West: Day 3. Thursday, March 15th

Today the students performed their skits on the national park they had researched. They blew me away! After seeing some of their answers on Tuesday, I was a bit worried whether the groups were going to get all the right information. I was not there on Wednesday, but I highlighted information I thought certain groups should look over before making their skit. There was one group in particular that struggled in motivation for research and this was one of the best presentations. I was sure they had taken a look at the highlighting. Another group had a wrong answer and I had written them a note telling them where to find the right information and they presented the correct material perfectly today. I learned that certain students need more scaffolding, but with that they can excel. This is always something I believed, but I was still worried about some groups.
While the groups had great information and presented loudly, I was also sure to review after each presentation and point out where each place was on the map. I think this really helped the students understand the main points. It also ended up feeling more like a discussion with great questions from the students in this period.
Afterwards we switched over to a map exercise that examined the many cultures in the West. I used a direct instruction model where I modeled the first map and then one map was a guided with more participation and then I let the students complete answers to the last map alone. The students did great job interpreting this map. I think the clear instructions and steps of interpretting a map helped.
The only part of today that had me concerned was that the same students raise their hand. I tried to be sure people were understanding the material by having an informal formative check where I had them close their eyes and raise their hands if they had a problem understanding the map, but no one raised their hands. When looking at the answers, I realized that most students did get the concept. A few did not answer at all but when guided through it, they were able to.
I hope the review tomorrow also helps them remember the information.