Marzano lesson plan reflection

I included my thougths/reflection at the end of my typed lesson, but I thought I'd include them here, too (just to be sure)!

* My lesson utilized the skill of classifying Civil War items. This lesson was a great review before we took our Civil War test. The conversations and class discussion inspired great critical thinking, and it involved all my students. My resource and ESL kids could be just as involved as my higher kids. I was surprised by some of the categories they came up with that held only one or two word cards. For example, one of my groups came up with the category of “bad people.” They place the “KKK” card in this category. Then another group argued that maybe some of the Confederate leaders should have been placed in that category, too. I really try to stop the misconception that the Union consists of the “good guys,” while the Confederacy is the “bad guys.” This activity showed me that this misconception isn’t over yet, and I still have work to do! I think it’s fine if my students think slavery is bad, but I don’t want them to think General Lee is bad – just because he lead the Confederacy. The lesson also took more time than I thought it would, because my kids were having such great discussion about why they felt each word belonged in certain categories. I’ll definitely use this lesson again next year in my Civil War unit. Classifying seems like such a basic skill, but after reading Marzano’s section on classifying, I realized maybe I’ve underestimated its value in the past!