During my final CT observation, we used our knowledge of energy to design our own drem robots. This was a project based summative assessment on their understanding of energy. For this unit in particular, I wanted to do a project based assessment instead of a test. My students respond better to projects and hands-on learning versus standard assessments. I also wanted to give my students who struggle with assessment a better way to show their understanding. My students have been exposed to so much testing that I wanted to engage them with a project. We had to take a break from science for a little for state testing preparation, so I wanted a fun educational break for them. Their robot had to utilize three forms of energy. They had to draw, or design their robot, then they had to write about their robots and explain the energy forms it used. In addition, if students mastered this quickly, I challenged them to use all five forms of energy. Not only was this assessment project based, I was able to ask students more higher level thinking questions than I did in my previous science lesson. By asking students what they could create using these energy forms, and how the energy forms worked, they were able to make deeper connections to the topic. I feel like this lesson went extremely well. Mostly all of my students were able to complete this project this successfully. Students were engaged the whole time and I really got to see their creative side. I was surprised with all of the cool and unique ideas they came up with.
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![]() In my final supervisor observation, I did an introductory science lesson on energy. The big idea for energy in third grade is to indentify and define energy and the forms it has. When planning this unit, it was supposed to take place over three days, one day to introduce it, one day to apply their knowledge, and the last day to complete a project on the standard. This unit happened to fall on a week of State Testing, so I had to merge two lessons together. We ended up doing the introductory lesson and the apply lesson together. We had a whole group digital lesson on energy and while the lesson was going on, we completed a foldable. The lesson had to be completed in a 45 minute time frame. It was overwhelming to have to merge two lessons as well as have a time crunch. On top of all that, the sound to the projector was not working, so we had to use the sound from my laptop, which made it hard for some students to hear. I used this to my advantage though, to stop the lesson and have whole group conversations and discussions on what was being talked about. This lesson on energy was engaging for students because we were able to relate it to the real world by using examples such as balls on a hill and roller coasters. Students got extremely excited about sharing their experiences on roller coasters with kinetic and potential energy. One area I felt like I have grown in significantly during my internship is classroom management. I have implemented using positive praise, stating and reinforcing expectations, and making connections with students. One student in particular was off task during this lesson by playing with a glue stick and I walked over quietly to him and just put my hand out for him to give it to me. This caused no disruption for the rest of the class and he got back on task immediately. In the next lesson, which is my CT observation, students are applying the knowledge learned from this lesson to create their dream robot. Their dream robot will have to utilize at least three different forms of energy. Their ability to do this will be the summative assessment of this energy unit. In this lesson, students were using number bonds to decompose fractions that were greater than one. The whole unit on fractions can be confusing for students because we are looking at parts of a whole instead of whole numbers. With the Eureka curriculum, my students have done surprisingly well in comparison to years prior. Once they get a solid grasp on what a fraction is, it moves into more difficult concepts, like fractions greater than one. During our math block we have a very set routine and students know expectations because the layout does not change from day to day. We start with our fluency, then we move into an application problem that uses previous skills learned, then we move into the concept development of a new skill, then students work on their workbook pages during math rotations, and then we debrief at the end. We have been working on transition times in our classroom because it has been taking us too long to move from one activity to the next. I have been using a countdown method to challenge students to finish the transition before I count down to zero. This has seemed to work, but some of my students have started becoming unsafe with their movements around the classroom by running, jumping over chairs, etc. I have had to remind my students that they can move quickly and safely at the same time. With that being said, I wanted my student to focus on pacing of my lesson, transistion times, and higher order thinking questions. I feel as though I have content delivery down and I have a good management system with high expectations for my students and now I want to focus on going deeper with my questioning. I have tried to come up with three HOT questions per lesson that I decide ahead of time, since thinking of those questions on my feet has been a struggle. I also always try to make it a point to not just accept a student answer if it is correct. I ask them why, what strategy did they use, or to explain their thinking. I want to see how they got to the answer they got to. I have also looked into using Bloom's Taxonomy question stems as well to help come up with questions to ask my students during lessons.
During my second CT observation, I did an enrichment activity on graphs. We had been learning about graphs for about two weeks so students were familiar with what they were. In our time studying graphs, they never had to collect their own data to make a bar graph. In this activity, students were given two fun size packs of M&Ms, a tally chart, and a graph template. Their first objective was to sort their M&Ms by color. They created piles of the color M&Ms on their desk and began tallying their totals. After they tallied, I asked students to write the number next to the tally groups that way they did not need to keep recounting their M&Ms during the activity. I think this helped them not make mistakes on the assignment as well. Once they showed me their data, I gave them their graph to color in. At the bottom of the graph, I worked in some math questions from our previous unit on fractions.
