Science 4, Clinical Lesson Implementation

Today I taught my science lesson in my clinical classroom. When I discussed with my CT what lesson I should teach, she allowed me to pick any lesson from the next two weeks. The science unit for these two weeks focuses on animal and plant parts. I decided to do my lesson on the parts of plants. My CT usually teaches directly from SmartBoard slides. She also includes a video and then has the students do an activity based on the lesson. In my lesson, I taught about a plant’s roots, stem, leaves, and flowers. I accessed the students’ prior knowledge about asking what they already knew about plants. Many of them could name the plant parts we were going to discuss. For this reason, I asked the students what the job of each plant part was before I explained it to see how much they already knew. We also talked about how plant parts are different for plants that live in different habitats. For example, cacti have spine leaves to store water for longer amounts of time. The students have already learned about habitats, so they were able to brainstorm why it was important for plants to have special parts in different habitats. After teaching about the plant parts, we watched a BrainPop Jr. video on these parts. When Annie asked questions about plant parts in the video, I paused the video so the students could turn to their partner and discuss the answer since we had previously went over each part as a whole group. After the students discussed with each other, I used popsicle sticks to call on a pair to share their answer. When the video was over, the students went back to their desk to make a flip book that contained each plant part. Some of their flip books are pictured below.

After reviewing my CT’s feedback with her, she said that I had many activities to promote engagement with the students. I used popsicle sticks to call on them, had them turn and talk to a partner, built on their background knowledge, incorporated drawing into an activity, included a video, and had visuals on my SmartBoard slides. She also said that I had paced the lesson well, although that is something that I could have done better. She said that I used an appropriate volume and watched for students who were misbehaving while I was teaching. Multiple students were talking on the carpet while I was talking, so I gave them reminders of how to act on the carpet when the teacher is talking. In addition, I clapped to gain the students’ attention after their turn and talk during the video. I also made sure to send my CT a copy of my lesson ahead of time and I had all of my materials ready to go, so I was well prepared for the lesson. I had discussed the content of the lesson last week with my CT so she was able to answer any questions I had had. Although majority of the information I taught was stated on the SmartBoard slides, I also was prepared to answer questions about content that I was not planning on teaching for the day. For example, one boy said “I thought all plants were supposed to be pretty.” In this case, I had to explain to him that not all plants are pretty ones with bright colored flowers. I then went on to discuss how a tree is a plant and so is a bush. We talked about how the tree trunk is actually considered to be the tree’s stem. I was happy that I had this background knowledge about the topic so I could confidently answer this student’s question. Multiple times throughout the lesson, I had the students put their thumb up if they agreed or disagreed with a statement. One time I did this was after a pair shared what plant part they discussed during turn and talk. To engage the rest of the class, I had them put their thumb up if they talked about the same things with their partner.

Although there were many strengths to this lesson, there are always improvements that can be made. While I tried my best to manage the students’ behavior on the carpet, I could have done a better job. My CT kept track of how many times I had to remind one student to focus, and she marked down a total of six times! I had no idea I told her this many times while I was teaching. My CT told me that if this happens again when a student is continuously talking, I can tell him or her to clip down on the chart. My CT has told me this before, but I have only had a student clip down once. This student that I continued to remind how to listen during my lesson had already clipped down once for the day, so I did not want to make her clip down again However, I understand that my verbal reminders were not helping her, so clipping down was the next step. Another thing that I would like to work on is the timing of my lesson. My CT said that the timing was good, but I think I had the students spend too much time making their flip books. By the time I told them to clean up, almost everyone was done. I was happy to see that many students had completed it, but now the students were talking because they were done early. When I talked to my CT about this, she said she usually waits until about 90% of the class is finished, and then moves on to the next activity. She also always has an extension activity planned, which usually involves drawing or writing something on the back. I tried to incorporate the same thing into my lesson by telling the students to draw their favorite type of plant on the back of their paper, but that did not take them very much time either. Another thing for me to improve on is making sure that the students are respecting me when I am teaching. I should not have to talk over them, so I need to make sure that they are all focused when I am speaking. My CT pointed out to me that one time while I was clapping to gain the students’ attention, another student was clapping while I was. The students in my class know that they are not supposed to clap until after I clap, so this is something I need to pay more attention to. The final thing I would change about my lesson is actually something one of my students brought to my attention. When the kids were making their flap books, I demonstrated for them to be horizontal, but one student did his vertically. I liked his idea a lot because he was able to show the roots at the bottom of the book, and then progressed to the flower at the top. If I teach this lesson again, I will do it his way instead!

