Inspire, Motivate, Dedicate the Future

This LM was done for TIL 608. It was used as a tool for self-assessment. It is peer reviewed and edited.

Learning Map 2
Veronica Wilkerson
National University

Abstract

This LM is to follow a lesson on Political Ideologies done at Merit Academy. The students were previously asked to create their own political party with their own political ideologies and then present these to the class. The new Lesson will build on this subject by allowing the students to engage in a political debate. The LM is for one class period only and will follow up a lecture done on this subject. The class is a Government class at a Special Education School.

Learning Map

Learner

This is a government class of Juniors and Seniors. It is a class of 18 students with a Majority of Seniors. There are 11 males and 7 females. The class is diverse. All students have IEPs. There are a total of three students will chronic absenteeism, so it is not known if they will attend class for this assignment at all. There are no ELL students in this class.

Teacher

I would be a fully credentialed new teacher who has experience working in a Special Education Classroom. I would strive to model the correct behavior of the class and also strive to create a learning environment that is safe for my students. It will be free of ridicule and all students will be allowed to be themselves in my classroom.

Target

Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.1D

“Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task”.

Learning Goal

Students will learn to academically debate based on the political ideologies of their fictitious political party utilizing research based claims and counterclaims.

Social Emotional Goal

Students will learn to respectfully disagree with their peers using appropriate academic language.

Objective

Students will be able to stand up in front of the class, for 30 seconds per student on their team, to argue and defend a teacher- assigned ideological stance based on the 2020 political debate utilizing their own fictional political parties and research based claims and counterclaims.

Learner Outcomes

As a result of the lesson, students will be able to produce and conduct a successful and respectful debate with their peers.

Prior Knowledge

Students already have their political parties and ideologies.
Political party knowledge
How to research and interpret ideologies of different topics of the 2020 presidential debates.
Key words and stances on current topics.
How to take turns and speak when it is their turn.
Correct class presentation techniques.

Know

Their stance on the topic given by the teacher.
Where to research the current topic.
Correct use of academic language.

Do

State their stance on the assigned topic.
Explain this stance.
Execute a coherent argument for their own stance
Differentiate their stance with that of the opposing team.
Argue and defend their own stance against their opponents.
Formulate a coherent and persuasive argument with their group.

Materials and Tools

Computer for research
Note Cards
Group
Podium (front desk)
Paper
Writing Utensil
List of requirements
Rules of engagement.

Strategies and Activities

The activities for this lesson are meant to inform and teach the student how to research, argue, and defend a stance in the most respectful and correct way.

Activity 1- Lecture

The first twenty minutes of class will be used to build on their knowledge that the students already have regarding their political ideologies. The class will be given a review of the main political parties and their stances on three major topics and the key words associated with those topics (listed below) as well as a reminder of what a “scholarly” website is and how to find scholarly sources. The instructor will use a powerpoint presentation to help the students visualize the lecture and take any last minute notes. Time for questions will be given in the last 4 minutes of this first section of the class. (PPT = 16 minutes, Questions = 4 minutes). They will be given time with their group to collect themselves and review their political stances on three “hot topic” political stances: 1. Abortion 2. Free Healthcare 3. Legality of Marijuana. Within this ten minutes, they will be given the topic that they are expected to debate as well as the stance that they are expected to take.

Key Words

Rebuttal
Claim
Counterclaim
Pro-Choice
Liberal
Conservative

**Accommodations will be made for all of the students, there will be ample time for questions and concerns. The Instructor will also post the powerpoint to the schools classroom website (schoology) and leave the powerpoint up for the duration of the lecture. The students also have a choice to have all material printed out on paper for personal use. Ample break time will be provided for those who have trouble sitting, however, there is a mandatory 10 minute time in class before they can ask to use their breaks. Breaks are a max of 5 minutes.

Activity 2- In ClassResearch Time

All students will be given their topics and whether they are for or against this topic. They will have ten minutes to discuss and organize with their groups. The prompt and requirements are available on Schoology as well as on paper that the instructor had handed out. They are expected to use two different scholarly sources as well as a written or google doc of the citations in APA format by the end of the class period.
**Accommodations will be made for students who have trouble working on a computer. These students can write everything on a piece of paper, however, they must still do research on the computer and provide two scholarly sources. The instructor, aid or rehab will be available for one on one help if the students need it, and any source that is found can be printed and given to the student.

Activity 3- Debate

The students will begin the debate of the first topic at the end of the research time and will debate until the final class bell rings. The class will be split into four groups of four. Some students are out, therefore, each group will be a minimum of 3 students on the day of the debate. If there is not 3 students in each group, then the groups will be combined to make as many groups of 3 or 4 as possible. Each student will be given thirty seconds to make their stance or rebut the opposition. Every student in the group must speak. Each debate round will be about 8 minutes long. Each team will be given about 30 seconds to collect their thoughts and organize their rebuttals’ between each student’s turn. The students must explicitly state the sources that they used during the debate.
**Each student must speak out loud during the debate, however, due to the anxiety and stress of presentation, 30 seconds of extra preparation time to organize their arguments will be given to those who ask and cue cards will be allowed when the student must speak. Points will not be taken away for the loudness of the student, but the argument will be expected to have clarity.

