Reflection on Unit Completion
Planning
a unit on the human respiratory and circulator system was a very useful
learning process. When I began to
prepare for teaching two periods a day regularly for the autumn quarter of
student teaching, my cooperating teach and I decided that I would take over the
responsibilities beginning the unit on human respiration, and then move into
the circulatory system. The two 7th
grade teachers have been coordinating with each other for years, so have a
curriculum that they are happy working with.
When we decided what I was going to be taking over, I was given the
curriculum binder, which included all of the labs, readings, and handouts that
I would need for the session.
At first I thought that it would be an easy task to take those lessons and build a few lesson plans to go along with them, especially since the curriculum was already set. What I found out was that it was harder than I expected. Even though the curriculum and the labs were all set and ready to go, there were not any plans to go along with it. My biggest challenge was taking those labs and attempting to determine the specific objectives, and what we were trying to accomplish with each activity. I was given the instructor guide, but even that did not prove highly useful. I began to ask both of the teachers what the objectives were for the labs, but even they didn’t seem sure right away. Usually after we had completed a lab or activity and had time to discuss it later, then I was able to determine what their overarching goal was. It also seemed better if I was able to ask them about a larger set of activities, so they could explain how they all tied together instead of explaining them individually. So, though a combination of digging through the instructor book and beginning ongoing discussions with the teachers, I was able to meet the challenge of determining the rationale for each of the activities that we would be taking the students through for the lesson.
In working through the challenge of determining a rationale for activities, I was also able to learn more about writing strong objectives. Identifying a strong set of objectives is something that I have struggled with, and taking the time to write out a set of lesson plans provided me with an opportunity to practice writing concrete, student centered objectives. One of the things I learned about objectives through this process is that they need to be highly specific, so that when I am working through a lab or activity, I know what the most important parts are. When I go to grade the students and am reading their labs and providing feedback, I know which questions I want to spend the most time looking at, and have an idea of what answers I am expecting and hoping to get from the students. Having clear objectives also allows me as an instructor to provide the students with a clear goal at the beginning of the lab so they know exactly why they are completing an activity, and what they should be focused on learning about through the lesson.
During this process, I also became very familiar with and learned quite a bit about the state science standards. For all of my lessons, I spent time looking through the standards, familiarizing myself with them, and determining which were being met, and which were not. This also opened up discussion with my cooperating teacher as far as what was expected for a 7th grader in the district, and for a teacher. In our particular district, the systems, application, and inquiry standards are supposed to be addressed each year in 6th-8th grades. When planning the unit, and looking at which of those particular standards were being addressed, I could see which ones we were meeting more heavily, and which had not been touched on. This gave me an idea for the rest of the year what would need to be focused on and addressed through future units. I also learned that in 7th grade in my particular district, we needed to cover all of the life science standards in the 6th-8th section. This unit covered quite a few of them, but I was also able to get a sense of where we would be going for the rest of the year, and what would need to be covered in that amount of time.
One of the most helpful things that occurred during my unit planning, is that I was actually teaching the lessons as I went, as opposed to preparing for the future. Every few days, I would be completing a lesson plan, and then reviewing it with my cooperating teacher. I would usually make a few notes, and then he would teach the lesson once, I would teach it twice, and then he would teach it once more. Afterwards, we could discuss what went well or didn’t really work, and I was able to make modifications to my lesson plan. I could also see what was working in the lesson plan, and what I would need to do differently in future lesson plans to make them easy to work through. By having a very clear step-by-step lesson plan, I knew exactly what I needed to be covering, and could make sure that I was not leaving anything out. This also allowed me to be very aware of the objectives that I was trying to meet with the students that particular day. I feel that this made my teaching much stronger than had I been just looking at the lab the day before, and repeating what my cooperating teacher had done the prior period.
After having very detailed lesson plans that I worked from at the beginning of my student teaching, I am also more aware of what I need and do not need in order to be successful in the classroom. This unit is very detailed and descriptive, and anyone with a science education background could step in and teach that particular class if needed. What I am finding more useful, though, is having a short hand-written list (about a 3x5 card) of the major points for the day. I like to have the clear rationale for a lesson, along with the objectives, assessment criteria, and the standards that are being covered, but the full outline is a bit too detailed for using while teaching. Going through the process of identifying where a formative assessment is going to take place, developing questions, and thinking of answers that might come up is helpful in the beginning, but as I’m going on, I need less of that, and am more capable of finding appropriate and relevant questions on the fly. Having a brief outline with the order of things and any key points I want to hit is useful, though the full blown lesson is becoming less so.
One of the things that I feel like I missed out on this assignment was the method of backwards lesson planning. We have been talking in classes about first determining an objective, or finding a standard that we want to cover, and then designing an activity around that particular objective. I think that this is potentially a very strong way to develop units and lessons, but in many scenarios, it does not fit well into the classroom. Many districts are moving toward set curriculums, including the one that I am in now, and teachers are required to present certain concepts in certain ways, using pre-determined activities. This was one of the struggles I met in planning my unit, and I feel more confident that I will be able to develop an objective and goal along with the pre-set lessons, but still have a hard time seeing how to work in the backwards planning in a traditional classroom setting with a curriculum that is determined by the school, the district, and sometimes the parents.
