Example of the Assure Method for CI 350 - prompt 3

1. Chase Dye
Jan. 18, 2016
3-Teaching Activities of the fourth of July to Russian students that just arrived to the United
States (they do speak English), ages 10 to 19, 15 in total ….8 males and 7 females. They are all
vision impaired.
Assure Method:
A – Analyze Learners. During this step note that all of the students are Russian and are visually
impaired (blind). They also just arrived to the United States, and are probably still unfamiliar
with American holiday traditions, although not necessarily. Also, our group is divided near even
with 8 males/7 females. The age range is where this group differs significantly. The group is
from 10-19 in age. I will lead a group discussion, in which I facilitate student’s questions about
Fourth of July traditions. I will gauge how much they know about the traditions, and use this to
determine whether background knowledge is needed or not. I need to keep in mind learners’
attitudes when planning this lesson. For the most part, I will focus my lesson around
auditory/kinesthetic learning styles, since all my students have some form of visual impairment.
State Objectives: During this step, I outline my plan for the lesson, and what I hope to
accomplish, and how I plan on assessing students. This is split into four sections, and audience is
the first consideration. I need to make sure my students are in a position to learn effectively.
Next is Behavior, and I want my students to describe and express what the Fourth of July
traditions are, at the end of the lesson. Now we look at Conditions, and this is how students’
performance is assessed. I will assess students’ knowledge informally through a class discussion.
Lastly, the degree of accuracy will be measured with a participation requirement on each aspect
of the lesson.
Objective: Students will identify key elements of The Fourth of July, reflect on their significance
to the traditions of the holiday, and compare/contrast these elements with elements of their own
Russian holidays in a class discussion after small group activities, listening to audio clips, and
tactile presentations by the end of the week with 100% accuracy.
Select the M’s: The three M’s are Methods, Media, and Materials. We will learn about the
traditions through a short audio clip as our first method. The focus on the audio is on different
ways Americans celebrate Independence Day. Then we will talk about as a class different
traditions, and we will talk about the importance of red, white, and blue to Americans’
celebration of the holiday, and how those colors relate to emotions/touch, i.e. hand warmers will
represent red, a bowl of cool water will represent blue, and a cotton ball will represent white.
Next we will have a small group discussions as our second method. This will allow the class to
work through questions they may have, and to clarify any information they misunderstood from
the video. I will use this time to gauge understanding of the material presented in the video, and

2. Chase Dye
Jan. 18, 2016
facilitate conversations about traditions. Then we will spend time working in the same groups to
relate what we discussed and learned about traditions to what traditions the students’ have and
celebrate. This will act as a brainstorming exercise before students’ are asked to complete group
discussion and to express their understanding of the topic.
Utilize Media, Materials, and Methods: During this step I will prepare/preview everything that
goes into the lesson. I will preview the material, in this case I will preview the different
information I know and can find on Fourth of July traditions. Next I’ll prepare the materials, this
meaning I will prepare the audio, and a couple discussion questions to gauge understanding. I
will get the materials for the tactile portion of the lesson, too. I will prepare the room. I will go
ahead and try and group the desks into groups, and have it so each group has hand-warmers, a
cool bottle of water, and a bag of cotton balls. Lastly, I will start the lesson by getting to know
the students, and playing an icebreaker. I will probably do ‘speed dating’ and give each student
30 seconds to tell us about their favorite holiday memory/tradition. This will hopefully, get
students engaged, and give them an idea of what we will be covering for the day by framing the
lesson and previewing the topic.
Require Learner Participation: This lesson will take about two days of class sessions. I will use
the first class session to introduce myself to students, to do the ice breaker, and to go over the
audio. I plan on keeping students engaged periodically stopping the audio clip and having
students talk about what seems familiar to them about the traditions, and what seems bizarre. I
can also use these stops to gauge student understanding and interest. I can also include
questions/games in the video that keep students engaged in the video. On the second day, we will
start with the group discussion, and have everyone contribute at least one thing to the
conversation. This will act as a refresher from yesterday’s lesson, and will spring students into
the small group activity. During this, students will brainstorm and talk with one another about
traditions. This will act as a preface to discussing their reflections.
Evaluate: I will create a rubric on my objectives laid out earlier. The rubric will be focused
around content knowledge, and how students understood/discussed what the Fourth of July
traditions are. I will evaluate how effective the audio was, and how effective the discussion and
small groups were for students’ success. If students’ did well, and I felt it accurately measured
their progress. I wouldn’t use this same lesson exactly for any other group since the audience
would be changing. I will also have students assess my performance. In their discussion I will
have them talk about what they still had questions about, or any feedback they had for me. I can
also self-evaluate. For instance, if students don’t understand the material in the video, then
maybe I should be more aware of where students’ are with their knowledge base before starting.
I can also have colleagues assess my materials/mediums used and whether I they had suggestions
on improvement.