Design for Instruction

Students always took these pre-assessments at the start of the class, many times this
meant that the pre-assessment introduced the topic or theme of the day. Students were
told that they were not expected to know the information just to give an educated guess
as the last Unit we covered was the Great Depression and the New Deal came up a few
times in passing. I told them that I was not grading them, but instead I was simply
wanting them to use the context to give forth their best answer. Since, I did Quick Writes,
a KWL chart and a Checklist, there was not a number of questions to grade but the
depth or amount of detail they wrote down after I gave them information told me a ton
about their growth and if they had been engaged in the information.
Student
BC

HA
MB
MC
NC
LD
KE
CF
EG
KH
CH

Quick Write 1
M

Quick Write 2
ABSENT

M
E
PM
M
M
PM
E
M
E
M

E
E
M
M
ABSENT
E
M
M
E

NJ
LM

M
M

ABSENT
PM
E

HM
JM
MM
JM
ShP
SPr
JR
IR
AS
RS
LW
KV

E
E
E
M
M
M
PM
E
E
PM
M
M

M
M
E
PM
M
M
M
M
E
M
E
E

Key:
Blue = E (Exceeds the Standard)

Checklist
NM

KWL
M

M
M
NM
M
NM

M
M
M
M
PM

NM
M
M
M
NM

M
M
PM
E
E

NM
M

PM
M

M
M
M
NM
NM
M
M
E
E
E
M
E

ABSENT
M
E
M
ABSENT
M
M
M
PM
ABSENT
M
M

Orange = PM (Partially Meets)

Red = NM (Not Met)

Purple = M (Meets)
Quick Write #1What is the New Deal?
Quick Write #2What were some criticisms of the New Deal?

LG 1: Students will be able to identify/categorize various Government

Relief Programs of the 1930s and 40s.
o Pre-Assessment: Quick Write #1
o Pre-Assessment: Poster Checklist
Final Results: In reference to Learning Goal 1, I feel that my students got a pretty
firm handle on what the New Deal is relatively quickly and many with some
depth to their answers. Moreover, the ones only Partially Met the requirements of
the assessment really only did that from seeming lack of focus or not treating the
assessment seriously. Since many students did well by writing enough information,
it seems that their focus was spot on during our Great Depression Unit. However,
that being said I did notice that many students also seemed to exceed this by listing
much information. As such, I will have to bolster those students by challenging
them by upping the depth of information required for the Poster Project, moreover
stressing a thoughtful model. Students will not need as much instruction on this
topic, but could use some depth to serve as good information towards their Poster
Project/Essay.
In terms of the Checklist, I found that many of my students did not utilize their
time in class for the project properly. This could have happened for a variety of
reasons, perhaps the students were not clear on the objectives of the project or were
confused about some aspect of it. Due to this, I will be going over the project again
and answering any questions that students might have in regards to it.
LG 2: Students will consider Roosevelts use of executive power and
public opinions of New Deal Programs.
o Pre-Assessment: Quick Write #2
Final Results: There is a mix of students again, some exceeding the standard in
how much depth and how various the information they write down is. Others,
meeting the standard and a few only partially meeting the standard. Those few who
only partially reached the standard did so by not taking the assessment seriously or
from missing previous classes. The students for the most part were able to capture
the key ideas of criticisms of the New Deal and added in some of their own
interesting perspective to the issue which will prepare them well for the New

Deal Essay. However, some students struggled it seems with articulating or

communicating exactly the what and who in terms of the criticisms. So, the key
things for me to do is to make sure the students understand these specifics so I
will be using group discussion and a Fact and Opinion sheet to make sure both
questions are very clear.
LG 3: Students will identify and form connections between events
leading up to WWII.
o Pre-Assessment: KWL Chart
Final Results: There were less students who exceeded the standard this time
around, much of that coming from a mix of students who seemed to not take the
assessment as seriously as others who took it very seriously. There was an even
split between student who knew key terms and concepts and those who did not
know anything beyond the typical WWII buzz words such as Hitler, Nazis, etc. I
was impressed with the amount of students that had a large amount of knowledge
already. This just means that I will have to be willing to branch out into other
aspects of the war as we head into our Unit on World War II meaning that I will
be covering things ranging from Japanese Internment, Russian perspective, and
German citizens perspective.
Some of the conclusions or things the students wrote down that they learned made
me realize that perhaps the structure of the discussion did not prompt enough
discussion or perhaps I did not phrase things in the best way that I could. As I
proceed into the next Unit, this is something to certain take note of in future
discussions.

CFA: The knowledge from my CFA was extremely useful when planning for
instruction and overall it helped me see that my students have a closed mind set,
which is something that I have to be aware of when planning my lessons as I have
to get the students engaged to the point that it doesnt feel like hard work to
them. Several of my students hold down a job because their families have to have
the extra support and as such I have to plan my lessons around the fact that my
students cannot handle large homework assignments. I have done by best to
prepare them for each assignments and have open communications through a
website agenda, my email and various other means such as staying after school or
the like.

Moreover, the fact that Skowhegan have a high poverty rate effects the access to
technology that I have for my lessons. I have to be aware that my school is not 1:1
with laptops so I have to think relatively further ahead if I am going to use laptops
or not. Moreover, this means that I cannot expect my students to create things on
laptops nor use the internet for research thus there are times where some of the
class periods must be given towards student work.

Use of Technology: Two lessons will incorporate technology. The students will
be using a variety of computer programs to construct their posters, as I have left
that particular choice up to them as they are creating their projects. This will give
them further practice in using programs such as Google Docs, Keynote, Paint, etc.
Also, since they are being graded on how professional it looks, its presentation
then it shall give the student the chance to produce something of a higher caliber
and perhaps higher technology level. In this, students will discover how to
specifically use multi-medias to create a presentation-level poster about a New
Deal program.
I will also be using an online program called Remind, which has a webpage linked
to the students phones. Thus, if I have to message them about an assignment, I can
bypass their email (maybe do not have a laptop of internet at home) and tell them
exactly is due and when it is due. It does not connect to students phone directly, so
I do not have their numbers and they do not have mine. This program will certainly
help those students that are not in school frequently and also those students who
are busy outside school or just forgetful such as myself.