Advocacy Lesson!

 In this lesson, we taught about advocacy within Mexico! The first thing we did was have students take a pretest. This was a quick matching activity about different vocabulary students would learn in the upcoming lesson! Then we began introducing our tier 3 vocabulary to the students!

The vocab words were hidden by a piece of construction paper, and each student was able to come up with and reveal it! It discussed what advocacy and an advocate were. Then we discussed the vocabulary words justice and solution (tier 2 vocabulary) and explained how they related to advocates. The remaining vocabulary were cause, effect, and script! The first activity was a cause and effect card search. Students were given a cause or an effect and had to find their matching pair. For example, one student may have “Called the dog” and the matching card would be “A dog came over” (these cards had words and pictures. Then, once everyone found their pair they sat together and explained which was the cause and which was the effect. After that, we had a problem/solution activity, groups of students were given a different problem, such as “Someone keeps littering in your neighborhood and leaving trash everywhere!” and the pairs worked together to create a solution that prevents that problem from happening again! We shared our problems and solutions, then it was time for a brain break.

Here, students shook their arms if it was a cause that was read aloud or shook their legs if it was an effect that was read aloud. After that, we read our read aloud Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh. This book discussed Posada, a Mexican advocate who drew political cartoons to share messages. Students then looked at primary sources of Posada's work and tried to analyze the meaning or problems that Posada was trying to illustrate. Most students came to an agreement that he was protesting violence within Mexico. After this we became our very own advocates. Students were given their very own Mexican advocate in an envelope with three short stories and pictures of their advocate. The advocates given to the students were chosen off of their interest, there was an Olympian for a boy in the group who played several sports, a Judge for a girl who explained how she wanted to become one during our civics lesson, and an astronaut for the student who had explained how she wanted to become an engineer when we discussed goods and services in our economics lesson. Their advocates were tailored to them! One student was not extremely excited to have Cesar Chavez, the farmer, until it was explained to him that he was one of the most famous Mexican advocates, then he was on board! Students first had to read their stories, and once they found facts, they would raise their hand, and we would ask them what they found. 

 Once they were able to list three to five facts about their advocate, they were given a script. Students did really well writing in the first person as if they were that advocate! After their script was finished they were given a plain T-Shirt and fabric markers to design their shirt to look like the advocate's clothes (like creating a costume!). Once everyone was done, we moved to the rug and shared who our advocates were with our group, the advocates would stand and read their script! 

After this we gave the students their post-test for all of our lessons. We finished by having our award ceremony where each student received a certificate for Mexico exploration. This may have been my favorite part of any lesson I have ever taught, the students were so proud of themselves and their groups. They were both really excited and trying to be nonchalant at the same time as everyone clapped for them. Then we handed out all of their artifacts that we had made from previous lessons and said goodbye!

Teaching with Primary Sources!

 Working through our social studies unit with the focus being the country of Mexico, we have used several primary sources! In our very first lesson, which was focused on geography, we had students use primary sources of an old map and a new map of Mexico. First, we completed an I see, I think, and I wonder chart together for the old map of Mexico. Then, in groups of two, students completed their own chart, and we came back together to share everyone's findings. 

Students had done really well with us doing it together. So for our history lesson, we did it quite similarly. This time we had three different primary sources, all focused on codex's. Codex's are very similar to journals that the Aztecs would use to write out their daily lives. This fit really well with our history lesson because we solely focused on the Aztec period in Mexico! First, we gave them pieces of codex, two at a time, where they had to try and decipher what was occurring in the codex drawings.

Then we would reveal it to them. Revealing to them what was really happening helped them gain background knowledge of what daily life was like for the Aztecs. Then, for the final primary source, we gave them a full codex. The students were applying their knowledge they had learned from the first two when thinking and wondering about this full codex. For example, they learned from the first codex's the Aztecs used to loom, so in the final codex, they pointed out images that they thought were looms or yarn for the loom. We wrote our findings on the same I see, I think, I wonder chart paper. Then we had them make their very own codex's using the primary sources as examples!

