(Lesson Notes)
You can watch a full video recording of this lesson through Edthena at https://app.edthena.com/conversations/vYwzyj6J8rBKHvm83
(My Notes)1:09 I'm trying to seat the kids in a way that we thought might minimize the issues between two of our students. However, the original plan wasn't going to work because we were in a different from with a different seating structure. (No longer at the semi circle table, now sitting at rows of two desks.)
1:58 Lindsey said "Guten Tag" in reference to our previous lesson where we each said hello in a different language after we introduced ourselves. 2:31 Asked Allan what he wants to be called today. He said Billy. I tried to refer to him as Billy. 2:54 This time we decided to start by going over the rules. 4:30 Reminder about what we did and talked about last week. Review prior knowledge. 5:15 Asked students to fill us in about what happened in the terrarium while we were gone. 5:27 Do you think it would be important to talk about which seeds grew and what each type of plant looks like now? Or do you think that would be too much time spent on reviewing last week? 5:41 "You revised your thinking and that's what scientists do." 6:53 Billy asks his classmates if they agree before we write it on the board. (Sidenote: His behavior is SOO different from our previous lesson!) 7:16 The students are naturally having a debate about "neutralizing". What could we have done to either facilitate this debate or steer it in a direction that relates to what we're learning about ecosystems? 7:29 I think it was good that I wrote the authentic questions coming from the kids about neutralizing vs. eating, however, I alluded to a "next time" even though I knew that we wouldn't be there again. We could have communicated with the teacher about how the students were interested in this. 8:02 Trying to include Aaron by asking a question that is straightforward and about what he noticed. 8:30 Follow up question that requires some observation and deeper thinking than the first question. "Which seed grew the most?" 11:52 Asking student to re-tell us what our new vocabulary word, observation, means. 12:11 Why is my head always tilted?! (In this video and my other ones.) 13:00 We spent about 10 minutes reviewing our terrarium for last week. Maybe spend less time on this!! (We might have gotten to the drawing our observations on the worksheet if we cut this section down.) 13:12 Hook: What do we think might go in an aquarium? 16:46 Lindsey: "Do you want help from a friend?" 17:01 Haley: "WHY YOU KICKING ME AMIR, I SAW YOU?" (This is what we predicted might happen between the two of them which is why we tried to seat them as far away from each other as possible.) 17:40 This is when we start building the aquarium. 17:49 To save time, maybe we could have gone together. 17:57 What are the other students supposed to be doing while they get the materials? 18:39 It was kind of difficult for me to work with Aaron and Jason because they were opposite from each other. I decided it would be more important to separate Allan and Haley from each other than it would be to keep Jason and Aaron next to each other so it would be convenient for me. 20:36 This would be a good way to incorporate fractions into science!! (What is a half of a half cup?) 22:32 There are a lot of different things going on. Would this be feasible without so many of us? 25:10 Our system of taking turns getting the water definitely shows that we valued equality over efficiency. 25:30 By taking turns getting the water, the students can't really do anything else during this time besides wait until their next turn. 25:40 We should have filled up the jug ourselves with the same cup so that we knew how many cups it would take roughly and how long it would take. It took way longer than we expected to fill it up with water! 26:07 The students really wanted to cooperate and take turns which was great. 26:30 Lindsey is referring to our estimates. Estimation is another good topic to talk about here. 27:46 We could have had Haley make a line on the container to mark the spot instead of holding her finger. Do you think that would have been a better idea? Although, having her mark it with her finger gives her a job that she seems to take very seriously. (Which is what we wanted!) 28:04 This is a reoccurring issue for me. I am always asking for the time! I should get a watch. (The problem is that I usually use my phone as a clock, but in this case I didn't have it with me and during my other lessons, Rachel was using my phone to record.) 29:12 Instead of waiting for more water, could have moved on and gone back to it. 29:31 I liked the other group's idea about drawing pictures of the plant so that the students can figure out which one they are supposed to get. In our group, our students relied on us to tell them which plant was which. 30:12 We just got the elodea. 31:27 Asking Jason which end we start with to use a ruler (and what the numbers mean). Informally assessing how much he knows about measurement and measuring. 31:47 We could have estimated the length before measuring. 32:02 If we didn't include it in our standards, we could have used a math standard about measuring and collecting data. 33:14 If we had more time, we could have had each student measure the elodea independently. Compared lengths. 33:49 Ask the student, "Why do you think that part is brown?" 34:52 All of our activity is very disjointed. Do you think it would have been better for all of the students to do everything? Did splitting up and delegating the tasks save much time? How did that method help and hinder our lesson? 36:08 Lindsey and Haley are going to get the duckweed. 36:43 I encourage students to ask each other questions and for help. 37:35 I ask Jason to describe the shape. "Is it like a ball?" 39:04 "What do you notice about it [elodea]?" It floats. 40:36 Could have given each student a little duck weed and had them observe while Haley counts. 43:38 2 minute warning from Elyssa 43:47 I show Jamir to the empty bottle image on the back so that he can start drawing what he sees. 44:22 Definitely give them more time to draw! Also, give students 10 minute and 5 minute warnings. 45:05 Like Rona says, get students to begin cleaning up earlier. 45:18 Introduce the snails and fish into the aquarium. |
