This class took place in the computer lab in the school.  The large room has 32 computers, 24 around the perimeter of the room, and 8 in a bank in the middle of the room.  I placed the students on adjoining computers in clumps around the room, so that groups would be together, but separated from other groups as much as possible.  There were not decorations on the plain white walls of the lab.  It seems that they are there to use the computers and not to look at posters, etc.

     The objectives were that the students would be able to: 1) Explain why the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are important to the people of Iraq; 2) Describe how a religious government came to power in Iran; and 3) Identify important information about 3 Middle Eastern Countries.  The objectives were not clearly conveyed to the students, except for maybe the third objective was expressed in their assignment.
     The concept was the geography, culture, and people in Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.  The content was a webquest type assignment online (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/huntiraqirkr.html) that lead students to two websites each on three different countries.
     The assignment was that students were to gather information about one of the three countries from 2 websites given, deciding what was most important as a group.  They had to decide first what were the 10 most important facts about a country, and then work with another group to decide on the 8 most important facts.  Finally, each group made an oral presentation to the class about the country.  One website for each group was the CIA’s world Factbook page on that country.  The other pages were a travel guide page on Afghanistan and an online encyclopedia page on Iraq and Iran.  The pages addressed specific issues related to the recent history of the pages.  Each student learned about the other two countries from listening to the oral presentation of his/her peers that studied that country.  The final portion was a short question and answer session about the main objectives of the lesson.
     The types of questions were varied.  Some were basic knowledge questions like: “What type of climate does the country have?”  Other questions were comprehension level like: “Why do people only live in certain parts of the countries?  Explain the role that religion plays in the government of the country;” “How is the government different from ours?” and “An agent who only spoke this language probably could not successfully travel throughout the country.  Why is that?”  The final question was a synthesis level question, where the students were asked: “Now that you are experts, your team must now meet with the other team of experts for country.  Together, both teams of experts must decide what are the 8 most important things that the boss needs to know in planning the mission.  Then the team must present the facts to your boss (the class).”

Time spent on the following: (in minutes)

Lecturing   0
Demonstrating   0
Student activities  0
Hands-on activities  0
Student discussion  25
Reading   20
Group activities  55
Evaluation   10
Giving directions  5
Behavior management 1
Student freedom  0
Use of technology  45
     The lesson lasted only an hour, but many things overlapped each other.  For example, they were doing a group activity the whole time.  I was evaluating them while they were finishing the group activity, as well as after they were done working in groups.

Lesson Analysis

     I think this lesson was at least somewhat relevant to the students’ lives, which is important.  If a lesson has no connection to their lives, then students will discount it as a waste of time.  I think that it was most relevant for the Afghanistan group, because our country is at war with them right now.  Iraq, while seemingly relevant to me, would be less so for them, because they were babies during the Gulf War.  The Iran section was harder to relate because the important events happened long before the students were born.
     The information the students needed was right there on the web, for the most part in easy to read forms.  I think they found the information accessible to them.
     I think that using the web to find information was very successful.  It allowed the students to have some of the most up to date information on an area that is changing all the time.  It was best I think for Afghanistan where there is a war going on and there are new changes weekly.  I think the students did learn about the country that they were focussing on.  That part was a success.  I’m not so sure about the other two countries though.
     I think that this lesson would have been better if the students had been held more accountable for the information they were gathering and for paying attention to what their classmates were doing.  If I could do it again with more time, I would have the student create some sort of written presentation of the information.  I might have them make a webpage about it or something like that.  Then I would have other groups look at the pages and gather information from the pages to present or apply it in another assignment.  The other way I would improve it would be to change the Big Question to be more specific.  I would specify what type of mission they were planning, so they would know what type of information they might need.
     I think that the major objectives were achieved in this lesson.  After they were done with the web, I asked them some questions about the land, and they were able to answer the questions, which were the objectives.  The other objective was to learn about one of the countries, and I think that they all did.  They all had facts about the country they studied on the original page and the final report page too.
     The only behavior situation that occurred was that some people had trouble quieting down for the presentations.  I did not deal with this well, I do not think.  I told them that it was time to listen, and they did quiet down.  Otherwise, I was happy with the way that they behaved.  I did not reinforce their good behavior though.  I need to do this somehow, but I am not really sure how.
     I did not know of any students with special needs going into this class.  I did not have any specific plans to make any accommodations for specific students.  If I did the lesson again with more time, I would have had different ways for students to share what they learned, so that students who have trouble presenting to a large group would have had an alternative.  I also could have found websites at higher or lower reading levels, so that it could be more accessible to students at different levels.
     The students were fully involved in the lesson.  There was no lecture, so the students were seeking information on their own.  They were using the sources provided, and discussing what they found with their team members.  All of the students were doing this as far as I could tell.  They were looking at the webpages and writing what they found on the fact sheets.  Then they discussed the facts they had with their group to determine what was the most important.  They then joined with another team to decide what were the most important facts of all.  Finally, each student was involved in presenting the facts to the class, mostly by reading the facts aloud.
     I think that there was fine wait time in the class.  The only time it really came up was when I asked them a few questions at the end, and I think that they had enough time to think, because I did get intelligent answers.  I asked the question, and then waited until someone answered, I did not go on until I had the correct answer.
     I do believe that the lesson setting was positive, supportive, and productive.  I’m not sure what evidence there is to show it though.  One thing that could prove this is the fact that many students asked questions during the assignment.  They did not seem to be afraid to ask questions, which I think is key in any educational setting.  Another indication was that students were working together productively.  None of them had time to find all the information that they needed, so they had to divide the work and come together to decide what was most important.  The fact that they successfully did this seems to be a sign that the setting was good.
 

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     I really was excited about web sources that I found for this lesson.  I think that the sources worked well for this too.  They were able to use the information for their assignment, and they came up with answers that showed thought.

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     I think that the presentations did not go as well as I would have liked.  I had trouble keeping track of what they said as they presented, and I think it would have been better if they had been able to present things a little more creatively than reading facts from a list.
     I should have created a better guide sheet for making the facts.  It would have worked better think if they had had more guidance in this area.
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    I was pleased that the group work went so well.  I worried that they might not stay on task, and would have trouble getting work done in groups, but they were ale to stay on task, which really was necessary with this lesson.