Science is my new "thing" this year. I have been teaching it
almost everyday that I am at my internship and I love it!
It is so easy to do extensions on the spot and students are so naturally
curious and this is the subject that they can let it all out and ask a million
questions. More importantly than asking, they can try things to answer their
own questions!
I created a lesson to teach students how to make a closed circuit using a
battery, light bulb, and wire. I wanted them to KNOW how to do it before they
even got it. I wanted it to happen this way because I can remember anything
that I learned from elementary school science! So why is that? I think it is
because we would just get to fiddle with materials until something happened and
we were like oh cool...that worked. But we never understand why and that is why
I don't remember anything!
When I was planning for this lesson I read the curriculum guide and I could
not even figure out the diagrams that showed the different ways that a light
bulb could be lit, I could not see a pattern. So I went into my step-Dads
flashlight collection and I started to take them apart. I totally understood
what was going on after that!
So this time around, I wanted students to figure out how a light bulb is lit
the same way I did. So I gave them all flashlights and they understood the
process just fine, so I would say that it was a success. I even had us, as a class;
design a way to get a light bulb to light using only 3 materials. And they
figured out a way to get a light bulb to light using a battery, bulb, and wire.
So all that was a success.
However, I added to the lesson a video and explanation about how a light
bulb works (also a mini-diagram about how electrons get from the + side of a
battery to the - side and anything touching the wire that connects the sides
will get power from the flowing electrons.). I thought that they should
understand how electrons get to the bulb and what happens afterward. I believe
that students should see the whole process inside and out!
So I showed them the video of the light bulb as one of the first things before
they even got the flashlights. I wanted to give them all the vocabulary they
needed first and I wanted them to see the processes that are occurring. I,
unfortunately, did things a little out of order.
I realized that when you give students information about parts of something
you need to give them that part to examine! They were just sitting around,
listening to jibber jabber about light bulbs and they didn't even know what
they needed to know later about light bulbs. I had them draw diagrams (only 1
person in each group, oops) to show how the power flows through a light bulb
but they still were not getting it throughout the 2/3 day long lesson! What was
going on in their heads I wondered... I showed them an awesome video... So I
had to improvise and show them again but with my own diagrams. I drew out the
parts of the light bulb in an assembly line type thing, some got it, so then I
put it back together like a real light bulb and drew each part as electrons
would flow through them. There was a whole class "ohhhhhhhhhhhhh"
behind me. It was pretty awesome. So they needed to see the parts of the light
bulb as they learned about them. I was able to correct my mistake but when I
teach this lesson again I will give them light bulbs as they watch the video
(well maybe RIGHT after so they aren't distracted).
The lesson went great and they understood the one configuration with the
materials that made the light bulb work. They believed this one because it was in
the flashlight but I wanted to be able to see the other 3 that would work as
well. The next lesson in the guide did just that! But I had kind of overlapped
my lesson into this one. NOTE: read the WHOLE unit in science, all the lessons,
before you start to plan! It did not work out badly or anything but it could
have...
When I had told another teacher about my plan she said that she used to just
give them the parts and let them play around with them and they eventually got
it. I told her I wanted them to know before they just accidentally figured it
out in a way that I was sure they would not remember unless they knew what was
going on inside the configuration. So in my first lesson I taught them how the
power is flowing and then the next lesson they did get to play around with the
materials and try more configurations that were suggested to them on a work
sheet.
So they all figured it out and corrected their wrong guesses and I made them,
as a class, explain why each worked and why the others did not work.
The best part was when one student started to stack the batteries and it made
the light bulb get really bright! It started to smoke of course because a
little light bulb cannot handle 4 D batteries for very long! But I used that
opportunity to explain wattage suggestions on a light bulb! Now they know that
if you give a bulb too much power you will make it smoke. Everyone was crowded
around watching the one student doing this though and it was really exciting.
And they all wanted to play with the materials later! I saw it as a way to get
students interested in the science fair!
If we had a science fair I would want students to use simple things they learn
in science (closed circuits) to create things that are more complex (a chair
that you sit in and it makes a light bulb light up). I can't wait to teach more
science!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Taking a Risk in Social Studies
So I tried something new!
I planned a lesson in S.S. using historical texts, like my Methods class articles suggest!
It went horribly!
But that is okay!
I learned that students need to be taught how to use EVERY type of text. They also needed to be taught how to use to gain knowledge but like a historian or explorer would use it.
They (and most young students) are used to having their hand held and this was a case of that. They just wanted me to tell them, they write it, and that would be the end of it.
I did not want to do that! I did not want to give in!
The next day though, I did a little... I gave them a chart that they would have to regurgitate onto their unit test later in the year.
