Making the full circle of lesson plan types

Today was Shannon and Sara's last lesson; the cooperative learning lesson. I thought out of the three lessons, this was the best one so far. I really feel that Shannon and Sara did a great job of taking the advice of the class to create a better designed lesson each time. Although the main problem with this lesson was the time went a little bit late, all of the components were there and the kids seemed to have a lot of fun with it.

Cooperative lessons are one of my favorite types of lesson plans because it allows for a lot of social interaction, and helps the students to work together as a group while also having independent responsibilities.

For this lesson, the students were given a folder which gave them each responsibilities, and directions for a poster they were asked to create. By giving each student a responsibility it helps to avoid one or two students doing all of the work while the others mess around. While the students created their posters, the teachers walked around and offered assistance when needed.

I thought that this activity was a good way for the students to learn about individual aspects of certain tribes. The graphics gave students a visual representation of the different shelters, food, art, etc that the tribes used. This was all tied together in the end by allowing the students to come to the front of the room to present their findings.

Overall I thought this was the best lesson from Shannon and Sara. I could tell that the information they received from Dr. Smirnova, as well as the class' reflections, have been incorporated into their lessons.