignment, the better the students stayed on task and functionally completed the assignment. We also witnessed the importance of literacy as well, as students, who according to Ms. Curtis were struggled greatly with reading and writing, simply did not do the assignment. These students were not vocal about their difficulties, but rather simply removed themselves from participating. If the students got one on one attention with specific and deliberate help on writing/spelling and reading, they did work. Being involved in class today gave us an excellent look into the complexities of brining individual computer work components into a class.


 * November 10, 2011**

Today classes were shortened, because the students had a half day. The activity planned was a reinterpretation of quotes by Thomas Jefferson. The bell ringer was to name the five Great Lakes, which the students were mostly able to do without problem. The class also began with a short micro lesson about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which occurred that day in history. The micro lesson culminated in a hearing of the Gordon Lightfoot song //The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.// Ms. Curtis had told Ms. Stewart to work on her hook to the micro lesson, utilizing prior knowledge of the UP. The students did not seem too enthused about the song, although many were interested in the actual event, these students were often the ones with some prior knowledge of the incident. The actual activity of the day was interesting, because it involved some higher order thinking in interpreting the meaning of quotes. It required looking away from the literal, which many students had trouble doing. The hook to the lesson was talking about slang words and popular music. Although the idea for the hook was good, it lacked concrete examples, so some students had trouble engaging with it it seemed. The students were to write their interpretations down and turn it in at the end of class. Many students had trouble with the vocabulary and as was intended with exiting their realm of the literal. I worked with some ELL students. I think this assignment was particularly difficult for them, as they did not fully understand English o begin with, let alone multiple meanings for words. However they seemed to understand with help. It was difficult to help because they needed help with spelling too, nearly every word, which took up a lot of time, meaning less got done for them and I was less able to help other students. I think its easy to see how teachers often ignore problems in ELL students because it can be so class time consuming, and with budgets shrinking those students get even less help from the school. It seems to be a difficult thing to balance, I am curious to see any special arrangements ware made for them, or if not, why?,

**November 15th, 2011**

Today was another day in the computer center. Rather than having to take a task and produce a chart like the previous computer days, the students had a worksheet to follow along with. The questions were focused on Lewis and Clark's expeditions and could be answered on the state of Montana website. They had the entire class period to work on the sheet, and if they finished they had another sheet to start. The questions on the sheet were mostly convergent, having it clear there was one answer. Having such focused questions was helpful for the students because it was as simple as finding it, and then putting the answer in their own words. (This was an issue however when it came time to explaining that by changing one word in the sentence it is still plagiarism.) There were a handful of questions that the students had a hard time with because they required leaving the main page and looking at the other headings on the website. It was a bit shocking that this issue was coming up so often, but at the same time it was a learning experience for them to look further to answer their questions. On the 2nd side of the sheet, students were asked to look at specific stops along Lewis and Clark's trail, and then determine what made that location memorable. The students had a hard time once they finished describing the first two, and had to pick their own locations. The struggle seemed to appear when the task lost that additional level of instruction. Without saying “Go to site 2” it said to pick a site, which was not impossible, but a greater challenge.


 * November 17, 2011 **

Today was a review day for both hours, preparing the students for a test on Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase on Friday. Mrs. Stewart provided each student with a two page review sheet with potential test questions on it. Mrs. Stewart put the review sheet under the document camera and then asked the students to answer the questions. When the students provided the correct answers, she would write them down on the sheet, encouraging the students to also write down the answers for both credit and the benefit of review. Mrs. Stewart's carefully structured activities once again helped keep the students under control. In the classroom, the MSU seniors helped keep the students on task and assisted the students with any questions they had. Overall, the review went well, and many of the students were very engaged and seemed ready for the test.


 * November 22, 2011**

Tuesday was a good day at Otto. They continued to work on Michigan Map work as well as other Atlas work as well. Mrs. Stewart didn't want to start a new unit as they had Wed-Thur-Friday off for Thanksgiving Break. But it also seemed like she planned it that way so they would have to at least stay engaged as she collected the work for points. We we also able to sit down with her and outline what the couple of days would be like for our lesson. We will be preparing a lesson for the War of 1812. Mrs. Curtis will be the one teaching the lesson for the first part of the day. The map work seem to be going well. Towards the end, we noticed more and more students completing the work early, so Mrs. Stewart was able to give them some extra credit work to stay engaged. It seemed as though the students seemed interested in doing the work as it was interactive and not having to listen to a lecture.


