Today was the day! My first official lesson executed. I was also observed by my University supervisor. I think for this post, I am just going to put down my lesson plan verbatum. Things are super busy now, and so I am trying to “prioritize” what to do. However, I am not putting down the value of reflecting; that’s the whole point! So, I shall actually also put on here my formal reflection of this lesson which I need to turn into the University, anyways. To REALLY sum things up:
I am over ambitious!
You can’t do a picture walk, KWL, reading activity, AND slightly messy art activity in one hour?! Well….now I know…haha…
Need to simplify. And even with that alone, a bunch of other things I need to work on will follow suit.
Still, intentions were good with engaging and thought provoking activities, and I was told that, for a first lesson, I did pretty well 😀
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**Please disregard the “1’s” in my numbering. WordPress is being funky with my WordDoc**
Lesson Unit: “Discover Lewis and Clark”
Name: Angie Grizzle
Lesson Title and Number: Preparation for Exploration—#1
Grade Level: 4th Grade
Date ____February 4th 2013___________ Time anticipated _____60______minutes
Standards:
- 4.2. Explain how key individuals and events influenced the early growth and changes in Oregon.
Materials/Resources:
- 5 sheets of butcher paper
- 5 images related to Lewis and Clark theme
- Brown construction paper; 3-whole punched (class set)
- Lined paper (class set)
- Computer paper (class set)
- 1804 map of U.S. on computer paper (class set)
- Oregon Studies Weekly (OSW) Newspaper #11 + supplemental sheet (class set)
- Black tea bags
- Hot water
- Cookie sheets
- Towel
- Twine
- Sticky notes
- Markers
- Whiteboard or SMARTboard
Prerequisite Skills and Understanding:
Students must:
- Be able to share perspectives and/or opinions
- Be familiar with the OSW format
- Be able to develop questions
- Be able to follow oral directions
Learning Objective:
- Given a picture walk, a KWL chart, and an OSW, students will be able share current knowledge about Lewis and Clark and begin analyzing text to uncover basic information about Lewis and Clark’s expedition.
- (sub-objective) Given brown paper, lined/computer paper, twine, and soaked tea bags, students will be able to create their own adventure journals by applying tea to paper in order to give it an “aged” look.
Launch/Anticipatory Set:
- Conduct a quick “brain break” (a quick activity to jumpstart their brain and transition) [1min]
- Have students stretch by touching their toes with their opposite hand (e.g. right hand to left foot; left hand to right foot)
- Tell students to rub their stomach with one hand and lightly tap their head with the other hand. After a few seconds, have their hands switch motions.
- Instruct students to sit back down in their seats [2min]
- Prompt students to look around the room and to see if there is anything different from what they usually see (the 5 images on butcher paper around the room).
- If necessary, point out the posters, and begin to talk about how the next two weeks will involve the class going on a journey back in time a little bit each day. Tell students that, to prepare for this journey, they will go on an “in-class field trip” around the room called a picture walk.
Procedure/Exploration:
- Model the picture walk [3min]
- Tell the students that they will walk to each of the five posters with a marker. When they get to a poster, they are to look at the photo and respond to it. They can write a comment, write a question, etc. The response needs to be relevant to the photo, though, and should not be random words. The response does not need to be in complete sentences, nor do they need to write their names, but the response needs to make sense.
- While explaining the above expectations, walk to one of the posters. Give an example (e.g. do a “think aloud” by looking at a photo and talking out loud what is going through your head; give a comment or question about the photo)
- Remind students they need to go to all five posters and write at least one response. They may write more responses, if they wish. Tell students that after the picture walk, they will have time to share some of their responses, so they should keep in mind a response they were interested in.
- State the expectation that it should not be too noisy during the picture walk because some people may need some quiet time to be reflective. Students may talk quietly, but if it gets too loud or distracting, they’ll have to have a silent picture walk.
- Check for Understanding à Ask the class to give thumbs up about what they need to do. Ask them: “Do you respond to only one poster?” “Should it be real noisy?” (both answers should be ‘no.’) When understanding is set, dismiss students for the picture walk by rows.
