Clinical Lesson

On Monday November 10, I taught my science lesson to my kindergarten students. I taught them a lesson about leaves that coincided with my bag-it that I sent home, so I had one leaf expert in my class and it also helped start off our two week study (theme) on fall/harvest. I feel like I had a good understanding and knowledge of this topic before I taught it. Like I mentioned before I did a lot of research about this since it was based a little bit off of my bag-it that was focused around leaves as well. I was also asked to do a math station that focused on leaves as well for our math rotations. In this we did leaf sorting. You might say that I am now an expert on leaves! Before this time I had not had the experience of teaching a science lesson to my kindergartners besides the ones that were at Brigham. They do science on the days that I am not there so this was also different for them to have science out of routine. While it is best practice to keep schedules and routines with students so they know what to expect by incorporating it with their math time we were able to still make it fit into the schedule. To keep a good classroom management component I had the students constantly moving and using their muscles so that they are able to connected kinetically with the material and keep it longer in their memory as well as getting them up and moving every so often kept their attention and kept them engaged.

Whole Class Leaf Graph

While I thought that this lesson went pretty good, but there was still a lot that I could have improved on, I still had some strengths to this lesson. While I read a book about leaves to my students Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber, I had them stop and pause and do make inferences about what leaves do at different times of the year, especially in the fall. This way the students were engaged during the lesson and they were thinking about what is going on. Once I had them do this then they really started to listen and become focused on what I wanted them to be. With 29 kindergartners, sometimes it is hard to get them all to be on task and doing what you would like them to be doing. By stopping and asking questions I was able to get them to realize that they needed to be paying attention to me and the book so that they could answer my questions. After the book was finished I made sure that they knew what I wanted them to take away from the book. We were discussing what leaves need to grow and what happens when they do not get this. Once we talked about it a lot they started to get it! One of the strengths that I had was constantly asking the students what the leaves needed to survive. My lesson was integrated with math and we talked about graphing the leaves that we had. During the book we also talked about the different colors that the leaves could be. I wanted to use this as the basis for our graphing. Previously I had cut out leaves in different colors so that each student was able to get a leaf to participate in our class graph. I let the students pick the categories that could go on our graph with prompting from the different colored leaves that they were given. By letting them choose what would go on our graph they were able to feel like it was "their" graph and wanted to participate in it and pay attention because it was something that they made and not something that I was just telling them what to do. I also used the same colored markers as the colors that they gave me so that we were also learning to recognize our color words, with the help of the actual color! I also provided some engaging questions about our graph by having them come up one by one to tell us about their leaf and place it on our graph. Then I asked them questions about the most and the least as well as what our graph tells us. By engaging the students in higher level thinking questions they were able to fully understand what I was trying to get them to do. I also had the students engage in a group activity and where at their table spots they were able to go back and create their own leaf. We then were able to use questioning and descriptions to have them talk about their leaf and there it could fall on our graph. This got them thinking about the different colors that leaves can be as well as the different shapes that leaves could be as well. I was able to redirect the students who colored their leaves with rainbow colors back to the real colors that leaves are with these questions. I was also able to tie the lesson together with their own graphs that the students were able to complete, this also connected with their math journals that they are familiar with. This is something that we usually do together, but I wanted to see if they were able to complete it on their own after doing it numerous times. This was also good for my cooperating teacher to see so that we could see if there is anything that we need to cover for future use of these graphs in their math journals. This was the wrap up to the lesson because it connected it back to the big graph that they made in the beginning and they were able to then read books about leaves when they were done.

Group Leaf Coloring

While a lot of this lesson did go well there is still a lot that could be improved on. Timing is one big one. I struggle with this every single time I plan and execute a lesson and this is something my cooperating teacher and I have been trying to work on. I get really excited when I plan a lesson and it has so many awesome parts in it and I don't realize how long it will take. I also forget to realize that with 29 kindergarten students that things will take a lot longer than they normally take so I really need to be cautious about my time. I can also improve on my positive reinforcement so that the students will know what I expect out of them without me flat out saying it every single time. By making positive comments about what the students are doing that I like and want them to be doing then the others who are watching them will see what they should be doing and do it so that they could get complimented. There are a couple students who still struggle with raising their hand and instead they just like to blurt out what they would like to say. It would help if I remind all students my expectations for them and to raise their hands so they know right from the beginning that I need them to raise their hand and take their turn. It would also be helpful to make sure the students are not distracted by anything. One of my students had her coat hanging off her arm and asked if she could put it away. I wanted her to wait so that she would not miss instruction or disrupt the other students because I have come to find that once one student asks to take off their sweatshirts. Unfortunately she was being more distracting by not putting her jacket away than it was to just have her go and put it away quickly. I think that I should have given them clearer directions and tell them exactly what I want them to do, because they cannot read my mind. While they were doing their leaves in their groups I wanted them to make their leaves real leaf colors, but instead I had some tables make rainbow leaves. Like I mentioned before I was able to redirect them once we were talking about it and I was able to get them to tell me about what color real leaves actually are. I might have needed to model a step for the students so they understand better what I expect of them. At the end I collected their individual graphs so I could assess them. Even though I told them that they needed to put their names on it, I should have had everyone flip their paper open and write their name on it before they began or included a spot in which they could have put their name. I was also missing a paper and it might have been easier for me to see which students do not have their names on their papers by having them leaving their papers at their table spots when they are done and giving the students better directions for when they have finished.

