Education 312 Post #2

This Monday I had to give a 20 to 30 minute lecture on the War of 1812. Even though there was a lot of information about the war I had to find ways to get the class involved in the lecture. The first thing I did was I put written question into my lesson plan. These questions were meant to make the students argue with each other. For instance Who won the War of 1812? This question sparked a lot of discussion because it is sort of unclear who actually won the war. Most American's assume that the United States won but in reality we had many more killed and wounded than the British. Another way I got the students involved in the classroom was finding ways the War of 1812 realated to West Virginia. Even though it was not West Virginia the state at the time I still tried to relate as many things to this area as possible. This was also helpful because it made the students dicuss important areas in West Virginia. Also I tried to take the opposite side of the students views so I could debate with them. Even if I did not agree with the subject I was debating it is still important to do this.

In my lesson I tried to use direct instruction because it gave me a chance to get different students involved. doing this gives you chances to expand on your questions and ask more questions about the original question. Direct instruction works well in lessons because it gives each student a chance to debate events in History and give their personal viewpoint. All of these gives the students a better understanding of the material because they will remember better by debating then they would if they were just listening to a teacher lecture about the subject for a whole period.

What approaches do you think I could use to get the students more involved?

If this was a full lesson plan what could I add to extend the time of the lesson.