(OBserver Notes)2:15 You seem patient and accommodating with the kids. I like that you touched this student's shoulder, since he couldn't see you. 2:31 =) I noticed this. Nice. 2:54 Always a good idea! It starts things off well. 3:04 I noticed that you sometimes tried to get down to the student's level, at the height at which they are sitting. I think this is effective because it gives things more of a team-work type of feel and might make them more comfortable in tackling topics or tasks in a discussion and group work format. 4:15 You have good small group management techniques! You did a great job of communicating with students while another co-teacher is speaking, in a way that doesn't lose focus of that. 5:15 I like that you said "Thank you for raising your hand." I've been trying to do that too! 5:27 MY group had the same question when writing up our lesson plan and all of us agreed that given the time constraints, we would only allot a couple of minutes for a general review. It would be easier to go more in-depth with the terrarium if we had 2 hours as opposed to 1! 6:53 Interesting! 7:16 I think the best way to approach these types of conversations is to prepare by having a connection or definition ready to share with them (i'm still working on this myself!). Then again, it's really not easy to address every question and debate when we only have 45-60 minutes for the lesson. 7:29 I think the "next time" comment was because of habit. I'm sure the kids forgot about it. I like that you wrote down their question, because it was genuine and it shows them that what they "say" and "think" are important to the lesson. 11: 52 I love that you asked this question to double check their understanding! 12: 11 You're just showing them that you're paying attention / listening to what they're saying! =) 13:00 One benefit of talking about the terrarium for so long is that it kind of gave them the chance to warm up and prepare for the aquarium project. 14:32 It's great that you guys allowed the kids to dig deep into their own discussion - yay for conceptual understanding! 16:46 This was very cute. It's a fun way to get other students involved in the conversation especially if the one student is having trouble articulating. 17:49 Yes, probably. Our group realized this later for our own lesson as well. 17:57 Ideas: starting a discussion about what's going to happen next or asking students to think about / predict what the item being brought over is going to look like. 18:51 I think you made the most out of the classroom management situation and desk arrangement. Throughout the lesson, you smoothly move around from student to student in a way that is not distracting, and you were able to individually help those couple of students effectively. 20:32 You did a great job at supervising each of these trips to the materials cart! I like that you allowed the student to work independently but made sure to oversee things. 22:32 Yes, there are a lot of things going on in this lesson. I am not sure if it would be feasible without this many co-teachers given our circumstances (having such little time). 23:29 Your group seems to have taken the approach of working on different things and with different students, simultaneously. Whether that was planned or not, this was an awesome way to implement the lesson with. You were getting a lot done and each student was getting attention and instruction by at least one co-teacher at a time. 27:46 I think I would've done the same thing, to have her hold the spot with her finger. A suggestion would be to then mention to her and the rest of the group that another way scientists do this is to mark the spot with a pen. 28:04 That's okay! I think this was an issue for all of our groups ....time management. The benefit of checking the time was that you were able to pace yourself and keep track of how much time you have left. The downside is that it could get repetitive and potentially make the kids feel rushed? But it needed to be done! 31:47 Agreed! That's a good point to remember for next time in future science lessons. 34:52 I mentioned in an earlier comment that whatever you were doing seemed generally organized, from a third person perspective. In the second half of the lesson, yes there was a lot going on and the approach of dividing up the tasks was unique, but I thought it worked fine! A suggestion would be to summarize at the end, and have students run through what they did (the separate tasks) so they can all have the shared experience and review what they contributed to making the aquarium together. 35:54 I like that you tell him "it's up to you"...I think that gives students a sense of responsibility and ownership of their won. 37:31 Great use of guiding questions! 40:42 It seems like Elyssa was trying to tell your group that we only have a few minutes left. I like that you didn't get frustrated or nervous with the time constraint! Maybe it's because you kept track of the time well throughout the lesson =) 42:52 The surroundings are getting louder and more hectic, but you're all still on task! 44:22 As you suggested, it would've been great to start the drawing part earlier so they could have more time. We ran into the same issue with our worksheets! 45:25 Good call - having the kids put in the snails would've taken up more time and caused potential management issues. 47:01 It would be great (if you had more time) to somehow conclude the lesson with final thoughts or takeaways. 47:22 Overall, this was well-done and you seemed very comfortable and helpful with the kids. Please see my email for a brief summary! |