Week Thirteen: More Observations!

This week is a bit sad, it's my last week here at Trunnell Elementary student teaching.  I have learned a great deal and will forever be grateful.  For my final lesson I used iPads and tangrams to teach 4th and 5th graders about shapes and mathematics.  The lesson plan and pictures from the lesson can be viewed from the following links.


Putting Shapes Together Part 1

Putting Shapes Together Part 2

iPads lessons

iPads lesson 2

iPads lesson 3


Overall I think the lesson went really well.  The students enjoyed hands on time with the iPads and if anything I wish I had more iPads so each student would get longer.  Originally I was to come every day that week and teach all 4th and 5th graders so that everyone would get some great time working with the iPads.  However, the week came and suddenly classes would be missing Monday for a field trip and Wednesday for a class assembly.  Luckily Tuesday and Thursday, the days I needed to record and be observed, where not disrupted. 

I had never heard of


before and I was really thrilled with how well the students listened.  I asked them to think of the shapes they se in their everyday life.  For example a bed is a rectangle, a plate is a circle, etc.  Then I talked about how tangrams are used as a way to tell stories in China.  I then read the story aloud.  After that I passed out iPads and Osmo's and half of the class checked out books while the other half used the iPads to create tangram shapes.  They drew the shapes they made on the iPads on their papers. 


Good things about the lesson: 
-Students LOVED using the technology. 


Bad things about the lesson:
-Not having enough technology for everyone to use at one made for difficult transitions.
-Some student's had a difficult time sharing and thus other students got very little time with the iPads
-Passing out all of the technology after reading the story was very difficult and made for a lot going on at one time
- The first time I tried teaching it I brought in foam shapes so half the class could be working with those while the other half worked with the iPads and then switch, then after everyone had completed everything it would be time for check out.  This was too much for the class period, taking up way too much time.  It also added to the amount of little pieces we had to keep track of.  The second time this was taught we scrapped the foam tangrams and just had half the class check out then work with the iPads.  This process seemed to go more smoothly. 


Overall:
I think if you had a way of setting the technology up before hand and the students in another area listening to the story it would have flowed better.  Leaving the technology at the desks prior to using means lack of focus and ability to not begin the iPads portion before it was time.  I liked that the students seemed very engaged and interested.  If attempted again I'd like to try and find a way to make the whole thing go more smoothly


CEBS Dispositions:

Values collaboration. Actively seeks out and incorporates ideas of others. Takes leadership in working with others to improve the overall environment. Regularly share information and ideas.

EPSB Code of Ethics:

Values professionalism: Professional development and involvement. References and makes use of professional organizations or publications. Willingly participates in professional activities or events that promote professional development.

Week Twelve: Observations!

This week is a very important week for me, I'm being observed! 

To prepare, I needed to record the lesson a couple of days before my professors anticipated arrival.  Of course, nothing went well.  My camera cut the lesson into two parts and I wasn't able to upload either video because of file size.  However I do have links to the files saved on my Google drive.  The lesson was on Owls and the lesson plan can be found here.  We used it with 2nd and 3rd graders.  Third graders had an easier time recalling facts after the nonfiction text and owl sounds, but both groups had a lot of fun imitating owl sounds.

All About Owls Lesson Part 1  

All About Owls Lesson Part 2

During the lesson we listened to different owl sounds from Youtube such as the Barred Owl

The Great Horned Owl

This is the lesson plan for owls:

Component I: Classroom Teaching

Task A-2: Lesson Plan

Your committee members will review and evaluate your performance on this task using Standard 1: The teacher demonstrates applies knowledge and Standard 2: The teacher designs and plans instruction.

Intern Name: Lindsay Kokai                    Date: 10-29-15                    Cycle: 1 # of Students: 24                 Age/Grade Level: 2nd grade                 Content Area: Library Unit Title: Creepy Crawlies and Creatures of the Night                               Lesson Title: Owls

Lesson Alignment to Unit Respond to all of the following items: a) Identify essential questions and/or unit objective(s) addressed by this lesson. Students will be able to define four facts about owls. b) Connect the objectives to the state curriculum documents (I. E., Program of Studies, Kentucky Core Content, and/or Kentucky Core Academic Standards). Kentucky Core Academic Standards (Reading Standards for Informational Text) RL.2.1: Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. c) Describe students’ prior knowledge or the focus of the previous learning. Prior to this lesson, students will have studied spiders and bats.  d) Describe summative assessment(s) for this particular unit and how lessons in this unit contribute to the summative assessment. The summative assessment for this lesson is the student’s ability to list four facts about owls.  e) Describe how the instructional planning for this lesson addresses the characteristics of your students identified in Task A-1 who will require differentiated instruction to meet their diverse needs.  The lesson is designed to meet the needs of a variety of learning types.  Auditory learners will be reached through hearing the nonfiction text read aloud and listening to owl sounds, and visual learners will have the book illustrations to help them comprehend the story.  f) Pre-Assessment: Describe your analysis of pre-assessment data used in developing lesson objectives/learning targets (Describe how you will trigger prior knowledge): Before reading the nonfiction text students will be asked what they already know about owls.  Then after hearing the text read aloud students will be asked what new facts they have learned about owls.

Lesson Objectives/ Learning Targets Assessment Instructional Strategies/ Activities Objective/target: Students will be able to write four owl facts on their extension worksheet.  Assessment description: An extension activity with four places to list owl facts. Differentiated Assessment Plan: Students will be given the option to work with a partner. Strategy/Activity: Review facts learned after hearing the text read aloud.  Differentiated Strategies/ Activities: Auditory learners will benefit from listening to the text and the owl sounds.  Visual learners will be engaged by book illustrations as well as the video clips.  The movement and mimicking owl calls will appeal to kinesthetic learners Media/Technologies/Resources: Copy of All About Owls Document camera Laptop YouTube clips Projector

Procedures: Describe the sequence of strategies and activities you will use to engage students ad accomplish your objectives.  Within this sequence, describe how the differentiated strategies will meet individual student needs and diverse learners in your plan.  (Use this section to outline the who, what, when and where of the instructional strategies and activities.) 1. Remind students that we have learned about spiders and bats today and that we will continue our study of “creepy crawlies and creatures of the night” by looking at owls today. 2. Activate prior knowledge by asking students what they know about owls.  3. Introduce All About Owls and read aloud, using the document camera.  4. After reading the story aloud listen to the sounds different owls make and practice making their sounds.  5. Ask students to help review facts learned about owls.  6. Ask student assistants to pass out materials. 7. Circulate around the room, giving assistance if necessary. 8. As students finish their work allow them to check out if they have returned all previously checked out materials.