Reed Schall Eileen Cardinal Buffalo State College Spring 2011 Student Teacher Lesson Plan Portfolio Science

Lesson Plan

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Author: Reed Daniel Schall Subject: Science Grade: 3rd Time Frame: 50 min Standards:

-The central purpose of scientific inquiry is to develop explanations of natural phenomena in a continuing, creative process. -Beyond the use of reasoning and consensus, scientific inquiry involves the testing of proposed explanations involving the use of conventional techniques and procedures and usually requiring considerable ingenuity. -The observations made while testing proposed explanations, when analyzed using conventional and invented methods, provide new insights into phenomena. VI. VII. Topic: Water Cycle Experimentation Instructional Goal/Essential Question: To further an understanding of the water cycle through experimentation.

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Supportive Content and Pedagogical Knowledge: Once I have established the instructional goal, I figure out the best methods and strategies for lesson implementation and the best supplemental activities to practice science skills and incorporate the goal. While doing this I always refer to different levels of Blooms Taxonomy of higher order thinking skills and to Howard Gardners multiple intelligences. I also refer to Vygotskys theory of the zone of proximal development and scaffolding. For this particular lesson I decided to raise the students thinking to a higher level and focus on the analysis level of Blooms Taxonomy. Students checked on their experiment that they had set up the day before and analyzed the data with their lab packet. There is a lot you need to know about teaching science to provide an opportunity to reach all learners. It helps to make lessons fun and interesting with great enthusiasm and encouragement and activity. Experimentation is always the way to go for science. In this lesson I used the scaffolding technique by asking them to review the steps of the water cycle and guiding them to higher thinking. I also helped each student individually to check for experiment results. If they couldnt tell me what stage of the water cycle the condensation on the bag was, I helped guide them to the answer. In this lesson I appealed to multiple intelligences. I included an artistic portion where students got to draw the experiment bag as they saw it. I also included reading and writing for the linguistically intelligent students.

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Learning Objective: After an initiating strategy which will assess prior knowledge of the water cycle, and a review of the experiment we started yesterday, including hypothesis, students will be able to check their experiment results, and complete the lab packet.

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Planning for Formative Assessment: I always plan to do a lot of formative assessment during my lessons. I really pay attention to who is volunteering answers and asking questions too. This helps me keep track of who is paying attention and who is on task. The formative assessment I used in this lesson was through check for understanding questions as well as having the students work on the water cycle cloze activity.

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Planning for Summative Assessment: The students were assessed with the water cycle quiz and eventually the water cycle test.

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Materials: pencils, lab packet, bag, cup, water, water cycle cloze Physical Space: Students will be seated at their desks to start, as I call each student to check out their experiment, they will walk over. The rest of the students will be working at their desks.

XIV. Initiating Strategy: I will initiate by reviewing the water cycle, and also reviewing what we did yesterday, having students read their hypothesis out loud. I will be checking prior knowledge relating to the steps of the cycle. XV. Instructional Procedures: I will explain the directions for the lesson that students will be at their seat working on water cycle hand outs. When students have come over to check on their bag, they are to complete the lab packet by drawing in the picture, analyzing the data, labeling what happened

to the water in the bag and labeling the water cycle. Since students will all be at different places on the work, I will circulate and answer questions between calling students to check their bag. XVI. Closure: This lesson will close when all students have checked their bag, and completed the lab packet. There are plenty of worksheets to keep them busy until time runs out. When there are only a few minutes remaining I will have them put everything away except the water cycle diagram and I will ask them to explain it once again. XVII. Differentiation: The way I differentiated this lesson was to appeal to the lower level students by asking them easier questions, and the higher level students by asking them more difficult questions during the reading aloud time. I made sure I had time for each student to come over and analyze their bag experiment with me. Here I could see who was understanding how the movement of the water in the bag represented the water cycle and who could not. XVIII. General Reflection on Assessment: The assessment of this lesson went very well. The students did very well on the water cycle quiz and test. XIX. Feedback Summary: The feedback I received on the part of my supervisor and cooperating teacher was very good for this lesson. They felt that having the kids come to me one by one while the rest worked on the cloze was a great way to scaffold and to make sure students were on the same page. Sometimes one on one attention is necessary. They felt that I maintained a calm and even teacher voice and that I was enthusiastic.

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Reflection on Feedback Received: I feel that the feedback I was given helped me to feel a confidence boost in my science teaching skills. The feedback helped me to understand where my strengths lie and how I might improve on my teaching qualities as a whole.

XXI. Lesson Modification: If I were to teach this lesson again I would not really change anything. The lab packet was perfect for the experiment and my methods I employed to check on the experiment were all very good. XXII. Classroom Dynamics: I always stay calm and use positive reinforcement to praise the students who are quiet and ready, waiting for directions. The classroom mood for this lesson was very good with many students working very hard on the cloze and staying relatively quiet while I checked experiment results with other students. XXIII. Content Knowledge: Content knowledge was very important for this lesson and I definitely did a lot of research on the water cycle in order to prepare. Advance planning was necessary and it helped me to know exactly what I was teaching and how much time to spend.