Meta-Reflection on Standard T: Knowledge of Teaching

I have seen many lessons built into our biology curriculum that are informed by standards based assessment, intentionally planned and influenced by multiple strategies. Our lessons in biology and chemistry start with a warm up, which is either a formative assessment to gauge what students know about a specific concept before we teach, or see how well they learned the material from the day before. We intentionally organize our lessons in a sequence that makes sense, and make small changes to accommodate all of our students and their needs. We use many strategies, including individual, pair and group work, written and oral work, and using sentences and pictures to convey a concept. The biggest change this year however, has been the amount I’ve learned about how to implement technology into the classroom from my educational technology class.

In our classrooms as Skyline, I have access to smart boards, document cameras, and computers, all of which we (my mentors and I) use in our lessons on a daily basis. Students are given the opportunity to see these technologies in use, as well as use them individually for presentations. We also have access to ActiVotes (multiple choice remotes to check student understanding using multiple choice questions). I love to use the ActiVotes in class, and so do the students. Through the ActiVotes, I am asking the same questions as I would in an oral question or on a worksheet. However, the students have the novelty of using technology, and each student has the opportunity to test themselves and receive immediate feedback. They do not have to be afraid of being singled out for having the wrong answer because the ActiVotes can be made anonymous, which is how I have used them. The number of voters that have answered can be tracked, so you know if everyone answers, and the results come up automatically once the voting session is over, as a bar graph. During our meiosis unit, we studied karyotypes. After discussing how different karyotypes are complied and what they are used for, I asked them to identify the chromosomal issue in different karyotypes. From the results (1, 2, 3, 4), it was obvious that the students understood how karyotypes were supposed to look and how to find the diseases in them. A few weeks later I quizzed them on karyotypes. Many students did really well, which tells me that this activity helped them understand how karyotypes are meant to look and how problems can be recognized (1, 2, 3).

In biology, we have a DNA unit, in which the students learn the structure of DNA, and how each molecule is replicated. This subject matter is aligned with standard 9-11 LS1E, and part of the district scope and sequence. After I gave a lecture on DNA structure, on which the students took notes on their note-blanks. Then, the students completed a worksheet to help reinforce the different parts of DNA structure. The next day, the students worked on a modeling activity, where they worked in pairs to build a model of a DNA molecule with two types of pasta, four different colors of pipe cleaners and string. After the students built their model and answered the questions within the assignment sheet (see modeling activity above), they came up to me for an oral quiz on DNA structure, in which I asked each student specific questions. They got points depending how many times it took them to answer every single question correctly. Once I named a student, their partner could not help them. Many students did not answer all the questions correctly the first time, and they were sent back to their desks to study again. This activity gave partners a chance to help each other understand the material and teach each other when their partner needed help understand an idea. By testing each other, the students learned the material much better than if they just had to fill out a worksheet. I had students telling me that the activity was much more helpful to their learning than another kind of activity. When the students took the exam about a week and a half later, many of them did very well (1, 2, 3), showing that they retained the material they learned in the activity.

In science, an important aspect of learning is the ability to formulate lab reports. In Biology, I gave a lesson on formulating a formal lab report, so that students could understand the ideas behind what I was asking them to do. We have a detailed grading rubric that we use to grade ALL lab reports in the department, and it is very similar to the rubric used by IB Biology. We do a couple practice lab reports in which students receive extensive feedback on how to improve their reports so they can turn in quality lab reports (1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c). Students benefit from this feedback and usually do not need a second reminder to fix issues they had in the first lab report.

In order to present the material in a way that the students can understand most easily, I like to use power points with images, video clips, cartoons, anything to grab student attention and get them interested in the subject. I provide note-blanks, to make note-taking easier for the students and provide them with example problems for them to solve. I have even used different computer games to help reinforce the current material.

