Hmmmm....reflecting on the Instructional Plan, I would have to first say that it really offered me the opportunity to really consider how I was teaching my students. I had to stop, think, reflect, and evaluate each portion of the plan. I have a tendency to over analyze, so it took me longer than I planned. :P
The process of the 5 E's strongly aligns to the method in which I currently plan my lesson, but in more detail. My administration has an idea on how a lesson should progress, and it closely matches the 5 E's strategy.
I actually use the lesson that I used for the Application paper. The students are instrumental in creating a rubric to assess the factors and levels of erosion in different areas of the middle school campus. Then, we go outside to view the places, and the students evaluate the areas. It is amusing to listen to the impassioned arguments on the amount of ground cover by sixth graders.
The biggest problem with the lesson is time. I find that many of my special needs students require more time and structure to complete their work. Also, I have to be cognizant of any weather issues that might arise. Many students needed the use of a word processor. However, there is a limited amount of net books available.
After the lesson this year, we had a benchmark assessment. The students scored well on the soil standard questions. So, I believe this lesson is a keeper. :)
I know what you mean about over analyzing things. I do the same thing. This assignment took me a really long time, but I believe I came with a really great real world context that I hadn't thought of before while teaching forces and motion.
ReplyDeleteThe lesson you describe sounds like so much fun, and meaningful for students as shown with the benchmark assessments. I don't have these 9 week intervals of assessments and I'm not sure I would fair well with them because I would find it hard to force benchmarks on students. I believe that plans are a tool that are used, but it's also okay to go astray depending on the students interests and what is happening in their lives and in the world of science that may connect even better than what I had planned. That's one reason I like the program, but wish that there was more structure for what each grade level should know anyway.
This lesson took forever for me to complete since I am also an overanalyzer! It forced me to really think about why I teach what I do and my approach. I always struggle with how I differentiated my curriculum because we don't really have a set curriculum in our school. We adopted FOSS kits but the texts are written at an 8th grade reading level (I teach 6th grade) and the supplies are exhausted and we have no money to replenish the kits. I feel like our curriculum is useless! Ok, I'm just venting now!!
ReplyDeleteI think my main problem with my lesson is time as well. Sometimes my timing works out great, but other times I feel like we get stuck in places and time runs out. Nice blog page by the way. Mine will never look this nice. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment....I have another blog for school that we maintain as another avenue of communication with parents. :)
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