Today's science lesson focused on review and practice of the things the students learned in the previous lesson because there was a week in between lessons and it was obvious the students hadn't fully grasped the concepts. I started by bringing out the full grown plant from our science center, pointing to each part, and calling on students to name them. I also drew each part on the white board as the students named them. Then I asked the students if any of them remembered the jobs that each plant part had. The students could all name each plant part but had a little more trouble when I asked them to name the function of each part. With a little help I could tell the students were beginning to catch on. Then I had the students come up to the white board and label the function of each part (with cards listing each function that I had already prepared).
At this point in the lesson, it was clear that the students were bored and weren't being engaged enough so I changed the ending part of my lesson completely. I decided to call students up as volunteers to pretend to be each plant part. The students and I role-played; I pretended the students were plant parts and described what each part's job was to help the plant. The rest of the students in the class guessed which part I was describing. The students were so engaged and excited about this that hands shot up and everyone wanted to participate and be a plant part. It was exhilarating to see the students' reactions to this activity. We also sang a couple plant songs that involved movement and the students really enjoyed this as well. I think they liked having the freedom to move around the room and get their wiggles out while still learning at the same time.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Lead Teaching: Day 1
Today was the first day of lead teaching and I woke up this morning feeling excited and a little bit nervous. I got up extra early so that I could get to school well before the bell rang to prepare the classroom, activities, worksheets, etc. An hour and a half before school started I was velcroing pencils to desks, taking care of morning business, running seat work, etc. The students were very surprised to see that their desks had been re-arranged in a pretty drastic way. The kids walked in a little chatty but soon were calm and quiet after I told them about their behavior expectations in regards to the new chart systems (the star chart reward and the raffle system). Going into the day, I was very excited to see if the change in seating arrangements would deter the students from talking to one another so frequently. However, the change didn't seem to have much of an effect on them and the talking continued. Also, in my original seating chart I had most of the class make a U and the kids who were "naughty" or who were always being reminded of their behavior were in two rows in the center of the U. However, this did not end up working well because the kids in the center were in way too close of a proximity to one another and they were distracting each other and the other kids around them. I am beginning to think that this group of kids just likes to talk a lot and maybe I should start concentrating on the positives of that. Maybe I can design my lessons and activities by incorporating conversation and discussion among students.
The other change I made that kind of surprised me was the behavior chart systems. I thought that if I just explained the rules and expectations to the students and was honest with them, they would respond well to the new system. However, after the initial introduction of the new system, the students were back to their own ways. The addition of "no" tickets into the bag didn't deter the students from acting out. Also, I think this certain system requires a little too much maintenance and it is hard to keep up with it while teaching. I think that it might be more beneficial if an individual reward system/behavioral plan were given to students who are constantly being reminded about their behavior instead of a whole group system. I am struggling with how to make a whole group reward system that will prevent individual students from acting out...
The star chart that I made up (students get stars for good behavior, I get stars if students have bad behavior; if the students win they get a reward, if I win I take something away from the students) is also hard to keep up with. I think it may be because what I am asking the students to do is really unattainable for first graders, and for my particular class especially. It seems unfair to expect that children this young (some of whom have only been in school one year or less) can control their urge to speak without raising their hand. I think it might be a more realistic goal to put a fair limit on the amount of times a student can shout out throughout the course of a day. Maybe each student is allowed to shout out somewhere between 3-5 times a day. It may even be possible and beneficial for students to have some easy way at their desk to keep track of how many times they shouted out a day. That way, it wouldn't require that much extra time and as a result, lessons wouldn't be interrupted. Also, I think tomorrow I am going to discuss possible reward ideas that the students may have. I think it is important for them to choose their rewards so they will be more inclined to want to work hard to earn them. Additionally, it requires students to be accountable for their actions if they helped to come up with a reward.
Throughout the day I think I did a really good job of "rolling with the punches." At times it was hectic being the only one in the classroom but I got used to it and learned to manage my time. I came up with a couple good ideas on the spot while I was teaching. Because the students' desks were re-arranged and they no longer had "teams" (a, e, i, o, u, y tables) I thought it would be fun and creative if each row or cluster of students came up with their own "team" name. Some of the groups already picked their names, but a few groups are still deciding. I think the students liked having more freedom and responsibility; they really seemed to like the idea of deciding something on their own. The other idea that I came up with on the fly is talked about more in detail in the Science Lesson 2 post...
The other change I made that kind of surprised me was the behavior chart systems. I thought that if I just explained the rules and expectations to the students and was honest with them, they would respond well to the new system. However, after the initial introduction of the new system, the students were back to their own ways. The addition of "no" tickets into the bag didn't deter the students from acting out. Also, I think this certain system requires a little too much maintenance and it is hard to keep up with it while teaching. I think that it might be more beneficial if an individual reward system/behavioral plan were given to students who are constantly being reminded about their behavior instead of a whole group system. I am struggling with how to make a whole group reward system that will prevent individual students from acting out...
The star chart that I made up (students get stars for good behavior, I get stars if students have bad behavior; if the students win they get a reward, if I win I take something away from the students) is also hard to keep up with. I think it may be because what I am asking the students to do is really unattainable for first graders, and for my particular class especially. It seems unfair to expect that children this young (some of whom have only been in school one year or less) can control their urge to speak without raising their hand. I think it might be a more realistic goal to put a fair limit on the amount of times a student can shout out throughout the course of a day. Maybe each student is allowed to shout out somewhere between 3-5 times a day. It may even be possible and beneficial for students to have some easy way at their desk to keep track of how many times they shouted out a day. That way, it wouldn't require that much extra time and as a result, lessons wouldn't be interrupted. Also, I think tomorrow I am going to discuss possible reward ideas that the students may have. I think it is important for them to choose their rewards so they will be more inclined to want to work hard to earn them. Additionally, it requires students to be accountable for their actions if they helped to come up with a reward.
