u03a2 – The History of Thanksgiving using Prezi
Click here to view a presentation created on Prezi that teaches first graders about the first Thanksgiving. Creating this lesson using Prezi took me several hours. It would be difficult to take this much time whenever I wanted to create a multi media lesson to use in the classroom. I am hoping that now that I have created a lesson on Prezi, it will be easier and faster the next time I create one because I do see the value in using this type of presentation to help my students develop a disciplined mind. Whenever I use media in a lesson my first graders are fully attentive. They enjoy learning on computers, iPads and from videos. I have an apple tv in my classroom and they get so excited when they walk into the classroom and see that it is on. They know that this means the lesson will be presented using media. The standard I chose to focus on in my Prezi lesson is the Social Studies standard 1.3 (2) which states that students must understand the significance of our national holidays and the heroism and achievements of the people associated with them. In order to help my students master this standard, I need to focus on the four essential steps that Gardner states (pg. 32 – 34) are necessary in developing a disciplined mind. The first step is to “identify a truly important topic.” The second is to “spend a significant amount of time on the topic.” The third is to “approach the topic in a number of ways.” The fourth is to “set up performances of understanding and give students ample opportunities to perform their understandings under a variety of conditions.” The Prezi lesson I created helps accomplish steps two and three. Previous to using this lesson I introduce the topic we will be studying by reading a book to my students about Thanksgiving. This accomplishes step 1. We then discuss what Thanksgiving means to them and how they celebrate this holiday. Then the Prezi lesson is presented to the students as a way to “spend significant time on the topic” and as a way of “approaching the topic in a number of ways.” We end the unit by having a first Thanksgiving celebration with the other two first grade classes at my school. The students bring food that may have been part of the original Thanksgiving, they dress in clothing from that time period, they act out a skit of their choice with classmates, they play games from that time period and they create projects items (such as candles) in the way the they would have been created at that time. This allows for the fourth step to be accomplished and each child is closer to having a more disciplined mind and mastery of the standard.
References
Featured image retrieved from http://app.discoveryeducation.com/search?Ntt=the+first+thanksgiving&N=4294939057
Garner, H. (2008). 5 minds for the future. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Publishing.
