Group 1 Direct Instruction: Let the teaching begin!
The first day of lessons!
I want to start by congratulating Group One on a job well done. It is a very scary thing to go first when doing something new, like teaching in front of a whole class, Group One was very brave and I would like to give "Fireworks!" I thought the first lesson of the fieldwork season went well. The lesson title was "Earth Cycles and Patterns in the Sky" and it discussed the phases of the moon, seasons, and the stars in the sky. There was a lot of information packed in, but I thought group one did a very good job of not making it feel overwhelming. I think the major thing that made the information a bit easier to take in was the questions that were asked every few slides. I think this was a great way to make sure the students were understanding the material as well as a great way to keep the students engaged. My group, group four, will be doing something similar. We will be asking the students questions after every two slides of information. We will take answers from two or three different students and then ask the class to give a thumbs up, or a similar gesture, to show if they agree with what their peers had said.
Group One had also made good use of imagery to get the students thinking and picturing what they were learning about in their minds. For example, they had asked the students to close their eyes and imagine all of the sand on a beach to get them to conceptualize just how many stars are in the sky. The number of stars in the universe is so big that it is almost impossible to try to imagine, but I found it helpful to imagine the grains of sand on the beach to try and make sense of the number.
Where things took a bit of a wrong turn for Group One's lesson was in the guided practice. The idea of the sentence strips was a great way to get the students using the new vocabulary that had just learned. I think that the only reason why this activity had gone wrong was a lack of instructions before it began. The students seemed to be confused about what they were supposed to be doing and many of them were ahead of where they were supposed to be. If instructions were given and it was made clear that the students were supposed to work on one strip and wait for the answer, the activity would have been very successful.
In the end group, one finished strong. I think their closure was very successful in going over what the students had learned. I also really liked that they were very careful in getting as many students as they could to respond to their questions. I think getting all the students involved makes the classroom really feel like a community and creates an environment where all students can succeed.
I want to start by congratulating Group One on a job well done. It is a very scary thing to go first when doing something new, like teaching in front of a whole class, Group One was very brave and I would like to give "Fireworks!" I thought the first lesson of the fieldwork season went well. The lesson title was "Earth Cycles and Patterns in the Sky" and it discussed the phases of the moon, seasons, and the stars in the sky. There was a lot of information packed in, but I thought group one did a very good job of not making it feel overwhelming. I think the major thing that made the information a bit easier to take in was the questions that were asked every few slides. I think this was a great way to make sure the students were understanding the material as well as a great way to keep the students engaged. My group, group four, will be doing something similar. We will be asking the students questions after every two slides of information. We will take answers from two or three different students and then ask the class to give a thumbs up, or a similar gesture, to show if they agree with what their peers had said.
Group One had also made good use of imagery to get the students thinking and picturing what they were learning about in their minds. For example, they had asked the students to close their eyes and imagine all of the sand on a beach to get them to conceptualize just how many stars are in the sky. The number of stars in the universe is so big that it is almost impossible to try to imagine, but I found it helpful to imagine the grains of sand on the beach to try and make sense of the number.
Where things took a bit of a wrong turn for Group One's lesson was in the guided practice. The idea of the sentence strips was a great way to get the students using the new vocabulary that had just learned. I think that the only reason why this activity had gone wrong was a lack of instructions before it began. The students seemed to be confused about what they were supposed to be doing and many of them were ahead of where they were supposed to be. If instructions were given and it was made clear that the students were supposed to work on one strip and wait for the answer, the activity would have been very successful.
In the end group, one finished strong. I think their closure was very successful in going over what the students had learned. I also really liked that they were very careful in getting as many students as they could to respond to their questions. I think getting all the students involved makes the classroom really feel like a community and creates an environment where all students can succeed.
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