Jacques Cartier Lesson

Today was M's turn to teach again. She spent a lot of time trying to come up with good Jacques Cartier ideas/lessons, but she was really struggling, so she ended up adopting an idea we had thought about using for our final review lesson, and then we shifted our review lesson slightly.

M used the direct instruction model again, and, as an observer, I thought the kids looked really fidgety without the detective books to keep them attentive. However, our cooperating teacher said that is typical for them and that they really were paying attention. I guess it is unfair to expect third graders to sit completely still durgin a lesson. Maybe fidgetyness is something I need to get used to.

After she taught the lesson and traced Cartier's journey and the class helped locate where the Cartier icon should go on our timeline, the class completed a wordsearch about important terms related to Cartier. Maybe you are like me and your first impression when you hear "wordsearch" is to think "busywork," but M did a good job tying it to the lesson. The kids searched for the words, and then they discussed why those words were significant based on the things they had learned about Cartier. I had never seen a wordsearch used productively until this lesson. After they finished going over the wordsearch, M had them each write letters home (the part she adapted from our review lesson), pretending to be Jacques Cartier during one of his expeditions. While there were a few kids who didn't seem to get it (they would write things like "Dear__________, I miss you. It's cold in canada..."), some of the letters were really great and showed that the kids had been paying attention and could apply what they had learned to understand how Cartier might have felt.

The class had to leave early again (only slightly early this time), so M didn't get a chance to go over the explorer detective books with the class and had to leave the information with the cooperating teacher so she could go over it with them later. Even I learned some interesting facts from this lesson-- did you know the Iroquians taught Cartier how to cure scurvy using tree bark?