Clinical Science Lesson

This year I am at Cedar Ridge Elementary School/Brigham Early Learning Center. I am placed in a lively kindergarten classroom of 27, which I love very much, with a cooperating teacher who is very similar to me in teaching style and personality. I have taken over a few aspects of the classroom, one of these being a guided reading group every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. When I did my science guided reading lesson, I was working with the higher reading group, which consists of six students.

I gave my science guided reading lesson over two days, I had about fifteen minutes to a half hour each, on October 27 and 29. My teacher thought this would be the best time for me to give my lesson. She also thought it would be a good idea for me to incorporate this science information into my guided reading group.  For this lesson, I did not use a lesson plan template that I would normally use for class, instead I used a weekly guided reading lesson plan template that my cooperating teacher uses. I thought this template would be the best template for the lesson that I was giving. Even looking back on the lesson now, I think this template was the best for me to use and it helped me stay on track for the week. This lesson also included other things I would be doing with the students, such as working on sight words. It is very important that the students, even though they are the higher reading group, continue to practice their sight words. We did this in a fun, engaging way for them. These words, among others, of course, helped them read this book.

During my lesson, the students read the book “How Plants Grow” and we talked about some of the vocabulary words that were in the book, such as seeds, soil, and sunlight. Before they read the book we went on a picture walk, and looked at all of the pictures in the book. We looked at the words that might be hard for them to read, and went over them together. After they read the book, the students filled out a 3-2-1 worksheet, where they wrote down three things they learned while reading, two interesting facts, and one question they still had. Some of the students were able to finish the worksheet in the allotted time, but there were a few who struggled with the book a little bit and did not have time to finish the worksheet. There was one girl especially who struggled with the book, so I had to give her more attention to her than I did to the other students. The other students did pretty well with the book though, and I think the pictures definitely helped them get through it. She also used different reading strategies to help her decode the words she did not understand.

Throughout the lesson, the students were engaged with the book, as well as the worksheet. They all seemed to enjoy the book and were really getting into the lesson. I think there were some aspects of the lesson that went very well, but there are definitely some things that I could have done better, that I could improve upon. At the beginning of the lesson, I could have given clearer instructions to the students. I think some of the students were a little confused with the worksheet, and so I was attending to the different students as they finished reading their story. It was difficult to attend to each student who was confused with the worksheet, because I was still helping the one girl finish reading the story. There was quite a bit going on, so it got a little overwhelming for a few minutes in the middle of the lesson. If I would have given better instructions at the beginning of the lesson this would have cleared up their confusion. If you look at the worksheets that I handed in, you can see that on one of my students started to draw on the back because he was unsure of what he was supposed to do in each section of the worksheet. If I would have explained this better beforehand, this would not have happened, and he would have had more time to work on this activity. This was only a little bump in the lesson though, and the rest went smoothly.

I’m glad that the students enjoyed reading the book. They all seemed to find the information presented to them very interesting. In the book, they talked about the different places where plants can grow. These places included the ocean, the dessert, in sand, on rocks, and other various places. The students thought it was so cool that plants can live in such unique and harsh environments. One student even asked a very insightful question on her 3-2-1 worksheet. She asked “Why do plants need sunlight to grow?” I wish I had seen this question before I finished the lesson so I could tell her the answer and clear up and confusion for her. I also wish that I had provided more opportunities for the students in my group to ask questions about plants, so that I could answer them for them.

Because we only did this lesson during station time, it ran over two days. It was kind of nice that we did it this way, so that I had more time to teach this idea to the students. I think if I had more time though, I would have made a diagram of the plant where they could label the different parts of the plant, like they did in the book. This would have given them a very nice visual for the students. Overall, I think the lesson went over well, and the students all seemed to enjoy the lesson and the science behind it all. I would like to incorporate science into the classroom more, because of the way the students all reacted to it.

EXCEEDS: I turned in the students’ worksheets that they filled out. 

Sight Lesson at Brigham

Last Thursday, I was in the preschool room while Laine and Brittany taught. They taught a lesson on sight to the preschool students, and it was a very well thought out and executed lesson. The students and even the teacher loved it. I really enjoyed being a part of this lesson because it was really fun for the kids and for us teachers! They talked about sight, made binoculars from toilet paper tubes, and then played I spy with their new binoculars. The students all enjoyed making their binoculars and playing I spy with them. I think this was a great way to get them thinking about sight and the fact that they use their eyes to see.

I honestly didn’t feel like I moved towards my goal at all during this lesson because I didn’t even really interact with any of the English language learner students during this lesson. Most of the lesson, I interacted with this one girl, who was definitely not an English language learner. I held the toilet paper roll while she colored it and I helped her take them together. I had a wonderful interaction with her though. We talked the whole time she was coloring her toilet paper tubes, and she really seemed to be getting into the lesson. I’m sure some of the other teachers had opportunities to work with the ELL students in the classroom though.

Next week, when I am in the classroom, I plan on interacting with the ELL students more. Luckily, the next time we are at Brigham, I will be in the kindergarten classroom where there is more opportunity to interact with ELL students. I very much enjoy interacting with these students and I strive to interact with them in the best way for them. When working with these students, I feel like I strive more to work towards my goal of gaining confidence with ELL students. I am lucky to be placed at Brigham right next to that classroom. I am definitely more comfortable with these students because I see them every other day. I think this has helped me gain confidence working with ELL students because I have had so much interaction with them already. I have also talked with the teacher and seen what she does with her students. Because it is a bilingual classroom, she talks and reads to her students in both English and Spanish. I think it is awesome that she does this because it ensures that everyone in the class will understand what she is saying. I know that as a general educator I will not necessarily be able to do this for all of my students, because there could be several different languages in my class, all of which I don’t know. Because of this, I will make sure that I provide extra support to my ELL students. There are many ways I can do this. I can provide lots of visual support for them, I can partner them up with someone who can help them, and I can ask them questions to make sure they are understanding what I am saying.

EXCEEDS: I connected my blog entry to my clinical experience, and I said what I could do to support ELL students in my future class.