Blog Reflection 5- Clinical Lesson Plan

            In my PDS class, I taught a science lesson about simple machines. My CT teaches Science one week then Social studies the next week and she rotates every other week. For almost everything that my CT teaches there is a Smart Notebook made for the topic. She goes through the notebook on the Smart Board and plays songs, videos, or incorporates interactive slides for the students. When I told her I needed to teach a Science lesson, I knew I would be doing something with a Smart Notebook that was already made for the curriculum. This was hard to plan because the days that would have worked well, we had planned to teach Social Studies. Fortunately, my CT was flexible and worked with me to figure something out. She asked me if I would be okay with doing an introduction lesson to what she had planned to start doing during Science. This lesson was about simple machines and how things work.

            I prepared the lesson by working with my CT. There was a Smart Notebook already made, but we worked together to make changes and put new ideas in it. We watched different videos and chose things that would best represent the simple machines I was going to introduce. The day I planned to teach was a little last minute because of how the schedule had been set up, but things went well. I am used to teaching and being in front of the class, so I was comfortable doing this.

            I began my lesson with a song about wheels and the lyrics to the song were displayed on the board. I played it a couple times then encouraged the students to sing along. I felt that the song in the beginning of the lesson hooked the students in. The students caught on and were able to learn a little bit about what a wheel does. I moved on to a picture of a town that had all different kinds of examples of simple machines and machines in general. I asked the students to look at this picture and raise their hands if they saw any thing they thought was a machine. I used their answers as a check for understanding and most of the students were right on track. I thought this part went well because most of the students gave meaningful answers such as a bus, bicycle and pointed out the wheels, a computer, etc. One student said the flagpole and I thought that this answer was interesting. I think having the students analyze a picture like this gives this topic a little more meaning to them if they can see examples that are used in every day life.

            While I was teaching the lesson there were times that I thought of that I could have better known this topic myself. I know what simple machines are, but there were times where I was unsure of how to explain it to kindergarteners. I think the videos helped with this because the students were able to see a demonstration of how the machines could be used. Throughout the lesson I showed the students short videos of each simple machine we were talking about. I identified the vocabulary for the lesson then showed each short video about a pulley, wheel and axle, lever, and inclined plane (ramp). Each video showed real life examples of people using these simple machines, such as using a pulley to raise a flag or using a ramp to help get a heavy box in a tall lifted truck. During our discussion about the videos, some of the students made connections by saying they have ramps at their house or they have seen their grandparents walk down one before.

            After the students had just learned a little bit about what simple machines are and what they can be used for, they worked in pairs at the carpet to think of other examples of simple machines that they see at school or at home. This was an opportunity I gave the students to take part in a shared practice activity. I listened to some of the group’s discussions to see what they were coming up with. A lot of students said things like the pencil sharpener or some kind of tool they have seen somebody fix something with. I also heard a student make a connection related to the wheel and axle. In the video, they described gears being a part of a wheel and axle and how these gears can be inside watches to make the watches work and one student raised their hand and said so does that mean there are gears inside my watch that I am wearing right now? I thought this was a great connection to think about how simple machines are really all around them and they use them all the time.

            Everything that we do as teachers always has some kind of room of improvement. Overall, I was pleased with how the lesson went but I also noticed that there were some things that I need to work on. I need to work on describing different things to young children and I think something like this will come with practice. The more I work on this I think the better I will become at it. I also think this was something I could improve on in this lesson because I’m not particularly familiar with a lot of science and teaching it to young children. I know there were activities that I could have had the students do, but my CT and I discussed these activities and planned when we could do them throughout the week while we were teaching this topic. We were thinking of having the students make their own small ramp or some kind of simple machine. They could use different materials to construct something of their own to replicate an example of something they saw in the videos or an example we talked about during the lesson. The purpose of my lesson that my CT wanted me to teach was an introduction overview of what the students were going to be learning about more in depth throughout the week. I think I accomplished this goal because the students gave great examples of simple machines they see everyday and they made connections of simple machines that they use in their lives.

Exceeds- Here are some links to additional activities that I could do in the future that relates to this topic:

http://www.brainpop.com/educators/community/lesson-plan/simple-machines-activities-for-kids/?bp-jr-topic=simple-machines

http://www.brainpop.com/educators/community/lesson-plan/simple-machines-lesson-plan-the-inclined-plane-and-the-screw-2/?bp-jr-topic=simple-machines

http://iijuan12.hubpages.com/hub/gears-and-pulleys-simple-machines-lesson-plan

Brigham Reflection 4

             This week at Brigham, I had the opportunity to be an assistant in the kindergarten room for the first time. I was nervous and excited for this because I knew from being in the preschool room most of the time; this room was going to be a lot different. I was nervous because I did not know if the students only talked in Spanish or also spoke English. I immediately get nervous going into bilingual rooms because I have little to no experience with speaking another language. Although, I have felt like overtime I am becoming more comfortable interacting with these students that are English Language Learners. This is also one of my goals that I have been working towards while being at Brigham.

            While I was in the classroom, I was assisting with a lesson about the four seasons. I knew I was going to be working with small groups of children and I was worried about taking good notes because I was unsure if I was going to be able to understand the students. Once I started working with the students and having conversations with them, I did not have any trouble understanding what they were saying. I was able to interact with the children and talk about the seasons. I talked about the season summer and I was able to learn a little bit of Spanish because I could hear some of the students saying the seasons in Spanish such as verano, primavera, invierno, and otono. Since I don’t have much experience with a second language, I enjoyed listening to the students say certain words and learn more about Spanish even though I was only in the classroom a short amount of time. I think each opportunity I get to work with English Language Learners is a great learning experience and I can really take in a lot from just talking with the students.

