Jasmine Reece

April 5, 2017
Prof. Nabors

Observation of Social Studies Lesson

For my IMB clinicals, I spent two weeks observing and teaching in a fourth grade
classroom. The first week the class was finishing up a Science unit, and the second week the
class began a Social Studies Unit. The class alternates between Science and Social Studies every
two weeks. The Social Studies lesson I observed focused on changes in communication,
transportation, and technology since North Carolinas statehood in 1789. This lesson was an
introduction to the unit, so it wasnt rich in detail, and the teacher only had 35 minutes to teach
the lesson, but she worked with what she had. The following are things that I observed:

The teacher started the lesson by telling the students that they will be studying changes in
communication, transportation, and technology in North Carolina.
The teacher assessed prior knowledge by guessing when North Carolina became a state.
The guesses included 1201, 1763, and 1774. Once the teacher was sure that no one
actually knew the answer, she revealed that the answer is 1789.
Students were told to turn and talk to their neighbors about what possible definitions for
communication, transportation, and technology are.
The students defined communication as talking, either on the phone, by text, by letters, in
person, or by email.
The students defined transportation as ways to get around that include cars, trains, planes,
and boats.
The students defined technology as phones, devices, and electricity. They had a tough
time coming up with a good definition.
The teacher then asked the students to think critically about what people in 1789 would
define technology as. The students said electricity.
The teacher told the students to turn to page 99 in their Social Studies books and look at
the definition of technology. The class then read the definition out loud together.
The students watched a five-minute video that explained the ways communities change,
and how these changes affect the way people use communication, transportation, and
technology. The students seemed really engaged when watching the video.
The teacher then asked the students how people communicated and used transportation in
1789. The students said that people communicated with telephones, sent letters, talked in
person, and used wagons and horses to travel.
The students looked at page 99 again and read about the ways people used transportation
in 1860.
The students discussed the use of telegraphs, telephones, and Morse Code in the past.
The students were finally instructed to read about communication, transportation, and
technology in their textbooks.