The Lesson: This is a great lesson for so many reasons, mainly because I can tell the students really

enjoyed it. There is nothing students love more than stating their opinions. And with that, there is nothing teachers love more than causing students to question those opinions. What are our basic human rights? Students answers ranged from very close to absolutely obscure. This lesson allowed me to intertwine both history and debate elements into one lesson. Most importantly it provided an opportunity for diversity in more ways than just one. First, students were broken down into small groups which prompted a debate setting. Students were going to exchange their views, opinions, and arguments trying as hard as they could to create reasoning. Students were going to use their knowledge, experiences, and assigned demographic to create their own Bill of Rights. After having assigned characteristics of states (not simply assigning states) students will collaborate/debate what parts of the original Bill of Rights (consisting of 17 Amendments) is worth keeping, changing or eliminating; ultimately narrowing it down to 10. This lesson corresponds with the CC standard of analyzing historical/non-fiction documents. Reflection: Anytime students have group work they are tempted to have outside conversation. However, given the extent of this assignment, due at the end of the period, I was happy to see students remaining on topic and really questioning and discussing the Bill of Rights. There was even one heated debate that I had to regulate because students were so invested in the amendment. If you tell students, due at the end of class I have noticed students will work until its completed. I just need to make sure the assignment is worthwhile and reasonable to complete in the time given. Students were speaking, listening, writing and reading. This lesson informally tested every skill students needed to incorporate throughout the year. In the future I would like to possibly teach this lesson at the beginning of the year. I could maybe tie this into a side project of creating a Bill of Rights for the classroom. Of course a set of rules will already be in place, but these just tie into the fact of the lesson that documents can change. One of the biggest struggles with the original Bill of Rights document that the students had was the language. The letter f was actually the letter s which caused students to become confused at times. While students continued to work I began to feel slightly useless. I wanted the lesson to be student directed meaning, they were going to take these amendments for what they were, and not have my knowledge/bias to wage in their decisions. If students did not understand words, dictionaries were accessible. But I still had to find something to do something to let the students know that I am here from them and doing my job. Then, it hit me. I would call students up one by one and have them check their grades. I would ask them how their final critical essay was going and offer my email for those who had questions or wanted me to look over their progress. It is important to periodically inform students of their grades, especially with just over a month of school remaining. Students are allowed to turn in missing assignments for reduced credit, so I had them bring up a piece of paper and pen to jot down what was needed from them. Even though they have access to their grades and assignments at home I wanted to witness them acknowledging what needed to be done. I want to make sure I stay updated with students grades in the future, as well as make sure students are aware of them.