I think this lesson went really well. Students were engaged the whole time and really enjoyed the activity. I thought that students were going to struggle with not eating the M&Ms but they did better than I thought they would with waiting until the end. I think it helped my usual students who struggle with completing assignments get the work done because they had a reward of M&Ms to eat at the end. I think this lesson really solidified their understanding of graphing data. Students were exposed to what it is like to collect and record data and how diverse the rest of the classes data was. No two graphs looked the same with the same amount of colors and they were surpised with that result. I definitely would do this lesson again. For this observation, it was one of the first social studies lessons that I was teaching my class all year. My students were not really exposed to social studies because, and I hate to say this, but there is no standardized test in social studies. My teachers did not put a lot of focus on it during testing season because they wanted students to prepare for the reading and math tests. Students even have district quarterly checks for science, but not social studies. So social studies gets pushed aside until after testing is over. Since we were final interns and needed exposure teaching social studies, our teachers allowed us to plan for three social studies lessons a week and they could not be longer than 30 minutes. This seemed extremely difficult to do, but we were able to use our time wisely. As an introductory lesson on economics, I decided to have students tell me what they knew already about some key vocabulary words. I gave students sticky notes and I hung the words on chart paper around the room. Students would write what they knew on the sticky note and then take it to the chart paper and stick it on there. After all students were done, we watched a BrainPop video on goods and services, where students filled out a graphic organizer to take notes. I was able to complete this whole lesson with barely a minute to spare! I felt accomplished that I was able to provide my students with a social studies lesson in the time contraint given to me and hope that they were able to take something away from it.
I really love getting students background knowledge at the beginning of units to gauge their understanding. I will often times use word maps on the board but because of time, not all students would get to share with me. I like this method a little better because each student can share what they want and it gets heard. In the future, I would come up with a more organized way for students to maybe transition from each poster. I had students going back and forth all over the place and it felt a little chaotic. I might have students get up by table group to go to a poster and then switch after 30 seconds. For my first supervisor observation, I did an extension lesson in science on our stars unit. The standards for third grade do not expect students to know what constellations are, why they change with the season, and that the earth rotates, but this particular lesson was a fun and engaging lesson to apply their knowledge of stars to new content. Students would be creating a universe in a box and we would be learning why they constellations changed with each season. We used a Mystery Science lesson to guide us through what constellations are and how to build our box. During this lesson, I had recently implemented two new behavior management strategies - "Bean Nice" and Mystery Student, so that is what I wanted my supervisor to focus on during this lesson. Since it was an extension lesson and wasn't directly tied to third grade standards, I wanted her to focus more on my management techniques. I had had a rough start in my final internship with students not using kind words with each other and not following directions, so I implemented "Bean Nice". Students start the day with five beans in their personal jar. If they are caught not following directions or not being respectful to other students or teachers, they would lose one of their beans. At the end of the day, each student would pour the beans they have left into our class jar. When the class jar reaches a certain level, there is a class reward. The goal of this is to have students come together as a class to earn a reward. If one student loses all of his beans one day, then he has nothing to contribute and it will take the class longer to reach the goal. Every student has to come together and be nice to each other and follow directions to reach the goal. During this particular lesson, I did have to take beans away from students who were not following expectations during the lesson. One student in particular threw something at another student. I walked over and took his bean and he tried to argue with me that it wasn't his fault. I told him to simply just apologize, change his behavior, and get on task. He complied after that. They key to this behavior system is to remain consistent. If students are not following expectations, they have to lose a bean. This was hard for me the first couple of days implementing it, but I think I finally have the hang of it!
