I love when a lesson goes just the way I planned! My students created a PowerPoint about the Declaration of Independence to increase their background knowledge of the document prior to discussion day. On discussion day:
- Finalize and drop student PowerPoints (we have 1:1 laptops with the most GENIUS dropboxes!).
- Nosies Questions. I.e. Put your finger on your nose if you know who wrote the Declaration. Put your finger on your nose if you know when it was signed and approved. I love how this allows every kid think time!
- Video clip: This helped students solidify the information they learned. The reflection question we discussed was, “What would you have thought when you first heard about the Declaration?” (Think-Pair-Share)
- I created a Google Form that allowed students to reflect on what each sentence of the Declaration’s preamble meant. Once students had time to reflect on their assigned sentence, we discussed it as a large group. I loved that each student was responsible for a response versus one student always raising their hand to interpret.
- Final reflection: I asked students, “If you were a member of the Continental Congress, would you have signed the Declaration?” I rolled out a giant piece of white butcher paper and every student was required to record a response that we can later display for everyone to see.
Every student had to be involved at each stage of this lesson which I really valued. Additionally, students of all abilities were able to access and understand the information. I’m looking forward to trying a fishbowl tomorrow to discuss student opinions more in depth!
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