- Students engage with picture walk [4min]
- Students should be walking around the room looking at the posters. Walk around with them to listen in on what they are talking about. If it is completely silent, read what they are writing.
- If some students seem “stuck” or unsure of what to respond, prompt them.
- Ex: “what do you see in this picture?” “does it remind you of anything?” “what do you wonder about when you see this image?”
- Make observations of students—are they participating? Do they seem involved?
- Call students back to their seats [4min]
- Iterate what students just did (“we all just went on a picture walk…”)
- Ask students to take a moment to think about some of their responses
- Walk to each image and have some students share some of their responses for that photo; comment on each student’s share
- Transition to KWL [8min]
- Pull up the empty KWL chart on the SMARTBoard
- Tell students that the picture walk was a good warm-up to get their brains thinking. Also, point out that the images all relate to their journey with Lewis and Clark, the coming unit. Now that they are all warmed-up, they are ready to go back into time with Lewis and Clark. Explain to them that to track their thinking, the whole class will fill out a KWL chart together.
- Ask students what they know/any thoughts about Lewis and Clark. Write these down on the SMARTBoard.
- Ask students what they want to learn about Lewis and Clark. Write these down on the SMARTBoard.
- Inform students that throughout their journey, they may add more items to the “what they want to know.” Further into their journey, the class will fill out what they learned.
- Transition to journal making explanation [5min]
- Inform the class that they will be making journals for the Lewis and Clark expedition. They will be using these journals to write short writing prompts, put down questions they may have, vocabulary they are learning, drawings related to Lewis and Clark, etc. Emphasize the importance of using journals when going on a voyage, especially in the 1800s (allude to the fact Lewis and Clark needed to keep records in journals the whole trip).
- Show the materials: brown construction paper, computer paper, lined paper, twine, small map.
- Modelà Show students that they are going to put lined paper and computer paper in between the brown construction paper. There will be 10 sheets of lined paper and 5 sheets of computer paper; 15 pieces of paper total. Then, they will use the twine to tie all the paper together.
- Tell students that, to give their journals an “aged” effect, they will be speeding up time on their journals by using black tea. Students will be called on to work on this as it will be crowded if everyone does it at the same time. If they are not using the black tea, they should be constructing their journal.
- Modelà walk to the side table where the wet black tea bags are. Show students that they will take their small map (name on it already), lay it flat on the cookie sheet, and carefully rub a tea bag against their paper. If they want to give it an even older look, they can gently crumble the paper and open it back up before applying the tea. After the tea is placed on the paper, they are to set it aside on an open spot in the room to try.
- When students are done with their journals, they can work on their OSWs.
- OSW explanation [2min]
- Take out the Oregon Studies Weekly issue #11. Inform students that they will have time to work on their OSW (students have done OSWs throughout the year, so they are familiar with what it is and what they need to do). The OSW is about Lewis and Clark and will give a broad overview about their expedition. They are to read through the magazine and work on the supplemental activity with it.
- Check for Understanding à Ask the class to give thumbs up about what they need to do. Have a student volunteer to quickly explain the different activities.
- Have the “passers” (student job) pass out the newspapers
- Dismiss students to their work [30min]
- Call on four students to use the tea bags. Walk over with them and monitor the process.
- Keep an eye on the rest of the class. Make sure they are staying on task working on their journals or on their OSW. This is an independent work time, so there should be minimal conversations.
- Call on four more students and keep calling students four at time for the tea bags.
Summary/Closure:
- Recap to students what they did today. [2min]
- Remind them that they will be starting on their Lewis and Clark journey soon, and they are ready for it after being reflective students and getting their journals ready.
- Inform students that once the maps are dried, they will glue it to the front of their journals.
- Tell students that next time, they will be looking closely at Thomas Jefferson and what exactly kicked off Lewis and Clark’s expedition.
- Exit tickets [2min]
- Hand out a sticky note to each student. Tell them that these are “exit tickets” and they must fill one out and stick it on the back wall before they leave for recess.