            In class, we have talked about what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher. I think all the characteristics we have talked about such as being patient and it taking a lot of time are things we can relate to while being at Brigham. It took multiple times in the classroom for me to become comfortable and to gain more confidence when working with English Language Learners. It is also important to really know the students to become a culturally responsive teacher. Even though I was only in the classroom every other week, I tried my best to learn their names and observe their personalities and how they interacted with each other and other teachers.

            Overall, my experience in the kindergarten classroom this week was a positive one. I made sure to stay optimistic and it ended up benefitting me. Besides interacting with the students I was also able to observe a new bilingual environment. I observed things around the room that were labeled in Spanish and other resources that were available in the classroom to help bilingual students. These kinds of things help me work towards my three goals that I made for myself this semester. 

Exceeds- Here is a link to a Scholastic page that gives tips for teachers about classroom setup strategies for ELL students.

 http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/teaching-ell-classroom-setup-strategies

Brigham Reflection 3 (Teaching)

 

            Last week, Ashlyn and I had the opportunity to teach a lesson in the pre-school classroom at Brigham. Each week the pre-school lessons have been focused on the five senses. Last week Ashlyn and I taught a lesson about the sense of hearing. Before teaching the lesson, we brainstormed ideas and thought that putting together different stations for the students to explore would be a fun and interactive way to teach this topic. We decided to make shakers with four different materials in plastic eggs that included pennies, beads, rice, and marbles. Another station we had instruments that included a rain stick, bells, bongos, maracas, etc. The last station we had was paper cups made into phones. We thought that all of these materials would give the students an opportunity to hear many different sounds throughout the lesson. We began the lesson with a book called The Ear Book, but instead of us just reading the book to the students we found a YouTube video that read the book and made the sounds that happen in the book. This was also another example of having the students hear different sounds.

            Overall, I thought we had many strengths throughout our lesson. We had our materials readily available and developmentally appropriate for preschoolers to use. We were organized and had sheets available for our teacher assistants to fill out while they were helping with the stations. I also thought that we co-taught well. I felt like our teacher assistants were a huge part of why our lesson went so well. They took over each station and rotated the materials to make things easier, instead of having the students rotate. We took advantage of having so many extra hands to plan this lesson. I think this lesson would be a lot more difficult to manage if it wasn’t for having an assistant at each station.

            Although I felt like things went well for the most part, there are a few things that could be improved. If we were to teach this lesson in the future, we probably could add another station the students could go to. I also think that we could have added more questions that could be asked at each station. On the other hand, we kept things basic since it was pre-K. For other grade levels, we could ask more in depth questions and research more about how our sense of hearing works. I also think we could have maybe replaced the paper cup phones with something else because there were times it was hard for the students to know what to do. I thought that it went well though when there was a teacher next to the students prompting the students and showing them what to do.

            I think the student’s motivation to work at each station was because they were excited to play with the materials. They were able to hold these materials and explore them in a way they knew how. They might not have felt like they were doing much, but they were all hearing the sounds and that was our purpose of the lesson. We kept the rotations moving to keep the students interest. I noticed if the students were at a station for a long time they started to drift off and not really pay attention. I think having many different materials for the students to explore helped spark their interest and keep them motivated to participate.

            Our knowledge of the topic was clear while we taught the lesson. I think we explained things the best that we could for the students. Sometimes it is difficult for me to find the right words to explain certain topics to very young children in order for them to understand. I think the purpose of our lesson was clear and the students learned something from it. As long as the students were able to understand that we use our ears to hear and there are many different kinds of sounds we can hear. We also use our sense of hearing for many reasons.

            The students explored each station and answered the questions that the teacher assistants were asking. I heard things like many students guessing what was in the eggs before anybody asked them what they thought was in them. I also heard students trying to have conversations in the phones and seeing if they could hear the other person talk. These are all examples of things that showed me the students understanding of the topic.

We asked the students what body part they hear with and related this sense to things that they are familiar with. We talked about how there are quiet sounds and loud sounds that we can hear. The students gave us examples of things that they heard in the video such as a train, a girl singing, water dripping, etc. We also talked about how we need our sense of hearing in order to hear our teachers and other adults.

            While I was teaching, I thought of some of my goals that I have been working on at Brigham. Since this was my third time being in the pre-K room, it was easier for me to understand the students and know what they were saying. I was able to interact with the students better and have conversations with them. I feel like it has been getting easier working with English Language Learners. I am becoming more comfortable and I take more initiative now, then I used to when communicating with these students.

            Overall, I am pleased with how our lesson went. I enjoyed teaching this lesson and introducing all of the materials and different sounds to the students. Once I was done teaching I thought that this would be a great lesson to keep and teach to my PDS class or teach in the future. I can add things and change different parts in order to best fit whatever grade I am teaching. If I were teaching this to my PDS kindergarten class, I would add one or two more stations. I would also add more expectations for the students and have questions at each station to guide discussion within the groups.

 Exceeds- Here is the link to the video that we showed the students in our introduction and pictures of examples of materials that we used.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ByP6XAAhRA