Essay 1
Objective
The following script presents the explanation for the students in the history class. The activities have been planned on the basis of District of Columbia Public School standard.
Rationale
The reason for selecting the District of Columbia Public School standard for the need of history class is to bring innovation in the classroom and provide effective learning experience to the students.
Standard:
Following is the District of Columbia Public School standard grid that has been chosen for the activities and assessment of the history class in the high school.
Procedures/ Activities
- I will distribute handouts to all of you that will provide briefed information about the Great Depression, its consequences and why it is remarked as one of the major events in the history.
- I will also conduct group discussions where all of you will be the participants, and cross- questioning will be done in order to elaborate more about the causes of the great depression.
- I will also conduct a discussion about the natural disaster, agricultural practices and their impact on the rural areas and political movements. It will allow all of you to identify the impacts of the political and social issues on the economy of the United States.
- I will then give you the choice to pick any of change in the economic practices (agricultural practices, trade tariffs, etc) that occurred on the basis of political concerns (war, foreign relations, rural policies etc).
- We will have a session of multimedia that will demonstrate different changes that have occurred in the United States, specifying with the help of the map and video presentations.
- Once you are all done with the discussion and multimedia session then we will have a very in-depth discussion about the New Deal Coalition, with respect to the African America, Poor farmers, Jews and Catholic, etc. and controversies about the new policies.
- Now, let us talk about the most significant activity that will have in the classroom. It will be a group discussion mainly emphasizing on the debates about the social and cultural impacts and their importance on the economic events.
- I will allow you to ask me questions in a different session. In that section, you can ask me about the significance of the monetary policies and role of the federal government will be briefed in the class. You can pick any of contemporary economic issues (such as Global recession) and identify the similarities and consequences of the monetary policies that were imperative in the Great Depression.
- I would put a lot of stress on the significance about the Roosevelt’s Black Cabinet and Federal Government. For them, we will have a discussion to understand national race policies
- I will allow you all to undertake a session of understanding concerning the formation of the organized labor organizations and how do they contribute towards economic development.
Assessments
- The students will be asked to write analytical term paper with a brief discussion about the pros and cons of the race policies during Great Depression. They will be asked to emphasize on the socio-political aspects that have contributed towards the occurrence of Great Depression.
Essay 2
Rationale
Debates are an impressive method for brainstorming of the students about the topic. It shows what they know about the topic and what they lack in knowledge about that particular topic. In debates, students demonstrate intellectual ability of reflection, demonstration and reasoning and research. Debates, when integrated with research, it can give the best learning in the students.
However, there are some serious issues which can create misunderstandings and confusions. Debates usually make the topic vague because debates are conducted between groups, so many minds expressing covering so many aspects of the same topics may confuse rather than making the idea clear about the topic. Most of the times, debates are flooded with irrelevant knowledge by the participants making the learning too vague. However, it can be check by making proper planning for the debate. There are so many people who do not like to participate and speak in public. In debates, these remain out of the on-going discussion and thus are unable to going with the class, in understanding the topic. To conduct a debate is a time-consuming process and will take extended periods to cover the topic. However, participation makes the topic interesting and instructor can easily judge the understanding of the students about the topic. Debates can’t be conducted when participant number is too large and if the students are too young to share or grab idea from the discussion. History usually consists of lengthy chronologies, therefore, can limit the application of debate in the topic. It demands extensive skill and dexterity for the instructor to control and set the flow of the debate on the right track, i.e., to progress the discussion around the topic. Therefore, instructor must be an adroit to conduct research based discussion about the topic to produce the optimum result from the activity. Inclusion of the students in the debate can boost their knowledge and can enhance their learning more effectively.