We were noticing students weren't really interested in completing the chart every time, but they did really enjoy games, so we began to find new ways to include primary sources. One of my favorite ones was from our economics lesson, where students learned about different types of resources (Natural, Human, and Capital resources). So, one of our primary sources was a map of all the different natural resources in Mexico and where to find them. We gave students three minutes to work in pairs and find as many natural resources as they could. The winner would get a Mexico sticker! The students were very engaged and at the end of the lesson, students were able to list so many different natural resources that could be found in Mexico!

Another fun activity that we did with primary sources was a card hunt activity. There were three different sets of cards, each containing two images of important pieces of Mexican traditions (this was for our culture lesson). Included were the Day of the Dead, Cinco de Mayo, and Mariachi bands. It set contained an image from the past and one from the present (we had seven students, so there were three images of mariachi: two from the past and one from the present). They were randomly given the cards and had to find their matching pair.

Once found, students looked for similarities and differences. The Day of the Dead group noticed that in both, they were wearing sugar skulls. While the Mariachi band group noticed that one of the pictures had a trumpet, the others didn't. We then asked each group to try and think of anything that they had wondered or thought about these pictures. 

For our civics lesson, we had students look through a newspaper and try and deduce which branch of government was being talked about in specific highlighted sentences. Then, for our final lesson on advocacy, we are going to read the story Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh. This focuses on José Guadalupe Posada, an advocate for Mexico. Our primary source is going to be us examining some of his works that he has made that we found on the Library of Congress (where we found each primary source, except for the codex, which were given to us by the Adams Library!)

Culture Lesson!

 This lesson we taught about Mexico’s culture! The first thing we did was have students take a pretest. This was a quick matching activity about different vocabulary students would learn in the upcoming lesson! Then we began introducing our tier 3 vocabulary to the students!

The vocab words were hidden by a piece of construction paper, and each word a student was able to come up with and reveal it! More students participated this time in revealing the answer so they seem more engaged! First we went over culture and then traditions and values, which are important to every culture. The remainder of the vocabulary consisted of words specific to Mexican culture. These were two major holidays, day of the dead and Cinco de mayo. Then we talked about sugar skulls and murals. The lesson was then broken up into read alouds and then corresponding activities. The first activity we did was reading la Luna (folktale) and then creating a banner that is used to decorate Mexican traditions.

After that we learned about the day of the dead through a read aloud. Students were asked to answer the question of what is left on altars during the day of the dead. Their answers ranged from food, flowers, sugar skulls, and pictures. It was funny when some of the students were really bummed they had missed out on the Day of the Dead this year but seemed excited that it was a tradition that would happen next year! Then students decorated sugar skull masks, which are traditional food left on altars during this holiday.

After that we moved into Cinco de mayo, where students learned about it further through a read aloud. Before reading the book we asked students to pay extra attention to the bands that play during Cinco de mayo. Which were mariachi bands!

So we made guitars out of paper and yarn and decorated them similar to how the mariachi bands look! Their favorite part seemed to be adding the strings to the guitar, they were so focused!
After we learned all about the holidays and the traditions that are a part of them we had students participate in a card hunt of primary sources. Students were given a card with a tradition on it and had to find the matching pair. One set of cards was from the present and one was from the past. For example, if a student had a present image of people

celebrating the day of the dead, they wanted to find who had the past picture of the day of the dead. Then they would find similarities and differences and they shared either the class. To end the lesson we wanted to have the students make a mural! They would write their name big in the center of the paper then add pieces of their culture and hobbies around the page. We were going to tape them all together but ran out of time. We told them they would be able to finish it next time! Then we gave the post test and that was the end of our lesson! 

Economics Lesson!

 In this lesson we taught about economics in Mexico! The first thing we did was have students take a pretest. This was a quick matching activity about different vocabulary students would learn in the upcoming lesson! Then we began introducing our tier 3 vocabulary to the students!

The vocab words were hidden by a piece of construction paper, and each word a student was able to come up with and reveal it! More students participated this time in revealing the answer so they seem more engaged! At first I only went over the first five vocabulary words: economics, goods, services, surplus, and scarcity. Then we began our interactive T-Chart where we separated goods from services. After that we discussed the difference between consumers and producers while examining the different services we had on our T-Chart! Then it was time for a brain break, we listed different items from the goods and services and put it in a sentence that either meant we have a surplus or a scarcity. If the sentence made it seem like there was a surplus, students tapped their shoulders, if there was a scarcity students would pat their knees. After that we finished up the vocabulary board covering the different types of resources: Natural Resource, Capital Resource, and Human Resource. We went over a lot of examples for each having students share as many resources as they knew for each relating to a specific job such as doctor or farmer! Then we had students combine all of these resources for a chef! (Human Resource-Chef, Natural Resource-Plants and animals, and Capital Resource-Different kitchen appliances and tools). Then we divided the students into groups of three, one for each resource, and held up a picture of a different resource.

