Overview Task 2: The grade level in my classroom is 9th grade. The content area of this class is Social Studies.

The class is a World History class. There are sixteen students in my classroom. One of the students never comes to school. Two of the students never do their work. They always sleep and lack motivation to do anything. There are two students in the classroom that have an IEP. Both of the students have to have oral administration of tests and assignments. The students must be given three extra days to complete the assignment. One must be given verbal prompts to stay on task. Both have to have supplemental notes to the ones given in class. Three students in the classroom take medicine for ADHD. There are two groups that form in this class and neither of them gets along. They have to be separated or they will argue with each other. This is a very low income school. Therefore, most of the students have parents who do not care about education. One of the students who sleeps in class, works fifty hours a week. Two of the students in the classroom, stays in trouble both at school and with law enforcement. One student in the class never comes to class. She also lacks proper hygiene and misses class weeks at a time. 2.1.1. The assessment can be found here. The learning objective for this lesson was: After taking notes on a PowerPoint lecture on the Columbian Exchange and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, students should be able to fill in a geography map that labels continents as well as both routes with the goods that followed between Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. The standards that aligned with this learning objective were: NCSS Standard (9) Global Connections. Students will understand how America, Africa, and Europe connect through the Columbian Exchange and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The State Standards covered in this lesson were: MWH-1: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the major factors that facilitated exchanges among groups of people and how exchanges influenced those people in the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries. MWH-2: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the benefits and costs of the growth of kingdoms into empires from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. The indicators that align with the standards are as follows: MWH-1.1: Describe the diffusion of people and goods between Europe, Asia, and Africa during the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries to show the networks of economic interdependence and cultural interactions. MWH-2.6: Describe the impact of the competition among European countries on the various kingdoms of the Americas and Africa, including the Columbian Exchange and the slave trade. The assessment for this activity was the map activity. I provided the students with a map of the world. On this map, students had to label the continents of North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. The students then had to draw the route of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade. On the route that had to label the goods. So, there should be an arrow pointing from Africa to the Americas and labeled on this route should be African slaves. Then an arrow should be pointed to Europe from the Americas. On this route, it should be labeled raw materials indicating raw materials being sent out of America and sent to Europe. The final arrow on the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade should be an arrow coming out of Europe going to

Africa indicating the flow of manufactured goods. This route should be drawn in color and placed in the key. Next, the students will have to draw the Columbian Exchange. There should be an arrow going from America to Europe and labeled on that arrow should be potatoes, corn, pumpkins, and peppers. There should be a second arrow coming out of Europe into America and labeled on that route should be horses, cattle, pigs, and donkeys. These arrows should be done in a separate color and labeled in the key. The key should contain two colored lines of the two trade routes. For example a blue line indicates the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the red line indicates the Columbian Exchange. This assignment was chosen because the students have a difficult time with geography. The map also acts as a visual aid which is good for the students who are visual learners. The standard that this lesson is based on focuses on the exchange of goods in both the slave trade and the Columbian Exchange. By having the students write in what the goods were and represent it on the map, and then they will understand where those goods traveled to and from. The rubric I have chosen for this lesson focuses on the content rather than the design of the map. The categories on the rubric are: map key, labels and features neatness, labels-accuracy, and knowledge gained. Students earn points based on four tiers. The first tier is worth 25 points in each category giving the student a 100. The second tier is worth 20, the third tier is worth 10 and the fourth and final tier is worth 5 points. The students can receive any combination of the points to make their final grade. The map is graded on neatness, accuracy, and whether or not there is a key on their map. The students will get a copy of the rubric before the activity is explained so that they will know what I am looking for. When I grade the maps, I will use the rubric for each student and the student will get their work and the rubric back the next day. From this assessment, I will see if the students understand where the slave trade and the Columbian Exchange took place. The map will also tell me if students understand which goods flowed through each route. I will grade each map and record the grade in the gradebook as a classwork daily grade. 2.1.2 The instructional strategy that will be used for this lesson will be oral instructions. I will also come around the room and work one on one with the students to make sure they understand what they are doing. Students will also be able to work together to complete their maps which uses cooperative learning. Before giving the map to the students, students will have taken notes on the PowerPoint given to them by the instructor on the slave trade and the Columbian Exchange. Students will be given an outline to fill in while we go through the PowerPoint. The students with an IEP will be given the entire PowerPoint to look at on a printout. We will discuss the information and students will be able to use their notes to fill in the map. This activity also involves the use of transferring information from your brain to paper. On the Promethean Board, will be a map of the world. Students may use the map as a reference while completing the map activity. The purpose of the activity is to make sure students can locate where the exchange took place but also to give a visual representation of the goods that followed between Africa, Europe, and America.

