Before and After Artifact:

This particular student was rather bright and usually had comments which positively

contributed to the learning environment, however they were extremely lazy and unmotivated

when it came to actually doing work in class when I first took over as a student teacher. I noticed

that this student was not the only one who had a bright mind but were unwilling, for one reason

or another, to complete actual work whether it be readings, discussion questions, or another

activity. At first I attempted to diagnose the issue by speaking to them in passing about what they

enjoyed about the class and what I could do to peak their interest in the material. They largely

responded that they enjoyed the class but they did not care much about their grades and felt that

they could coast by until the final and then do just enough to pass. I began speaking with them

individually on a regular basis and discussing the important role which history plays in our

educational and professional lives. My point to all of them was that by not participating fully,

they were only obtaining a superficial understanding of history with little critical depth. To

dispel these issues I made the decision to teach a lesson which would help the students better

understand the purpose of history and how it applies to them in the hopes that it would motivate

them more to take a more active role in their own education.

A week or so after I took over the classroom, I gave a quiz which accompanied a group

reading analysis project, which you can see below, and this particular student failed it because he

did not want to finish the quiz. This quiz was based on readings that they had been doing and

discussing as a group for three days and this student decided to only answer two of the four

questions even though he had more than enough time to do all four and had done all four

readings. A week later I taught the aforementioned lesson about what role history plays in our

lives and our own individual roles in history and society. I was also sure to highlight the how

important the critical thinking and analytic skills developed in history are during and after their

schooling careers. The lesson also tackled the topic of the original purpose of history being

taught in schools and how that has evolved today. Another week after this lesson, my students

took another quiz, this one assessing our coverage of the Cold War. This particular student and

his peers were much more engaged throughout the week leading up to the quiz and his

individual hard work paid off with an A- on the quiz. His success should not be granted to my

alone lesson by any means, the motivation and willingness to work hard came from within. I do

know, however, that the lesson allowed him to connect some of the dots in his mind, leading him

to understand how much he can really benefit from applying himself in the classroom. I believe

that he still has some work to do personally when it comes to consistent motivation and hard

work, however I believe that with continued work with him and his peers on understanding how

integral critical thinking and problem solving are to their future will help them grow even

further. Please take a look at the improvements this student made by observing his work

displayed below.

Before:

After:

Second Student Work

This second student needed growth in a much different way than the first student. This

particular student was a senior and this was the Spring Semester, she needed to pass the class I

was taking over in order to graduate that June. When I first arrived in the classroom she was a

very kind student who went about her work quietly. However, before I took over she had become

increasingly frustrated in the class as she fell behind because of unexcused absences and

neglecting homework assignments and make-up work. This ultimately boiled over in outward

frustration when she was openly angry at my cooperating teacher after he asked her to sit down

and stop disrupting the class. Her vast amount of incomplete work had led to her understanding

little in class and the frustration was clearly apparent in the unfortunate words she used towards

the teacher which got her sent to her dean. I realized once I took over that the goal would have to

be speaking with her and figuring out a way for her to understand the background information

she had missed in order for her to understand the current material in class. We began meeting

after school multiple times a week in order to catch her up. As the weeks went by she became

increasingly open in class and by her tone and body language the frustrations were diminishing

quickly. I helped her come to the realization that the costs of her having to come back as a fifth

year senior outweighed the extra work she could put in now to pass the class. Towards the end of

my time student teaching this student was caught up and producing good work in class.

One of my final projects I did with that class was to understand how to analyze and read

political cartoons. This was done in order for the students to have some fun and to help build

critical analysis skills. The student I had been working with after school produced her own

political cartoon at the end of the project which demonstrated her growth and transformation

throughout the semester. As you can see by her political cartoon below, she was not afraid to

tackle a touchy subject in front of the entire class. Creating a political cartoon is difficult and

creating a quality one takes a deep understanding of the skills that are consistently improved

upon and polished when learning the social studies. Clearly her political cartoon shows that she

was able to grasp a good understanding of the content knowledge and skills we were working on

as a class and she had come a long way from the student who stormed out of class with a failing

grade. Her turning this in combined with her understanding and courage to confront that

particular topic in her cartoon was one of my proudest moments during student teaching.