We then asked each group if this picture was a part of their group and why. After this we looked at our primary source, which was a map of Mexico and showed all of the different resources and where they were located. Students were given three minutes to work with a partner and find as many different resources as they could! We then discussed all of the different natural resources that the students were able to discover.

After this we began our read aloud ‘The Aztecs History Detectives’ by: Phillip Ardagh. We learned a lot about Aztecs in the history lessons so students were pretty prepped on what life was like during the Aztec period. Although, we had not covered Aztec economics yet! We discussed what currency was and students had a strong understanding of this vocabulary word. So before beginning the book we prepped the students to look for the answer to this question: What currency did the Aztecs use? After, the read aloud all students correctly answered cocoa beans. In our civics lesson before this, we had students ‘work’ for the government as a part of the different branches of government, and it was funny when they wanted a pay check because they went to their job and should be compensated! So we did exactly that in this economics lesson and paid them in the currency of the Aztecs, in beans!! Each student received 30 (cranberry) beans. These beans would be used to pay for the materials they needed in order to make maracas! We had a poster of our rates and students would come up to us, with their beans in hand, and add up how many they needed for each material and then assemble it!

The materials were the ‘goods’ and to incorporate ‘services’ students would have to pay one bean in order to receive teacher help! To make the maracas, students had to buy a plastic egg, two plastic spoons, rice, and tape (to decorate the maraca!). They were making two maracas each so they actually had to buy double of each of their materials. Overall, they did amazing with making the maracas, they were very neat and patient. They also would share their materials and give others their extra beans when they were finished. We were very proud of them and their maracas! Then we ended our lesson with our post-test matching and that was the end of our economics lesson!

Civics Lesson!

 This lesson we taught about the civics in Mexico and the United States! First thing we did was have students take a pretest, which was a cut and paste activity where students had a picture or short definition and glued it under the correct term! (Link to Pre- and Post-Assessment
). Then we began introducing our tier 3 vocabulary to the students!

The vocab words were hidden by a piece of construction paper, and each student was able to come up with and reveal them! The students still seem to enjoy doing this and get excited to see the next word. Three of our vocabulary words were the different branches of government. We specifically taught the students about the United States version of the three branches first (Legislative Branch, Executive Branch, and Judicial Branch), we wanted to give the students a strong understanding of how our government worked before we began comparing it with Mexico's (Which is actually quite similar!). We did this by giving group work all about one specific branch of government. We welcomed the students to their brand new jobs as workers for the government. They would be split up into three groups, one for each branch of government.

They were given a “Top Secret” folder which contained a bunch of information about their branch in different styles, some were letters, government documents, messages written from congress or the president, or attendance lists from meetings, all aimed to give students facts about their branch. The students first had to find their responsibility and write that down on the sheet of paper, then find three more facts and create a symbol to represent their branch. We just helped the groups as they needed, as they completed this activity. At the end, we tested their knowledge to see how much they knew about their branch in a game called “Who Branch is this?!?”. I would read out a specific job for a specific branch and then ask each student if it was a part of their branch!

They would either answer yes or no, and the correct group would receive their card with their job to add to their folder! The students did a really great job with this; they either knew if it was a part of their branch right away or were able to use their sheet of paper to determine if it was their branch. We then compared our government systems to Mexico. One of the main differences students noticed was the names of the branches (Legislative = The Congress, Executive = The Presidency, and Judicial = The Courts), and we discussed how they had similar jobs but related to Mexico's different politicians. After this activity, we wanted to give students a brain break and they were able to choose to make

either a quill (to write laws like Congress), create a police badge (enforcing laws like the executive branch), or create a gavel (like the judges in the judicial branch). All of the students had selected to make gavels!

