I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections

Day 1 Reflections
Pre-Assessment Results
6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6 Student 7 Student 8 Student 9 Student 10 Student 11 Student 12 Student 13 Student 14 Student 15 Student 16 Student 17 Student 18 Student 19 Student 20 Student 21 Score Out of 10

Item Analysis
14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Number of Students Who Answered Correctly

Personal Reflection: After reflecting upon my students behavior, I decided to not use rubber bands for my segregation experiment due to the fact that I knew how hard it would be for Students 8, 13, and 16 to refrain from popping people with them. So, I decided to distribute pieces of yarn, instead. I gave the students who were to represent the African

I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections Americans multicolored yarn to tie around their wrists, and I gave the students who were to represent the White Americans navy yarn to tie around their wrists. I distributed the yarn at the very beginning of the day in order make my experiment last at least half of the school day. I quickly made it clear that I was not going to treat those with multicolored yarn nicely by skipping them during our Morning Meeting, not allowing them to answer questions while going over our 10-Minute Math drills, leaving them in the classroom as I took the other students to P.E., making them stand in the back of the lunch line, dismissing their questions, and other forms of discrimination. I did not tell the students what was going on until after lunch. Throughout the morning, I heard comments such as, Ms. Stanley! I thought you loved me!, Ms. Stanley, youre being racist!, and I even heard one student who was given a navy piece of yarn beg to suffer along with the other students because he did not feel as though I was being fair. It did not take long for the students to catch on to what was going on, but yet, they were beginning to riot against me! I knew that I had to find a way to get my students, who are all white, except for one student who is bi-racial, to empathize with the African Americans during this time in history. The best way to get students to make personal connections is to add to their schema through experiences. o Data Analysis: After analyzing the data from the pre-assessment, I now realize just how explicit my instruction on this topic must be. None of them earned the passing score of 7 out of 10 (70%). After composing an item analysis, I concluded that only five students correctly answered number one, a question on the significance of Ruby Bridges, and ten answered numbers two and three correctly, both of which were questions on the significance of Rosa Parks and George Wallace. Concerning the two questions on Dr. King, fourteen answered number four correctly and six answered number five correctly. Only nine answered number six correctly, which was based on the definition of prejudice, and the two questions based on the Jim Crow Laws, numbers seven and nine, were correctly answered by nine and eleven students, respectively. Eleven of the twenty-one students answered the question on the dates of the Civil Rights Movement, number ten, correctly, and only nine answered number eight correctly, which was based on the significance of John Lewis. I plan on giving the students numerous opportunities to openly share their thoughts as we continue on with this unit in order to help them make personal connections and transfer their knowledge from day to day. I will also ensure that I explicitly explain the significance of each of the people we will discuss and why each is important to the history of Alabama since, according to the data, the students do not have a complete understanding of any of the people mentioned on the assessment.

I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections

Day 2 Reflections
Data Collection: (Out of 9 Points)
1. 2. 3. 4.

Student #:

Students Score (Out of 9) Incomplete Absent Incomplete 5/9 (I need to ensure that this students fully understands the instructions on future assignments.) 8/9 9/9 (I love how creative this student is!) Absent 5/9 9/9 7/9 8/9 Incomplete 5/9 7/9 5/9 (I was surprised by this students work, but I will ensure that her neighbor is not distracting her tomorrow.) Incomplete 9/9 (Very well done!) 6/9 Incomplete 8/9 Absent

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections

Personal Reflection: I really enjoyed teaching this lesson! The students were excited to learn about segregation and how it affected schools, and they were also really excited about completing the Open Mind Portraits of Ruby Bridges. It is always great to have an authentic cross-curricular experience within the classroom. The text connections graphic organizer that I had the students complete gave me an opportunity to explain why making connections to characters within a text is a great way to interpret the theme and comprehend the information; the Open Mind Portraits were also a reading strategy that I find very valuable to use within the classroom in any subject. If I were to change one thing about this lesson, it would be to ensure that I have enough time for my slower workers to finish. o Data Analysis: Unfortunately, the usual five students did not complete this assignment, which proves that I need to ensure that I allot enough time each afternoon to adequately teach my unit lessons, as well as enough time for my students who need extra time to complete their tasks. All of the students, except for the four students who received a 56% on this assessment, Students 4, 8, 13, and 15, passed this lessons assessment. This assessment was more of a synthesizing exercise, which I have noticed these four students tend to struggle with. There are going to be more similar activities like this throughout this unit that will require the student to take the information that they were given and interpret it in a creative way. I need to make sure that I explain how to do this before assigning these future assignments. I will also ensure that I allow myself more opportunities to formatively assess and check on the progress of these four students who did not pass during tomorrows lesson and activity.

