The implementation of my lesson went very smoothly, probably the smoothest of all the lessons I have done. We began by playing Oregon Trail to open my students exposure to westward expansion. After they finished playing, we had a discussion about the things that we noticed and learned, just from ten minutes of playing. We then explored more by me providing discussion starters about supplies, people, and hardships and allowing the students to have an open conversation about what they found. After we discussed, the students created a blog where they were instructed to "journal" about their journeys along the trail. The students went back to playing the game and journaled about their experiences and what they learned from the first time they played, that they could take into the second time they played. If I did this lesson in the future, I would need to give the students more time to work on it. I wanted my students to have the opportunity to play until they either died or made it to Oregon and reflect on what worked and didn't work. Additionally I would love to do this over the course of a few weeks so that students could play a few times and see if they make it farther each time or if it doesn't make a difference. My standard was over the course of many topics that changed the way America was and how the country was established altogether. In this instance, I only addressed one of these parts (Oregon Trail), however, we did discuss and examine how this effected the US back then and how we live today. During the assignment, I did have to give directions faster than I would have liked to because we were limited on time. If necessary, I would have been able to work one on one with students to assist any students with disabilities who require more assistance. Other than that, I had no modifications to be made.
2. Mechanics:
For this lesson I used the computer exclusively. Students learned how to use two new programs: Oregon Trail through Virtual Apple 2 and blogger. There was a lot of new installations that had to take place through verbal directions that students were not priorly aware of. If I did this lesson in an actual classroom, I would have shown my students what to do, step by step, by projecting the directions on a board where they could follow along. Additionally, they have used blogger before, however it has been a while since they had created one, so we went through the steps of creating a new blog as well. My lesson was able to be ended in the correct time frame, however, it could not have been shortened anymore than it already was. I would have loved to have had more time for the students to play and explore.
3. Assessment of Learning (InTask Standard # 6): Refer to Assessing Student Learning
My students seemed to gain some additional understanding of what we were learning compared to what they started with. We cannot accurately recreate the lifestyle that took place along the Oregon Trail, however, it was possible for us to do virtual simulation that brings the technicalities to life. I think my students brought forth their own interests on the subject and strived in different aspects while they were exploring. I think my own teaching was effective and I was able to communicate a lot of information. My responses and comments from my students were all 5's with positive feedback from them all.
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