They were able to decorate their gavel, and when they were finished, we played another game. Where they would tap their gavel down if they agreed with the law! Some examples were, longer time for recess and extra homework. Next, students analyzed a primary source of a newspaper talking about the Mexican Government. Three parts were highlighted, and students were to determine which branch of government was being discussed (There were two executive and one legislative). After this, the students were ready to vote! First, they filled out a voter registration form.

This was me pretending to check if it was really them, they thought it was funny! After they were accepted, they were given their ballot and they could drop it in the ballot box. This is the link to the voter registration and their ballots: Lesson #3 Voter Registration and Ballot (Mexico). The last one determined what their next brain break could be, and they voted on it! Students gave a drumroll as the answers to their votes were called out, and for their brain break, they voted on playing headbands. They were given a card to hold up to their head, and as a group we worked together to help them guess what their card said (they were related to our vocabulary!). Students did pretty well at this, although many of them struggled to pronounce their words, so they were getting a little nervous to say their answer to the group. Next time I think we will review or practice the words in headbands so they feel more comfortable. Since we were running low on time, instead of writing a reflection students were just asked to share with a partner different ways to participate in the common good. Most students shared how planting a garden could be beneficial for the common good of the community. Then they were given a post-test which they all did really well on and that was the end of the lesson! Overall, the lesson went really well, although they did spend a little longer then we had planned for them to decorate their gavels, so next time we may tell them their allotted time and set a timer for them to see so they know how quickly they have to work so we are able to fit all of our plans in and they are accountable for how they spend their creative time!

History Lesson!

 In this lesson we taught about the history of Mexico! We specifically focused on the Aztec period, from about 1347 to 1522. First thing we did was have students take a pretest, which was a cut and paste activity where students had a picture or short definition and glued it under the correct term! (Link to Pre- and Post-Assesment).

Then we began introducing our tier 3 vocabulary to the students! Again, the vocab words were hidden by a piece of construction paper, and each a student was able to come up with and reveal it! I think it went well and made the vocab chart paper not seem too overwhelming since it was just one new word each time! After each word was revealed we read them together and practiced examples with them or gave background information on the word!

After we had our background knowledge of the Aztec period, we began to explore our primary sources! These primary sources were codexs written by the Aztecs 500 years ago. First, we looked at a small frame of these codexs and had a student, using the I see, I think, I wonder chart to try and figure out what was going on in the picture! We had four frames, and students were pretty successful at figuring out that they were fishing. Finally, we showed them a complete codex, and students using the chart worked in pairs to try and decipher what this codex was used for! After exploring these codexs, students were tasked to create their own. First, they made their own animal hide covers like the Aztecs did, only they were construction paper, and the students drew animal prints!

This is an example of a student's crocodile cover, and another's zebra and giraffe cover!
This codex for future lessons will be used for students to write their reflections and other writing prompts throughout the remainder of the lessons! When they finished assembling their codex, adding their map from last lesson and lined paper, students were asked to write about their day, similar to how the Aztecs used to recount their day (the four frames we had

shown them the first primary source). After all of the students' hard work, we had a movement break! Students were given five popsicle sticks and eight pipe cleaners and were tasked to create the tallest pyramid in four minutes! This connected to the Aztecs pyramids who had the world's largest pyramids.

Then we read aloud, Montezuma and the Fall of the Aztecs by Eric Kimmel, this discussed how the conquistador Cortes led to the fall of the Aztecs. It worked well to prep the students for the timeline as they had a general understanding of the cause and effect relationship between the Cortes invasion and the Aztecs' battles and losses against Cortes. 

Next, we began to construct our time. Each student was given their very own year of the timeline, and a bag of secondary sources and photographs that explained different events that had happened that year. Students were asked to look through their sources and pick out two facts they would like to include about that year, and include at least one picture. Students did really well choosing two facts and including a picture, many of which included more than one picture! A student and I discussed how she had not wanted to draw because she did not enjoy it, and we worked out that as long as she could identify what was happening in her photograph then she would not have to add it. Then we combined the years together to create a timeline of the Aztec period! We also came to an agreement that we would no longer make it mandatory for drawing to be included in our work.