Individual Leaf Graphs

These students were engaged the entire time and they asked a lot of questions. One quote that we enjoyed the most from one of my students is, "Why are we graphing? Is it just part of our day?" They understand our routines and were a little thrown off my me teaching science on a Monday. They were able to answer the questions that I posed to them as well. We were able to have meaningful conversations and they really enjoyed talking about their leaves. They thought that the graph was really neat since it was different from what we normally do, but since it is similar to what has been done before they had a good general idea of what I wanted them to do so they were able to participate to the fullest. The activity was not something that was newly taught to them so it was more review and going more in depth, but with different content. They are beginning to understand that we can graph all different things and all different ways and they get really excited to do this graphing.

Leaf Sorting Math Station

Exceeds: I went over 1,000 words, I included 5 objectives instead of just 2-3, I gave my CT the lesson to use in the future, I planned a math leaf station that went with along with my lesson that was used throughout the week at the math station and I included pictures of what we did.

Preschool Experience #1

This week I helped out with the preschool lesson taught by Julia and Kayla that wrapped up the five senses that were being taught in depth in the weeks prior. I was in charge of the station that reviewed the sense of hearing. I had a computer with many different sounds and I played them for the small group of students that I had that came to my station. I then had the students guess what sound they heard. Some of the students were able to get it and others were a little clueless. I think that these teachers did a wonderful job of reviewing the five senses for these students and they were able to understand the different senses that they have and can use for different things.

My goal for working with ELL students is to be able to successfully accommodate ELL students while working with them. During this lesson while I was working with them, when they were struggling with the different sounds that might have been unfamiliar to them, I provided them with some hints as to where they might hear these different sounds that they could make connections to or might even be familiar with. I know that even though they should all know what the sound of thunder sounds like a lot of them thought that it sounded like a train! This could be due to the fact that the students could live close to a train and hear it all the time because they do sound similar. There was also the lion roar that they struggled with. In order to help them out with this one, I had them think of a time they were at the zoo or maybe say a video or picture of zoo animals. This way they could make connections even if they have never seen an actual lion or heard it roar before. I was also able to accommodate some of them by using the Spanish word for some of the sounds that I knew and I was able to use the help of some of the students to help out the other students who were struggling. While the teachers did not plan it this way, most of the time there were students who were more dominant in the group and liked to talk more paired with a student who either did not talk as much or did not speak a lot of English. This way the students were able to help each other. I tried to make them feel welcome as well because this should be another great goal of working with ELL students. In order to accomplish this I made sure that each of the students knew what my name was and I asked that theirs were. I also tried to use their names during the small amount of time that they were with me. This might be good to do with pictures that were native to the students so that they were able to choose the picture that goes with the sound they hear, they might be able to get these better than if they just had to come up with the name of the sound. Being able to accommodate these students and make them feel welcome even in the small group that they are in is also bringing me closer to becoming a more culturally responsive teacher.

Overall I think that both the students and the teachers did a wonderful job with this lesson. They were able to learn from this and interact and keep the students engaged well. They were also able to utilize the extra teachers that were in the room to have them help teach, monitor and observe the students.

Here are some different activities that can be done with students to help with learning about sound (since that is the station that I was at) especially ELL students:

http://www.prekinders.com/what-makes-sound/

http://mamierecette.canalblog.com/archives/2010/02/13/16894850.html

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Five-5-senses-foldable-science-station-center-cut-paste-sort-kindergarten-ESL-448670

Exceeds: I wrote over 500 words and I included helpful links.

Air, Water and Land Lesson- Kindergarten

This past week along with Alaina and Jessie I were in the kindergarten classroom and taught a lesson focusing on air, water and land. To teach this lesson we used a K-ESS3-1 use a model to represent te relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live. In order to meet this standard we read the students a story about a plant, we then broke off into three different groups and had the students rotate to a plant station at the smartboard and they will learn that a plant needs water and sunlight to survive. The next station was an animal station where they determined where animals lived in different habitats and what they needed to survive (water). The last station is the human station, where the students listed different things that humans need to survive (water among other things) and then they were required to draw a picture about something that a human needs. We ended with a finger play about a flower.

