Natalie Oldfield Lauren Tucker Megan Woolard Kimberly Edmondson JMU Elementary Education Program A. Who Done It B.

CONTEXT OF LESSON The students involved in this activity are of college age and have all expressed interest in interactive activities, as observed through conversation. They also understand the concept of a well formed opinion and how to achieve this because of their previous education. This lesson is appropriate because it showcases a method for teaching social studies that may not have been seen before. Through the modeling of the case study method, students will be able to not only gain a new teaching style, but will also learn how to analyze evidence and formulate an opinion based on said evidence. This will help students to understand the importance of making an informed opinion and being able to justify it. This lesson fits with development in that it allows students to experience and build on a life skill in an interactive and new way. Exposing students to information that makes them question their thoughts and thought processes is vital to a full development of the ability to justify. It falls into the curriculum sequence because this skill will help students to learn future information. This instructional method can be adjusted to fit into an elementary age curriculum but changing the type of case, perhaps something related to theft in the school, to make it more developmentally appropriate. Depending on the grade and the group of students, the teacher can provide the appropriate amount of structure to the lesson. C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Understand: U1. Students will understand that in order to formulate a well thought opinion, all of the information must be taken into account.

Know: K1. Students will know that case evidence can be used to form an opinion.

Do: D1. Students will analyze evidence from a murder trial to decided which involved party is guilty.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING Task: Students will analyze data and evidence associated with the case in order to formulate Diagnostic Features: The teacher will look for students to use their previous knowledge and new knowledge on the evidence in order to make Support: The teacher can draw upon previous knowledge of each student in the class in order to assess each student individually. The teacher will listen for the students to discuss with their peers and justify why

their opinion

a decision about the case

they feel one side of the case is stronger than the other.

E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING CE.1 The student will develop the social studies skills responsible citizenship requires, including the ability to: g) formulate an informed, carefully reasoned position on a community issue;

F. MATERIALS NEEDED -1 packet of evidence per table (we will provide) -PowerPoint (we will provide) -Computer (provided in the classroom) -Organizing worksheets for each student (we will provide) G. PROCEDURE Preparation: 1. As we open the activity to the class, we will first ask the class to form four groups. The groups can be formed based off the students previous seats. The groups should be about equal, but it is ok if they are not completely. One member of our group should also load the PowerPoint at this time while the other group members are distributing materials. Engage: 2. To introduce the problem in our case study, we will tell the class that based off the information in the packets that you are given, you should make a conclusion about the case. Try to use the evidence to come up with a conclusion. We do not want to give the class too much of a prompt because we wrote the problem out in the packet of evidence they will be receiving. Each group receives the same evidence in the packets, but the groups will not know that. We should give the class a warning that there are some real pictures that they will receive and they contain blood so no one is shocked. 3. After each group has their own packet of evidence, we will tell them to feel free to spread out into the hallways and bistro area of Memorial so they will not be close to any other groups. This will allow them to talk with their group without being overheard. It will also provide boundaries so we know where they will be located to help facilitate any conversations as needed. 4. The groups will be told they have twenty- five minutes to half an hour to go over the evidence and come up with a group consensus and conclusion. Implementation: 5. During the time when the groups are reviewing the evidence we will split up and walk around to the different groups. We can provide some clarification to them if they have questions or bring

up other points we would like them to think about. We will be sure not to add any extra information. 6. The groups should go over the evidence and fill out their worksheets to meet all the objectives. 7. As the groups are working we will say to them, You have fifteen more minutes to work, You have ten more minutes to work, and You have five more minutes to work so that the groups can pace themselves and they can be prepared to meet back up in the classroom at the appropriate time. 8. After the half-hour has passed, the groups will come back in the class and sit at their tables. 9. Then, we will begin to ask them questions about their conclusions. The first thing that we will ask for the students to share is Who do you think killed Jarrod Watson?, What evidence led you to believe that?, Did anyones opinion differ from their groups consensus?. The class will have the opportunity to share their opinions on the case. These questions go with the first slide on the PowerPoint. We should be sure to hear from a variety of students so that differing opinions and reasoning of groups and individuals can be expressed. Closure: 10. After the group has shared their opinions, we will then talk about how to use case studies in a social studies classroom. This goes along with the PowerPoint and will tie in how a case study is appropriate for an elementary classroom, given that the subject of the case is different. Some examples that we can give to the class include, a student stealing on the playground for younger elementary, a case about a neighborhood thief for the older elementary class, or a real case such as Brown vs. Board of Education. We can tell the class that students will be able to handle real life examples and make ethical decisions as well. 11. We will share what makes a case study a powerful way to teach social studies. The information is on the last slide of the PowerPoint. We will also explicitly say what makes this method powerful and give examples. Clean Up: 12. To wrap up we will have the students pass in the packets of evidence. And ask them if they see this method as something they would be open to using in their own social studies classroom one day. Each student can keep their own worksheet as a reference.

H. DIFFERENTIATION: Each group in this activity will be given the same case file packet. The packet includes multiple different types of evidence that could be analyzed by the students, such as introduction, interviews, pictures and captions. We included each of the different types of evidence to be able to meet the needs of all the students in the class. This activity could be differentiated more based on the classroom students needs. One differentiation that could be made for a student that was struggling with reading could be to have the written pieces of the case file as recorded audio files. The introduction could be recorded as if it was a newscast, and the interviews could be recorded to mimic an actual interview. This would be a good way to keep all students engaged and focused on the information given, rather than struggling with the reading. Another way to differentiate would be to level the four groups in the class, and having the case file packets for each group differ in presentation but not in content. By differentiating by

groups, no students would feel left out, as they would not know what the other groups packets contained. Also, in our activity we included a structured worksheet for the students to complete while they are exploring the evidence given to help guide the students to meet all objectives. One way to make this lesson more difficult would be to introduce the task, but not include the worksheet and have the student analyze the case file, take their own notes, and come to a conclusion on the case more independently. I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG? The major concern for this activity is that all the students in the class will come up with the same conclusion for the case. If this does happen, the classroom discussion that is planned for the end of the lesson will be less engaging for the students, as they will not have to defend and argue their own points as much as they would have to if there was a disagreement in verdicts. If this does end up happening, we will alter the discussion and ask each group what they recorded on their sheet as the three possible verdicts that they could have made and what evidence did they have to support each of those. For this, the students will then shift their thinking from the consensus that they made with their group, to their own exploration with the case. The students can then share the evidence they found important in the case and why other solutions may have been feasible.