The first HLTP exhibited here is Explaining and Modeling Content (EMC).
Explaining and modeling are two fundamental practices for getting meaning, content and skills to students in a way that they understand them. Depending on what is being taught and why, teachers may be able to use verbal explanations accompanied by examples, representations or analogies. When teaching more complex practices and strategies, such as analyzing a primary document to determine it's credibility as a source, teachers might choose a more in depth explanation called modeling. Modeling includes verbal explanation, but also thinking aloud while demonstrating the complex strategy or practice the teacher is trying to get the students to copy and learn.
To the left is my lesson plan for teaching the life cycle of empires. We just finished talking about civilizations which was a perfect segway into empires. Below is a brief video of my analogy during the lecture and then a little bit of my explanation of the content itself. Although my analogy was a powerful tool in the lecture I was unable to properly explain what I needed to and connect it back to the big idea (because in my first attempt, I did not have one).
My first recorded attempt at explaining and modeling content was a guided note mini-lecture about the lifecycle of empires. From the beginning of this video to the next minute I give a great analogy of how Empire's reach a peak like a mountain does. But as you keep going what happens is you start going down hill or declining. I think this was effective in helping the students visualize the life cycle.
Despite the effective delivery of information orally, I did not modify the guided notes to match a big idea of the lesson. The launch did address the big idea, but the whole of the lesson did not connect back as I now know it should have.
I also did not modify the prezi to match the big idea or modify the pictures to be more effective in instruction of the big idea.
There was also no modeling present during this mini-lecture.There wasn't an opportunity for it and that is why it was not present.
My Second attempt at Explaining and Modeling Content was during a lesson on the Muslim Empire. I had the kids watch a short video and then respond to how it challenged their thinking. In doing so, I modeled what I had originally been taught in school; that Muslim Empires used Military Jihad to force conversion to Islam. But, when I learned how Muslim Empires actually used incentives for conversion, it changed how I thought and felt about the Muslim Abbasid, Omayyad and Ottoman Empires. We also explored how Europe was experiencing the "Dark Ages" while at the same time Muslim Empires were experiencing a Golden Age. So I explored the content I had laid out for them with the class as a whole. We reflected on what we knew about the dark ages and then we had a class discussion about whether the Muslim Empires were experiencing a Golden Age after looking at a series of sources from the Middle East.
Then I used two really great analogies when we covered Sufis and the schism in the Muslim faith after the death of Mohammed. At the beginning of the video I start talking about Sufis and I relate their definition to the definition of monks. We had just covered monasteries in Europe so this was a much easier concept to grasp after I walked them through this connection.
When Mohammed died, a problem arose about who his successor would be. This schism created two main Groups, the Sunni's and the Shia or Shi'ites. I related this schism to the schism we know of today which was Catholics and Christians. I further used this analogy when asking kids to talk about the small differences and the major similarities between the two and then we did the same with the Shia and the Sunnis. The kids really grasped this content much better after these analogies.
Another thing I did here in the video is I highlighted the misconception alerts I had put in the graphic. I think being culturally aware of terms and meanings used by other languages are important to breaking cultural barriers in the classroom and creating a safe learning environment for all learners. The misconception I pointed out is the Arabic term for God is Allah, that He is not someone foreign, but is in fact the same God that Jews and Christians believe in. I also talked about my own misconceptions about Muslims early on in not knowing that there were two sects of Islam like there are in Christianity with Catholics and Protestants.
I also learned from my first attempt that not having a big idea to draw connections to, limited student understanding of the concepts. There are two major takeaways from this lesson, that the term "Dark Ages" only applies to Europe during this time because the Muslim Empire was experiencing a golden age. The other is that the Muslim Empire was much more tolerant than European countries and their religion is not very different from Christianity and Catholicism. I used this second part extensively in relating the content to students.
GLT 1
To the left is the lesson plan for teaching the Muslim Empire and below is the info-graphic I was debriefing in the video.