For my clinical science lesson, I was
given the opportunity to co-teach with Alaina about food chains. Both Alaina
and I have been teaching science lessons to all of the 1st grade
classrooms every Friday. We are in charge of teaching 78 students in the
commons. Because we are familiar with teaching the same group of students, that
helped us prepare for this lesson even better, more specifically, when it comes
to classroom management. What we have experienced in the past lessons is
student’s involvement when using technology such as learning games on the SMARTboard.
We made sure to include an interactive technology game to support our main
topic of food chains. Our goals for our lesson were to teach the students how a
food chain functions using vocabulary such as food chain and energy throughout the
lesson. As a way of assessing the students we had them create their own food
chain by having them draw pictures and labeling a food chain that was in
sequential order and was visible that the students understand the food chain
concept. This worksheet gave the students the freedom to think creatively and use
whatever animals they could think of to complete a food chain. This was the way
we decide to assess the students because it was an opportunity for the students
to work independently or with a buddy, allowed the students to move about the
commons. Also with the large amount of
students being taught at once, we thought this strategy for assessing was most appropriate
with the time allotted.
When
reflecting on how our lesson went, I feel there were areas that needed improvement
and areas of strength. A part of our lesson that stood out to me as a strength,
was the technology support we used. The first technological support was a PowerPoint
where we had the children create a food chain as a class. Instead of showing the
students a finished picture of a food chain and explaining it, we had the
students piece is together as a class. For example, we showed the class a
picture of an eagle and had them guess how an eagle might get its energy. We provided
guided questions so that the students would answer the animal or plant we had
prepared for. Another technological support was an online game. The website
provided pictures and blank boxes to drag the picture in the correct order. We
completed a few example food chains together. What was most beneficial for the students
was how after the food chain was completed, the website would show an animation
of the animals actually eating each other. This was a part of my feedback form
that my CT liked as well. I think we should have worked on more food chain examples
from that website instead of only the three we did. I think that website was a
good support for the students. A strength of our lesson was the classroom management
and how we dealt with loud noise. The students have been taught by Alaina and I
enough to know how they should respond to the quiet chant. A saying we use is, “3,2,1
ZIP” and also T:“When the teacher is talking”…S: “You are not!” This classroom management
strategy really helps when the students are doing turn and talks or working
independently and need to come back as a group to get them to quiet down and
look back at the teacher. Lastly, I thought that Alaina and I co-taught very
well together. We made sure to divide up the lesson evenly so that we both got
our time to speak. I feel we were prepared with the amount of activities and
potential extension activates as well. For our lesson, I am glad we had an
extra book to read that would support our lesson because we needed it. In addition
to the strengths of the lesson, there were also areas of improvement that I
would change if given the opportunity to teach the lesson again.
An area of improvement
that I noticed in the lesson was the hook activity. I was in charge of leading
that. The hook activity had the students stand up and link arms. I used that to
help the students connect their 1st grade chain to a food chain. As
I was leading it, I found that the students were being crazy, swaying back and
forth, and being loud as they laughed
with their neighbors. I found it challenging to get the students attention. If
I could do the activity differently I would change it up a little and have the students
sit down and link arms so that they are not tempted to move back and forth like
they did. When discussing this activity with my CT she suggested I introduce
the main topic of food chains before I do the activity so the students know the
correlation and reasoning behind this instruction. I would also change the way
we introduced new vocabulary. I think it was harder to explain the vocabulary word,
“energy.” What we could have done to further the students understanding and
give them more visuals would be to make a web and have the students share what
they think energy is and maybe some examples. I would also add an individual
activity where the students cut out picture and put them in the correct order
by cutting and pasting. This would allow the students to have more concrete
examples and would be clearer for the teachers to see if the students understood
the food chain concepts.
Overall, I
feel our lesson was well thought out and prepared for in advanced. I feel we
were prepared and were able to keep the students engaged throughout the lesson.
I think the turn and talks really benefited us in order to prevent the students
that were not sharing to get off task and get distracted. With experience we
have gotten so far in our clinical teaching the students every Friday, we were
able to get to know the students and understand their tendencies and learning
levels. As a student teacher, I am constantly learning from my lesson I teach
in order to better my teaching.
Below is Pinterest link for ideas for teaching Food Chains to
young students:
Exceeds: Included a Pinterest link to support Food Chain science
lessons and gave my CT a copy of the lesson plan to keep for further instruction or a lesson for next year.
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