Devon Bennett

January 24, 2017

ED 131 Professor May-Varas

Value Lineup
As a multicultural unit, in an eighth grade social studies classroom, students will examine

people without homes. As a warm-up, the teacher will write the word homeless on the board

and students will call out words that they associate with the term (scary, smelly, dangerous, etc).

Hopefully words like misunderstood, sad, and needs help will show up. The teacher will

then ask students to line up against the wall depending on their views (by the window means the

student believes the homeless are dangerous, put themselves in that position, and dont deserve

empathy or saving. By the art supplies means that the student sees the people without homes as

dangerous or scary but has some empathy for them. These students are more passive about the

topic and would rather keep the homeless at arms length. By the fish tank means that the students

have a little understanding and empathy but maybe not enough information to take action.

Finally, by the pencil sharpener means that the student has immense amount of empathy for

people without homes, understands that many variables create homelessness, and wants to take

action). The line is then folded in half so students of opposing views can discuss. The teacher

will walk around the folded line to prompt the students (i.e. Jenny, Mike is saying that its not

possible to help the people without homes. Can you give an example of what you would do if

you were to take action? or Michelle, what would it be like to not have a home to go to every

night?). The teacher will hear where their information is coming from (the media, parents, their

own experiences). These sources and ideas will be discussed after they read news articles,

journals, and essays about the reality of homelessness in America (i.e. the growing shortage of

affordable housing, the growing poverty rate, addiction, mental illnesses, veterans, etc).

Audience Response Systems

 In a tenth grade literature course, students will show their teacher that they finished their

reading assignment over the week/weekend. The assignment was chapters 1-5 of To Kill A

Mockingbird. Remote controls are passed out to every student in the class and a PowerPoint

presentation is illuminated on the front wall. The teacher will read each question out loud and the

students will have five seconds to silently click in their answer. The clicks will not be shown to

the whole class until everyone has locked in an answer. Then the students can see if they were

wrong or right without having to make it public to their classmates. The clicks are confidential.

This process allows for the educator to check for understanding because the educator can

see, in a matter of five seconds, whether the whole class read/understood the chapters or if there

are some stragglers. The teacher can clarify or correct when answers are put in. For example:

What do Jem, Dill, and Scout do that causes Mr. Radley to shoot them?
A. They sneak into the Radley yard and try to peek into a window
B. He catches them once again play-acting Boo Radley stabbing his father
C. Jem accidentally hits the Radley house while practicing with his new gun
D. He catches them stealing money that has been hidden in a tree in his yard

If 90% of the class says A but 10% say B then the teacher can say, thats right! They

sneak on to Radley property to try and spy on them. The children do play-act the stabbing

incident, but that is not when Mr. Radley shoots at them.

If more questions are asked and yet again 90% of the class get the correct answer but

10% fall behind, it will be clear that a majority of the class did the assigned reading while 10%

didnt or did not comprehend what they were reading. The teacher can then locate those students

that fall in the 10% to find out why they slacked off or to see if they need assistance with reading

(perhaps the student has dyslexia, ADD, etc). This checking for understanding technique is fun,

effective, and quick!