ELED 436 Olivia Tetreault

    In the future, I would like to work as an elementary-level general education teacher.  Primarily working with younger grades, I lean more towards teaching in the first grade level.  Primary resources are the materials of history that were created during that time.  These sources encourage students to develop their critical thinking skills by analyzing raw materials that have not been altered.  These resources cultivate wonder and curiosity by providing students with first hand information that is accurate to the time they are learning about.  These resources are often times unfamiliar to students, usually receiving information that has been published times and times again by different authors.  These tools also offer students the ability to compare the past and the present as accurately as possible.  The use of primary resources also allow students to make their own interpretations, rather than being exposed to others early on.  Stud...

      While we were creating our lessons on our country Mexico, we used a lot of primary sources.  In our first lesson, geography, we had students compare and contrast an old and a new map of Mexico.  The primary resource that we used for this lesson was the old map.  We then use an I see, I think, I wonder chart to analyze and compare the two maps.  For our old map, we completed the chart together and for the new map, students worked in partners to fill it out.  Our students did really well with filling out this chart, so we decided to use it again for our second lesson, history.  The primary resources that we used for this lesson was examples of Aztec codex's.  We had three different ones for this activity.  For the first two, they were given the photos and had to work together to figure out what the images meant.  After sharing their ideas, we would reveal what each symbol represented.  They then did the same for the la...

       Our final lesson talked about Mexican advocates.   We started the lesson with a short matching activity where students would have to match a picture or short definition to the correct vocabulary word.   The poster was covered up with papers, so students would be able to focus in on one term at a time, while also having the opportunity to reveal the next word.  Each word and definition, after being read by us, would be read together as a group to further their comprehension.  Students then did a card matching activity where they received either a cause or an effect, and they had to find their matching partner.  (e.g. car breaks down matched with car gets towed).  After all students found their match, they sat back down with their parter and each group shared what their cards were.  Once all students shared, we did a problem/solution activity.  Students worked in groups and received a problem that they had to col...