During the genetics unit in biology, I covered complete dominance, incomplete dominance and co-dominance. Blood type in humans is a great example of both complete dominance and co-dominance. We discussed blood typing, inheritance of blood type and how to determine which types of blood different people can receive. After taking notes, the students completed a worksheet to reinforce the material. The next day, I had the students complete a worksheet based off of the Nobel Prize website. The students answered five questions on reading material on the site, and then had to complete the game while answering questions about the steps they took to save each patient. The students had to identify what blood type the patient had by mixing the blood with different antibodies and looking for clotting, then choose which blood in the blood bank to give the patient. My students were very engaged in the activity, which really reinforced the ideas involved in blood typing. I had the students write I learned statements, which showed how effective the computer game was (1, 2, 3). They all seemed to learn a lot, and the game reinforced many ideas we discussed in class.

When learning about limiting reactants in chemistry, I used a computer simulation to help the students understand the idea of limiting reactants. The simulation has three sections: making sandwiches, real reactions, and the game, which contains many real reactions and has the students determine the amount of reactants given certain products.  The simulation helped them get the general idea when we discussed how the idea of only having one piece of cheese limits the amount of sandwiches you can make, no matter how many pieces of bread or meat you have.

Usually, a unit starts with introductory notes, such as the linked power point above. We talk briefly about a topic, such as types of chemical reactions. I give a lecture, and the students take notes on their provided note-blanks. We will usually complete an introductory activity to see how much information the students retained. During the chemical reactions unit (see power point and note-blank above), I gave a mini quiz, which assessed how well the students could recognize the different types of reactions and balanced equations. We did this using a power point, and students wrote their answers on binder paper. This is the same idea as a quiz, but the novelty makes the assessment seem more interesting and less like a quiz. We then graded the quiz in class so that the students could see what the correct answers were and we could discuss why those answers were correct. From this activity, I could see what misconceptions the students had from what questions they answered incorrectly, paying special attention to which incorrect multiple choice answer they chose. For example, student C did very well on the quiz; only missed two problems. This student made the same mistake on both problems, and many students had the same issue as her. We discussed how this question showed that coefficients in chemical reactions must be whole numbers. After more practice problems, we took a second quiz, on which student C did much better, along with the rest of her classmates.

I find that once students have a good introduction to material, they work well in groups completing practice problems, explaining the concepts to each other, and helping each other with problems they do not understand. When I talked about Le Chatelier’s principle (lesson plan), we discussed how a system in equilibrium is affected by changes in concentration, pressure and temperature. We talked about how a giant see-saw with several people walking around on it is a system in equilibrium. I had students visualize the system, and then draw a picture of what they visualized (1, 2, 3). Finally, I asked what might happen if we added more people to one side; how the system would shift to reach equilibrium again. Students had to think about the new concept and how it might affect the picture in their head. The lesson continued with a lecture on the particulars of each stressor (concentration, pressure, temperature) and how each affects a system in equilibrium. Then, the students got into groups of two or three and completed a worksheet to test their knowledge of the effect of any given stressor.

Once I give a quiz in a unit, I can gauge how much material I need to review with the students, and possibly how quickly I can move on to new material. My first quiz in the stoichiometry unit covered conversions between moles and other units, such as liters, grams, molecules, formula units, atoms and ions. The students performed well, with only a few concept issues (1, 2). I had my students participate in a jigsaw of solving different problems in my stoichiometry unit. There were eight groups of four students; each group solved one problem set (two problems). Once the students figured out how to solve their problem set, I switched up the groups so each group had one student who knew how to complete each of the four sets of problems. The students taught each other so that each student had learned how to complete four different sets of problems (1a, 1b, 2a, 2b). After this activity, I gave a quiz on how convert from amounts of reactants in a chemical reaction. From the results (1, 2), I could tell that most of the students understood the idea, and the math. We spent the rest of the day practicing different kinds of stoichiometry problems in partners. Students received stamps for every two problems they completed correctly. They were expected to receive three stamps, meaning that they completed every problem correctly (1a, 1b, 2a, 2b). About one week later I gave the unit exam. My students did extremely well, even students who normally perform well below normal (1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c). I had more A’s on this exam than I have had on any other exam.

