TEACHER WORK SAMPLE

Teacher Work Sample: Standard 7: Evaluation and Reflection

A Unit on Science for Fourth Grade
ELM 598
Mary Bartkowski
Judy Halvorson
University of Phoenix, Hawaii Campus

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Evaluation and Reflection

There were many successful moments during this unit and a few areas where I
feel could be improved upon for future units. I think my decision to cover this topic over
the course of several days with hands-on activities and visual supports made a positive
impact for the students learning. I think there are several factors why the scores for the
pre-test were low. In addition to those mentioned before, I think that some students may
have felt that since the pre-test wasnt being taken for a grade, that they didnt need to try
their best. In the future, I could offer bonus points for correct answers that could be used
towards the post-assessment. Another area where I think I could improve would be to
post the slide presentation online for the students to access from their home. This could
help students who missed the lesson due to illness to have a more comprehensive review
of the material and could help students during the final review study the material in a
systematic way.
The lesson that I saw the most success on Learning Goal 4. The students were
really engaged with the food activities planned for discussing plate movement. I did not
allow them to snack on their activity until they could demonstrate the three types of plate
movement and the landforms the plate movement creates. I also used an unplanned
activity that I demonstrated for this lesson. I had a large wok filled halfway with cold
milk and I gently sprinkled a layer of hot cocoa on top of the milk. The class circled
around the table and watched as heat was applied to the milk the effects that had on the
dry hot cocoa mix. I did not lead a discussion on this visual. Instead, I had the students
talk to a partner about what they were witnessing. I think stepping back from leading the
class, helped them make connections with the effects that temperature plays with plate

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movement. I think that one of my strengths is developing creative activities that support
learning. This skill is something that I use as a teacher to promote a more real-world
application of the concept.
As I look back at the data on my post-assessments. I see that there is a real area
where I can grow when it comes to students with disabilities. The lowest five scores
came from students who have disabilities. I think further analysis would need to be
conducted to determine what specific type of support that would benefit these students
most. However, I do see that I could focus on more basic language comprehension with
these students as a place to start. I do plan on learning more about scaffolding learning to
better meet the needs of my students and I plan on taking courses and workshops on
accommodations to better reach this subgroup of students. I feel this will help me
become a more effective teacher.
I feel that the standards helped me maintain focus throughout this unit. I
developed the post-assessment based off of the learning goals and then worked
backwards to create the unit. This manner of creating the unit did take additional effort
on my part, but there was a continuous flow to each lesson. Also, using the standards
helped me determine which lesson plan delivery was most effective. I can use this
information to tweak other units in science and across the curriculum.
As I reflect on this lesson, I feel that the students were productively engaged in
the learning process about 90% of the time. The benefit of using these standards as a
means to create lessons, allowed me to develop plans that kept the students on-task and
actively pursuing each learning goal. Additionally, the standard related to assessments
helped me create innovative ways to collect data on student achievement. In previous

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units, I may not have given as much thought to the how and why of assessments as I
did in this particular unit. I feel that aspect led to my students achieving solid results on
the post-assessment. Additionally, I would say this type of lesson planning allowed my
students to stay motivated and actually interested in learning a complex set of learning
goals. Some of the science concepts are very challenging for the average student, and I
feel that my approach to each days lesson enhanced their interest and therefore
motivated them to stay connected to the material. This was achieved primarily in using
object lessons or hands-on lessons. For example, when we were discussing
metamorphic rocks, I provided the students with two different colors of playdough. The
first step the students needed to master was to create a layered sedimentary rock with
their playdough. After this, they were instructed to apply pressure with stacks of text
books and watch as their sedimentary rock metamorphosed into a metamorphic rock.
This type of visual and hands-on lesson combined with the constant use of scientific
vocabulary benefitted all students. Even students who might not enjoy science as much
as other courses, were participating in the activities and saying the key terms about the
process of rock formation.
I believe that the lessons that I created did allow the students to master their
learning goals. The students were placed into situations that allowed them to master the
state science standards in creative ways. During the most difficult concept weathering,
erosion and deposition I prepared a relay race for the students to master these three
terms. They used Legos to build a mountain, chalk to create a stream, and as they ran the
race they discovered the effects and differences between a landslide and basic

