Engineering Lesson

Last Tuesday at Brigham, Amanda, Taylor, Alicia and I taught an engineering lesson to a group of four kindergartners.  Our lesson revolved around the Three Little Pigs.  After reading the book we talked about the different types of houses the pigs built and which ones were stronger than the others.  After this discussion we gave the students an opportunity to build their own houses.  Up until this point, everything was going as I had expected it would.  When the students started building their own houses is when the lesson started to turn away from my expectations.  I had expected that the students would have gotten more creative with the materials provided to build their house.  Three of the students used the base ten blocks, but not in the way I thought they would.  I thought they would use the base ten rods and build up a house that sort of looked like a log cabin. The students used the base ten rods to build “walls” to their houses and stand them straight up on the base ten flats.  One of the girls that was working with Taylor built a house out of toothpicks and gum drops.  Her house was not that sturdy and I thought that it would fall over for sure when we tested them with the hair dryer.  All but one house were able to stay standing even with the air from the blow dryer on it.  The only house to fall apart was Amanda’s straw house.  She purposely built a house out of straw so that the students could see what it would look like for a house to fall apart.

For the most part, I would say this lesson went well.  We used a bilingual book for the read aloud of the Three Little Pigs.  This would be useful for a bilingual classroom if the teacher were to actually teach this lesson.  I think we also accommodated to the ELL learners by having many hands-on materials that they were able to manipulate.  The self-assessment sheet we created also had images of the materials we provided.  The students were just supposed to circle the materials they used and then circle whether or not their house fell over in the end.  There are a few things I would change about this lesson if we were to do it again.  The first thing I would change would be the environment we taught it in.  I understand that this was a special circumstance and we did not have much space available, but with three other groups all doing different activities in the same room as us, it was hard to keep the attention of the group.  The other thing I would change would be the materials we provided.  I did not expect for all of their houses to stand up to the hair dryer and I think that we could have made a bigger emphasis on the study and weak structure concept had we chosen different materials.  Some other materials we could have used might be wooden blocks, stick from trees outside, leaves, and hay.  I think that if we kept the materials close to what the materials were in the story, we would have seen more variation I the structures of the houses built.

I think that in comparison to the first lesson we taught/observed at Brigham I have learned so much about ELL accommodations in lesson planning.  I am now more aware of the procedures that need to be taken in order to successfully engage ELL students.  Some of these things include using simple language and many visuals.  In the beginning of the semester I thought that the only way you could accommodate to these learners was to learn some phrases in their native language, but in reality that is just not practical.  I feel so much more prepared to have ELL students in my classroom now that I did at the beginning of the semester.

Exceeds:  Exceeded word count by over 100 words.

Clinical Science Lesson: Animal Adaptations

                For my clinical science lesson, I chose to create a hands-on lesson involving experiments.  My CT had asked me to teach a science unit on animals and their adaptations, so I thought this was the perfect lesson to get them engaged and excited about science.  In my lesson plan I mention that this is day two of a two day lesson.  This is because that on the Friday before, we introduced their animal books and had them start working on those.  We expanded on this lesson by creating the hands-on aspect of it. 

                On the day of my lesson, the students were very excited to be doing experiments.  My students had not done any experiments yet this year, so this was exciting for them.  In my lesson plan I stressed the importance of good behavior and safety.  The students did a remarkable job remaining on task and following directions.  It was one of the best-behaved lessons I had ever taught to my students and I honestly have no complaints for their behavior.  My CT also commented on our student’s behavior and was very complimentary of my behavior management skills.

                During the actual experiments we saw different things from each group.  For the first experiment (glass jar and suction cups) I had imagined that all of the students would be able to figure it out.  I was shocked when I saw that a few groups were struggling and could not get the jar open.  I am not disappointed that some groups did not get the jar open because this was a learning experience.  Experiments are all about trial and error and that is exactly what I saw happening.  The students were also not disappointed that they did not get the jar open because they were so focused and engaged on what they were doing and working together.  I had never really seen my students work so well together or be so determined.  It was nice to see them so engaged.

                During the second experiment, I saw a few students get somewhat frustrated.  The students were supposed to be able to pick up the paper when it was wet, not when it was dry.  There were a few students that could not pick up the paper when it was wet and that frustrated them a little bit.  When this happened, I jumped in and assisted the student to see how they could pick up the wet paper.  Once again, the students were working so well together and I barely saw any behavior issues.

