Renee Mendieta Community Membership Reflection November 11, 2013

In preparation for my community membership lesson, I hung brightly colored sheets of paper on the white board. Each sheet of paper was labeled with a civic responsibility and would be used as a piece of realia during the lesson. To me, the classroom is dull and uninteresting, and Ive used brightly colored sheets of paper in previous lessons to effectively earn the interest of my students. When the students entered the classroom after specials, they smiled brightly and many of them asked with excitement if I was going to teach them a lesson. After clapping my hands five times to grab the attention of my students, I informed the class of their objective: to learn about civic responsibilities and decide what they are responsible for as members of the Durango community and as members in their classroom/school communities. Before defining the terms for them, I thought it was important for my students to independently explore the idea of being responsible members of their community. This served as a high expectation and enabled them to construct their own definitions of the terms rather than being given the definition. I handed out the worksheet, titled Good Citizenship, and had the students take a few minutes to respond to the questions. For the most part, the students enjoying completing this task and really seemed to enjoy sharing their answers with the class. With this, my anticipatory set was successful. After discussing what a civic responsibility/duty is, I gestured toward the colorful sheets hanging on the board. I told the students that some of the responsibilities were mandatory and some were voluntary. By having students explore these terms with their table groups and come up with a definition and an example of each, I set high expectations again. I demonstrated how I wanted students to explore the terms on the sheets of paper by reading an example, deciding what I thought it meant, providing an example, and declaring it a mandatory or voluntary duty. Following this, I handed each table group one of the pieces of paper and asked them to quietly discuss the item with their group members. I also told them that by giving each member of their table an opportunity to share, they are being responsible members of their small table communities. After a few minutes, I regained the attention of my students with another round of clapping and gave each table an opportunity to share their item, define it, provide an example, and declare it mandatory or voluntary. Each group was to nominate a representative who would post their item to the board, under the appropriate heading. When all of the items were posted to the board, I told the students that they were going to create their own civic responsibilities that pertain to their classroom and/or school communities. I showed them an example that I had previously created. I defined the terms (write the responsibility in bold letters, draw a picture or write a sentence defining the responsibility and provide an example indicating how a person might carry out this duty) and checked for understanding by calling on students to repeat the directions back. There was some confusion as to what they were actually supposed to write and together, we brainstormed a few ideas of what could be written on the poster board. The students enjoyed the opportunity to apply their knowledge in a creative way and took pride in the creating of their posters. When they finished, they hung their posters around the room so that their classmates had a chance to admire their hard work. When all of the posters were hung, I told the

students their next task: to analyze a poster which was not their own. I showed them the worksheet and read the directions. The students really enjoyed circling the room and seeing their classmates work.

What worked well: I think that the most effective components of my lesson was during the guided practice and the closure activity. The students had an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the content by creating an artifact that represented something meaningful to them. Allowing students to be active in their own learning is often the best way to teach. What didnt work well: Some of my students didnt respond to the questions on the Good Citizenship worksheet the way that I had intended. One of my students actually answered each question in a way that only directly benefitted him. He proudly shared his responses and people laughed with him. I was able to use this behavior to ask students to really consider the impact if everyone responded this way. It ended up being a useful tool for discussion. How well students met MC Ed objectives: I feel as though much of the content that this lesson focused on was relatively new material for my students. Im sure that references to the idea of what a civic responsibility/duty have been made throughout their lives, but not explicitly discussed. With regard to multicultural education, I believe that my students met at least began to meet the objectives I had for this lesson. The first objective was to have an opportunity to discuss individual responsibilities that lead to the greater good for all. In order to live in more just and equitable society, we must do our parts as individuals. My second objective was to provide a platform for students to debate current, accepted norms for being dutiful as citizens of Colorado and members of Riverview Elementary. This debate mostly occurred during the discussion following the Good Citizenship worksheet and continued throughout the lesson as students explored broader definitions of the terms. The execution of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: As teachers, its important to recognize that we have a diversity of learners and they do not all fit into the same mold. This translates into virtually every area of our curriculum. Many of my students are middle class and white. Many of their examples for civic responsibilities are recognized as being consistent with sound, American morals and values. I knew that all of my students didnt share these same values, however, and had to take my instruction one step further by opening the discussion up to the entire class. When I allowed more room in the discussion, more creative and nontraditional examples surfaced from some of my quieter students. One student said that by eating healthy and exercising we can contribute to the common good of our communities. Another said that we can be good citizens by planting trees and flowers so that everyone can have clean air to breathe. One student gave the example of smiling at strangers as you pass them on the street to make our community more friendly. How would I change the lesson in the future:

This lesson could be taught over the course of several days, and I had to fit everything into a 45minute block. In my future classes, I will spend more time introducing the topic and also spend more time in the closure area. I may also find a better way to weave the theme of civic responsibilities throughout the entire school year. I feel as though my class could have gone a lot deeper in the discussion/participation if given the time and opportunity.