 * November 29, 2011**

Today Mrs. Curtis taught the lesson that the group designed for her on the War of 1812. The hook of the lesson, which included listening to "The Star Spangled Banner" and reading a lyric explanation sheet seemed to be effective, as it captured the attention of many students. Though some of the students did not take this seriously, Mrs. Curtis acted swiftly to deal with any troublemakers, helping the hook to go over smoothly. Overall, I feel most of the students comprehended the explanation of the lyrics and got something meaningful out of the hook. For the Teacher Activity portion of the lesson, Mrs. Curtis led guided note taking, explaining a factor that influenced the war, and then summarizing it into a single sentence which she wrote on the board and the students copied down. The majority of the students participated in the notetaking; however, I do not believe that several of these students truly understood why they were taking notes or remembered what they had written down. The reason I am claiming this is because during the following Student Activity, which involved the students using their notes to answers short worksheet, many of the students were unable to complete this task, though the answers were literally written in order on their notes. Because of this, I feel that some of the students did not really absorb any of the information that was presented to them, but part of that had to do with behavior issues. Overall, however, the lesson seemed to be quite effective at conveying the key points of the War of 1812 to the students.


 * December 1, 2011**

Today Mrs. Curtis was not in class, but Ms. Stewart had a good control over the class. The students were informed to use the atlas of the book to fill out a larger map. They were told to use the back of the book to fill out all 50 states, Washington D.C., St. Louis, NYC, and New Orleans, where cotton was grown, and important rivers/canals. The students were not given much guidance as to the goals of the activity other than to fill out the map. They seemed motivated enough to work, but didn't understand why. The class' cooperation seemed to be only out of respect for Mrs. Stewart than for the lesson. The students worked and we helped them where needed, often only giving students motivation. I had an interesting discussion with a student, who did not want to do the worksheet. He said he'd do it for 2 million dollars, so laughingly I agreed and told him if he finished the whole worksheet we'd talk. I used it as a joking incentive for him to get it done, simultaneously giving him attention but telling him to focus. It worked. After he was finished he said I could forget the 2 million dollars. This seemed to show me that students want to have an incentive to get work done other than just doing the work. It seems like they almost strive for a structure....and attention. THis experience also made me feel as though I am starting to develop a relationship with these students, which I am very happy about. I feel like I have something invested in them and I think they are starting to feel like we are an actual part of the classroom. Ms. Appel was disrespected by a student, telling her "You don't run me", but she handled it well, keeping her cool in the face of adversity and informing Mrs. Stewart. We were debriefed about the student after class and told he often acted out. I was able to get him to complete his worksheet however, which I suppose is a victory for a struggling students. I have to commend the way Ms. Appel handled the situation, as she was put in a very awkward situation and i believe she could not have handled it better


 * December 6, 2011**

Today was great for the students and teachers of the classroom. It's funny to see how play-doh can change the mood of everyone in the room while being meaningful to the lesson. The purpose of the lesson was to explain to the students the concept of interchangeable parts during the industrial revolution. The students started class with a warm up that had them write down interchangeable parts that they knew of to get them thinking about today's lesson. After, Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. Curtis laid down some ground rules before the students got the play-doh. No eating, throwing, or stealing of the play-doh. The students laughed when she asked them not to do it but were very respectful to the rules. Once the play-doh was passed out the students were given 6 minutes to play with the play-doh. This was great because they could get it out of their system and then focus on what needed to be done. After the 6 minutes, the instruction was given to make a table with four legs out of the play-doh. The students had 6 minutes to do this and each one did a good job. Once everyone was done, the students were instructed to switch a leg of their table with the person next to them. Everyone's table looked inefficient when this was done. This was great because you could see the students understand that everyone makes things differently and before the industrial revolution it took a while to make things. With the invention of interchangeable parts the students understood that everything could be made the same and fixed easily. We then asked the students what they noticed around the classroom that were interchangeable. The students did very well in naming things and it showed they had learned what they needed to. This was a great lesson that was fun for the teachers and students of the classroom and I would definitely do it in my classroom.


