Video Analysis

Alicia Hanson
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The learning goals for this lesson were for students to visualize, identify, and
examine the differences in population and resource distribution. To begin the
lesson, the teacher gave her students arm bands with information about a particular
region of the world and engaged them in a class discussion about what their lives
might be like if they lived in that region. Areas of the world were mapped out on the
floor and the students used their armbands to identify where to stand on the
mapped areas. In this way the students could easily experience and visualize the
vast differences in population distribution and density. The teacher next began
handing out various amounts of candy and cookies to each region to represent food,
wealth, oil, and other resources. The teacher used guided questions to facilitate
discussion and critical thinking among her students and they really began to identify
the discrepancies among resource distribution in the various regions of the world.
The students began actively discussing these differences and making insightful
observations about things such as the level of waste some countries likely produce
because they have an excess of resources.
During the beginning of the lesson, the teachers employment of the
armbands full of information about different regions of the world hooked the
students attention and fostered immediate discussion. It was an effective way to
lead the students into the main simulation activity and the students were already
demonstrating critical thinking by postulating what their lives might be like based

on the evidence from their armbands. Creating a map on the floor of different world
regions and then further splitting those regions into urban, rural, and uninhabitable
areas was a really effective way of having the students visualize and understand
population distribution and density. The students demonstrated that they were
able to identify the differences, for example, by noting that Asia and Western Europe
were the most densely populated areas of the world. Distributing candy and cookies
as various resources such as food, oil, wealth, etc. was also an effective way for
students to visualize and grasp a more abstract concept. This was evident in the
way the students were able to identify and discuss that some regions didnt receive
enough resources to support their entire populations while other regions got an
overabundance of resources, more than they needed. The teachers use of guided
questioning throughout each stage of the simulation was an efficient informal
progress monitoring assessment. The students were provided with several
opportunities to demonstrate their critical thinking and understanding of the
content through robust discussions.
Overall, the simulation appeared to achieve the learning goals of having the
students visualize, identify, and examine the differences in population and resource
distribution throughout the world. I thought that the teachers questions were
thought provoking, effectively moved the discussions forward, and encouraged
high-level thinking among her students. Having the students get up and move
around and participate in discussions clearly kept them all engaged in the material
and actively learning rather than passively receiving information. Some things I
think might be beneficial to add to this lesson would be a writing component and

some technology. I think having the students do a 1 2 page journal or essay on

what they learned from the simulation would provide the teacher with yet another
progress monitoring assessment, this time something formal that she could grade
and keep record of. Its likely that not all of the students actively participated in the
discussions, so a writing component could be another way to make sure all students
demonstrate their mastery of the content. The new Common Core is all about
fostering literacy across all subjects, so having the students write a short essay as a
closure to this lesson would fall right in line with that. I also think that a technology
component wouldve been highly useful and effective for this lesson. I dont know
when exactly this lesson was filmed, but if it was done in todays classrooms Im
sure the teacher could add some sort of interactive element using technology (like
maybe students taking a poll using Socrative via their smartphones) to provide even
more layers of progress monitoring assessment and student engagement.