Presentations given by Lauren Vohs, Christi White and Marianella Martinez

Educational Objectives:  The students will demonstrate the ability to compare and contrast schools located in urban districts versus school located in suburban districts written about in Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol by completing a t-chart.

Anticipatory Set:  Close your eyes I as read about how a typical morning would be in an urban school located in Camden, New Jersey, and what it would be like to attend a school located in an urban district.    Today you are going to compare and contrast schools within an urban and suburban district by completing a t-chart.

Instructional Materials and Resources:  The students will need a pen or pencil and paper in order to construct their t-chart and jot down their ah ha, oh no or umm moment.

Procedure:  The students will be divided into two groups of four.  Each group will be designated to a teacher and will then be given a Power Point presentation introducing the issues Jonathan Kozol speaks about in Savage Inequalities.  Each teacher will concentrate on one specific state due to the time constraint.  Through out the presentation, students will be creating a t-chart focusing on issues such as school environment, health, location and funding found in urban and suburban school districts.  The students will also be told to write down an ah ha, oh no or umm moment to be shared with the class at the end of the lesson.

Closure:  The students will summarize their learning by sharing with the class their ah ha, oh no or umm moment.

Assessment:  The students will be assessed on their t-charts as it relates to school environment, health, location and funding found in urban and suburban school districts.

Reflection: 

I read Savage Inequalities, by Jonathan Kozol, for my outside reading book.  For my presentation, my group and I used the co-teaching method to present the material to the class.  Because there were three of us, it was a little difficult to co-teach but we managed to include each member of the group.  One person did the introduction (anticipatory set) then me and the other person took a small group of students and gave a mini presentation to the group.  I thought that this was a really good method to use because the students in each group were more engaged and focused on the presenter where as if everyone was together in a large group, we would have lost some students attention.  My group was really focused and asked a lot of questions.  We also have mini discussions about the book so that was good.  While we were presenting our lessons, the students had to write down an ah ha, oh no, and umm moment.  This was a good strategy because it engaged the students even more into the lesson.  Then the students said their moment to the class so everyone else could hear what they had to say. One thing that did not work so well was the transition from the anticipatory set to the mini groups.  It was a little inflowing and also, we should have timed each presentation so that they ended at the same time.  Besides these, everything else went really well.  I think the class enjoyed the presentation and am interested in the book.