                The third experiment was a bit different.  Since we only have five minutes per rotation, there was not enough time to have each student try the experiment with their own cotton balls like I had originally wanted.  I facilitated this experiment and had the students help me with various parts.  I allowed them to dip the cotton balls in the water and each of them got to touch both cotton balls to compare and contrast between the two.  I thought that for not being able to actually do the experiment themselves, the students did very well.  I was anticipating some behavior problems at this station but there surprisingly was not.  The students were so engaged and so fascinated with what was happening in front of them.  Most of the students had correctly predicted that the coated cotton ball would absorb less water, but I had a few that thought they would absorb the same amount of water.  Regardless of whether or not their predictions were right, all of the students were amazed.

                My CT noted my strengths as well as the strengths of the lesson.  She thought that every child was actively engaged in the experiment.  She also found it a strength that each and every child in our classroom was able to complete all of the experiments.  This is a strength because we have students being pulled from our classroom at all times of the day for different types of interventions and individual instruction.  So, the fact that every single student was able to participate in this lesson was amazing.  Another strength she noted was that I was fully prepared.  I had all of the materials set up before the students had come back in the room from the computer lab.  I also think that this is an important strength to continue practicing because if I would have had to set up the experiments as I was explaining the directions or teaching, we would not have seen the students as engaged as they were and we probably would have had some behavior issues.  The fact that I used small groups was also a strength because the students got more individualized attention and they were all able to be actively hands-on.  The last strength that she addresses was that this lesson was taught to enhance the students understanding of animal adaptations.  Throughout the course of this unit, I could tell that not all students fully understood how animals adapt and I did not really know how I could make it clearer since I am not a science or animal expert myself.  After completing these experiments, you could just feel the sense of understanding and the wave of relief from all of the students.  They truly understood what it means for an animal to adapt to their environment.  This also showed when we played the review game two days later.  All of the students were confident in their answers and it went very smoothly. 

                As for areas of growth for this particular lesson, there is not much I would change.  If I could do it again I would like to have more time for each rotation so that the students could get even more engaged and the lessons could be more hands-on.  For example, if we had more time, each student in my groups would have been able to do the bird feather adaptation themselves with their own cotton balls.  Overall, I think that this lesson went extremely well and really enhanced their understanding of the topic.  This is definitely a lesson that I will repeat in the future.

Exceeds: I included an image of the tools I used for the experiments.

Brigham Preschool: sight lesson

Last week, I was an aid to Laine and Brittney for their lesson in preschool.  The lesson they did was all about sight.  I think they did a great job overall, especially in engaging the students.  My favorite part of their lesson was when they allowed the students to make their own binoculars.  This was the part of the lesson that the students really started to open up.  I was working with a few students at one of the tables.  One of the little girls I was working with would not talk, but I could tell from her facial and body expressions that she was very excited about what they were doing.  This goes for all of the other students as well.  Some of the students could not speak English very well, or just did not talk at all, and I could still tell that they were engaged. 

I thought their lesson was very developmentally appropriate for English Language Learners because they used many visuals and hands on tasks.  For example, when singing the song at the beginning, they showed a visual while they sang with the students.  Also, the binoculars activity was appropriate for ELL students because it was a hands-on activity that allowed them to be creative.  They were all also assisted by a teacher to create the binoculars. 

The only feedback I would have to make their lesson run more smoothly would be to have a set transition between the binoculars activity and the I spy game.  Students were finishing at different times and Laine had to kind of think on her feet to come up with something for the students to do while they waited for everyone.  She did a great job doing this, but I think they would have been a little less stressed if they had planned for this possibility in advance and had a plan b.  Seeing that the students are in preschool, I think that smooth transitions and differentiation for students that finish early is an essential piece of lesson planning. 

Something fun that they could have also added to their lesson would have been to take the students into the hallway to find things with their binoculars.  I think that the students would have liked the option to leave the classroom and explore the hallway.  Brigham has many things hanging from the ceiling in the preschool hallway as well as on the bulletin boards.  Keeping the students in that one preschool hallway could have been a good gross motor activity to get them moving.  If the weather was nicer, this could be adapted to go outside and search for things on the playground.

