Buffalo+Museum


 * __Buffalo Museum Lesson Plan__**

**Rationale**: It is important to know how people used to live in South Dakota and also to know the heritage of the Native American people.


 * Content**: The Native American lifestyle, mainly dealing with the South Dakota tribes, and the anatomy of a buffalo

.  To discover the various ways that Native Americans used buffalo
 * SD K-12 Standards**:
 * 6.W.1.6** . Students are able to explain the development of the Mesoamerican/Andean empires.
 * 6.W.2.6.** Students are able to identify the cultural contributions of the Mesoamerican/Andean Empires.
 * Goals:** To develop an appreciation of the efficiency of the Native American people


 * Instructional Objectives**: The students will discover and be able to explain the various uses that Native Americans had for buffalo.


 * Materials**: The materials will be provided by the State Historical museum in Pierre. Smart Board and pieces of paper outlining each buffalo part will be used.


 * Procedures**: At the beginning of class, the students will be asked to sit on the floor in the middle of the classroom. The students’ desks will be in a circle around the room. On each desk, there will be a different buffalo part and a passage about that part. After reading a short passage about Native Americans and their ability to use every piece of a buffalo, the students will be handed a sheet with 20 fill-in-the-blank sentences. After they are handed this worksheet, the students will each go to a desk with a buffalo part on it. They will be assigned to fill out their worksheet as they discover a buffalo piece. After a couple minutes, the students will be told to move and go to the next station. After this, the students will use the available time to talk about what they have learned.

**__Lesson Plan Analysis: Buffalo Museum__** ** 1.What did the students learn from your lesson? How do you know they learned from your lesson? ** I assumed that most of the students knew that Native American hunted buffalo. However, I did not know how much they knew about the uses of the buffalo. Therefore, this lesson presented itself as a good teaching tool about how Native American used every part of a buffalo. They seemed to ask many intelligent questions about the buffalo parts. This lesson was helped with Mrs. Dumke and the Pierre museum. Mrs. Dumke had informed me about the buffalo pieces that were on loan from the museum. She allowed to me to take over the lesson. The main thing that I took into consideration was how to keep the students interested and how to let them discover the buffalo on their own. I believe the most effective part of the lesson was letting the students actually touch and discover the buffalo pieces independently. It is more effective teaching to let them actually know what you are talking about instead of just telling the students about the different parts of a buffalo. I followed my lesson plan pretty closely. I did not expect as many questions as the students asked. I believe each student had at least one question about one of the pieces. Luckily, I was able to answer almost all of their questions. The materials were very appropriate. This lesson showed me the importance of materials and activities on a student’s learning. It seemed that the students learned more during this lesson than on any other lesson I have ever done. I would try to be more prepared for all of the students’ questions. Getting students interested and having fun while learning Anticipating questions from the students.
 * Assessment:** The worksheet that the students will work on will be the main assessment tool. Also, their questions/comments during the activity and at the end will help me understand what the students are feeling about the activity.
 * 2. What did you think about or consider when planning the lesson? (Be specific.) **
 * 3. What do you think was the most effective part of the lesson? Why? **
 * 4. How closely did you follow your lesson plan? If you deviated from the lesson plan, what decisions did you make during the lesson and why? **
 * 5. Were the activities/materials/visuals/aids appropriate? Why? Why not? **
 * 6. What part or parts of your plan would you consider changing before teaching this lesson again? **
 * 7. What do you see as your teaching strengths? **
 * 8. Identify a goal you would like to have your field-based supervisor assist you in achieving. **

I believe that the impact on learning can be seen by the graph that I provided for my assessment tool. Most kids got all of the questions right, and the students that got a few wrong misunderstood the question. In the cases of the students getting a question wrong, I was unable to help them answer their question since I was helping another student. Some students saw me helping others and chose to guess. The only reason I know of this is because Mrs. Dumke actually helped a few of the students that I was unable to help. Therefore, the only way I know that they learned is from the graph. Another way I knew about their learning progress is walking through the class and listening to their comments/questions about the activity. Overall, I believe both the students and I learned something about this lesson.
 * Documented Impact on Learning**