November 22, 2024
What?
During my sixth and final visit to Agnes B. Hennessey School, my partner and I taught a lesson about advocacy and social justice in Brazil. Throughout the lesson we made introductions, lesson 5 recap, went over vocabulary for the unit, completed a cause and effect activity, a read aloud, a letter activity, and finally a blooket.
To start our lesson, we had the students go around and say their names and our names just as a refresher. As a small icebreaker we had the students tell us if they had to get rid of one thanksgiving food, what it would be. During this time, the students talked about thanksgiving traditions they do with their families such as a big meal, spending time with family, going to church and more. I love learning about the students so these icebreakers are my favorite to complete. Miss Reynolds and I provided the students with vocabulary strips and a vocab wall before we began talking about social justice and advocacy. The vocabulary words we went over were, social justice, advocacy, barrier, racism, cause, and effect.
For our first activity we completed a read aloud titled Pele by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara. This read aloud is about a little boy from Brazil who became a soccer player and later won the World cup. This was a great introduction into our lesson because it connected to the students as many of them love soccer/sports. The students had previously talked about soccer in our other lessons. It also gave them the chance to see that anyone can reach their goals as long as they work hard. This guided our lesson by diving into learning about important figures within Brazil.
After the read aloud we completed a cause and effect chart on Pele and how his life led to certain social justice actions. More vocabulary was defined throughout this process, these words included threats, blackmail, barrier, political pressure, government intervention. During this activity we highlighted problems that occurred in Brazil and the cause of them, then the effect Pele had. The first problem was racism in Brazil. A cause of this was that Pelé was the target of racist nicknames and monkey chants during matches. He also faced racism, including threats and blackmail. An effect of this racism led to Pele transforming Brazil’s beliefs. A problem was Pele’s injury. The cause of this was Pelé suffering injuries in several World Cups, including the 1962 and 1966 tournaments. An effect of this was Pelé playing through the injuries. Another problem was economic barriers. The cause of this was Pelé was a poor child, leading to the effect of him shining shoes to support his family. Another problem was political pressure in Brazil. The cause of this was that Pelé refused to participate in the 1974 World Cup. Which affected him by leading to threats and criticism from the regime. The last problem we went over was government intervention, which was caused by the Brazilian government declaring Pelé a "national treasure" to prevent him from playing abroad. This led to making it impossible for him to move his labor. During this activity the students discussed different social justice issues and how an ordinary person can grow up and make a difference in the world no matter who they are. This went extremely well as the students were eager to learn about the different types of social justice issues in the world and ways they could help as they grow up.
After completing this chart on our anchor chart, we paired the students together to do a final activity on social justice and advocacy. This activity consisted of the students working in pairs to write a letter to the senator asking for something they want done for their town/or school. Students had to provide a potential solution to the problem they gave. We provided sentence starters on a handout to begin their letter. This activity acted as a way for students to understand how their voice can be used in social issues and advocacy. Some of the students struggled understanding how the letter worked. The students shared their letters to the group and were eager to do so.
After participating in the multiple activities, the students ended the lesson by completing a blooket. This was a great way to see how the students successfully met the objectives. The questions included vocabulary words and questions about Pelé and his past. A few students struggled with the letter part but excelled with the blooket, showing mastery of the objectives. The blooket, anchor chart activity, and the letter showed that the objectives were met throughout the lesson. Students were able to identify a problem by completing a cause and effect chart.Students were able to plan and create a solution by brainstorming ideas in pairs and working with peers to create their solution on their letter.
An area of weakness from this lesson would be further explanation of how letters work and the overall sentence structure of the letter. We had to explain a few times what it meant and what the point of the letter was until they truly grasped it. Once they understood, it was smooth sailing and they all read their letters aloud.
So What?
Throughout this lesson I learned that having interactive hands-on activities leaves the students remembering what they learned and excited about it. If we did worksheets throughout the entire lesson they would have been bored two minutes in. Instead, the students kept asking to do more and learn more about Brazil which was really exciting and happy to hear. I want to continue to add interactive activities throughout my teaching experience to keep all the students engaged and tuned in. Even though we finished all our material, I wish it could have been paced slower to make sure all the objectives were met in full. Rather than rushing through the activities, pace it in a timely manner where everything could get done as well as watching learning take place.
Now What?
This experience will influence my professional identity because I am still learning and trying to figure out the best ways for me to teach my students. Throughout this lesson, I found out that there are many ways I can improve when it comes to making sure the students are retaining the information being taught. I need to balance fun activities with actual learning. I am learning different ways on how to handle a group of students. I am learning different ideas and strategies that can make me a better teacher. Throughout this lesson, I taught advocacy and social justice which I had never done before. It made me excited to continue to teach social studies topics in the future.
Overall I think it went well, but there is always room to improve. This experience will influence how I plan/teach/assess in the future. I have learned how important it is to be organized, prepared, and how important timing is. For this lesson, I was very well prepared and organized. I had everything labeled and put together in an orderly fashion. If I was not prepared to teach this lesson it would not have gone as well as it did. I am extremely grateful for this experience, and I am excited to plan/teach/assess in the future.
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