I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections

Day 3 Reflections
Data Collection:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

Student #:

Students Score (Out of 10) 10 10 10 Absent 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections Supervisor/Cooperating Teacher Reflection: Mrs. Chiles and Mrs. Swann both game me some wonderful feedback on this lesson. It is always nice to have veteran teachers or principals encourage you to continue working hard and give you compliments on your lessons. Their suggestions were as follows: o Mrs. Chiles explained that she was pleased with my lesson, and she noticed a lot of growth since my last lesson she observed, especially in the area of classroom management. I knew that the students would get excited and competitive while playing the Jim Crow Musical Chairs game, but Mrs. Chiles complimented me on how I told them to have fun but to do it responsibly and respectfully. She did, however, tell me that I should have given more explicit instructions for the game, such as no stopping before the music stops and no placing ones hands on the chairs as you walk around. It is so easy to not realize that people tend to do those things while playing musical chairs. She also suggested that I should always ensure that every student can see while reading something off of the board. I projected the Rosa Parks article on the ELMO projector in order to prevent having to pass them out during the lesson. I did notice that some students who were sitting in the back struggled to decipher some of the words. Next time, I will ask the students if they can see before I begin reading. o Mrs. Swann also gave me some very useful feedback on my lesson. The main piece of advice that she gave me concerning this lesson was to break this lesson up into more than one day. I definitely agree with this! There are so many fun and exciting activities to complete in this lesson, and I am surprised that we had enough time to complete them all today. She even suggested that I could use this one lesson as a framework for teaching the Civil Rights Movement since it incorporated so many aspects of the movement. I had originally planned to allow for more than one day for each of my lessons, but due to time constraints, this was not feasible. Personal Reflection: I hope that I can reteach this lesson again. I was so happy to see all of the wonderful collages and hear some of the students comments as they worked on them. The students were on-task, actively participating, sharing their ideas, and thinking critically throughout the whole lesson. They were also more attentive during this lesson than they normally tend to be, which I believe had a lot to do with the constant movement and the lack of desks due to the room rearrangement for the Jim Crow Chairs game. I decided to not put the desks back until after we completed the whole lesson. The students loved being able to spread out around the room to work. In fact, they seemed to get more accomplished while working on the floor, which really makes me wonder if I should allow them to do this more often. I have noticed how restless this group of very energetic and social students get after having to sit in their desks for more than an hour. All of them, including the students who usually do not complete assignments, completed every aspect of the lesson, and their assessment pieces were so artistic that Mrs. Swann wants

I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections to display them in the hallway. If I could reteach this lesson, I would have definitely split up this lesson into two days. This would have allowed me to not feel rushed while teaching this active lesson, and it would have also allowed the students to share their work after completing them. I will make sure to allot some time tomorrow for them to share their mixed media collages with their peers. I am also very curious to see what each of the different things represents. o Data Analysis: Fortunately, each of the students earned a 100% on this assessment. I feel as though they were very eager to complete this assignment and to use their creativity, so they were focused and followed my instructions. Also, I projected the checklist onto the Promethean Board so that the students could check off each of the requirements before submitting them. This explicit display of the criteria seemed to help them out immensely. I will make sure that I do this every time from now on.

I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections

Day 4 Reflections
Data Collection/Analysis: Due to time constraints, I was not able to complete the assessment portion of this lesson. Student #: Students Score N/A 1.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections Personal Reflection: I really wish that I had gotten the chance to complete the assessment portion of this lesson. The students were really getting into this unit and were beginning to understand the important of empathy while learning about history. It would have been awesome to see what some of the students would have come up with. I also did not get the chance to read This Is The Dream to the students. This book really would have tied the whole unit together for the students in a developmentally appropriate way that they could visualize and remember. Next time, I will make sure that I have enough time to complete this lesson with my students with each of the components. I will also think about breaking this lesson up into more than one day, too. Maybe, I could spend a whole week on Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. so that I can spend quality time on each of the engaging activities with the students. I am so glad that I actually had the opportunity to teach this unit so that I can see how well, or not so well, the activities will go in a real classroom. The students really do seem to know the material for the test, and I definitely cannot wait to see what projects they present on Sharing Day!