Some aspects went well but still sucked at the same time. Some students were really curious and wanted to know more and more! Of course I could not answer! I know quite a bit about the branches of government but they were asking "Would the Supreme Court judge Osama?" How do I answer that!? So the reason this sucked for me was that I was not in charge of this unit, or really another, being an intern. If I got to teach and plan on my own I would love to show my students the curriculum and tell them that this is all that we have to learn this year, how do you want to learn it? This way they could tell me if they just want me to say facts at them and they just memorize them for a test? Or if they want to do their own research, or use videos, or re-enact things. However they want to learn because some of them are curious and there was just not a darn thing I could do about it.
I planned a lesson in S.S. using historical texts, like my Methods class articles suggest!
It went horribly!
But that is okay!
I learned that students need to be taught how to use EVERY type of text. They also needed to be taught how to use to gain knowledge but like a historian or explorer would use it.
They (and most young students) are used to having their hand held and this was a case of that. They just wanted me to tell them, they write it, and that would be the end of it.
I did not want to do that! I did not want to give in!
The next day though, I did a little... I gave them a chart that they would have to regurgitate onto their unit test later in the year.
Some aspects went well but still sucked at the same time. Some students were really curious and wanted to know more and more! Of course I could not answer! I know quite a bit about the branches of government but they were asking "Would the Supreme Court judge Osama?" How do I answer that!? So the reason this sucked for me was that I was not in charge of this unit, or really another, being an intern. If I got to teach and plan on my own I would love to show my students the curriculum and tell them that this is all that we have to learn this year, how do you want to learn it? This way they could tell me if they just want me to say facts at them and they just memorize them for a test? Or if they want to do their own research, or use videos, or re-enact things. However they want to learn because some of them are curious and there was just not a darn thing I could do about it.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Manipulatives
A picture is worth a thousand words. My 3 favorite are "Ohhhh I see!"
Whenever the lesson reaches a point of drawing pictures or a hands on demonstration those are the 3 words I always here!
I am all of a sudden a firm believer in using Manipulatives as much as possible!
Even in 5th grade I want them all the time!
I have been co-teaching math for 4 weeks now and I think what these kids need is hands on first and learn the rules and tricks second.
GO CONCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE!
Example:
LCM?
Students have to understand what they are doing when they find LCM. When they learn the procedure of finding it first they are not able to visualize anything during problem solving.
So we give them packs of Pencils and Erasers and a situation.
Let them just go at it and solve stuff!
Then go over vocabulary that popped in their head while they did this.
Then I think that putting the things they found into a table would be very beneficial too! Turn hands-on into a table that organizers that hands-on info. which turns into mental math while they use the tricks to solve a word problem.
This way their answer is not just LCM=24. They understand the use of LCM in common problems and everyday situations. They can see the packs in front of them and then see them in this table and then see the LCM in the table.
So they understand what to do and that using LCM is the quicker way.
Now they can just do:
8; 8, 16, 24
6; 6, 12, 18, 24
And know that they found the first 3 multiples of 8 and the first 4 of 6 and those are how many packs of each are needed.
Hopefully of course!
I plan to start every lesson I can with a big question that involves no vocabulary that is specific to a unit or subject. Students will be given tools to solve it and then realize, after, what they were doing.
The big issues I see encountering is time restrictions!
You could just make everything a race?
The End
Whenever the lesson reaches a point of drawing pictures or a hands on demonstration those are the 3 words I always here!
I am all of a sudden a firm believer in using Manipulatives as much as possible!
Even in 5th grade I want them all the time!
I have been co-teaching math for 4 weeks now and I think what these kids need is hands on first and learn the rules and tricks second.
GO CONCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE!
Example:
LCM?
Students have to understand what they are doing when they find LCM. When they learn the procedure of finding it first they are not able to visualize anything during problem solving.
So we give them packs of Pencils and Erasers and a situation.
Let them just go at it and solve stuff!
Then go over vocabulary that popped in their head while they did this.
Then I think that putting the things they found into a table would be very beneficial too! Turn hands-on into a table that organizers that hands-on info. which turns into mental math while they use the tricks to solve a word problem.
This way their answer is not just LCM=24. They understand the use of LCM in common problems and everyday situations. They can see the packs in front of them and then see them in this table and then see the LCM in the table.
So they understand what to do and that using LCM is the quicker way.
Now they can just do:
8; 8, 16, 24
6; 6, 12, 18, 24
And know that they found the first 3 multiples of 8 and the first 4 of 6 and those are how many packs of each are needed.
Hopefully of course!
I plan to start every lesson I can with a big question that involves no vocabulary that is specific to a unit or subject. Students will be given tools to solve it and then realize, after, what they were doing.
The big issues I see encountering is time restrictions!
You could just make everything a race?
The End
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