 * December 8, 2011**

Today was an in prompt to lesson by Ms. Curtis, but it was perhaps one of the best lessons, which I have ever seen put into action. It was a half day, so we were present for the last two hours of the school day. Ms. Curtis was absent the previous day, and Ms. Stewart could not be in the classroom, due to a prior engagent, leaving Ms. Curtis somewhat unaware of where the students were in the lesson. Being that it was a halfway, only approximately 1/2-3/3 of the class was present (Truancy issues are a fairly common issue at Otto unfortunately). The students had just watched a video about Massachusetts' mills and Ms. Curtis asked if we had any ideas. We suggested perhaps doing a simulation of how interchangeable parts affected factory life, but had not concrete idea of how to demonstrate it. She had an excellent idea up her sleeve luckily. She drew a shirt on a piece of paper using 5 different colors to corresponding parts of the shirt (green buttons, blue collar, red sleeves, etc.). She then put two groups of 5 students each and put them on opposite sides of a row of desks. She also did this on the other side of the room. She then put the students in the mindset that they where in a factory and were so desperate for income that they could not quit their job. She then informed the students that they would each draw a part of the shirt in their color. The shirts had to be of "quality" to see so they had to perfectly match the template, but the factory with the most finished products would get bonus points for the exercise. Some parts of the shirt were more complicated and would thus take longer than the others. My fellow seniors and I served as "shop foremen", with Matt L., Lizzie, and Mrs. Curtis supervising factory A and Matt S., Kam, and I (Matt. D.) supervising Factory B. We were initially supportive but grew progressively louder and more demanding/critical of products. There were buildups of piles of paper in front of the complex part workers and the students seemed overwhelmed, even turning on each other. It was an excellent simulation. Afterwards the students were debriefed on the exercise by Ms. Curtis and our own tandem teaching. The ticket out the door was a write up of how the experience made them feel, for 3rd hour it was more specific, being from a perspective of a 19th century worker. The class was finished with about 10 minutes to spare, but Ms. Curtis did not want to start a new lesson with such little time left before a long weekend. The activity was great! When asked for feedback the only improvements we suggested were a better incorporation of interchangeable parts into the lesson, perhaps demonstrating how long an artisan shirt would take to draw individually, and thinking of a better way to make kids invested into their job. Overall it was a great day at Otto, despite the fact the activity was not even planned ahead of time! - On a side note, I had a rough time with attendance. I had previously only done attendance with 3rd hour, but in doing it sever times I knew just how to pronounce all their names. Today I did attendance for 2nd hour, which was difficult. First off, there war a lot of absences, and secondly some of the names were not written clearly or names I was familiar with making pronouncing them a challenge. So the day started a little awkward. Mrs. Curtis is very helpful though, as she is teaching us how to make sure all students are paying attention before we teach, talk, or even take attendance. She is helping us to hone our skills at commanding a classroom, rather than teaching over students not paying attention. Her methods seem authoritative, but not in a way to scare or alienate students, but more in a way that commands they show respect. I am very happy she is getting us to work on that, even stopping us if students are being rude.

**Lesson Plan:**

 * WAR OF 1812 LESSON PLAN – Tuesday November 29th, 2011 **
 * Action Research Question ** : How can we make the War of 1812 hold meaning for adolescent minds?


 * Standards Met ** :
 * 8-U4.1.2 //Establishing America’s Place in the World//
 * 8-U4.2.3 //Westward Expansion//

Students will enter the class with the Star Spangled Banner instrumental playing in the background. [] As the music plays ask the students to write the lyrics that they know on their warm up form. Give the students 3 minutes to write their thoughts.
 * Warm-Up/Hook ** : 8-9 Minutes

Bring up the lyrics of the Star Spangled banner on the overhead. Then guide the students through a dissection of the stanzas. Cover the rest of the stanzas with a sheet and go part by part through the song. Francis Scott Key wrote a poem about the British Attack on the Battle of Fort McHenry titled the Star Spangled Banner and the first paragraph was turned into the National Anthem. // O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming, //

-When the sun set on the battle you could not see who was winning, so when the sun came up he was looking to see if the English flag or American flag was up. // Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? // -The broad stripes and stars signify those of the flag, but more importantly the people of the country as the stripes signify the 13 colonies. Ramparts are a defensive wall, one which the U.S. set up to stop Britain from entering Baltimore. Gallantly streaming meant that the ramparts were doing a great job fighting. // And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; // -The rockets and bombs bursting in air provided light in the night which would show if the American flag still stood. This showed that throughout the battle the U.S. was still winning with every flash of a bomb. // O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? // -This last stanza leaves a question to the people of the U.S. The flag represents what the U.S. represents: the land of the free and home of the brave. The question is does this star spangled banner still wave? It is continually questioning the people of the U.S. if they represent the land of the free and home of the brave. The Star Spangled Banner was written in 1814 which was still during the War of 1812.