This year has been a huge learning experience. I have figured out a few different ways to engage the students in the current material, and make sure they understand the concepts that they are supposed to be learning. I find that a mix of group work, lecture and individual work help the students get different perspectives on the material, and give them a chance to figure out the material on their own and with their peers. I also find that different activities, including computer games or simulations, worksheets, group practice problems, competitions doing problems, and lecture with many visual aids and think time for students, are all beneficial to learning, especially when combined in different ways. The students need to be challenged because it causes them to think. The more thinking they have to do, the more connections are being made in their brains and the more learning is happening. I feel that I have learned many effective strategies this year and I am excited to learn more as my teaching career takes off.

ActivVotes

I have started using ActivVotes in both my chemistry and biology classes and I absolutely love them! They are a great tool to get students to participate in class practice problems. They can be made anonymous or linked to a specific person, so students do not have to be afraid of being singled out with the incorrect answer. You can save the results of the quiz directly into your flipchart (ActivStudio or ActivInspire technology, which is linked with a SmartBoard) or power point so that you can keep the results, as a bar graph, for yourself or as a motivator for your students. I think the students really like to use them, even though they are completing the same types of problems that they would be if I had them complete the practice problems on paper. In addition, you can export the flipchart with the saved results to a jpg or pdf or a word doc. They show up as pictures, so it is necessary to adjust you formatting if you want to see the original question beneath your saved results graph. Below I linked some examples of questions I asked (and the students’ responses):

Biology: 5, 6, 7, 8

Standard V Project

I completed a project for EDU 6613 that required an assessment, teaching to help students master the material, then another assessment on the same material. I learned a lot from this experience, and I am looking forward to using this strategy in my future teaching, especially because I can have students share their strategies for solving prolems with other students, because I find that studentss with a system tend to perform better on exams. My completed project can be accessed through the link below.

Standard V Project

Meta-Reflection: Standard T: Knowledge of Teaching

Over the summer, I felt prepared to fulfill this standard in my classes. In my SPU classes, we talked a lot about each of the pieces of the standard. We even came up with our own lesson plans for different ways to fulfill this standard. I developed two different lesson plans over the summer that both fulfilled this standard.

One was a lesson on the characteristics of life, involving a debate on whether Lord Voldemort should be considered alive. I used written and oral communication and individual, paired and group work. I paired the students as best I could with similar ability levels, so that each student could feel that they had a chance to win the debate. Each of formative, summative and self-assessment was used, as students needed use the characteristics of life as evidence of their learning, which means they can check themselves to see if they remember them, the teacher can tell how much students have learned by listening to individual discussions and debates and then at the end of the class, the teacher can see how much the class has learned in the final discussion where the class has to come to a collective decision. I felt like this debate helped the students internalize how we view the characteristics of life and how we apply them to organism today. I think this lesson would also be fun for high school age kids because Harry Potter is very popular in that age group. I feel like this lesson would be one of those that students have a lot of fun, and do not really realize that they are applying their knowledge. Problems I foresee would be students getting off topic, and not using the characteristics of life, but I feel like this could be taken care of with careful direction.

The second was a lesson in which the students needed to discover why we classify living organisms in a specific way by creating their own classification system of one shoe from each class member. This lesson mostly uses self and formative assessments, because it is an introductory activity. The one piece of assessment that could be considered summative would be applying their knowledge from note-taking on each category of the Linnaeus classification system to their own shoe-classification scheme (see the lesson plan). I think this lesson would be accessible to all students, because it is dealing with shoes, which they wear every day. This lesson seemed very easy for the female students, as they probably think about the different aspects of shoes when getting dressed in the morning. I tried to use many instructional strategies, including individual, group and full class work. Because we were classifying shoes, I think every ability level and cultural background could understand this activity. Students with language barriers would be put in a group with at least one other student that they are familiar with to help them understand everything going on. When I entered the classroom this quarter, I found there was a similar activity, classifying household items, already built in to the curriculum which accomplished the same thing.