       I have really noticed how important it is to give students a few choices in how to complete work. I think there will still be requirements for certain parts of lessons that students must complete, but I think for the creative part of lessons students could have different options of how they want to complete it! Up until now, I have only worked with kids who dive for the opportunity to color, but every student is different and it is good for students to have different choices of how they think their strengths would work best on an assignment!. Going forward, drawing will be a choice but not mandatory and we will formulate other ways for students to have options to participate creatively rather than just free hand drawing! We want all of the students to feel comfortable while still getting the chance to practice creativity! In the end we were really proud of all the students' work and they were proud of what they had created while still feeling comfortable!

Geography Lesson!

 For this lesson we taught students about the Geography of Mexico! We began our lesson by handing out passports and adding each student's picture and name, along with a pencil box suitcase and travel brochure. After, a pre-test which was a matching activity was given to the students.

Next, we focused on vocabulary! We started off with explaining geography, and had students look outside the window from examples of what we may be looking for if we were to study geography. Then we broke down regions and chose three major regions in Mexico to touch on. Finally, we explained two key map tools, one the legend/key. Students turned their attention to the large Mexico map on chart paper. Here we began applying our knowledge of how we should use a map key. Students were tasked with creating a symbol to use for various physical features, such as (canyons, mountains, deserts, rivers, and pyramids), then one would be selected to come up and add their symbol to the map key and add it to the map! Then students learned about the other important map tool the compass, students then created their own compass and one student added that to the large map as well!

Students were then given a current map of Mexico and together we worked to complete an I see, I think, I wonder chart together. After that students were given an older map of Mexico (from 1846) and were asked to complete an I see, I think, I wonder chart with a partner. We walked around and helped the students as needed and at the end we had students share their findings and see if there were any similarities or differences.

                                                                                                    (Whole Class)
 

Old Map (1846)

https://www.loc.gov/item/2012593321/

New Map (1988)

https://www.loc.gov/item/2011586147/

(Partner Activity)

Read Aloud: The Daughter of the Light-Footed People by Belen Medina. Students were asked to pay close attention to the illustrations within the book as it showed a lot of Mexico regions. This reading follows Lorena Ramirez, a marathon runner from Mexico as she who only runs in traditional Mexican clothing. We asked students to share any interesting findings they saw! They mentioned how she looked like she was in the desert and canyons!

Then, we explained to students how the Earth is actually a sphere unlike the flat maps we have been looking at. We found Mexico on the globe, then found the map key and compass on the globe.

Making Their Own Country!

Finally, we concluded the lesson with having students create their very own country!

We modeled sprinkling rice on a sheet of cardstock and tracing it to create the border of our country. Then, they name their country and give a name to the country's capital. They then picked from a deck of flashcards prompting ideas of what they could add to their map, students were informed that they had to have at least three different map features and a capital. After that, they colored their map in and were given a short two-question post-test.   

The checklist (found here) allows us to document scores and notes relative to the achievement of the SLO that helped us track if the objectives were met by each student (formative assessments) and students score on the summative assessment. Each student had met the objective, except for one because she was absent that day.

I noticed that a lot of students really engaged with the material they were learning if there was a physical aspect they were able to take part in. They each were able to draw on their whiteboards ideas of symbols and then add it to the big map. I noticed they were even excited just to reveal what the vocabulary word they were going to be learning was (I hid each vocabulary word behind construction paper to try and not overwhelm them with a bunch of words on a piece of chart paper, and I had a student each time come and pull one off). I was a little worried it might be a waste of time to have them get a chance to pull it off, but it seemed that it really had its benefits, students were excited to see what word and picture was about to be revealed. So I think I learned that it's okay to use a little more time for students to be hands-on with their learning because it can help them become more engaged!

I think it will influence my professional identity to be patient while teaching other materials. I think it is important to be efficient but not at the cost of making the lesson uninteresting for the students. In the future, it may be beneficial to get creative with different aspects and not worry over the little extra time it takes because it is more likely that we won’t have to go over it again if students have a more solid understanding from learning in an engaging way!

This will influence how I plan/teach/assess in the future, for me to look for ways for students to interact with parts of lessons that they may not normally interact with. Just lecturing to students about different vocabulary words would most likely not hold their attention, now I see there is a clear benefit to have students get up and interact with materials and ask them questions that relate to the vocabulary. It takes a little longer but it really solidifies what is being taught!