Multiple Perspectives Lesson Analysis

The institution of multiple perspectives within the classroom is one of the most important aspects of Social Studies education. People view human interactions through many different lenses and by seeing these ideas and concepts from different advantage points, students will have a greater range of knowledge about the things they are learning and will be able to create a more complete opinions about this information. If we can get students familiar with the importance of multiple perspectives within the decision making process, it will only serve to strengthen the critical thinking skills of our students and their role as citizen within our country and the world. The following documents are an example of how I used multiple perspectives in my own class during my time student teaching at Cedar Shoals High School. During our unit on International Business, I was presented with many opportunities to give my students multiple perspectives of economics from around the world. In one lesson, I chose to show my 12th grade Economics students different arguments for and against free trade through the use of political cartoons. Through this activity, I hoped to broaden my students understanding of trade around the world and see that Free Trade is a complex economics issue. Below you will find a copy of my lesson plan, an explanation of a video recording of the lesson, and an analysis of that clip as well as the lesson itself. I believe the following documents show a promising example of the use of multiple perspectives in my classroom that I can build upon as I continue to mature into my role as an educator.

*THE POLITICAL CARTOONS AND ADDITIONAL TEACHING RESOURCES CAN BE FOUND UNDER THE RESOURCES TAB TO THIS PAGE

Lesson Plan Daily Lesson Plan Template (Adapted from resources developed at Oakland University) Name: ___________________Vince Sapp______________________ Unit Topic Big idea(s) Essential Question(s) Standard(s(/ Benchmark(s)

International Business
Students should be able to evaluate the pros and cons of Free Trade and the affects it has on different economies Why do countries advocate Free Trade? Is Free Trade always beneficial to all parties involved? SSEIN2: Explain why countries erect trade barriers and sometimes advocate free trade E. Evaluate arguments for and against free trade

Lesson Plan Starter/Opening Students will review the Ideas of trade barriers from the previous lesson by completing a 10-question short answer review on the bored. Students will be given 10 minutes to answer the questions before they are taken up and then reviewed by the class as a whole. Students will be asked to take out their notes for the upcoming lecture Learning Activities & Assessments/Work Session Lecture: Students will be introduced to the ideas of Free Trade and Protectionism through a brief lecture. Students will be responsible for learning the definitions of Free Trade and Protectionism as well as the argument people make for each stance. Make sure to distinguish between the two ideas and give fair representation of both ideas. Political Cartoon Analysis (Represented in the Video) Students will be shown between 4-6 political cartoons that will represent multiple perspectives of Free Trade and Protectionism. Students will be given 2 minutes to silently analyze the message that the particular cartoon is trying to convey about Free Trade or Protectionism The students will take turns volunteering to explain and defend the message that they saw in the cartoon and what it says about Free Trade or Protectionism. This process will occur for all of the political cartoons Closer Students will complete a handout that asks them to describe the presented scenarios as Free Trade or Protectionism and why.

Video Clip Description In accordance with the instructions of my Student Teaching Seminar Professor, Dr. Jim Garrett, I recorded a ten-minute segment of my lesson on Free Trade in attempts to capture the use of multiple perspectives in the classroom. Due to privacy concerns, Dr, Garrett is the only person allowed to review this video and a written description of the video must suffice.

On May 1, 2014 at approximately 2:45 P.M, 10 to 15 students and I began to analyze political cartoons focused around the ideas of Free Trade and Protectionism. In the beginning of the video, I explained to the students that the purpose of this activity was to analyze the cartoons and find what the author is supporting through their artwork. The students took thirty seconds to simply view the first cartoon and ask clarifying question about what was being represented. Some students could not make out the complete image that was drawn and I had to describe certain aspects to them. The students then took turns explaining what they believed was being portrayed by the cartoon. At first glance, many of the students felt that the cartoon was supporting Protectionism by pointing out flaws in Free Trade. Though a majority of the students initially agreed with this opinion, several students argued that the first cartoon was supporting Free Trade and were able to convince the rest of the class of this position. As for the following three cartoons, the same clarifying and explanation process was followed and, through discussing the symbolism and victims in each cartoon, the students all came to agree that the cartoons supported Protectionism. The video ends with the students asking questions about some of the negative affects of Free Trade that were left out of the lecture and a discussion lasted for the remainder of the class.

Lesson Critique In assessing the quality of this lesson through the use of video, I have come to realize that my attempts to institute multiple perspective through the use of political cartoons had its moments of success. I felt some of the strengths of this lesson were the use of visual texts, the explanation of the meanings behind some of the images, and the classroom dialog that occurred during this lesson. The ability for students to see, rather than read, some of the positive and negative affects of Free Trade and Protectionism helped add a depth to the knowledge that they learned in the lecture and raised more questions than words in the presentation did. In addition, some of the political cartoons were very complex and without my explanation of what was happening, I do not feel the most beneficial aspect of the lesson would have occurred: the classroom dialogue. By allowing the students to voice their opinions about what they saw, ideas about what each cartoon was representing became free space that could be added to or challenged. This type of classroom collaboration is something I desire for all of my lessons and I believe it makes the learning process much more interesting. The successes in this lesson are what I had hoped for and I believe they made the use of multiple perspectives important in the eyes of my students. As with all of my lessons, there are certainly aspects of this lesson that I must take back to the drawing board. The two major low points of this lesson that deserve attention were the biased use of some cartoons and my inability to step out of the conversation. Because of the focus on capitalism that occurs in much of the economics standards and our society as a whole, I feel that I focused much more on showing cartoons that spoke poorly of Free Trade rather than showing and equal amount for each argument. This over compensation was not a strong use of

multiple perspectives and did not serve my students as well as this activity could have. In addition, during my analysis of the video, I realized that I spoke too much. Rather then letting the students create the space to discuss the aspects of each cartoon, I continuously made assumptions for the students and pointed their ideas to where I wanted them. This is very useful in most lessons, but I feel that I should have held back more and let the students discuss on their own. Looking back, these low points are things that I must keep in mind with all of my lessons and how I prepare as an educator. It would be very foolish of me to expect my lessons to be perfect at this point in my career. I believe that the most important skill for a new teacher to have it to be self critical of how ones practice aligns with their aims as an educator. When teaching this lesson or any multiple perspectives lesson in the future, I must keep in mind the good and the bad aspects of this experience to truly grow as a teacher.