I think that some of the strengths that our lesson has was that we had the students engaged the entire time, the students were relatively well behaved, they were on task and they participated fully. They were also able to move the students fairly quickly between the stations and have them get the materials that they needed in an efficient manner. I also think that there was a strength with the teachers and the helpers that we have. The teachers had great confidence working in front of the students once the lesson started.

We had the students engaged and there was a lot of participation when we asked them questions at the beginning of the lesson like what do we think plans need to survive, what about animals and humans. There was a lot of participation from the students during the read aloud. They were attentive and there were many hands that were raised during the book to ask and answer questions. I was in charge of the plant station and we saw a lot of participation there. While we did it on the smartboard it was more efficient for me to be the one actually doing the activity. I asked the students questions about things that the plants needed to survive, and they came up with some really good answers, "soil, water, sun, heat, roots, and food." When we were doing the activity and making the plant grow I wanted them to tell me when they thought we should give the plant water and I would water the plant. There was one student who was so excited to give the plant water that every couple of seconds he would yell out water! and raise his hands while he said that. The students were able to move quickly because we told them exactly where they needed to go and while we were spread throughout the entire classroom we made sure that we were in spots away from each other, so that the students would not be distracted, but yet they were in a direct line to each other so there was an easy route for the students to take. We also had them get their crayons before they went to the human station during the moving and that helped to cut down on the time it takes to do that during the station. I was also helpful that the helpers in the room moved with the students and were able to help move the students along fast and get them were they needed to be with the materials that were needed and kept the kids under control if need be. I think that the confidence of the teachers help. I know we were very nervous before we were about to teach. Once we were in front of the students it came our naturally and we stopped being nervous and we were able to actively engage the students. At least for myself I started to just let everything fall into place and that I knew as a teacher we have to think on our feets and be prepared for the worse and nothing actual went as bad as we thought it might.

I think that we could have improved on the flow of the lesson. I thought it went pretty well, but in the beginning we only talked about the plants. I think that if we were able to incorporate animals and humans into the introduction. I think that if we were able to do that the lesson would have been able to go a lot smoother and they might have had more to talk about and participate with in the different stations. I think that maybe we needed to have smaller groups for the stations as well. I think that even though the groups went pretty smooth it would be helpful if they were a bit smaller and maybe it would have been better and they could have interacted with the plant station more.

I think that the students were very interested in the material. They were able to connect to the material as well because this is something that they are able to interact with every day. They see plants on a daily basis outside the classroom and sometimes even inside if they have a classroom plant. They are humans so they know exactly what they need and some of them might have pets or go to the zoo and see animals. I think that because we incorporated many different learning techniques into the lesson it grabbed their attention. They were able to move around and they were able to do different things at each of the stations.

Just like the students I think that we as the teachers of this lesson were very knowledgeable on it. We were able to use our own knowledge from out lives and what we even learned in this class through the modules like the plant station to teach these students. We were able to make sure that we connected to their knowledge and connected the entire lesson together at the end with a song that they were able to sing and hopefully remember. Some of us were able to use some Spanish words like agua to reach out to those ELL students and move towards our goal of making the students feel welcome in the environment. I think that because we were positive and encouraging the students were able to feel welcomed and we were able to move towards that goal as well.

The way the students asked questions and were able to answer ours showed us that the students developed a great understanding of this topic in such a short period of time and that they were able to use their prior knowledge to really ground this information into their heads.

Overall I think that this lesson went really well. We were able to meet the needs of the students and keep them actively engaged throughout the whole lesson. We were able to reach out to our ELL students by making them feel invited and welcomed and I am keeping on working towards my goal. I think that the students and the teacher of the classroom really enjoyed the lesson that we had to put on. She was thrilled when we let her keep the lesson plan and materials.

Here are some of the materials we used in our lesson:

Book
One Bean by: Anne Rockwell


Finger Play:

FLOWER FINGERPLAY

A hand is a bud                   
Closed up tight                     (close hand into a fist)
Without a tiny
Speck of light.

Then slowly the petals
Open for me                          (slowly open hand, one finger at a time)
And here is a beautiful
Flower I see!

http://www.preschoolexpress.com/music_station04/music_station_may04.shtml

Plant activity:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/growing_plants.shtml


Exceeds: I included materials from our lesson and some extra songs and finger plays and I wrote over 1,000 words.