At first I thought that it would be an easy task to take those lessons and build a few lesson plans to go along with them, especially since the curriculum was already set. What I found out was that it was harder than I expected. Even though the curriculum and the labs were all set and ready to go, there were not any plans to go along with it. My biggest challenge was taking those labs and attempting to determine the specific objectives, and what we were trying to accomplish with each activity. I was given the instructor guide, but even that did not prove highly useful. I began to ask both of the teachers what the objectives were for the labs, but even they didn’t seem sure right away. Usually after we had completed a lab or activity and had time to discuss it later, then I was able to determine what their overarching goal was. It also seemed better if I was able to ask them about a larger set of activities, so they could explain how they all tied together instead of explaining them individually. So, though a combination of digging through the instructor book and beginning ongoing discussions with the teachers, I was able to meet the challenge of determining the rationale for each of the activities that we would be taking the students through for the lesson.
In working through the challenge of determining a rationale for activities, I was also able to learn more about writing strong objectives. Identifying a strong set of objectives is something that I have struggled with, and taking the time to write out a set of lesson plans provided me with an opportunity to practice writing concrete, student centered objectives. One of the things I learned about objectives through this process is that they need to be highly specific, so that when I am working through a lab or activity, I know what the most important parts are. When I go to grade the students and am reading their labs and providing feedback, I know which questions I want to spend the most time looking at, and have an idea of what answers I am expecting and hoping to get from the students. Having clear objectives also allows me as an instructor to provide the students with a clear goal at the beginning of the lab so they know exactly why they are completing an activity, and what they should be focused on learning about through the lesson.
During this process, I also became very familiar with and learned quite a bit about the state science standards. For all of my lessons, I spent time looking through the standards, familiarizing myself with them, and determining which were being met, and which were not. This also opened up discussion with my cooperating teacher as far as what was expected for a 7th grader in the district, and for a teacher. In our particular district, the systems, application, and inquiry standards are supposed to be addressed each year in 6th-8th grades. When planning the unit, and looking at which of those particular standards were being addressed, I could see which ones we were meeting more heavily, and which had not been touched on. This gave me an idea for the rest of the year what would need to be focused on and addressed through future units. I also learned that in 7th grade in my particular district, we needed to cover all of the life science standards in the 6th-8th section. This unit covered quite a few of them, but I was also able to get a sense of where we would be going for the rest of the year, and what would need to be covered in that amount of time.
One of the most helpful things that occurred during my unit planning, is that I was actually teaching the lessons as I went, as opposed to preparing for the future. Every few days, I would be completing a lesson plan, and then reviewing it with my cooperating teacher. I would usually make a few notes, and then he would teach the lesson once, I would teach it twice, and then he would teach it once more. Afterwards, we could discuss what went well or didn’t really work, and I was able to make modifications to my lesson plan. I could also see what was working in the lesson plan, and what I would need to do differently in future lesson plans to make them easy to work through. By having a very clear step-by-step lesson plan, I knew exactly what I needed to be covering, and could make sure that I was not leaving anything out. This also allowed me to be very aware of the objectives that I was trying to meet with the students that particular day. I feel that this made my teaching much stronger than had I been just looking at the lab the day before, and repeating what my cooperating teacher had done the prior period.
After having very detailed lesson plans that I worked from at the beginning of my student teaching, I am also more aware of what I need and do not need in order to be successful in the classroom. This unit is very detailed and descriptive, and anyone with a science education background could step in and teach that particular class if needed. What I am finding more useful, though, is having a short hand-written list (about a 3x5 card) of the major points for the day. I like to have the clear rationale for a lesson, along with the objectives, assessment criteria, and the standards that are being covered, but the full outline is a bit too detailed for using while teaching. Going through the process of identifying where a formative assessment is going to take place, developing questions, and thinking of answers that might come up is helpful in the beginning, but as I’m going on, I need less of that, and am more capable of finding appropriate and relevant questions on the fly. Having a brief outline with the order of things and any key points I want to hit is useful, though the full blown lesson is becoming less so.
One of the things that I feel like I missed out on this assignment was the method of backwards lesson planning. We have been talking in classes about first determining an objective, or finding a standard that we want to cover, and then designing an activity around that particular objective. I think that this is potentially a very strong way to develop units and lessons, but in many scenarios, it does not fit well into the classroom. Many districts are moving toward set curriculums, including the one that I am in now, and teachers are required to present certain concepts in certain ways, using pre-determined activities. This was one of the struggles I met in planning my unit, and I feel more confident that I will be able to develop an objective and goal along with the pre-set lessons, but still have a hard time seeing how to work in the backwards planning in a traditional classroom setting with a curriculum that is determined by the school, the district, and sometimes the parents.