Throughout the day I think I did a really good job of "rolling with the punches." At times it was hectic being the only one in the classroom but I got used to it and learned to manage my time. I came up with a couple good ideas on the spot while I was teaching. Because the students' desks were re-arranged and they no longer had "teams" (a, e, i, o, u, y tables) I thought it would be fun and creative if each row or cluster of students came up with their own "team" name. Some of the groups already picked their names, but a few groups are still deciding. I think the students liked having more freedom and responsibility; they really seemed to like the idea of deciding something on their own. The other idea that I came up with on the fly is talked about more in detail in the Science Lesson 2 post...
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Science Lesson 1: Reflection
Overall today's lesson was somewhat successful, however I think it lacked several things. But, positives first. First, I liked the way I opened up the lesson by asking the students what type of behavior they should display during the lesson. That way, they could be responsible for their own behavior and each student knew what to expect. I liked that the technology aspect was included in this lesson; I used an ELMO document camera to complete a worksheet, make a list of students' responses, and show a video from Discovery Education's website. I thought that the video was very age appropriate and presented valuable, simple explanations of plant parts and their functions. The students seemed to become really excited with the arrival of new technology in the room (probably because they are so used to the overhead). At the beginning of the lesson the students were really engaged (probably mostly due to the ELMO), but as the lesson drew on they became more and more restless. Another positive about the lesson was the inclusion of a real plant in order to get students' attention, get them excited about plants, and show them the parts of a plant in an authentic way. I also liked that I compared the parts of plants to the parts that humans have. By showing the students that like humans, plants also have parts that serve specific purposes in order for them to grow and live, students could make meaningful connections between what they already know and new information they are learning. Finally, I liked that I incorporated a graphic organizer into the lesson because it was something that was new to the students and I think they appreciated the change from the norm. I also think it is a good way to organize the students' thoughts, give them practice with writing and penmanship, and allow them to remember the parts of a plant and their functions.
Now, on to the negatives of the lesson (or places that need improvement/modifications). Although the students were engaged at the beginning of the lesson, they lost interest towards the end. I'm not really sure why the students faded off at the end of the lesson, but it may be because the model of the graphic organizer took to long or maybe the fact that the lights were off towards the end of the day made the students tired. While I liked the incorporation of technology into the lesson, the sound on the video did not work well (without speakers) and because of this, the students couldn't really hear and retain the information in the video. Next time I will make sure to bring my portable speakers so that all the students can hear the video clearly. I think the fact that the video was hard to hear impacted the information that the students came away with. Many of the students had questions about what function each plant part performed and I was a little confused by this. I know the video was hard to hear but some of the students wrote down total misconceptions on their graphic organizers. This may be because students were bored and weren't really listening or paying attention during the video or lesson. This could also be attributed to the fact that the video was extremely hard to hear.
Now, on to the negatives of the lesson (or places that need improvement/modifications). Although the students were engaged at the beginning of the lesson, they lost interest towards the end. I'm not really sure why the students faded off at the end of the lesson, but it may be because the model of the graphic organizer took to long or maybe the fact that the lights were off towards the end of the day made the students tired. While I liked the incorporation of technology into the lesson, the sound on the video did not work well (without speakers) and because of this, the students couldn't really hear and retain the information in the video. Next time I will make sure to bring my portable speakers so that all the students can hear the video clearly. I think the fact that the video was hard to hear impacted the information that the students came away with. Many of the students had questions about what function each plant part performed and I was a little confused by this. I know the video was hard to hear but some of the students wrote down total misconceptions on their graphic organizers. This may be because students were bored and weren't really listening or paying attention during the video or lesson. This could also be attributed to the fact that the video was extremely hard to hear.
Science Lesson 1: Plant Parts and their Functions
Plant Parts and their Functions
Short pre-assessment: Plant Parts Worksheet
-students individually label and color the different plant parts
Prior knowledge: what do students already know about plant parts?
-mention that each part has a job (more on this next lesson)
-make a short list of student responses
-remind students that we have been talking about plant parts; those parts are
there for a reason--they help the plant in some way (stay alive)
-compare to the parts that humans have (eyes to see, mouth to eat, ears to hear,legs to walk, hands to touch, etc.)
-ask students to name the plant parts and see if any students have any ideas
about which functions each part serves (jot down some of their ideas on the
board)
Introduce a live, full grown plant to the students (preferably with flowers)
-as a class, label the plant parts orally
Show short Discovery Education video: Plant Parts and Their Uses (first 6:39)
At the front of the room (or at overhead or ELMO) make a large graphic organizer as a model for the students. Have the students make individual graphic organizers at their desks.
Short pre-assessment: Plant Parts Worksheet
-students individually label and color the different plant parts
Prior knowledge: what do students already know about plant parts?
-mention that each part has a job (more on this next lesson)
-make a short list of student responses
-remind students that we have been talking about plant parts; those parts are
there for a reason--they help the plant in some way (stay alive)
-compare to the parts that humans have (eyes to see, mouth to eat, ears to hear,legs to walk, hands to touch, etc.)
-ask students to name the plant parts and see if any students have any ideas
about which functions each part serves (jot down some of their ideas on the
board)
Introduce a live, full grown plant to the students (preferably with flowers)
-as a class, label the plant parts orally
Show short Discovery Education video: Plant Parts and Their Uses (first 6:39)
At the front of the room (or at overhead or ELMO) make a large graphic organizer as a model for the students. Have the students make individual graphic organizers at their desks.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
