As a teacher, I always strive to ensure that the material I cover is accessible and meaningful to the learners so that they can obtain mastery of the content. In this lesson plan, I brought in a community expert so that the students could ask questions about the real-life implications of the Fourth Amendment (search and seizer). By doing this I am also relating the material to their personal lives. In multiple class periods, we discussed how the Bill of Rights affects minors, as well as what rights the schools have over the students in regard to the Fourth Amendment. Based on student interest and involvement in school-level moments regarding the Second Amendment (right to bear arms), I also included teaching them about how amendments are created, why the Second Amendment was created, and what it would take to change the amendment. In this first part of the lesson plan, students are learning and practicing the legal language used in the Ten Amendments. 

Lastly, our summative assessment was a moot court where the classes did their own version of a real Supreme Court Case where they argued for their assigned side as a group. By doing this, I allowed students to analyze examples of the protection of rights in a court case and create their own arguments. This activity also immerses students in the process of discussing rights and constitutional issues on a national level. As well as being fun, this activity brought up profound questions, and students were able to bring up research and arguments I didn't even know about. This activity not only advanced their mastery of the content but mine as well. 

My goal for this unit was to have students know the Ten Amendments and how they related to their lives. By putting students in a moot court simulation, I am immersing them in the language and practice of the U.S Supreme Court, analyze ideas that the Supreme Court has reviewed. Through this, I hope my students created real connections between the concepts of the Ten Amendments with the practice of actual law and moral contemplation. 

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What I learned:

What I learned from this is that I need to ensure when doing group work, that all students are participating and learning. There were students who clearly enjoyed the lesson and took leadership over their groups. However, in doing so, one hindered the learning of their group. This student came to class fully prepared with his speech before consulting the group. In the future, I will provide more in-class time to work in groups, have check-ins with the groups, and allow for more leadership roles. 

During my student teaching, I was exposed to the book called Thinking Like a Historian by Bobbie Malone and Nikki Mandell. This book helped me bring human ecology into my social studies teaching methodology. This model looks at concepts from the following lenses: Cause and Effect, Change and Continuity, Turning Points, Through Their Eyes, and Using the Past. By using this model I can help students see concepts from a holistic perspective. I believe that by looking at concepts from a holistic perspective that learning about them will become more accessible and meaningful for students. Even though I will not be focusing only on dates and timelines, students still are assessed based on mastery of the content, not their ability to memorize it. 

One lesson that I directly put into place using this model of learning was with the summative assessment for our Seven Years War unit. In this project, students did independent research on one of the many battles from the Seven Years War. They were expected to answer several questions about that battle and how it plays into the larger picture of the Seven Years War. Then, they created a visual representation that looked at their battle from one of the lenses of thinking like a historian. They were provided with an in-depth explanation about each of these lenses of thinking like a historian and were also provided a handout with information about all of the lenses with prompting questions.

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What I learned:

From doing this lesson I learned that the lenses, when fully understood, can create for a deep understanding and interesting views of topics. I especially appreciated through their eyes lens because it brought humanism to both sides of a battle. I felt like this was important because far too often we tend to dehumanize the side of the battle that has been historically labeled the "bad guy." However, the students struggled to be able to explain how their battle played into the larger picture. 

I plan to continue to use this model and talk about it with my students. As I said in the previous section, it is a great way to include a method that is somewhat human ecological into my practice. My students' ability to grasp these lenses on a deeper level will, as many things in education, come with time, practice, and patience.
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The next time I use this model, I want to do a unit that looks at a topic from these lenses. I want to make it clear what these lenses entail and what questions you would ask when looking through them. I think that by doing this process as a class in a slow and introductory way, the students will understand the lenses better and have less of a struggle finding ways to use them.