Overall, I think that the students really enjoyed this lesson and Laine and Brittney did an awesome job teaching it.  They divided up the teaching aspect very fairly so that the students were aware that they were both the teacher during this lesson.  I think they also did a great job with the accommodations and differentiation for ELL students in their planning.  This is definitely a lesson that I would share with other teachers and try out myself.

EXCEEDS: I provided suggestions for the future (if this lesson were to be taught again) as well as a visual of what the binoculars for this lesson looked like.

Teaching Recycling in Kindergarten

Last Thursday at Brigham Elementary, Amanda and I taught a recycling lesson to one of the ELL kindergarten classes.  Our topic was land, water, and air, so when looking at the NGSS standards, we picked- K-ESS3-3 Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.  After reviewing this standard, we decided that a recycling lesson would be the perfect way to teach kindergarteners solutions that reduce human impact on the world.  We worked together to create a 5E lesson that would engage and assess the students understanding of recycling.

The first E of the lesson was engagement.  Looking back on our lesson, I thought we did a good job engaging the students.  They were all eager to answer our questions and knew what each object was as we held it up.  One way that we could have improved this section would be to have the objects up on the SMART Board with the images and labels in both English and Spanish.  One other thing we could have done was learn the words paper, glass, aluminum, and plastic in Spanish so that the students would better understand us.  I think having this verbal and visual aid would have lead more students to success.  It was interesting to hear all of their responses when we asked if they knew what it means to recycle.  Some of the students knew and some did not.  I think this was a good transition to our next E, which was a read-aloud.

In the second E, or exploration, we did a read-aloud of Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel.  In this section of the lesson we tied in a literacy standard.  The Common Core State Standard we chose was- SL.K.2 Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.   After reading the book, we moved into E number three, explanation.  We attempted to prompt the students in a discussion by asking questions, but many students had a hard time recalling information.  We tried to redirect the discussion and restate the sequence of events so that the students would be able to accurately answer our questions, but we did not have much luck.  Something we could have done here would be to have made story sequence cards.  After reading the book we could have placed these cards on a timeline in the order that the events happened in the book.  I think this would have helped the students because they would be able to refer to the visual instead of just trying to recall information on their own. 

For the fourth E, elaboration, we directed the students into a cut and paste activity at their tables.  The objective was to cut the items and accurately sort them into the categories glass, paper, plastic, and aluminum.  We had one teacher helper at each table to help the students.  I think that without these teacher helpers, the students would have been totally lost.  Something I’ve learned through my teaching experiences in my current clinical site is that my students need modeling, modeling, and more modeling.  I often forget how young these students are and that they need to be scaffolded in order to succeed.  We could have modeled this worksheet by having a similar template up on the SMART Board and working together to place one object in each of the categories.  We did model one of the categories, but I think the students may have benefited better from seeing an example in all of the categories.  Another thing I noticed while working with students during this portion of the lesson was that many of them were having trouble identifying the items they were asked to sort.  I did not even think that some of these would be difficult to identify or could be portrayed as something else.  If I were to do this again, I would label all of the images in both English and Spanish so that the students would actually know what they were.  I feel like more than half of the questions I received from students was “what is this?”  If the students already knew what the objects were, then we could have concentrated more on sorting them into the correct categories and less on finding out what the objects are.  I also think that more students would have found success easier if this option had been presented. 

To conclude our lesson, we had planned to engage the students in another discussion and review all of the boxes and which objects they placed in each.  Unfortunately the previous section of the lesson took longer than anticipated and we ran out of time.  We were able to collect the student’s worksheets to analyze and assess whether or not the students understood the concept.  If we could change this section of the lesson, I would also like to include the SMART Board into the conclusion.  The students could take turns coming up to the board and dragging the items into the correct boxes and then we would discuss why the student made the choice they did.

Overall, I think the lesson went pretty well.  After reflecting on my teaching, I realized some things I could have done to better accommodate the student’s needs.  I think we also would have benefited from having this be a two-day lesson.  One activity I really wanted to do with the students was to have them physically sort recyclable materials into various labeled containers.  I think that they could have benefited from something hands-on like this.  I also think that we could have stressed more the benefit of recycling and why we should recycle.  If I were to teach this lesson to my second graders, I would have the students write a letter to their parents and explain why we should recycle and what materials are recyclable.  I think this would be a good way to assess the students understanding of the material as well as allow the parents to become involved in the curriculum.  