2.1.3 Focus Student 1 will require the PowerPoint to be given to him before the lesson begins. He will also take notes on the outline provided as we go through the lesson. He will be allowed to use both sets of notes to complete the activity. Focus Student 2 will be given extra time to complete her map. She will be allowed to complete her map in 5 days rather than in 2 like the rest of the class. This will be the only modification needed for this assessment. Focus Student 2 will be allowed to take her work with her home to work on it and she may ask for more class time to do it. 2.2.1 The rubric can be found here. The rubric aligned with the learning objective because it focused on accuracy and knowledge of the slave trade and the Columbian Exchange. This is the most important aspect of the scoring to align with the standard. Although I should be able to read the map, I did not require the use of color on the map although the students could opt in to using more than two different colors. The graphic representation can be found here. Based on the rubric, 8 students scored an A; 1 student made a B; no one made a C; 1 student made a D; and 4 students failed. The majority of the class passed the assessment. The learning objective was met because 9 of 15 students passed the assessment. Two students failed because they decided to sleep instead of attempting to do the work. The third student that failed is Focus Student 2 and will be addressed later. The fourth student who failed did not write the goods on the map. She turned the work in after five minutes saying she was done doing it. For the students who paid attention in class and tried their best, it showed on their maps. They used the information in their notes to complete the map and passed the assessment. The data-collection process was efficient. I used a rubric so grading was fair and not biased. Students were given the rubric before the assessment so they knew what was expected of them. Student B asked if her map was correct before she turned it in. I looked at it and gave her feedback as to how she could make it better. She took my advice and made a 100. I also told the rest of the class to let me check their maps before they turned them in and I will tell them if something needs work. Some took advantage of this and others did not. The one, who did not, failed the assessment. I believe technology helped a great deal during this assessment. Because the students have difficulty with geography, I was able to pull up a map of the world on the Promethean Board and they were allowed to use this as a visual aid as they were doing the assessment. Students used the map to their advantage and labeled their continents based on the map. After the assessment was graded, I handed it back to the students. We then completed a map together so that the students could see what exactly I was looking for. For those who did not do so well, they were able to see why. This helped the students to realize that simply placing arrows on the map was not what I was looking for. 2.2.2Focus Student 1s work can be found here and Focus Student 2 s work can be found here. Focus Student 2 failed with a score of 50. Focus Student 1 made a 70. Focus Student 2 opted not to take the additional days to finish her work. Focus Student 1 simply did not label his map.