1. What are two specific things you thought about your instruction while watching your video? (Specifically note one that you consider positive and one that you consider an area of needed growth)
a. Why did each of these things catch your attention? b. For those that are positive, why do you think so? c. For those that are areas of needed growth, i. Why do you think so? ii. How might you address this? One thing about my instruction that I noticed I did well was explaining my instructions and expecations to my students. One thing I noticed that I could improve on is making sure students are engaged and on task during independent/partner work time. One thing I try really hard to do is make sure my students know what I expect from them. In third grade, we are trying really hard to hold students accountable for their learning. I make a concious effort to explain every little thing I want them to do and I have learned never to assume a student knows what you want them to do. Because of this, I have gotten in the habit of explaining everything, even if I think they know. I am happy to see that in this lesson, that it looked like my students understood what was expected of them and what I wanted them to do. One thing that caught my attention that I still struggle with, is montioring student engagement. I still get caught up in my teaching that I sometimes do not notice bad behavior if it is not distracting to me. When groups of students work at the low table in the back of the room, they tend to be off task a lot. That table is kind of tucked away and hard for me to monitor so students easily get away with being off task there. 2. Was the standard-based objective met for this lesson? What specific evidence from the video supports your conclusion? I believe the objective was met for this lesson based on student responses on their worksheets. They were able to find similarities and differences between the two texts. When we came back after partner work, students were able to identify multiple similarities and differences between both White House articles. 3. Were all of your students engaged? a. If so, cite specific evidence from the video. b. If not, how do you know they were not engaged? Cite specific evidence from the video. I feel like most students were engaged during the whole group lesson but they got a little off task during partner work. Like mentioned before, the back low table is an area where students get away with being off task. 4. Were you satisfied with the level of student participation? a. If so, why? Cite specific evidence from the video. b. If not, how could you have improved it? I was satisfied with how many students raised there hands to share their responses to the similarities and differences of the articles. One little girl who rarely particpates in whole group lessons asked me if she could share a response. Of course I said yes, and when it came time to answer that question, I made sure to call on her. I am sure that made her feel really good to participate and have the right answer. 5. Were there any classroom management or procedure issues that needed to be addressed during the lesson? Cite specific evidence from the video. a. If so, how were they handled or how should they have been handled? I think in future lessons, the low table will be off limits or limited to just one group being able to work there. When more than one group sits at the table, it becomes too crowded and students start becoming off task. 6. Describe how you planned for and used assessment before, during, and after the lesson. a. Share results of student performance. b. What follow-up was provided after the lesson? Before we started the lesson, I asked students to take out a worksheet they had completed the previous day on comparing and contrasting. They were reluctant to go over it, but I wanted to refresh their memory anyways. As we were going over it, I realized that they were not as good at compare and contrast as they thought they were. I am glad we were able to refresh before starting the new pieces of texts. At the end of the lesson, I had students complete an exit ticket where they told me what they learned, the effort they put in, and challenges they still have on the content. I also implemented a rating scale where they rate themselves from a one to four. Four is understand and can teach it to others and one is do not understand at all. I plan to use this self-assesment strategy in future lessons because of its success. FEAPS INTRODUCTION
For this lesson, we did an experiment with cornstarch and water. This was a follow up lesson to a previous introduction lesson on matter. Students learned what matter was and the three states-solid, liquid, and gas. For this lesson in particular, we were focusing on solids and liquids. The interesting thing about mixing cornstarch and water is when you squeeze it, it feels like a solid, but when you let go, it flows like a liquid. REFLECTION This was the one of the first hands-on science lessons we did with students this year. This was also the first time I asked students to complete a lab report with the lesson. This experiment required a lot of pre-planning and setting up. I wanted the lesson to go as smoothly as possible so I pre-portioned out the cornstarch for every student ahead of time while they were at specials. It also helped that this was the last lesson of the day because it was a messy one! I started out the lesson activating students' prior knowledge of matter of what we learned in previous lessons. We then talked about expectations for doing a science experiment and handling materials. I had written on the board "During an experiment, Scientists..." ahead of time so that we could write expectations as a class, but I completely skipped over that and ended up not writing everything on the board. Even though I had prepped materials ahead of time, it was still hectic passing out materials during the experiment and making sure every student was using their materials appropriately. I had students calling out during the whole experiment that they needed more water, or more cornstarch, or they wanted to see if there mixture was the right consistency. I felt like I was all over the place and unable to really activate their thinking. A lot of misbehavior went unnoticed, as well. At 5:52 into the lesson, a little girl got out of her seat and dropped a note on a boys desk as she walked by. Then about a minute later, she walked back and picked up the note that he had responded to. Other students were looking at the camera, dancing, or making faces. ANALYSIS This lesson was extremely overwhelming, but I am glad I had the experience to complete a science experiment. I realized that no matter how much planning you put into a lesson, something will always go wrong or unexpected. The experiment I was following did not give me an exact measurement of water to add to the cornstarch, so I ended up added too much or too little which caused chaos with my students and me having to walk around adding more water or cornstarch to there bowls. Behavior management with my students continues to be an ongoing struggle, but in their defense, this was a cool experiment and I know they were excited. I expected them to be a little crazy, but they had trouble following step by step directions. I asked them to use one finger to touch the cornstarch and I had students putting there whole hands in and making a huge mess. I also realized how difficult it is to balance productive learning while dealing with that chaos. FEAPS 1d. Selects appropriate formative assessments to monitor learning; 1e. Use diagnostic student data to plan lessons; INTRODUCTION