Overall, my CT and I agree that the lesson ran smoothly. The students appeared to be engaged, they participated, and they all completed the activity correctly. They also showed me that they understood the content at the end of the lesson when we reviewed as a class. Almost every student’s hand was raised when I asked questions about each plant part. This made me very happy to see that they understood what I taught! I need to practice some classroom management things this semester because I want to make sure they are respecting and listening to me when I become the full time teacher.

EXCEEDS: I went over the word limit and I included pictures of two of my students' flip books that they made in class today. The top picture is what I demonstrated to the students in class, and the bottom picture is they way that I plan on changing my activity to if I do the lesson again because it creates a better visual for the students. 

Science 3, Recycling Lesson

Last Thursday was my second time in the kindergarten classroom at Brigham. I was an extra teacher in the classroom while Lisa and Amanda gave their lesson on recycling. I took notes on one particular child while they were teaching. This child participated often during the lesson. He went back and forth between shouting out answers and raising his hand. He always gave answers in English, and he was easy to understand. All of the other students gave answers in English as well. When Amanda and Lisa brought up the words recycle, paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum, the students acted as if they had heard majority of these words before, but Lisa and Amanda still explained each one of them. I think the word aluminum was the word that many students were not as familiar with. I like how Lisa and Amanda brought in visuals to show each type of recyclable material. This helped the students understand what the material was if they had not heard of it before. Having the actual materials also helped when the students completed the picture sort because if they did not know what the object was in the picture, I could show them one of the items that were brought in to compare both objects. Having a picture sort instead of a word sort was not only beneficial to the students because they are English language learners, but also because they are in kindergarten. It may have been helpful to have the word that goes along with the picture to expose these students to the English word for the object. In class on Thursday, we discussed how many accommodations we make for ELL students or students with disabilities are things we should be doing anyway in our class, such as pairing a word with a picture or using visuals to help explain concepts.

My original goal was to see how the teacher incorporates Spanish into the classroom. I wish I knew what the lesson would be about ahead of time because I would have liked to learn to say the words plastic, paper, glass, and aluminum in Spanish to help the students with their worksheet. I am still curious on how to translate these words into Spanish, so I decided to look them up. According to Google, the Spanish word for “glass” is “vidrio,” “plastic” is “plastic,” “paper” is “papel,” and “aluminum” is “aluminio.” Now if I ever have to teach a lesson about recycling to ELL students, I will know these words! If I could speak Spanish to the students, it would show that I am trying to learn more about them so I can relate to them. I did not personally talk to the teacher this time in the classroom, but I asked Katie if the teacher is fluent in Spanish. Katie’s PDS placement is at Brigham, so she was able to tell me that the teacher is fluent in Spanish, and she speaks Spanish with the students sometimes. Katie also told me that the teacher reads a lot of books to the students in Spanish. I think this is a good way to introduce new topics to ELL students. If they are first exposed to it in their native language, then hopefully it will make more sense to them when they learn more about it in English.

Next time I am in the kindergarten classroom, I will try to get to know these students better by asking if they speak English or Spanish at home. I also want to talk to the teacher to see if she does anything else to incorporate the students’ native language into her lessons. I am looking forward to being with the preschoolers again. From my past observations, there were students who did not appear to speak much English, so it will be a good experience to work with these students to see what I need to work on to help them better understand what is being taught. 

EXCEEDS: I went over the word limit, and I looked up the Spanish word for vocabulary words that were used in the lesson. 