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weathering. Although this learning goal was not the highest scored of the four learning
goals, it did show significant gains from the pre-assessment.
There were times when my teaching strategies had to be adjusted to better fit the
students needs and understandings. At first, I thought that I had planned for just about
any misunderstanding or issue the students may encounter, but how can anyone prepare
fully for the inner workings of a fourth-grade mind? Truly, these students impressed me
with their questions, but also inspired me to reach beyond my normal lesson plan with
their confusion. One moment that was not addressed in one of the previous standards
occurred when we were working on the difference between chemical and physical
erosion. The students easily saw the chalk falling apart and turning into dust when we
shook our canisters to demonstrate physical weathering, but the students were having a
much more difficult time putting into words chemical weathering. Primarily, the vinegar
was not reacting with the chalk in as nearly a strong visual manner as with the chalk in
the canister. Chemical weathering occurs when the actual chemical makeup of the rock is
altered. This usually happens with acid rain, which is why I chose to use vinegar to use
to change the chalk composition. However, the students were falsely making
assumptions about chemical weathering. First, they were concluding that chemical
weathering occurs very slowly in all environments. Next, they concluded that pollution
played a very small role in chemical weathering. Finally, they were unable to articulate
that the chalks chemical makeup was changed. Because of these misunderstandings by
so many of the students, I grabbed some school glue, water and some Borax Soap. I
asked the students to tell me what they knew about acid rain and then I told them that we
were going to make our own acid rain. We put the Borax soap into the water and

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watched it dissolve. I asked the students to pour a whole bottle of glue into a plastic
baggie. We passed the baggie around and everyone was encouraged to squish the baggie
and write a sentence on their whiteboards that described what they felt and the ease or
difficulty with which they had squishing the glue. I told them the glue was going to
change its chemical properties when we added the acid rain. Then the students poured
the acid rain mixture of Borax soap and water into the baggie with the glue. The students
passed this baggie around and were again encouraged to squish the baggie. The students
were shocked that the glue no longer was easy to squish and that by adding the acid rain
solution, the glue was turning into a rock. Again, I had the students write on their
whiteboards what they were witnessing. This time, as we talked about chemical
weathering, the students were able to more accurately describe how chemical weathering
changes a rocks chemical makeup as it reacts with acid rain.
Most of the formative assessments from the students indicated that they were
meeting the learning goal objectives. Most students were able to successful complete
theses assessments. For the student, who was not successful with these assessments, I
think that I would need to adjust future unit plans to include a more in depth review of the
material covered in the previous lessons. The short review and catch-up that I gave at the
beginning of each class, was not as comprehensive as he needed. However, I do have to
take into consideration the other students who were successful at meeting the learning
objectives. I cannot stay on one topic for a very small fraction of the class because the
majority of the students would be bored. However, for the most part, I do feel that if I
had to teach this unit again with this particular group, that I would do 90% of what I had
planned. There are a few areas that I would tweak to better accommodate these students,

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but most of these alterations would occur with review sessions and not the actual core
lesson.
The primary aspect from this unit that I learned was that students need to explore
science concepts in numerous ways. Teaching science along with providing opportunities
for the student to demonstrate a skill related to the concept being taught helps enrich the
child. This enrichment leads to a depth of knowledge that can be carried on for years to
come. My cooperating teachers comments were focused on the number of labs and
activities that I included in my lesson. She indicated that she would not include any
activities in her science units and strongly suggested that I discontinue using them. Her
main objection was the time it takes to prepare for this type of lesson plan, and that the
students have a tendency to get carried away when they are given too much stimulus. I
appreciate her candor and she has taught this age group for 10 years, so, I completely
trust her judgement when it comes to knowing this set of children. However, I think that
one of my greatest assets as a teacher is my ability to create object lessons. So, I did
appreciate her feedback, but I did not remove my activities from the lessons. I truly
believe that for science knowledge to be complete, the teacher has to go beyond having
the student memorize science vocabulary and actually have the students demonstrate
scientific concepts. Whereas, a child can retain a vocabulary term for a short while, they
create a lasting memory while creating powdered-cocoa-plate-tectonic-cracks with
erupting milk-bubble-volcanoes, and experimenting with graham cracker, marshmallow
fluff, and chocolate earthquakes.