I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections

Data Collection: Student #:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

Day 4 Reflections
Students Score 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25) 70 (17.5/25) 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25) 72 (18/25) 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25) 72 (18/25) 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25) 100 (25/25)

I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections
Personal Reflection: Today was such an exciting day! We reviewed each of the significant figures, but unfortunately due to time constraints, we were unable to play the review game or do the Aurasma gallery walk. Fridays are assessment day and Activity Day for fourth graders, which takes up four hours of their school day. I did, however, leave my cooperating teacher with all of the necessary tools to complete these activities after I leave. The students did such a wonderful job on all of their Sharing Day presentations! They exceeding my expectations and created some amazing historical and informational works of art that I am sure Mrs. Swann will show off in the hallway. I am so glad that I gave the students multiple options based on the results of the Student Interest and Learning Styles Inventory I administered during the second week at this placement and the Multiple Intelligences of Howard Gardner. I now see why those are so important while designing lessons and activities. These students, who are all exceedingly different with different talents and interests, each had their chance to shine. The artistic students were able to create Bottle Heads of History and even draw portraits of the person of their choice, and the spatial or kinesthetic learners were given the chance to create two-minute videos, which I must admit were very creative and humorous. I feel as though this culminating activity really helped solidify the significance of each of the Civil Rights Movement significant figures for the students. o Data Analysis: I was really impressed with a lot of my students presentations. Eighty-six percent of the students received a 100 on their presentations; fourteen percent earned a 72 or below. I wish that I could have collected some of the posters and bottle heads, but pictures will have to suffice. The students who received a 72 or below, Students 8, 13, and 16, received their grades because of the quality of their presentations. These three students, who are very energetic, humorous, and unfortunately, rather disruptive, completed a 2-minute video of Rosa Parks. While filming their video in the hallway, another teacher had to quiet them down because they were kicking the boy who was supposed to represent Rosa Parks. My cooperating teacher and I did not feel as though they properly portrayed this historic event, so they received their failing scores. I will definitely have to provide these three students with more structure and limits if I allow them to work on a project together in the future. (The actual checklists for each of the students are below.)

I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections

Summative Assessment Data Analysis

Student #:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

Students Score (Out of 100) 105 99 99 99 99 84 105 84 92 105 104 94 105 105 105 105 105 100 105 102 105

I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections

Students' Scores on Summative Assessment

120

100

80

60 Students' Scores on Summative Assessment 40

20

Data Analysis: I was exceedingly pleased with my students high scores on this summative assessment. While forming the summative assessment, I strived to not include any frivolous questions that might confuse or trick my students. I feel as though teachers should not try to trick their students on assessments but should ask the students questions that require critical thinking and that require higher level thinking skills to answer. Sixty-two percent of the students scored a 100 or above on this assessment, twenty-nine percent scored between a 99 and a 92, and less than ten percent (two students) scored an 82, which was the lowest score on this assessment. I feel as though this is an effective representation of the students understanding of the content. The students were very interested and engaged in this unit, and would beg for history to take place at the beginning of the day rather than the end

I Have The Right To Civil Rights: A Unit on Empathy and Equality Reflections of the day. I felt as though my students needed some kind of a way to prepare for the assessment at home, so I created a study guide to help them review for the assessment with their parents. If I were to change anything concerning this units summative assessment, I would ask more open response questions and fewer objective questions. This would allow me, as their instructor, to see how the students interpreted what was taught and would allow me to assess them using a variety of Depth of Knowledge and levels on Blooms Taxonomy. History is most likely the most objective subject. Everyone has a different outlook on how history impacted the world, and one would be surprised to see what students as young as fourth graders believe. I gave the students ample opportunities to share their thoughts throughout the formative assessments, but I only gave one opinion or History-to-MyStory connection question. Next time, I will include more.