This quarter, I have seen many lessons built into our biology curriculum that are informed by standards based assessment, intentionally planned and influenced by multiple strategies. Our lessons in biology and chemistry start with a warm up, which is either a formative assessment to gauge what students know about a specific concept before we teach, or see how well they learned the material from the day before. We intentionally organize our lessons in a sequence that makes sense, and make small changes to accommodate all of our students and their needs. We use many strategies, including individual, pair and group work, written and oral work, and using sentences and pictures to convey a concept. The biggest change this quarter however, has been the amount I’ve learned about how to implement technology into the classroom from my educational technology class.

In our classrooms as Skyline, I have access to smart boards, document cameras, and computers, all of which we (my mentors and I) use in our lessons on a daily basis. Students are given the opportunity to see these technologies in use, as well as use them individually for presentations. We also have access to active voters (multiple choice remotes to check student understanding using multiple choice questions) but have not had the chance to use them yet. Through this class, I was able to see many other forms of technology in the classroom, including how to use blogging in the classroom, ideas for projects that collaborate with other classrooms, and how to incorporate technologies that students may need to know how to use in the later careers. I came up with some other ideas for helping students really internalize the skills and concepts they learn in the classroom, such as using computer games and podcasts to give students the means to apply their knowledge to see how well they understand the concepts and skill they have been taught. These new technologies may require use at home, which cannot always assume that students have access to these technologies. We can get around this by creating in class activities that teach students how to use these technologies, which we have done in my classrooms this quarter. Even giving students an option to use technology could help inform all students about technology, as the presentation would show students how the technology can be used. I had two projects, Organelle Commercial and Salting a Slug, that did this, and in both cases, only one group chose to use technology in their project.

Finally, in my technology class we needed to develop a website to help other teachers incorporate technology into their secondary math and science classrooms. We put up several ideas of tools to use in the classroom and example lessons using those tools for each for each component of Tech EALR 1: Integration: Students use technology within all content areas to collaborate, communicate, generate innovative ideas, investigate and solve problems. We also developed a digital narrative that discussed our view of technology incorporation in to the classroom. We had to develop a script and use technology to put pictures together that made sense with our script. I feel like I understand this standard a little better than over summer, especially in the technology component. I am constantly learning more ways to fulfill this standard from my mentors. I know that I will learn more as I go through the year and I hope to keep adding to my experience long after I graduate from this program.

Welcome to the Future… In Educational Technology

When making my digital narrative, I felt that what I was discussing was a good summary of everything I had learned over the quarter in this class. I had a lot of fun taking pictures of my students actually using technology in the classroom, but I noticed some interesting things. I saw that students were very familiar with using some aspects of technology in the classroom, while other technologies are not so wide spread. For example, most high school students are fluent in most Microsoft office programs, including Word, Power Point and Excel. Students can surf the internet with ease, though have trouble with determining whether a site is reliable or not. I also did not see a wide use of blogging in the classroom. Although students are familiar with social networking with facebook, myspace and twitter, they do not really use blogging. Blogging can be used for student collaboration; students can teach each other by explaining a concept in their own words. As blogs are public, the students’ work is being published. Students will work much harder if they know their work is being read and scrutinized by their peers, and the rest of the online community (November, 2006). If I were to have students begin a blog for the creative stories we write about science concepts, they may work harder to make sure it is their best work, and we could even talk about other ways of publishing their stories. Incorporating these kind of projects for students fulfills EALR 1 component 1.1 and EALR 2, component 2.4 of The Educational Technology Learning Standards.