 * Lesson ** : //With a PowerPoint of visuals in the background, the teacher will guide the students through a worksheet on the War of 1812. The worksheet will cover a review of the origin of the war (discussed in class the previous day,) the British Blockade, Battle of Washington, Canadian Land, Battle of New Orleans.//


 * Origin/Review from Yesterday ** : 5 Minutes


 * What do we remember about the War of 1812?
 * Who was involved in it? What were they fighting over?
 * Blocking shipping.
 * British capturing American sailors.
 * British Support of Native American raids out west.


 * British Blockade ** : 3 Minutes
 * Ask students “What is a blockade?”
 * Blocking of an area to prevent goods or people from entering or leaving
 * New England’s economy could not function as much with the blockade in place.
 * Remind students New England’s economy relied on trade.
 * The Royal navy had over 600 warships, 85 of which near America. The British clearly had the numbers to destroy us .They could cover our entire coast line.
 * We only had 16 ships.
 * America expanded its navy during the war, but given its smaller numbers, its ships were hard to find.
 * American ships attacked British ships much like pirates. With one ship attacking another single ship.
 * By war’s end American ships had captured over 1,100 British ships.


 * US and Canada (The War out West) ** :
 * Both sides tried to take on more territory.
 * A lot of militia would not cross on to Canadian soil. This is a big reason we couldn’t keep territory there.
 * Media of the time did not approve of the campaign into Canada. The general public did not like it either. Most Newspapers were produced in the East.
 * Out west, attacks on Canada were liked because Canadians had been supplying the Native Americans with arms.
 * Native Americans allied with British, because Britain supported the idea of an Indian nation in the west.
 * Native Americans forces were led by a Native American named Tecumseh, who united many different tribes.
 * Detroit was occupied by a combined force of Native American and British/Canadian troops.
 * This gave British control of much of Michigan and inspired many Indians to fight Americans.
 * Future President William Henry Harrison broke native resistance with an invasion of Canada, where he defeated the Native American leader Tecumseh. This was called the Battle of Thames.
 * This made Harrison into a war Hero.


 * Battle of Washington ** :
 * British Invasion tactic trying to get to Baltimore because it is a big US city.
 * Burnt down Capitol, Presidential Mansion (Painted white after and renamed The White House) Treasury Building, War Office, and Office of National Intelligence. AKA They took down our capital structures as a symbol of taking down our nation.
 * Washington was less crucial to the military than Baltimore was, so the United States put more effort into protecting Baltimore. This made Washington an easy target.
 * America had 1700 troops while Great Britain had 4000.
 * General Ross, the British invasions commanding officer was killed in the battle of Baltimore leading to a British retreat.
 * The final battle in this campaign was Fort McHenry, which stopped the British. (Recall Star Spangled Banner from earlier).


 * Battle of New Orleans ** :
 * British moving to take New Orleans and territory bought by United States in Louisiana Purchase.
 * Took Place January 8th 1815.
 * This was after a treaty had already been made.
 * Treaty of Ghent, terms agreed on Dec. 24, 1814. Ratified by Congress Feb. 17, 1815. Slow communication resulted in time delay. Battle would have been avoided if communications were faster.
 * New Orleans was an important port city.
 * General Andrew Jackson knows British are coming, prepares defenses.
 * British have 8,000 troops, Americans have 5,700.
 * Battle lasts an hour, decisive American victory.
 * British take approximately 2,000 casualties, Americans take 71 casualties.
 * Andrew Jackson becomes a War hero.


 * Legacy of War **
 * The war showed Great Britain that the USA was not easily able to be pushed around and ushered in a time of peace between the two nations.
 * The War ended any hopes Native Americans establishing their own nation east of the Mississippi River.
 * The War gave Americans a national pride and identity. It created a larger national unity. People began to think of themselves as Americans more so than Georgians or Pennsylvanians.
 * 3 Future Presidents were leaders in the war.
 * Jackson-General, Harrison- General, Monroe- Secretary of War
 * The War also helped to expand the armed forces, including a huge expansion of the navy (only having 16 ships was a big problem for defense).

Completed Worksheet
 * Ticket out the Door ** :