- Exit ticket prompt
- “What is one question/wonder you have about Lewis and Clark’s expedition?”
Adaptations for Students with Special Needs:
- Students who have difficulty hearing or seeing may be seated closer to the teacher
- Provide larger materials for students who have trouble grasping
- Help students whose motor skills aren’t as defined tie their journals together
- Give prompts/reassurance to students who emotionally have low self-confidence/esteem
- For students who need more of a challenge, have them try to respond to questions students made on the posters.
Adaptations for ESOL Students:
- Pair the ESOL student with another student who is social and who shows great understanding of the activity
- Provide a graphic organizer to help students keep track of their thought process
- When hearing the initial instructions, these students should be placed close to the teacher
- Incorporate lots of modeled talk and visuals
Assessment:
- The teacher will listen to students during picture walk.
- The teacher will watch and listen for the relevant and thoughtful responses
- The teacher will use the KWL to gauge what the students know and questions they currently have
- The teacher will collect and review exit tickets to review more personal questions students may have
- Assessment based on:
- Social studies content: Do students participate by sharing current knowledge or wonders about Lewis and Clark? Are their thoughts reflective of Lewis and Clark’s place in history?
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Formal Reflection:
Lesson #1 “Discover Lewis and Clark”
4/4/2013
Lesson: Plans and Preparations
When planning this lesson, I actually had a lot of ideas and was indecisive with what I wanted to do. There were a lot of ideas and resources suggested to me by my cooperating teacher, and though I was grateful, it furthered my tendency to be indecisive. I decided to make my first lesson more of an introduction to the unit and to get students thinking about what was coming up. Thus, I prepared for a picture walk and a KWL. Also, I knew I wanted the class to make journals for my unit so that they could do activities with their journals as well as be a form of assessment for me. I decided to push journal making into this lesson alongside them diving into reading a social studies magazine called “Oregon Studies Weekly (OSW).” The students were very familiar with the OSW, so it was my assumption that this independent work alongside journal making would be possible.
Because I’ve recently took an arts integration class (and the fact my cooperating teacher and I share a heart for the arts, too) I felt compelled to use the journals as an opportunity to integrate an art element. I decided to show students an aging technique for paper in which they take a dye (such as black tea) and use it to stain the paper. Again, I felt that with an hour slot, the students would be able to handle this activity along with the other activities.
Materials were relatively easy to get a hold of thanks to the support of the school’s supply room. Personal materials were the printed pictures, tea bags, and twine, but I had access to other supplies, such as the laminator for my pictures. Also, I had access to butchered paper, computer paper, construction paper, and a SMARTboard which assisted with my lesson. However, I did forget some materials while preparing, such as tubberware for the tea bags and my singing bowl for a classroom management strategy. Luckily, the kitchen had some bowls, so I was able to use those. Unfortunately, I feel the singing bowl would have been useful to have for an added technique. I’ll need to make sure that I double check my materials and come up with a “plan B” for my future lessons.
Implementation and Changes I Would Do
Students were transitioning from a vocabulary lesson into my lesson, so I conducted a “brain break” to get students to move and stretch. I then led into a picture walk to get their minds thinking towards Lewis and Clark. I laid out the expectations that they had to write a response to each of the five posters and to make sure the responses were relevant to the picture. Still, I got multiple questions of “can we write ______?” I think I needed to give more examples of “appropriate” responses or to have a student say out loud what is OK to write on the poster. I dismissed the students by rows and they went to look at the posters. The back of the room was getting crowded constantly, and I believe this was because two of the posters were fairly close together. Next time I do a picture walk, I’ll need to space out the posters more around the room. When I was trying to call back the students to their seats, some were still wandering from poster to poster. Trying to gather the students together took up time in my lesson and made it so students would have less time to share. Instead of having the whole class wander, next time I want to number students off and have their assigned number go to a designated poster. After a minute, then I would have them rotate to the next poster, etc. This way, students are not wandering from poster to poster and will have time to make sure they all respond to each of the five posters. Also, I think this would control some of the chaos of students walking around the room.