His IEP says to give frequent feedback to keep him on task. I did this as much as I possibly could with fourteen other students in the classroom. However, when I asked him why he didnt finish it, he simply said he did not want to. I believe the learning goal was met for the most part. However for my two focus students, the learning goal was not met. Focus Student 2 did not do any of the assigned routes. She only labeled the continents. Focus Student 1 drew both the Columbian Exchange and the slave trade however; he did not label the goods that traveled across the Atlantic. Because he simply chose not to do it, I do not know whether or not he has learned the information. In order to figure out if he learned the information, I will make it a bell ringer question the next day and check it. That way I will know if he learned the information and is simply choosing not to do the work or if he does not know the information and then I will address matters. I believe that if Focus Student 2 would have taken the extra time to complete the assessment, she would have done well on the activity. She simply turned in the work half done and the arrows were not part of either exchange. This makes it hard for me to determine whether or not she learned the information. Focus Student 1 did well with the assignment however, he simply opted not to put the goods that flowed. From the assessment, I can tell that Focus Student 1 understood where each of the routes took place. I cannot tell from the assessment whether or not he actually learned which goods traveled from continent to continent. I believe that allowing this activity to be done through cooperative learning was successful. Focus Student 1 and 2 worked with their group to come up with where they should label the continents by using the map on the board as an example. This part of the assessment was correct. Focus Student 2 may have not done well with the arrows because she did not have proper notes. I should definitely look at her notes next time to see if they are accurate before allowing her to complete the activity. After the assessment was graded, I handed it back to the students. We then completed a map together so that the students could see what exactly I was looking for. The two focus students were able to see what I was looking for and ask questions pertaining to as to why they did not do as well on the activity as the rest of the class. 2.3.1 The data gathered from this assessment proves that cooperative learning and visual representations work well for the class. Three-fourths of the students passed the assessment. Two of the four students who did the assessment did not turn it in because they slept through the assessment. Eight of the fifteen students in the classroom made a 100. In the future, I need to make sure the two students who simply do not do their work are on task. However, I have been instructed to let them sleep and that their grade will reflect the work they do. Both of these students are extremely intelligent, they just do not care about school. In order to make this assessment more effective, I would give a class example first. When the maps were turned in, I seen that everyone had made their key differently from what I was thinking they would do. Most of the students put the goods in the key and drew different colored lines for each part of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. However, the directions said to color each exchange a different color. I believe the students got confused on this. I did not take off points for this because I feel

like the directions may have not been clear enough. Next time, I will read through the directions twice and make sure none of the students have any questions. Additionally, I would have gone over the continents prior to giving the assessment. When I gave them the assessment, I assumed that they already knew where the continents were, however, once the students started working on the assignment, I realized that they had no clue where Africa was in relation to North America. I had to stop and explain the continents to them. If I were to teach this again, I would add in a geography section where we focused on the continents involved in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the Columbian Exchange. I believe this would have been beneficial to the students instead of simply showing them a map on the board. I would not change the instructional strategy. I would still give them the same assessment and allow cooperative learning, however, I would change the way the directions were read. I would read the directions more carefully and be sure to ask if anyone had any questions as a whole instead of individually. Instead of having the students use a map to show that they have mastered the learning objective of knowing where and what goods were exchanged during the slave trade and Columbian exchange, I could have them write 1-2 paragraphs explaining this as well. Students would have the option of drawing a map with their paragraphs to act as a visual representation. Allowing the students to write paragraphs, would ensure that they knew the information for each exchange. Because the map was so small in the region in which both of the exchanges took place, the students work tended to look sloppier. If I allowed them write instead of draw, this may have helped the other students in the classroom who are not visual learners but are able to explain better in words rather than in pictures. 2.3.2 In the future, I will make Focus Student 2 take her work home and continue working on it. I will not allow it to be an option to turn in work half complete. It is my duty to make sure they know the information and by allowing them to turn it in half complete, then this does not give me accurate details as to whether or not the instructional objective was met. I will also have to work to keep Focus Student 1 on task. I will have to make sure that working together does not prove to be a distraction but that cooperative learning is helping him. Because they were able to work together, I do not know if either one of them knew the information prior to asking someone for help. In the future, it may be a good idea to pull these students off to the side and make sure they understand the instructions and what to do. I will also give special attention to them during the time in which the class works on it to make sure their maps are coming together correctly. I could also ask the whole class what goods were exchanged and write it on the board so that they have a visual representation as to what I expect of them. Instead of having the students use a map to show that they have mastered the learning objective of knowing where and what goods were exchanged during the slave trade and Columbian exchange, I could have them write 1-2 paragraphs explaining this as well. Students would have the option of drawing a map with their paragraphs to act as a visual representation. Allowing the students to write paragraphs, would ensure that they knew the information for each

exchange. So, even if they were having a hard time understanding the instructions of the map, they could still explain the answer to me in paragraph form rather than on a map.