I feel that are doing a pretty good job of preparing our students for their future careers, but we can do more. I think introducing them to technologies such as wikispaces, videoconferencing, or even website building would benefit their preparation immensely. Technology classes in schools may do this, but I think all students should be given sufficient practice with these programs. I think if we keep working to incorporate problem solving and creativity, such as incorporating computer games (http://medmyst.rice.edu/) or real life simulations (http://www.youdagames.com/online-simulation-games/) into our teaching, we will have prepared our students very well for their future careers. This incorporation will fulfill EALR 1, component 1.3 and EALR 2, component 2.4 of The Educational Technology Learning Standards.

I think we do a good job of talking about multiculturalism in the classroom, but the only way our students learn first-hand is if a student in our class has traveled, or if a student has moved to the US from another country. Using services like global-leap.org, we could connect our classrooms across the globe. Students could work with students from another country to compare ecosystems surrounding their schools. For example, my mentor just did a lab with her IB Environmental Systems and Societies class where they studied the numbers of three types of trees in the environment surrounding Skyline High School, as well as looking at what other organisms and biotic factors are present. We could connect with a classroom in other country (for example, somewhere in England or Australia) and run the same experiment, comparing the ecosystems and making conclusions about why the ecosystems are similar or different. This project could be used to fulfill all components of EALR 1 of The Educational Technology Learning Standards.

Students are excited about using all the modern technologies available today, but they do not necessarily know the safest practices for using them. Our students need to know how to protect themselves and their identities against predators, especially those online because it may not be apparent that they are present. We can use interactive means, such as the PBS Official Web License. We can also help counteract cyber bullying by reminding students to report any name calling or mean commenting they encounter. These interactive means fulfill EALR 2, components 2.1 and 2.2 of The Educational Technology Learning Standards.

Often times, students respond more strongly to their peers than they do to authority figures, even if both are relaying the same message. If students can discuss legal, ethical and moral issues associated with modern technologies with each other, their thoughts may have a greater impact on each other than my own thoughts. This is probably one of the reasons the commercials countering pirated music now star children and teens. If we can have a serious class discussion about what students consider appropriate actions when it comes to using modern technology, such as creative content posted online, the students may consider looking at creative content differently than they have in the past. We want to see a change in their behavior and perceptions towards content posted online (Microsoft, 2008). These discussions would fulfill EALR 2, components 2.1 and 2.2 of The Educational Technology Learning Standards.

References:

Freedman, Terry. (2006). Coming of age: An introduction to the new world wide web. Great Britain: Terry Freedman Ltd.

Global Leap. (2006). Videoconferencing in the Classroom. Retrieved from: http://www.global-leap.org/about/.

Microsoft. (2008). Digital citizenship and creative content curriculum. Retrieved from: http://www.digitalcitizenshiped.com/Curriculum.aspx.

Public Broadcasting Company. (2007). Get your official web license. Retrieved from: http://pbskids.org/license/result.html?a1=n&a2=n&a3=n&a4=n&a5=n&a6=n&a7=n&a8=n&a9=n&a0=n&name=Kirstin&x=125&y=36.

Marzano Strategies: homework and practice, and setting objectives and providing feedback

Lesson Plan: Formal Lab Reports

1. Instructional Strategy-Referenced Reflection

In this lesson, two different strategies were implemented in different parts of the lesson. For homework the class before, students were given a set of fake data collected by a student. They were to write a formal lab report, using their lab grading rubric, assuming they had completed the lab themselves (Homework and practice). In the lesson provided, students were given another student’s lab report to evaluate according to a given rubric (with the same criteria as the lab grading rubric). They gave feedback on the report they were given, and gave the report back to the student author (Setting objectives and providing feedback). The students were then asked to take home the evaluated report to fix for homework and turn in the next day (Homework and practice).

