CT REFLECTION #2

*Discuss student learning. What did students learn? Provide evidence for this learning (discuss student work, observation data, video, etc.). How do you know that students learned?

For my lesson observation, I taught the students about the slow changes of the earth, weathering and erosion. For this lesson, I review thee vocabulary terms that the students learned prior to this lesson. Afterwards, we watched a video about the different effects that weathering and erosion has on the earth that made it more clear to the students what the difference was. The video included two different superheroes who acted as weathering and erosion. One superhero broke the rock of the earth’s surface that symbolized weathering and one had the power to push away the broken rock which symbolized erosion. After the video, we reviewed the kinesthetic vocabulary that the students came up with and revised it based upon their new understanding of the terms. We then split the students up in groups and showed them demonstrations of weathering and erosion using chalk. The students recorded what they observed for each demonstration in the science notebooks.

*What do you feel worked well and what would you refine if you were to teach this lesson again to the same class?

I think that this observation was one of the best that I have conducted. A lot of things worked well in this lesson and I felt as though the students really understood the difference between weathering and erosion which can be difficult concepts to understand. I believe my students gained knowledge in this lesson about the slow changes to the earth’s surface because they showed understanding of it when they changed their movements for the term “erosion”. Before, their movement did not show the idea of rocks/ parts of rock being moved away and did not really help them know the difference between weathering and erosion. I believe the student’s interest in the video helped as an attention getter. The demonstration at the end conducted by myself and one of my CT’s got the students involved because they could actually see weathering and erosion in front of them. As I looked back on the video, I saw the students were very engaged because they wanted to show their drawings of how they interpreted the two changes. If there was anything that I would change if I got a chance to redo this lesson would be that I would create a strategy to have more order in the way that the students shared their drawings in the small groups. Many students called out to show me their recordings instead of raising their hands. I eventually called on all the students in my group to show me at least once what they draw for each demonstration. I think that it would’ve been faster and more affected if I told the students prior to drawing that they would share what they drew with a shoulder partner. This would have made the lesson go more smoothly and take less time.

*Based on student learning of the objectives, what are your next steps/goals?

My next goals for my instruction and also student learning is to instill some type of kinesthetic learning in the majority of my lessons and not just science. I see based upon my v-note video that the majority of students showed active participation and understanding when they were engaging in the kinesthetic vocabulary activities. Some students would also do the movements throughout the lesson which showed they were solidifying the information into their minds every time the term was brought up in discussion or they were asked to explain it to their shoulder partner.

*As you reflect over this observation cycle, what ideas or insights are your discovering about your teaching?

As I reflect on my teaching, I realize that I am becoming more comfortable with teaching this age group of students. I see it mostly in the way that I am speaking throughout the lesson in the video. Before, I would consistently look at my notes during observations and it felt very stressed and scripted to me. Now that I am more comfortable with my students and teaching more frequently, I feel that my teaching style is getting to be more fluid and natural. I feel as though I know how to speak to my first graders in a tone that is engaging but also at their level.