Reflection
Moving Forward
Teaching this lesson confirmed the importance of knowing one’s students. Our goal was to engage students’ prior knowledge of an ecosystem and to expanding upon their knowledge while each student participated in the building of an aquarium. In order for us to mediate the roles and responsibilities of each student, our experience of working with the same students the previous week was essential to our planning. Negotiating with students and reminding them of the fairness with which we divided responsibilities was also important in maintaining a flow during the lesson, as was flexibility. By being flexible, we were able to record students’ scientific thinking by making revisions and inclusions in our ecosystem chart, which encouraged students to ponder answers to their own questions.
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would practice how to phrase our norms of behavior and expectations so that I would not have to look down at our lesson plan as a reference. I would also make time at the end of our lesson to revisit the questions that the students added to our ecosystem chart. Since we wrote them down so that students could think about their answers while observing the aquarium and its construction, revisiting these questions would offer a strong conclusion to the lesson. In terms of my teaching practice, I want to work on Victor’s notion of overlapping and monitoring all activities in the classroom. Although I feel that improving this skill takes time, I want to be able to better understand “when comprehension checks and instructional transitions are appropriate or needed” (Victor, Kellough & Tai, 2008, p. 49). I also want to further develop withitness by maintaining “constant visual surveillance of the entire class, even when walking to r working with an individual or small group of students” (Victor, Kellough & Tai, 2008, p. 49). Although my partner noted in her observations that I demonstrated this ability, I want to develop it further by learning to give attention to all students throughout the lesson.
Planning a Follow Up Lesson
With the construction of the aquarium as a foundation, I would design a follow up lesson based on the idea of recording observations of change over time, and understanding how these components are interconnected. Since this lesson focused primarily on the setup of the aquarium, I would focus the follow-up lesson on understanding the parts of the ecosystem and how they all work together to function. I would provide students with an outline of an aquarium and ask them to draw how the aquarium looked, and would discuss the differences in their observations of the plant life. I would also encourage students to make predictions and formulate hypotheses about the ecosystem would change over time, and would emphasize the idea that revising one’s opinion is part of the scientific process.
Thinking about this lesson through the NSTA’s Framework for K-12 Science Education, ways of developing scientific thinking stem from the crosscutting concepts of talk and arguments, modeling and representations. The guide outlines that “The assessments of crosscutting concepts would be less frequent; each term or annually there would be a performance assessment talk that would reveal how students are enacting and using the three dimensions,” including “constructed-response and performance assessments. They “must show evidence of ‘doing’ science and of critiquing and communicating what is done” (Duschl, 2012, p. 59). In order to thoroughly engage students in the crosscutting concepts, a follow-up lesson would become a series of lessons folded into a unit. The performance assessment would entail assigning an animal or plant life to a group of students and asking them to design an ecosystem that would support life. Prior to constructing it, I would ask students to design the habitat and write about how the components of the ecosystem support and sustain each other. This group activity would require students to communicate with one another and resolve any disagreements before beginning to construct the ecosystem. Through discussion and drawings, I would review their plans before students would begin building the ecosystem. This performance-based assessment would allow me to see their understanding of how an ecosystem functions and how to tailor it for a specific organism, and would allow me to understand the develop of students’ scientific thinking over time.
Teaching this lesson confirmed the importance of knowing one’s students. Our goal was to engage students’ prior knowledge of an ecosystem and to expanding upon their knowledge while each student participated in the building of an aquarium. In order for us to mediate the roles and responsibilities of each student, our experience of working with the same students the previous week was essential to our planning. Negotiating with students and reminding them of the fairness with which we divided responsibilities was also important in maintaining a flow during the lesson, as was flexibility. By being flexible, we were able to record students’ scientific thinking by making revisions and inclusions in our ecosystem chart, which encouraged students to ponder answers to their own questions.
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would practice how to phrase our norms of behavior and expectations so that I would not have to look down at our lesson plan as a reference. I would also make time at the end of our lesson to revisit the questions that the students added to our ecosystem chart. Since we wrote them down so that students could think about their answers while observing the aquarium and its construction, revisiting these questions would offer a strong conclusion to the lesson. In terms of my teaching practice, I want to work on Victor’s notion of overlapping and monitoring all activities in the classroom. Although I feel that improving this skill takes time, I want to be able to better understand “when comprehension checks and instructional transitions are appropriate or needed” (Victor, Kellough & Tai, 2008, p. 49). I also want to further develop withitness by maintaining “constant visual surveillance of the entire class, even when walking to r working with an individual or small group of students” (Victor, Kellough & Tai, 2008, p. 49). Although my partner noted in her observations that I demonstrated this ability, I want to develop it further by learning to give attention to all students throughout the lesson.
Planning a Follow Up Lesson
With the construction of the aquarium as a foundation, I would design a follow up lesson based on the idea of recording observations of change over time, and understanding how these components are interconnected. Since this lesson focused primarily on the setup of the aquarium, I would focus the follow-up lesson on understanding the parts of the ecosystem and how they all work together to function. I would provide students with an outline of an aquarium and ask them to draw how the aquarium looked, and would discuss the differences in their observations of the plant life. I would also encourage students to make predictions and formulate hypotheses about the ecosystem would change over time, and would emphasize the idea that revising one’s opinion is part of the scientific process.
Thinking about this lesson through the NSTA’s Framework for K-12 Science Education, ways of developing scientific thinking stem from the crosscutting concepts of talk and arguments, modeling and representations. The guide outlines that “The assessments of crosscutting concepts would be less frequent; each term or annually there would be a performance assessment talk that would reveal how students are enacting and using the three dimensions,” including “constructed-response and performance assessments. They “must show evidence of ‘doing’ science and of critiquing and communicating what is done” (Duschl, 2012, p. 59). In order to thoroughly engage students in the crosscutting concepts, a follow-up lesson would become a series of lessons folded into a unit. The performance assessment would entail assigning an animal or plant life to a group of students and asking them to design an ecosystem that would support life. Prior to constructing it, I would ask students to design the habitat and write about how the components of the ecosystem support and sustain each other. This group activity would require students to communicate with one another and resolve any disagreements before beginning to construct the ecosystem. Through discussion and drawings, I would review their plans before students would begin building the ecosystem. This performance-based assessment would allow me to see their understanding of how an ecosystem functions and how to tailor it for a specific organism, and would allow me to understand the develop of students’ scientific thinking over time.