I thought this lesson went very well. Students definitely benefitted from looking at another student’s lab report. They saw what other students did, and thought about what they could do to make their reports better. One student even commented, “This data table is much better than mine! I totally forgot to include an average column.” I think it is wonderful that students can see their own mistakes by looking at others work. Often times, students respond better to criticism from their peers rather than from me.

One problem I saw was that some students did not put as much effort into their reports, so students evaluating those reports did not get as much out of the task as others did. I wish all students had put forth more effort so that everyone could benefit equally from looking at another student’s report. Another exercise could be to look at previous year’s reports, or even made up reports so students could look for errors and parts to fix in the reports.

1. Standard S Criterion-References Reflection

In this lesson, students were assigned homework practice for completing formal lab reports. They were given a very specific lab grading rubric to follow in order to complete the lab report successfully. The students used their time at home to practice writing their report so that they know what is expected of them when we have our first formal lab report assigned. As they practice writing full reports more often, they will understand exactly what I expect in terms of their formal lab reports.

During the peer evaluation, I walked around to check how well students were doing on the lab reports. Most students did a pretty good job following the given lab grading rubric, understanding that those were the criteria on which they would be graded. Students worked hard to complete a draft for class, not knowing they would get to fix problems in their labs before officially submitting them. Students were thoughtful in their evaluations of their peer’s reports and provided good feedback to help their peers get a better grade. This feedback helped the students see the parts of the lab report that they needed to improve or missed. The lab reports were alright for a first attempt. I hope that my feedback will help them improve their reports even more, so that their first formal lab report will be the best that they can produce.

1. Standard T Criterion-Referenced Reflection

In both of these activities, students could take advantage of both summative and self-assessment strategies. As they were writing their reports at home, they could use their lab grading rubrics as a checklist to ensure their report completely contains all the parts. They can also use their rubric as a check list after they have finished writing it.

During the peer evaluation portion, the students use a peer evaluation rubric to grade their peer’s report. The evaluator can use the rubric as a checklist to evaluate the author’s report. They can assess the author’s summative understanding of the scientific method and how it applies to formal lab reports.

Marzano Strategies: identifying similarities and differences, collaborative learning, and nonlinguistic representation

Lesson Plan: Investigating Cell Variety

1. Instructional Strategy-Referenced Reflection

In this lesson, three different strategies were implemented in different parts of the lesson. Students worked in partners to look at different cells to discover the similarities and differences between plant and animal cells (identifying similarities and differences). The students worked with their partners to inspect four different types of cells: onion skin, elodea, cheek cells and amoebas (collaborative learning). Next, the students worked together to identify similarities and differences they saw between the animal and plant cells, including differences in the organelles within, and shape of the singular cells. Finally, the students drew generalized plant and animal cells based on what they had seen while looking at the cells under the microscope (nonlinguistic representation).

I thought the lesson went very well. The students seemed to pick up on the differences in plant and animal cell structure very quickly, and could see the differences in organelles. I think the students would have learned less if they were not comparing plant and animal cells. Finding similarities and differences between the two plant and two animal cells seemed key to their understanding of what was common between each type of cell.

One problem I saw was the animal cells chosen for the lab were all singular, while the plant cells were all connected in a layer. The students thought that this was another key difference between plant and animal cells. If a layer of animal cells could be found to look at under a microscope, maybe it would stop students from making this erroneous determination.

1. Standard S Criterion-References Reflection

In this lesson, students needed to read the procedure and follow directions to complete the lab successfully. They also needed to write the answers to the questions in the lab procedure to document their thinking, both for themselves and for me. Because the students were working in partners, they needed to communicate their thinking to each other so they can work together to figure out the answers to the presented questions. In addition, microscopes were needed for the students to see the cells and each of the parts.