For this lesson, students were learning how to round to the nearest ten on a vertical number line. From conversations I have had with my CT, rounding can be difficult for students who have a poor number sense. I went into this lesson know students may struggle with finding the halfway point between two numbers as well as knowing when to round up to the next ten or round down to the the ten they were already in. This lesson as well wanted students to rotate through math stations where they would be taking different measurements of items and then rounding their answers to the nearest ten. REFLECTION The whole group of this lesson went surprisingly well. My students, for the most part, were able to tell me the halfway point between two numbers. Once we discussed that if a number is at or above the halfway point, we round up to the next ten, rounding came pretty easy to them. I formally assessed them during this lesson using their personal white board responses and they did pretty well with their responses. One thing I would change about this lesson is having more of a conversation of what math group rotations look like and possible creating an anchor chart for students to reference the expectations of what they should be doing. A lot of students were arguing over materials, playing with materials, and were off task. I had to constantly remind students to share and stay on task, and even though we had a brief discussion beforehand, I assumed that my students knew how to act suring math rotations. ANALYSIS I think the students were able to take away and learn what was expected of them. The majority of my students were able to successfully complete the exit ticket with little to know errors. I think the vertical number line helps students see visually when to round up or down and I feel like this visual representation was a good tool to use during the lesson. Multiple groups in this lesson struggled with working together. I think the behavior and management of this lesson set back the full potential of learning that could have taken place during the math rotations. If students were able to use materials responsibly and not argue, I feel like they would have gotten more out of the lesson. In the future, I plan on making an anchor chart of expectations and having students sign it like a contract, so that they can be held accountable and also students can have a visual reference of what is expected of them. FEAPS 1d. Selects appropriate formative assessments to monitor learning; 3c. Identify gaps in students' subject matter knowledge; 3d. Modify instruction to respond to preconceptions or misconceptions; 4b. Designs and aligns formative and summative assessments that match learning objectives and lead to mastery ![]() INTRODUCTION My first CT Observation of the semester was during math. This year we have a new math curriculum, called Eureka. With any new curriculum, it takes time for the teacher to get used to the content and layout as well as the delivery of the content. This is especially true for new teachers, like me! I like Eureka in some ways because it is laid out step-by-step for me, down to what questions to ask and what to say. I also like how it goes through the same routine every day; my students know what to expect. On the other hand, I do not like how inflexible it is when it comes to delivery. It makes it a litte hard to make lessons your own. Regardless, I still tried to make this lesson my own because it makes it easier for me to teach when I have some hand in creating the lesson. For this particular lesson, students were decomposing arrays to make arrays and it was an introduction into the distributive property. The lesson wanted students to draw the array and number bonds, but I made pumpkin themed arrays and number bonds for them to put in their personal white boards for us to work with during the lesson. It added my own little personal touch to the lesson, while keeping the content and delivery essentially the same. REFLECTION If I were going to teach this lesson over again, I would talk to them about what number bonds are. I went into this lesson thinking they knew what a number bond was, but that was not the case. Some students were unfamiliar with number bonds and how to break apart numbers and I was unprepared to answer those questions and misconceptions. Number bonds were a topic that they should have covered in second grade and it was apparent to me that there were some gaps in learning in my students. One of my higher students pointed out to me that he felt like this lesson was pointless because he knew his multiplication facts already and this strategy did not really help him. That comment threw me off a little bit because I thought this would be helpful for all of my students, but he evidently felt like he did not need the extra help or strategy. Like I have mentioned in my inquiry findings, my class is very split when it comes to content understanding. He is one of my higher level students and this lesson was not challenging enough for him. ANALYSIS I do not feel that the students toom away what was expected from them in this lesson. During the lesson, students were able to work step-by-step with me to draw arrays and break down number bonds, but when grading their exit tickets (formative assessment) only seven out of the twenty-two students got the correct answer. This shows me that this topic is an area that we should focus on more because my students did not clearly understand the content. While assessing students during the lesson, I was sure that they understood, but when it came to them doing it on their own, they struggled. I think in a future lesson, I would assess them a little more during the lesson to make sure they fully understood. I feel like I guided them toward the right answer during the lesson and did not really give them the opportunity to struggle. I think also, after having them work on their individual workbook pages, we should debrief and address misconceptions that they had during their work and discuss them before handing out the exit tickets. This will address their misconceptions before assessing them and may help with their responses. |
AuthorDanyelle Estill Archives
April 2018
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