The U.S. History
The post is a comb
ination of two asighnments
1:Case study
Subject: U.S. History
Arrive at Mr. Roth’s classroom 3 m
inutes before the bell r
ings. You observe Mr. Roth
in the doorway of the classroom greet
ing students by name as they come
in. You hear him talk
ing with students about non-curricular topics such as how the game went last night and ask
ing about their weekend plans. Students spoke freely with Mr. Roth and seemed genu
inely engaged
in their short conversations with him. While wait
ing for the bell to r
ing you noticed posters on the wall regard
ing historical figures and events as well as a small area with student created political cartoons depict
ing the different freedoms outl
ined
in the Bill of Rights.
When the bell rang, most students were seated at their desks. Mr. Roth put up a bell r
inger question of the day that asked students to summarize the power of the Judicial Branch
in their own words and to react to the follow
ing statement: “The Judicial Branch is the most powerful branch of government.” Most students took out a blank sheet of paper and began to work. Two students were slow to get started. Mr. Roth moved over to each student
individually and softly rem
inded them of the expectations. After be
ing addressed by Mr. Roth, both students immediately got their materials out and began work
ing. As the students were work
ing, Mr. Roth took attendance, and met with a student that was absent the day before regard
ing make-up assignments. He then moved throughout the room and looked over students’ shoulders as they were respond
ing. After approximately seven m
inutes, he asked the class for volunteers that wanted to share what they had written. Several students raised their hands and shared their responses. Mr. Roth commented briefly on each response and called on two students randomly as well to share what they had written. He then asked students to clear their desks and take out a pen.
Mr. Roth announced to the students that although they had already learned that the Judicial Branch
interprets the Constitution, it is important to know where and how the Supreme Court actually acquired this power. He then distributed a summary and guid
ing questions on the case, Marbury vs. Madison (1789). Mr. Roth shared the day’s objective: Students will be able to expla
in the concept of Judicial Review and how the case of Marbury v. Madison established this power of the Supreme Court. Prior to read
ing, he asked students to skim the summary and look for key words, titles, etc. that would give them an
indication of what the case was about. This activity lasted 3 m
inutes. He then asked them to share their predictions with their neighbor. As the students did this, Mr. Roth moved through the class and listened
in on the conversations. Next, he chose a few vocabulary words from the summary that he thought many of the students would need clarified and were essential to fully understand
ing the read
ing (Tier 2 words). He briefly went over those with the class and checked for understand
ing by ask
ing students to provide synonyms for the words, first
individually and then shar
ing their words with the class.
Next, he broke the class
into small groups of 3-4 students per group based on their proximity to each other. Students moved quickly
into their groups with little loss of
instructional time. When the groups were formed, he told the students they had 10 m
inutes to read the summary and answer the guid
ing questions. Dur
ing the
independent read
ing portion, he moved around the room to answer any questions about the read
ing and check to see how students were progress
ing through the questions. Two of the groups started to get off-task and chatty, but when redirected by Mr. Roth they returned to their work quickly. After all of the students had completed the read
ing and were work
ing on the questions, Mr. Roth told the class they could now talk about the questions
in their small groups. Students could either choose to write down the answers that were discussed
in the group, or their own answers if they were not
in agreement with their group's answers.
After the students had answered the questions collaboratively, Mr. Roth got the students attention at the front of the room, by stat
ing, “let’s come together and discuss your answers.” He assigned each group one or two questions they would need to share with the class. As each group shared their answers, he asked if the entire group agreed with the answer and called on other groups randomly to share whether they agreed or disagreed and how the answer given differed from their group's answer. Dur
ing this activity, Mr. Roth also re
inforced key concepts.
To conclude the lesson, Mr. Roth asked students to go back to their bell r
inger question and see if they still felt the same about their answer regard
ing whether the Judicial Branch, specifically the Supreme Court was the most powerful branch of government. As a ticket out the door, he asked each student to predict what our government or the U.S. as a whole might look like if Marbury v. Madison was decided the other way and if Judicial Review did not exist. Mr. Roth collected these responses as the students exited the classroom.
Observation Reflection Questions:
Identify overt activities by Mr. Roth to establish a positive rapport with his students. How would you describe the classroom environment and climate?
What
instructional strategies were utilized dur
ing this lesson?
Describe the student engagement strategies utilized by Mr. Roth and discuss their effectiveness.
What strategies, if any, were used to differentiate
instruction dur
ing this lesson?
Identify the elements of this lesson that required students to use higher order th
ink
ing skills.
Post-Conference Preparation Questions:
What questions might you ask Mr. Roth to determ
ine his evaluation of the lesson?
What positive feedback would you give Mr. Roth regard
ing this lesson? Why did you select to share this feedback?
What constructive feedback would you give Mr. Roth for this lesson? Why did you select to choose this feedback?
What additional questions or comments might be appropriate for this post conference?
2: American Essayist
Order Description
Compare and contrast some of the poems from this week's read
ings or the poet you selected for part 1 of the forum. You may compare poems from a s
ingle poet, or compare poems across poets. Have a debatable, persuasive claim and focus on specific po
ints of comparison, us
ing the Lesson
in week 7 to guide your structure.
Poems from current week
Jhumpa Lahiri: "The Long Way Home: Cook
ing Lessons"
Sherman Alexie: "What You Pawn I Will Redeem"
Sandra Cisneros: "Woman Holler
ing Creek"
Alice Walker: "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens"
"Turn
ing Madness Into Flowers #1"
"The answer is: Live happily!"
"Before I leave the Stage"
Cathy Song: "Cloud Mov
ing Hands"
"Someone Else's Shoes"
Some Major American Essayists
Benjam
in Frankl
in (1706–1790)
St. John de Crevecœur (1725–1813)
Thomas Pa
ine (1737–1809)
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
James Madison (1751–1836)
Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
Abraham L
incoln (1809–1865)
Margaret Fuller (1810–1850)
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
Frederick Douglass (1817?–1895)
Herman Melville (1819–1891
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)
Mark Twa
in (1835–1910)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
H. L. Menken (1880–1956)
E. B. White (1899– )
Ralph Ellison (1913–1994)
Louis Auch
incloss (1917– )
Betty Friedan (1921– )
James Baldw
in (1924–1987)
William F. Buckley Jr. (1925– )
Gore Vidal (1925– )
Edward Abbey (1927–1989)
Mart
in Luther K
ing Jr. (1929–1968)
John McPhee (1931– )
Joan Didion (1934– )
Garry Wills (1934– )
Jonathan Kozol (1936– )
Barbara Ehrenreich (1941– )
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002)
George F. Will (1941– )
Garrison Keillor (1942– )
Annie Dillard (1945– )
Dave Barry (1947– )
Katha Pollitt (1949– )
Bill Bryson (1951– )
Brent Staples (1951– )
Deborah Tannen (1951– )
Anna Qu
indlen (1952– )
Cornel West (1953– )
David Sedaris (1956– )
Malcolm Gladwell (1963– )
Discuss one work or one author from this course that you believe had the most significant
influence on American literary history. Please be sure to ma
inta
in third person perspective.
Authors and poems from the course
1. Emily Dick
inson," I'm Nobody! Who Are You?"
2. Emily Dick
inson Biography
3. Walt Whitman: author biography and literary analysis "The Good Gray Poet"
4. Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"
5. Walt Whitman, "A Noiseless Patient Spider"