Case Summary
Case 1 for: LMNP13
General Information
Task title: Role Play: Causes of WWI
Collection Date: 2/17/10
Class period: 6th grade Social Studies
Identifiers: ___Document Analysis
___Technology-enhanced
___Groupwork
___Extended Writing
___Concept Lesson
___Simulation
___Lecture
___Seminar Discussion
___Deliberative Discussion
___Culminating Activity ___IRE recitation
___Published Curriculum Package
___Perspective-Taking
Exercise
__x__Other
Observation Scoring: [Enter numerical scores for the primary and secondary rater]
Rating Type
Primary Rater –
Initial
Secondary raterInitial
Researcher
Howell
High
Order
Thinking
1
Deep
Knowledge
Substantitive
Conversation
Connectedness
1
1
1
Consensus
Task Scoring: [Enter numerical scores for the primary and secondary rater]
Rating Type
Researcher
Primary Rater
- Initial
Secondary
Rater – Initial
Howell
Construction
of
Knowledge
1
Elaborated
Communication
Connection
2
1
Scored
After
Observation
Yes
Yes
Consensus
Class Map:
X
S16
WM
S15
WM
S14
WF
S13
WF
S12
BF
S11
WF
S10
WF
S9
BF
S8
WM
X
Chalk Board
Table
Central Powers
No Man’s Land
Allied Powers
X
X
X
Door
Table
Do not mess w/us
German submarines
S3
S2
S1
HF WF WM
Table
S20
BM
S17 S21
BM WM
S18 S22
WM WM
S19
S24
BM
WM
S23 S25
WM WM
S26
WM
Table w/ PC
Teacher
Desk
Table
Students on the left side and bottom side of the room sat in blue chairs along the exterior of the
classroom. These students were predominantly female. Students on the right side of the room
sat on the floor without chairs. These students were predominantly male. A larger open space in
the middle had two posters facing each other labeled Central Powers and Allied Powers. A
poster in between these lay on the ground and was labeled No Man’s Land. Students at the
bottom held a hand made poster that read: “Do not mess with us German submarines.”
Lesson Summary Narrative:
Time: 6th grade, 7.52 AM – 8.45 AM (53 minutes)
Context:
Twenty-two students were present in this 6th grade social studies class. The lesson took place in
late February. The teacher informed me that the class I observed was an inclusion class and
included students with behavioral disorders. Today’s lesson was a play or skit depicting events
of World War I. It was the students’ first presentation of the year according to the teacher and
students’ hoped to perform it for their parents. Because students had their spoken lines
memorized, one can assume that students spent considerable time rehearsing before today’s
lesson. Later, the teacher informed me that the play was the students’ end of unit assessment and
that it concluded a unit on History Through the Centuries. The skit was one of four memory
drills for the year. The others include Gettysburg Address, Amendments to Constitution, and the
U.S. Presidents. When I entered, students were wearing signs identifying their role in the play.
These included: Franz Ferdinand, Serbia, Russia, USA, Germany, Mexico, Wilson, Belgium,
Congress, Britain, Sophia, American Trade Ship, etc. Near the end of the class session, the
teacher revealed that students had written the play scripts on their own using their textbooks, that
they had divided the roles on their own as a class, and that they rehearsed the play on their own.
Demographic Breakdown:
WM: 11
WF: 5
BM: 3
BF: 2
HF: 1
Lesson Time Breakdown:
7.52 – Final Prep for Play; Teacher Directions
8.11 – Play on WWI begins
8.29 – Recitation of Gettysburg Address
8.34 – Conference w/ Researcher
8.40 – Outline of Next Section in Book (Lincoln)
8.45 – End
The Task:
The task was a skit on World War I, which included the traditional narrative: the assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Allied and Central Power alliances, trench warfare, U.S.
involvement, and heavy casualties. The teacher did not provide a direction sheet or rubric to
document the task but indicated that the skit was the students’ end of unit assessment. The
teacher held up cue cards, which were read in unison by a portion of the class. Each cue card
introduced a part of the skit that was then acted out by individual students within the room. This
process continued until the story of WWI was told.
Lesson Summary:
The lesson began with students completing last minute preparations for the skit. Several females
(S2 and S3) finished a poster. Others students worked on signs that indicated their character
name. Students were divided in the room according to whether they represented the Allied or
Central Powers. The teacher introduced the lesson by informing students that they would reenact
part of history. She told the class to follow the cue cards she would hold up so they would not
get nervous. The teacher pointed out No Man’s Land in the center of the room but then
proceeded to wait to see if another adult (the Vice Principal) was going to arrive. When the VP
did arrive, the teacher spoke directly to the VP and to me and informed us that students were
focused on freedom this month and that today’s play was their first presentation of the year. She
told us that typically they focus on black history in February but that this year they had examined
four wars and related them to freedom.
