I started off focusing on the introduction. While the students were sitting on the rug, I started with a story to get them engaged. All of the students were eager to share about a time when they saw a caterpillar and I think it got them really excited to learn about all of the different parts of the caterpillar.
Paige and I definitely have no problem with materials management. We had everything ready a few days ahead of time. When we first got to the classroom, we organized all of our handouts in the order that we would give them to the students. We also made a plan for how we would hand out the materials - for example, we agreed before class started that Paige would hand out the worksheet while I was doing the introduction. Having a plan in place and getting materials ready ahead of time definitely help with materials management.
The last part we were focusing on was the connection of our lesson plan to the frameworks. Because we were using hand lenses to observe caterpillars up close, our framework dealt with observation. We want to save the frameworks that directly deal with butterflies and the life cycle for when the caterpillars actually get here, so we thought we'd do these other activities as warm ups. All in all, I think Paige and I did really well staying on task and connecting to the frameworks. Many times throughout our lesson we referred back to our key questions and kept bringing the conversation back to observation. Paige and I did really well this week and I can't wait until the caterpillars get here next week!
Hi Alisha,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you had a successful second lesson! Isn't it amazing how much the kids have to share? I'm pretty sure we could just start the lesson by saying "caterpillars" and then let them start talking, and they'd fill the whole period just sharing what they know and think. Hopefully they'll have just as much to say about the actual caterpillars next week!
Alisha,
ReplyDeleteI think your idea of an introduction is great! Students LOVE to tell stories and giving them a blatant opportunity to do just this is great! It was also a great way to introduce them to caterpillars!
I think that you and Paige's material teamwork sounds awesome. Its nice to not only go over who will say what, but also who does what while the other is talking. I feel as though everyone does well with material management, but it is essential to having a successful lesson!
As for your framework, great job! Its really important to keep bringing the lesson back to the key questions, after all, these are the things we want them to take away from the lesson.
Great job you two! :-)
Alisha,
ReplyDeleteI was also more nervous this week than last and am a little more nervous about next week. As Lindsay and Katelyn have both mentioned, I love your introduction and transition into the caterpillars. I'm also glad that your material management portion of the lesson went smoothly, I hope that it continues! I was wondering when you mentioned saving some of the content specific frameworks for later lessons, do you think that there will be times when you (either in science or in a future classroom) will need to repeat the same framework a couple of times in order for the students to develop a deep understanding of the information/concept being presented? To us (to me anyways) there seem like there are soo many frameworks to sift through but then when you take a step back and think about it, over the course of 180 day, I guess there really aren't that many frameworks to address in individual subjects.
I'm glad you had a successful session! Good luck next week!
Alisha,
ReplyDeleteI think you and Paige figured out exactly how to engage the students in the subject matter without having all the materials you need to teach it. It is a tricky thing to accomplish! I like how you hooked the students in the introduction and had them share their experiences. It really involved the whole class and got them excited for their caterpillars!