Recycling Cut and Paste Worksheet

Exceeds: Included a link to the cut and paste worksheet we used and included connections to my clinical classroom and how I could adapt this lesson for those students.

Brigham- week 2 in the classroom

This past week at Brigham, I was an aid to Kristie and Katie in the kindergarten room for their lesson.  They taught a lesson on living vs. nonliving things.  My role in their lesson was to take a group of students outside to examine living and nonliving things.  The students were to find a living or nonliving object and tell me what is was.  All of the other groups were participating so well outside, except for mine.  My group ran to the playground and was more interested in playing than finding living and nonliving items.  One student found a rock and said it was living.  Another identified a playhouse and said it was living.  The third student would not talk to me at all.  When the students went back into the classroom, they filled in a chart of living and nonliving things.

Looking back on this lesson, I think Kristie and Katie did a great job of engaging the students.  They were very interested in the video that they showed and extremely excited to go outside.  I think that teaching a lesson to a class you’ve never met is very hard, but Kristie and Katie pulled it off.  Two of the things I found difficult was not knowing the students names and not knowing their attention getters.  It is hard to connect with the students or get their attention if you do not know either of these. 

The goals I have made for myself this semester are to try to learn some words and phrases in the student’s home language, gain overall experience, and include language and differentiation in lesson plans.  I think that I am definitely gaining overall experience.  Being in as many classrooms as possible will definitely give me more experience.  I also like seeing how my peers teach.  I think that we can all learn from each other so it is great that we get to observe their lessons as well.  I also think that I am learning to write more differentiation in my lesson plans.  The past couple lessons and projects I have written have included differentiation for ELL learners and I think that it is slowly, but surely getting easier to do.  My weakness right now is learning words and phrases in the student’s home language.  I think that is a weakness just because I had only been in both the preschool and kindergarten classrooms once.   This is something that I will continue to work towards.

I am glad that I was able to observe in the kindergarten class this week because it gave me a chance to see the student’s faces and their classroom environment before I teach my kindergarten lesson.  Going into the classroom blind is definitely a scary feeling.  When I was writing my kindergarten lesson plan, I felt completely lost because I had no idea what the students were like or how they interact.  I feel more prepared for my lesson and can make changes to my lesson plan based on what I saw in the classroom last week.

Preschool Week 1

Last week, I was able to work in a preschool room at Brigham Elementary.  Along with a group of four other student teachers, we went into the classroom for a half hour and introduced the students to science and what a scientist is.  The first activity we did with the students was a “get to know you” game.  We stood in a circle with the students, and one by one we said our name and something we liked.  If others in the circle also liked the thing that was said, they would take a step into the circle; if other did not like the thing that was said, they remained standing in their place.  After this, we read the students a story called “What Is Science?”.  From this book the students were able to see that science is the study of so many things.  Putting their new knowledge to the test, we had the students draw a picture of what they thought portrayed a scientist.  From here, I was in charge of leading the discussion.  This ended up being more difficult that I thought it would be.  Seeing that there were 5 teachers in the classroom (not including the two regular teachers) and only 11 students, I think the students were a little overwhelmed and did not want to talk.  There were only about two students that were not shy and shared what they drew.  Since it was so hard to get the students to talk, I read a book about what a scientist does so the students could gain a little more clarity into the many things a scientist does.  This group lesson was harder than I imagined.  The fact that there were so many teachers made it overwhelming, even for me.  I felt like I could not get as involved as I wanted to be because there was so much going on.  I also felt lost because the classroom teachers did not give us any kind of attention getters to use with the kids, and since we did not know their names well, it was hard to get and keep the students attention. 

A couple weeks back I set some goals for myself about working with English language learners.  I said that I wanted to try to learn some words and phrases in the students home languages, gain overall experience, and include language/differentiation in lesson planning.  The action steps I listed to reach my goals were to find out what other languages the students speak, and get involved in the classroom. So far, from what I could tell, Spanish was the only additional language spoken in the preschool classroom.  One thing that could help me connect with all students would be to learn their attention getters or to introduce a bilingual song or attention getter that all students can participate in.  For example, in my preschool clinical placement last year, I was in a bilingual classroom.  During circle time the children sang various songs about the weather and what day of the week it is.  They would first sing the song in English and then repeat the song in Spanish.  This is something that I would ideally implement in a bilingual classroom.  Going even further, I would incorporate American Sign Language into the song.  This way, the students are learning what small words and phrases are in ASL and can use them in the classroom.  If all students are learning ASL, it would become the universal language of the classroom. 

