Brianna Larkin
Student Teaching Portfolio
Fall 2005

Artifact for Standard Four: Classroom Practice

 

 

 

Contact:
Brianna_Larkin@brown.edu

Evidence: Direct Teacher Presentation Notes

Description of the artifact:

These timelines show notes for the first lesson I taught students as we began a unit on the Plessy v. Ferguson landmark Supreme Court case and the lesson I taught as we moved from Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board. Students took notes using a graphic organizer as we discussed each event and how they led to the Supreme Court cases and decisions. Later, students had to use these notes to write an essay about how the history behind the case influenced the people bringing the case to court and the Justices who made the decisions.

Standards demonstrated by this artifact:

Classroom Practice

Reflections on artifact:

Beginning the unit by doing a direct teacher presentation on the historical context showed students that history had an impact on important decisions made by the Supreme Court. Students were surprised that I started the lesson as far back as slavery, but once they understood how the history of slavery impacted racism in America, students had a better grasp on why separate but equal was not equal. Although it seemed very rushed to discuss all of these events at once, it was important for students to know how history progressed in order to apply that history to the Plessy and Board decisions.