The purpose of the lab was discussed as a warm up the first day of the lab. There was a class discussion of the given purpose (written in the lab procedure) and what it meant. Students discussed how they would be looking at different plant and animal cells and determining the distinguishing characteristics of plant and animal cells. From their conclusions, I can see that the students understood what learning targets they were supposed to meet and that they did meet them. (see attached student work)

In this lab, the students needed to draw each cell can calculate a size based on the percentage of the field of view the cell took up. This way, they could get a clearer understanding of how big the cells they were looking at were. One of the questions in the lab concerned students hypothesizing why chloroplasts (an organelle needed for photosynthesis) were not needed in red onions, though they were present in elodea cells. Most students reasoned correctly, using the knowledge that chloroplasts were for photosynthesis. (see attached work)

1. Standard T Criterion-Referenced Reflection

I think the students benefited greatly from the learning in this lab. Each question they answered in the lab was a formative assessment as well as a self-assessment, and most students did fairly well. The pictures the students needed to draw at the end of the lab were also a form of self-assessment, to see if they understood what they were looking at.

I think the students benefitted greatly from the idea that this lesson was planned to observe differences and similarities between different cells. If the four cells were not chosen specifically, the students may not have seen the differences we wanted them to. Also, if we had not picked two of each type, they might have attributed some of the differences between the cells as differences between plant and animal cells even though they might have just been unique to that one cell. For example, if we just used a green plant cell, they might have attributed chloroplasts to all animal cells.

To personalize instruction to individual student abilities, I deliberately chose partners for specific students who I knew needed extra help, for example the ELL students and the special need students. ELL students were placed with another student who spoke their language, if that was possible. The special need students were paired with another student who is stronger in the class. I also avoided certain pairings I knew would prevent students from completing the lab in an efficient manner.

Student work:
Answering questions
Drawing cells

20 minute Lesson Reflection

I thought the lesson went well, other than the fact that I had nothing for students who finished early. I just didn’t realize that one group would get done so much faster than the others. It might have had something to do with the fact that we were classifying shoes and one group was all girls and one group was all guys. I think girls think about shoes much more than guys on a daily basis. One thing I could have done was to ask them to do another classification system, and try to use as many different categories as possible. During the lesson, I thought I might also make-up crossword puzzles for each unit, just so students have something to work on if they finish early in any activity. But I think asking them to create another system would be more applicable to the lesson. Some other changes I might make would be to ask students to further explain why they used the type of organization they did. For example, if they used a hierarchy system, why did they use that, as opposed to various groups on the same level? I may not tell them to start with two groups, so that I do not give away the idea of using a hierarchy system.

                One of the misconceptions students have in classification is they do not readily use a hierarchy system without being asked to do so. If I do not ask them, or hint to them, to use a hierarchy system, I will be able to judge how much the students already know or guess about classification, which was my goal in this lesson. I really used the whole lesson as a formative assessment, though I could have done a better job explaining that idea in the beginning.

                In addition, I thought I could have added more student contribution in the final discussion. I could have asked if any of the students had heard of the Linnaeus classification system, and if they could explain it. I could have even asked students for the taxonomy levels, because they probably would be able to get most of them (at least kingdom and species) without my help. Then we could have gone more in depth with an example relating the systems they devised to a system in place, like a dog versus a cat, and the flow of their taxonomy levels. Even in that discussion, students could be asked to contribute also. They would probably know the species of dog is canine and cat is feline. They may also know that both belong to the animal kingdom, and may know that mammal is one of the levels. One student may even be smart and check their textbook (the levels for a dog are in the book I will be using at Skyline).

                I think I did fairly well on the RTOP criteria. The only section I thought was severely lacking was the preconceptions and prior knowledge. I think this part was a problem because I planned a journal entry about why they thought scientists classified organisms, and what they thought those systems looked like, and there was not time for this to be included in the lesson I presented. I thought the activity covered this portion as well, but not as well as I would have liked. I gave the students a hint about using a hierarchy system, which I think I will not do next time. I also need to have more explicit criteria for the presentations so I can hear students’ thinking on why they used the type of system they did. Maybe I could even say something like, “think about how scientists classify animals while you are classifying your shoes” or something of that sort at the beginning of the activity.

