Tierra Davis Reflection on 5E Indirect Lesson March 30th, 2017

ELED 3221-003

Reflection

Overall this lesson was a bit of a struggle for me. It was bit uncomfortable in part
because this was the first indirect lesson that I had ever taught but also because I have
never taught a science lesson. I love content area science, and I love how it get students
gears going. Being at a STEM Academy definitely emphasized the importance of science and
mathematics in my mind. This experience was absolutely beneficial because it has made me
much more comfortable with the two content areas that I am most anxious about.

An aspect of my lesson that was implemented differently than I had planned was how
students checked their pulses at station three. During the stations portion of the lesson, I
had many students say Ms. Davis, Ms. Davis, I cant find my pulse on my wrist!
Unfortunately, I completed blanked and forgot that you can also check your pulse using your
neck. My cooperating teacher came over after I had been at that station for a few minutes,
wracking my brain about how I was going to fix this reoccurring issue. I thanked her
profusely! Once we had made that discovery, I gather the class attention and let them know
that if they were experiencing difficulty with find their pulse on their wrist at station three
then it is okay to use their neck to find it. I think this happened because I did not provide
students with enough time to rest prior to checking their pulse. The students also had no
experience with checking pulses so this was going to be difficulty for them. If I were to teach
this lesson again to the same class, I would model was the activity would look like at each
station while I was explaining the directions. Because I had not done this when I taught it the
first time, I had a lot of student asking me what needed to be done at each station. I
believed that simply because I wrote the directions at the top of the paper that would mean
the students will read them. I took this experience as a way of realizing that students really
struggle with reading directions, especially when they are excited to do the activities.

Another change that I would make to this lesson is taking station one and make it a
lesson on its own. Unfortunately, majority of the class did not make it past measuring the
length of their stomach in this activity. Many students were even disappointed that they
could not finish this activity because of how perplexed they were about the length of their
digestive organs. I later discussed this issue with my cooperating teacher. This is when she
told me that she had actually planned to do this lesson with the class (she did have time for
it with testing approaching). She let me know that she had planned to make it into a lesson
on its own. As I am reflecting on this lesson, there is no way that the students could have
enough time within a 15-minute window to complete that entire station.

A particular encounter in my lesson that really surprised me was that the video I used
for station two had already been seen by the students. They informed me that their P.E.
teacher had used the same video to teach them about the heart and importance of exercise.
I was shocked because I spent a great deal of time watching circulatory system videos and I
thought I had found a video that did a great job of breaking the concepts down to their
comprehension level while still make sure it was a video that kids watched frequently. I
chose this instance because it reminded me of all of time that I have been sitting in class
and professor have said sometimes you do all of the preparing that you can possibly do but
something still just does not go the way you thought it would. To be honest, the experience
was humbling to me. It reminded me that I am not going to be perfect as teacher (and that
great minds think alike). Connections that I can make to my coursework are integration
process that we have learned so much about. Being a STEM Academy, my cooperating
teacher integrated science in every content area. I think I have semi-mastered the craft of
integrated the content areas in with a reading/ELA lesson but it is quite difficulty to integrate
science with social studies. My cooperating teacher did a fantastic job with integrating, and I
could tell that the student truly enjoyed constantly being taught science.
Tierra Davis Reflection on 5E Indirect Lesson March 30th, 2017
ELED 3221-003

Analysis

A higher percentage of the students in class met/exceeded the objective than the
students who did not display mastery. I know this because the student scored highly in the
areas in which they had to match the functions to the structures and when they had to
calculate their resting/active heart rates. Unfortunately, because of the time restrains, none
of the students were able to fill in the chart in which the wrote in the function of each of the
digestive structures. I combatted this issue by making sure that the students took adequate
notes at station four to make up for what they may have missed at station one.

My teaching method were effective because I would answer a students question with
a question when possible. I would simplify the students question to concept that I know they
know, and then guide them to the correct answer. I did this because I want to find another
method in which I could build more and more on students prior knowledge. Because of how
much I have learned about being the more of the facilitator in science lesson than a teacher,
I wanted to facilitate students learning also. I wanted my position in the room to be
someone to guide their thoughts in the right direction and to make students feel as though
they already have the answers. This was also a method I used to access the prior knowledge
that students have about body systems.

The goal was for students to feel confident that though they may not have the direct
answer to particular question, after a little investigation and using knowledge that they
already have it is possible for them to answer questions one their own. Specifically, in
station four, I wanted to give students the freewill to take notes on concepts they struggled
with only. If they already knew something then there was no need to copy it again because
they know it. I knew that this activity was effective because students would often look back
at the notes they took and continue to study them until they felt comfortable with the
material. I did not need to make any special consideration and/or accommodations to this
lesson. A major issue I faced when teaching this lesson is that a group of students was
especially talkative and noisy today. I got to apply some of the management techniques that
I had learned in this lesson. I did have to redirect these students continuously thought the
lesson. The group of students that did especially well today came in ready to work. I noted
that this group of students was especially focused and engaged in all of todays lessons.
These students were having fun with the activities however, they each were making sure
that their work was getting done.

In this lesson, I accessed prior knowledge by using an inquiry warm-up. This warm-up
I found really got the discussion going in the class. The students that shared their response
really wanted to be corrected so they would produce valid responses when disagreed with
another students answer choice. A major misconception that I revealed during this portion
of the lesson was that students believed that the only function of the skeletal system was
movement. I was able to teach them the skeletal system plays a great role in movement
within the body. The processes and skills that I wanted to embed in this lesson where
experimentation and prediction. Before beginning the 15-minute timer at each station, I had
student predict what they were going to do and what it would be like. I also had them
discuss what they were going to learn and why it mattered. I made sure that the scientific
explanations that I had were accurately before I began this lesson. I found that I did a lot of
research on my own when I was writing this lesson and anticipating different questions that
the student may ask me. I am proud to say that by the extend phase, there was a notable
change in the vocabulary in which students were using. For example, instead of say you eat
food, digestive it, and pass it students would say you eat the food, it travels down your
esophagus, into the stomach, through the large and small intestines, and through the anus.
Students responses became clear and specific. Explicit connections were made to nature of
Tierra Davis Reflection on 5E Indirect Lesson March 30th, 2017
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science by students applying facts and concepts about the body systems (scientific
knowledge) to the processes of measuring the digestive organs and predicting what will
happen (science processes). Student using their knowledge to investigate and find answers
applies to the nature of science.