Science 2, Living and Nonliving Lesson Implementation

This past Thursday, Katie and I gave our lesson about living and nonliving things to the kindergarten class at Brigham. Overall, I think the lesson went well. The kids appeared to be engaged, and by the end of the lesson, they were able to tell us the difference between living and nonliving things. However, it was hard to implement this lesson in this classroom because I had never been in the class before, and I have never met any of the students. I was not able to call on them by using their names, so I just had to point to them to answer questions. I also did not know the attention-getter that the teacher used in the classroom, so I was unsure of how to get the kids' attention. I tried to use an attention-getter while we were outside that I heard the teacher use earlier (1, 2, 3, eyes on me), but the students did not respond well to me when I said it because they did not know me at all. When we divided the class up into groups, I was able to learn my students’ names, but it would have been helpful to know all of the students’ names when we were doing large group activities. I believe that if I had the opportunity to be in the classroom one or two times before giving the lesson, it would have gone much smoother because I would know the students better and I would have a greater understanding of the classroom routines.

Although there are many ways that the lesson could have ran smoother, there were still some strengths to the lesson. When we first introduced the topic of living and nonliving things, many students could not state the difference between the two. After watching the YouTube video, the students were able to recall that living things eat, grow, and breathe. When we took the students outside to look for living and nonliving things, some of them made correct predictions based off of what they learned from the video, but some students made incorrect predictions. This showed us that we needed to go over the characteristics of living things again once we were back in the classroom.

When we got back inside, we went over each of the items that the students found outside. The nonliving things were easy to explain why they were not alive, but it was hard to explain that plants were actually living. This is something we were prepared for, but it was harder to explain than I thought it was going to be. To explain that plants eat, I told the students that plants make their own food, and they get nutrients from the ground. I told them that plants do not eat with a mouth like we do, but they still eat like we do. It was more difficult to explain that plants move.  I often used the example that they grow over time to help explain to the students that they are alive. Overall, it is a difficult concept for the students to grasp that plants are living because they cannot see them eating, taking in air, or moving. If I were to do this lesson again, I would use a squirrel or bird first as an object to determine if it is living or nonliving before trying to explain that plants are living things. To show that an animal is living is simpler for the kids to understand than showing a plant is living. While it was difficult to explain, I think the kids started to understand that plants are living by the end of the lesson because they started to answer “yes” when we asked if grass needs air, food, water, etc. I think our visual chart helped the kids determine if something was living or nonliving after seeing “yes” or “no” written across each row. I also think it was helpful to use objects that the students picked because they were more engaged when we investigated the object they chose. For example, when we determined if the play ground equipment was living or nonliving, one boy shouted out “that’s mine!” to tell us that he picked that object. To assess the students throughout the lesson, we often used “thumbs up if you agree.”

As I was implementing this lesson, I also tried to make more progress towards reaching my goal for this semester. I think actually being the teacher in the classroom helped with this a lot because I was interacting with many of the students. I was able to get a better understanding of things I need to work on when I am teaching English language learners. When I first walked into the classroom, I observed that everything was written in English as well as Spanish. I think this is very beneficial for the ELL students because it allows them to interpret the word in their native language as well as see the English word. It also appeared that most of the students in the class speak Spanish. Some of them said things in Spanish while I was there. For example, one student said something in Spanish, and another boy interpreted it for me because he assumed that I did not know Spanish. Although majority of the students in the kindergarten room speak Spanish, it appeared from our lesson that they speak English as well. I did not notice anyone who appeared clueless when we were explaining directions. Everyone in my group spoke clear English. However, there was one girl in Lisa’s group who did not speak at all. I do not know if this is because she cannot speak English or if she was just shy. From class we have learned how important parent communication is, so I would like to ask the teacher how she communicates with parents. I am sure that she probably sends home notes in English as well as Spanish. I would also like to know if the teacher speaks any Spanish with the students or how much Spanish she incorporates into her lessons. I think it will be easier to ask the teacher about these things when I am not the one who is teaching a lesson. I am looking forward to being in the kindergarten classroom more often so I can get to know these students better. I hope to know all of their names within one or two more times being in the classroom so I can communicate with them more effectively.

Living and Nonliving Online Games for Kids:

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities/plantsanimals.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/ourselves.shtml

EXCEEDS: I went over the word limit, I included a picture of an anchor chart that is very similar to the one we used, and I included some interactive online games for kids about living and nonliving things.