Connect to UDL

UDL Standards Met

Multiple Means and Representation: “Optimize relevance, value and authenticity. (CAST 2018)
Multiple Means of Action and Expression: “Activate or Supply Background Knowledge” (CAST 2018)
Multiple Means of Engagement: “Support Planning and strategy development” (CAST 2018)

Analysis/Reflection

This LM activates and utilizes the three concepts of UDL. The students are being taught to apply the concept of political ideologies to their lives by showing them that they will be voting soon and these are important topics to watch. As the students are majority juniors and seniors, they are 17 to 18 years old, therefore, they will be able to vote soon. This is why the topic of discovering their own political ideologies is important. They will soon need to apply this knowledge to their real lives. By reviewing the different political ideologies and political parties of the 2020 presidential election, the instructor will be activating and supplying background knowledge. A lot of these topics, the students have heard of before. Whether it is on the news or through their social media accounts. Referring to these hot button issues, we are utilizing the popularity and the polarity of these topics to engage students in the lesson as well as allow them to gain more in-depth knowledge about the subjects. Finally, this lesson will also allow the students to practice organization of arguments and rebuttals in with their peers. They must learn to exercise restraint and respect when participating in political discourse. Here we are providing the tools for them to plan and strategize their arguments against those who are on a more even level with them.
The use of the UDL concepts in this LM is explicit in its ability to be applied to their everyday lives. It is important they decide what is important to them because it will shape the future of the political ideologies, and shape the future of our country.

Assessment and Evaluation

Lecture: Students will be asked review questions before the powerpoint and lecture begins in order to check for how much they remember. This will allow for the instructor to assess in which areas the students need the most review and where they can move on. The students will then be allowed to ask their own questions at the end of the lecture, if there are none, then the instructor can move on to the next activity, if there are more than one and the students seem confused, the instructor can return to whichever area they need most.

In-Class Research Time- The students will be given twenty minutes for research. They must be employed in active research with the team mates. Before each student is able to debate, they must provide a list of at least two scholarly sources to the teacher. They cannot be the same resource, however, they can be the same resource to another group. The Citation’s will be due at the end of the class period in APA format. The validity of their argument will be based on these resources.

Debate- The debate will be assessed based on the Rubric (attached). There will be three main categories; cohesiveness as a group (Does each argument and rebuttal agree with other group members?), Types of sources that they chose (Are the from a trusted, scholarly resource), and how many quality arguments were made during the debate (did they quote a source?, was it clear and easy to follow? Did they repeat what other’s had already said or did they make at least 3 different arguments?).

Instructional Procedures and Classroom Management

Time Procedure/Rules

0- 20 minutes

Students come in and grab computers.
Students are not allowed to ask for breaks during the first 10 minutes of class and are discouraged from breaks during lecture.
No talking while the teacher is talking, or when their peer is asking a question.
GoGuardian (computer software) will be utilized at this time to block all websites, excluding schoology, where the Powerpoint is located for the students to follow along.
Students will be respectful to the teacher and their peers at all times.
Lecture can take up to 30 minutes, however, must not go over this amount of time. If more support is needed, teacher, aid or rehab will answer questions one on one.

20-40 minutes

Students will be un-blocked from research websites, but GoGuardian will be utilized to monitor appropriate computer use.
There will be no headphones allowed during this time as students should be actively engaged in this activity.
Music that is conducive to concentration may be played by the instructor.

40- 50 minutes

Two teams will stand at the front of the class and begin their debate.
No other person is allowed to interrupt while the person is speaking.
There will be no use of inappropriate language.
All topics and people will be referred to respectfully and in academic language.
There will be no talking over each other or name calling.
The class will be encouraged to clap after each speaker, regardless of stance on the subject.

References

CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Candidate Name: Veronica Wilkerson		Course: ITL 602	Instructor: Eric Fraunfelter		Date: 2019
#1 TPE and Element(s): TPE 4: Developing as a Professional Educator. Element #5: “Promote student success by providing opportunities for students to understand and advocate for strategies that meet their individual learning needs and assist students with specific learning needs to successfully participate in transition plans (e.g., IEP, IFSP, ITP, and 504 plans.)	Activity, Assignment, Experience: Week 4 Infographic Fieldwork			Attach URL/PDF https://imdthefuture.blogspot.com/2019/09/so-you-want-to-teach-bad-kids.html
Affective: Beliefs and Values	Behavioral: Teaching Practices			Cognition: Knowledge Gained
Reading the TPE’s and researching the different types of collaboration have helped me understand that all student learn differently. There is no such thing as “Bad Kids”. There are only Kids that learn differently than others and sometimes, a traditional school experience is not conducive to them learning.	I conducted by field work at a special education mild/moderate school. They have a lot of alternative teaching practices that help their demographic of students learn. Each student has an “advocate” teacher who listens to them, individually and helps to tailor their learning experience to each individual student.			This class has helped me to begin my journey as an inspired teacher. It has helped me to recognize my weakness in judging that are “bad kids” are not bad, they only learn differently. As an inspired teacher, I should look for ways to help my struggling students instead of pushing them off to the side. I have to make sure that each student has the opportunity to learn in my classroom.