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HLTP 5 PTA Revised for TD 556

1. Title of class (e.g. 11th grade American Literature, AP History, French II)
World History 2
2. Context of the Whole-Class Discussion. What has the class been studying? What do
students already know? What challenges might students have? How does your discussion,
described below, fit in this context?

We have been studying The French Revolution, and the causes specifically that led to
the Revolution and the early events that transpired during the French Rev. The
students have background knowledge of the causes of the French Rev. and basic
notes on the major events that took place during French Revolution. Students
might have trouble connecting the dots between events of the French Rev with each
other, and with other real world situations that were happening in the world at that
time and real world situations relating today to the French Rev events. The
discussion we have talks about the Declaration of Rights of Man compared to the
Declaration of rights of Women. The DOROMAC is a famous document that
guaranteed citizens (men) natural rights. It is similar to the declaration of
Independence and the bill of rights, with many things taken from it. De Gouges was
upset that women were not included in this document guaranteeing rights so she
made her own document that included women. We have a discussion comparing
these two documents to each other, and with other events, and how and why they
were important and influential in the revolution and still can be applied to todays
world.
3. How did you work with your cooperating teacher in this? Did you plan this wholeclass discussion with your teacher? Please elaborate.

My CT does a lot with the DOROMAC document so he has questions and ideas for that
which I looked at as a guide. I have almost all girls in my WH2 class so I wanted to
bring a female influence into the discussion and we had previously learned about an
enlightened thinker who had an influence on the French Rev who was a woman and
she inspired the writing of the DOROWAC. I decided to have the students get in
pairs and one student would read the DOROMAC and the other read the
DOROWAC. Then they shared ideas and thoughts about the one they read with the
other, before we had a group discussion about the documents.
4. Plan: share your written plans and note specifically your prepared discussion
questions/statements around the content.
A handout with the documents was given to each student. Then the students got into
pairs and one read one document while the other read the other. After they finished
reading they shared their thoughts with each other about the documents in relation to the
questions and then they had to write down a response to the discussion questions
attached to the documents. After they had discussed and written down their responses
we had a class discussion about the documents and the questions.
The questions the students had to write a response for and that we talked about were:

What were the links between the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Declaration
of the Rights of Women? How were these documents influenced by Enlightenment
thinking? What rights do they state that citizens should have? Who does each
document define as citizens? How are these documents related to the Bill of rights?

5. Analyze: Using the evidence you have available, make claims about the
whole-class discussion with respect to the content, the moves you made as a
teacher, and your students contributions. Additionally, use evidence to make
a case for how you need to improve this practice. Make your claims
complex that is, not simply yes-no or good/bad. In all cases, you should
substantiate your analysis with reference to specific evidence
a. Claim 1: Content is appropriate and provides opportunities for meaningful
discussion.
I think the content is very explicit and clear to the students. They have the
documents in front of them that we are discussing, and they had time to write
down responses and chat with their partner before the whole group discussion
ensued. I did not say the Social studies standards to the students before we
started the discussion. This is something I should work on to ensure students
always know what we are doing, and why we are doing it. It is easier and more
obvious for a lot of things, but when we started the discussion I was not
prepared to have the specific standards for the students. Obviously I wanted
the students to gain an understanding of the French rev. and the relation these
documents had to each other and to others that were new at that time, but it
shouldve been stated.
b. Claim 2: Questions and statements encourage students to practice listening,
speaking, and interpreting each others responses (what the teacher says and
does to manage the discussion).
I think I did a fairly good job as a new teacher leading the class discussion.
The start of the discussion could have been more engaging perhaps, but the
students got engaged fairly quickly I think. My re-questioning attempts and
drawing things out of students went well and helped clarify thoughts and ideas
students got up. There was decent student-to-student interaction but I would
have liked to get them to converse with themselves more than just me and this
is something I will try and improve on. I think I moved the discussion along well
and it made sense chronologically and within the context of the lesson and the
major ideas we were talking about.
c. Claim 3: Numerous students contribute orally, listen actively, respond to, and
learn from each others contributions (illustrative STUDENT statements, actions,
and questions).
It took a minute to get the discussion rolling well, but once it did students started chiming
in more on their own. I think the students were engaged with each other just a bit
apprehensive to talk until something that was said sparked a comment out of them. I
tried to call on new people and get them involved with the discussion as the lesson went
on, and it worked for the most part.

6. Reflect: With respect to the claims above what did you learn from your efforts
in: Leading a Whole-Class Discussion. What might you consider for future
efforts? Any problems or questions that came up?
Maybe it would have been better to illuminate the students with the standards we were
looking for after the discussion was over. I said earlier that I should have stated
them before the discussion but, now thinking about I might not want to give the
answers to them, I want to pry them out of them and then make sure they
understood what we came up with as a class was what the standards we were
actually looking for.
I would have liked more student to student interaction with each other as opposed to me
doing more leading. There were a couple times where the students held the
conversation with themselves for brief moments and then I had to pick it back up
and set it rolling again, so it would be a goal of mine to get them to carry it more on
their own next time.
7. Anything else? Im interested in hearing your relevant thoughts (optional).
It was a good exercise, I thought it would be easy and common sense to do this but
there are so many little nuances and tricks that Im sure doing more discussions with the
class would help me achieve my goals.