This video is a perfect example of a circle time song, sang in both English and Spanish while using ASL.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBbH26L7LGY

Exceeds:  I wrote almost 600 words and included a link to a video.

Science Autobiography- Post #1

Growing up, I was never one of those kids that liked to play in the mud and get dirty and find bugs.  I didn’t like insects or anything related to science.  I remember one summer my mom signed my brothers and me up for a science exploration day camp.  I absolutely hated it.  There was one day in particular that I disliked more than the others- the day I was forced to walk through a marsh.  I was so uncomfortable I could have cried (and I actually might have).  Needless to say, the outdoors was not my favorite place to be. 

I grew up in a predominately white neighborhood in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.  The school districts I attended were fairly wealthy, so we had ample resources in school.  I remember my school libraries constantly being updated with the latest Apple computers.  We were given many opportunities and the tools to explore whatever our hearts desired. 

I cannot even remember formally learning science until about fourth grade.  Fourth grade was the first time I learned about the planets.  I remember this because my class did a very extensive project and everyone was assigned a planet to study.  The planet I was assigned was Saturn.  I remember being very happy with my assigned planet because I thought it was “pretty” since it is yellow and has rings.  That is the only science memory I have from elementary school.

In middle school, I took science classes all three years.  I do not remember much from these classes either.  I remember learning about evolution, genetics, more about the planets, and some life sciences.  Science was never my favorite subject, nor was it my strong suit.  One of the positive memories I have about science was in seventh grade when we did a genetics project.  We learned all about dominant and recessive genes and got matched with a partner.  We figured out what would happen if you and your partner had a child (what genes they would have, etc.).  This was my favorite project we did in this class because I found it very interesting.  That was the first time I had learned about genetics and I was fascinated by it.  I think that if this project and subject was taught in the right way, that it could be taught the third graders.  If I ever teach third grade, I would love to do a genetics project with them.

In high school, I took physical science my freshmen year, biology my sophomore year, and chemistry my junior year.  Physical science was probably the science I enjoyed the most.  I remember that we grew our own crystals.  This was probably my favorite experiment I ever did because the product was “pretty” and it didn’t require getting messy.  My teacher was also very good at engaging us because he always did really cool experiments.  I do not remember much from my sophomore year biology class.  Most of the time, we would be given assignments and work in groups at the lab tables.  It seemed to be more of a social hour than a science class.  My junior year chemistry class was the worst science class I had ever taken.  I didn’t understand it at all and whenever I asked for help, I seemed to get even more confused.  That entire year is a blur since I basically had no idea what was going on.

Fast-forward to my freshmen year at Illinois State University.  I took Biology 101 first semester and Chemistry 102 my second semester.  Biology wasn’t all that bad.  I understood for the most part and did pretty well in the class.  The main things I remember from this class were the labs.  I remember during one lab we got to make wine.  For another lab, we took a cotton swab and swiped things like doorknobs and stair railings.  We then put these samples in a petri dish and were able to watch bacteria grow over a period of time.  Chemistry was a different story.  Just like in high school, chemistry was a nightmare.  I couldn’t follow along with the material and got lost easily.  I was able to get help from a friend and did fairly well in the class, but this is a class that I like to block from my memory.

Since my freshmen year of college I have not taken a science class.  Science has never been my favorite subject because in my experiences, it has always been confusing or has made me feel uncomfortable.  Maybe that’s my fault for not asking more questions, and maybe it’s also my teacher’s fault for not acknowledging the fact that I was struggling.  Whatever the reason was, science went on the back burner for me.

I really don’t think my cultural upbringing has had an effect on my attitude about science or how I learned science.  If anything, I think attending school in fairly wealthy school districts has given me more opportunities, but that’s it.  Although my experiences with science have not always been positive, I do not want that to be reflected in my teaching.  I think science can be so fun if you present it in the right way.  I want my students to be curious and explore.  I will encourage them to be scientists and always ask questions. I am saddened when I do not see science being taught in schools today.  Everyone is so focused on math and literacy, that science often gets left out.  I want my students to be aware of science and actually know what science is.  Science will be prevalent in my classroom and my students will be scientists.