                I engaged the students as members of a learning community by having them create a classification system by working together and discussing their ideas on why they wanted to structure their system in a specific way. Student exploration exceeded formal presentation, because they were creating the system and then discussing their thinking, rather than having me lecture on how systems are structured. I thought the lesson encouraged students to seek alternative modes of investigation because they were using ideas from biology to create a system using their shoes, rather than animals. We could have done many other things to look at classification, but this way, they needed to look outside the box, and understand classification by performing it in a different manner. This section may have been a little weak because they really only had one mode of investigation open to them. I thought there was a high proportion of student to student talk. I tried not to help the students until they really needed it, at the end of the lesson, for example, when the boys were taking too long to decide what categories to use.

                All in all, I thought this lesson was a very good learning experience for me. I did manage to do the one thing I have been working on in the classroom. I gave out all the directions and papers before splitting them into groups, and did not talk over the students as they were getting into groups. This was something I did every time I presented a lesson, so I was happy that I finally fixed this issue.

20 minute Lesson Planning Reflection

I had a hard time creating an entertaining lesson on my own, and ended up having to go online for ideas. This is not a bad thing necessarily, but I got frustrated because I only found one example, and could not think of any alternatives. I have the lessons from my mentor teacher on the subject, but they are more lecture and power point based, and I really wanted to do a hands-on activity. I also wanted to be able to address the misconceptions about classification, and the power points did not work so well for that. I also was worried because I had no idea how long it would take the students to complete the activity. I over planned the lesson, to make sure I would not have down time, but then I ended up having some anyway (see 20 minute lesson reflection).

                I learned a lot from the Science Curriculum Topic Study and the information was very helpful when making this lesson my own. I was thinking about the misconceptions about classification (again, see 20 minute lesson reflection) when I wanted to start with a journal entry and then have the students make up their own systems. This way, I could see both what students were thinking individually and what students came up with as groups. From there, I could address any forms of systems that were not the hierarchy system and hopefully the discussions would help them see why we classify using the hierarchy system.

I think that this lesson specifically addressed the idea that students come in with preconceptions from How People Learn. The article talked about how it is important to address the misconceptions or students will not fully understand or use the correct model. I thought the lesson could have done this, but since none of the students showed misconceptions in their systems, this part seemed skimmed over or skipped entirely. Maybe I could have been more explicit, or asked the students to be more explicit, when explaining why they created the hierarchy system.

                I feel that this lesson in itself was a formative assessment. Although I did not present the journal entry, I think that also would have been part of the formal assessment, because I could see students individual thoughts on the types of systems used in classification, rather than just what the group came up with. One student could have thought something different than the group, and just not said anything because the rest of the groups had agreed on something else and they did not want to look stupid.

                Overall, I think lesson planning done right is much harder than it looks. It takes a lot of time and energy to develop and perfect a lesson, but once it is done, you can use it over and over again.

Lesson Plan

Formative Assessment

Activity Directions

10 minute lesson

This week, we had to present 10 minutes of a prepared lesson. I presented a warm-up, which included a journal entry and pair discussions on the characteristics of life. I thought the lesson went well, granted that the class had no preparation for the topic, while the students would have had a day of preparation. I still need to work on talking over students; I need to give them all the directions and then let them go. If I forget, I need to remember to call their attention again before I start talking. I thought I got their attention well, but it was a verbal command, so I need to come up with a silent one. I think it would be good to have both under my belt, especially with the amount of group activity I plan to use in my classroom. I thought my que questions to the students worked well, and that they encouraged the students to look at the ideas in a different way, so they could see other opinions that would have been able to use if we had continued on to the debate portion of the lesson. Overall, I think it went really well and I can’t wait to use this lesson in the classroom.

Lesson Plan