After the picture walk, the class worked on filling out a KWL chart on the SMARTBoard. I had students share some of what they know and then some questions that they have about Lewis and Clark’s expedition. The pen started to get misaligned, thus the writing got obscured on the board. I plan on re-writing the KWL chart so that it is easier to read. Calibrating the SMARTBoard beforehand would have been a good thing to do.
When explaining how to make the journals, I showed them the materials they needed and verbally explained how to put it together. I also explained briefly about the tea-staining process. I informed the class that they will be asked to come do the tea, and until they are called, they need to construct their journals and work on their OSW. When students were dismissed to work, I called on the first four students. However, it wasn’t long before I had students come up to me having troubles tying their journals together or being unsure with how many pages went into the journal. Also, worrying about the journals got in the way of reading the OSW. Especially after talking with my supervisor, I realized that it would have been more effective to have a finished journal to show as an example rather than work on it side by side with them. Also, making the journals can be done at another time of the day in my future teaching. I think because journals were part of my unit, I wanted to show where/when I made them within my unit. Thus, I pushed journal making into my first lesson. Still, it would have saved much more time for everyone if we went through making the journals together as a class (i.e. I could stand up in front of the class and have everyone focused on composing the journals together). The tea staining process took longer than I expected it too, so about four students were unable to use the tea. They’ll have to do that another day.
Because of students worrying about their journals and having more trouble than I thought they would, my lesson rushed to its hour mark and left some loose ends. My closure was weak as I wasn’t able to powerfully address the importance of doing a picture walk and KWL before the rest of the unit. Also, I wanted my students to do exit tickets on sticky notes before they went to recess, but some students neglected to see the sticky note on their desk and rushed to recess. Other students saw the sticky note, but had to come up to me to ask what they were for. My closure needed to be explicit and calmer rather than rushed. Before students leave for recess, they need to physically check in with me.
Students and Classroom Management
I have a singing bowl that I wanted to use for a classroom management technique, but I forgot it at home. Instead, I used a technique my cooperating teacher has been using called “give me five!” where the students must get quiet and raise their hand upon hearing those words. This worked in the beginning, but towards the end, students were constantly talking, and their attention wasn’t fully on me. I could tell I was starting to lose the students, though I still tried to talk and get things done because I was running out of time. Instead of this, I need to remain quiet and be firm about not moving on until everyone is appropriately ready to do so which means voices off and eyes on me.
Students were very engaged with the whole lesson. Everyone participated fully with the picture walk, and a range of students contributed to ideas for the KWL. For the journal making and OSW work, some students had more trouble staying on task. I made an effort to walk around the room as my cooperating teacher assisted the students with the tea staining activity, and I think my presence guided some students back to work, but not all. I interacted with the students while they were reading their OSW and helped some students construct their journals.
Reflection of Self: Overall Message
At the end of the lesson, I definitely had the feeling that things were rushed. Still, I was proud of my students’ participation during the first half of the lesson. My overall message I’ve received from this lesson is this: simplify. I pushed a lot of activities together for a one hour slot, and it would be more effective to space those activities out, such as making journals during a different part of the day. I would have gathered spent more time on the picture walk, KWL, and closure because those were the moments students would have to discuss thoughts and engage in active discussion.
Quick Points for Growth:
· Speak louder and a little slower. Be conscientious of how I am speaking and use the microphone, if necessary.
· Be sure to state clearer expectations. Conduct more check-ins and don’t move on until everyone seems to be on board.
· Have a final product if students are making/creating something in the lesson.
· Do a quick project as a class, such as tying the journals. This way, students can follow along together and receive assistance right away if something is challenging (i.e. tying knots). This especially applies to projects in which everyone is doing “the same thing.”
· Make the picture walk a stations type of activity. Number off students so that they know where they need to go and will achieve their goal more successfully.
· Simplify lessons and assume a task will take longer than you might think. Students may have a lot to share or may have questions that teachers haven’t anticipated.
Tea stained maps
Drying
Close-up
The Journey of a Student Teacher 