The skit began with a narrator reading from a prepared script. He talked about remembering
soldiers’ sacrifices and ended by asking if war would ever end. He then introduced the skit on
WWI. Following the narrator and pattern emerged that continued throughout the skit. The
teacher would first hold a cue card up to be read by the left side of the room which was
predominantly female (S8 – S16). Students from the mostly male side of the room would then
stand up to enact a portion that piece of history. The students role-playing specific characters
spoke their lines from memory in the center of the room. Their lines told the story of World War
I as outlined below and did not vary from what one would expect to find in a traditional history
textbook. Students acted out the events by falling to the ground or by lining up along side their
allies. For trench warfare, the two sides hid behind the signs in the center of the room and threw
paper balls at one another.
Chronology of WWI Skit
A. Austria-Hungary & Serbia disagree.
B. Franz Ferdinand assassinated.
C. Nations pick sides according to alliances.
D. War bogs down into trench warfare.
E. Zimmerman telegram; sinking of Lusitania; Americans enter.
F. Heavy casualties.
G. Central Powers defeated
Following the conclusion of the World War I skit, the teacher directed students to line up across
the front of the room so that they could recite the Gettysburg Address together as a class. The
students seemed surprised by the teacher’s request. The teacher then explained to me that the
students would be tested on their memorization of the address by having to complete a fill-inthe-blank version of it. Students then recited the Gettysburg Address. When it became clear that
all students could not recite it entirely, the teacher asked a single black male to recite the
remainder.
After a brief discussion with me, the teacher ended the lesson by asking students to outline the
first section in the next unit. She directed students to their textbook and to an outline written on
the board. The outline was on the life of Abraham Lincoln.
Observation: Higher Order Thinking – 1
Students were engaged in LOT operations and did not perform HOT at any time. The skit
depended on students reciting factual information taken from the textbook and paraphrased into
skit lines. Although the teacher was not transmitting the pre-specified body of knowledge to the
students, the students were transmitting that knowledge to the audience. There was no
uncertainty in the lesson and students did not venture from the pre-planned, factually based
script.
Observation: Deep Knowledge – 1
Knowledge was thin. Although the lesson dealt mostly with World War I, it included numerous
topics within that subject and then ventured to the Gettysburg Address and to Abraham Lincoln.
While the teacher mentioned that students had been linking wars to freedom, there was no
evidence that the lesson was designed to help students understand freedom more deeply. The
narrative of World War I was not seen as problematic. For example, students did not examine
the role of nationalism in launching a world war.
Observation: Substantive Conversation – 1
No features of substantive conversation were observed. The scripted nature of the classroom
discourse prevented sharing or coherent promotion of ideas. There was no discussion but instead
discourse focused on transmitting a memorized body of knowledge.
Observation: Connectedness to Real World – 1
Recitation of the Gettysburg Address and the events of World War I by themselves have no
value beyond the classroom. The teacher made no effort to justify why students needed to
understand the events of World War I or the Gettysburg Address. Had the teacher said that the
Gettysburg Address is fundamental to understanding freedom in America or that understanding
the causes of World War I might help us prevent future wars, connectedness could have been
scored higher.
Task: Construction of Knowledge – 1
The task called on students to write a script on events of World War I, to memorize their lines,
and to recite them in a skit format. Students’ lines followed the traditional textbook narrative
and did not include interpretation, analysis, synthesis or evaluation. The same can be said for the
Gettysburg Address section of the lesson.
Task: Elaborated Communication – 2
The task goes beyond fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice because it required students to write
and memorize complete thoughts. The task did not require students to generalize or support new
thinking, which prevents a higher score.
Task: Connection to Students’ Lives – 1
Recitation of the Gettysburg Address and the events of World War I by themselves have no
value beyond the classroom. Because there is no task sheet, I am forced to evaluate the skit as it
was observed. The teacher made no effort to justify why students needed to understand the
events of World War I or the Gettysburg Address. Had the teacher said that the Gettysburg
Address is fundamental to understanding freedom in America or that understanding the causes of
World War I might help us prevent future wars, connectedness could have been scored higher.
In writing their skits, some students chose to make their lines and actions more realistic by using
slang or by using body movements such as one would see with a fist fight. Alone, however,
these connections are not enough because there was not a question, problem, issue or problem
presented to students within the task.