Clinical Lesson

Today I taught a science lesson in my clinical site. I’m in second grade, and we are just starting a new unit about animal classifications and adaptations. My lesson was supposed to be an overview of the new topic. My goal was to introduce the term vertebrate and 5 animal classifications. My teacher wanted me to read them section one of the new chapter, because they’re always read the entire chapter of whatever topic we’re studying. I began my lesson by having the children stand up to feel their backbone. We talked about how animals with backbones are called vertebrates. We practiced the new word while running our hands up our spines. This kinesthetic movement is something my CT has encouraged me to incorporate into all my science and social studies lessons. We have the English Language Learners in our classroom, so these gross motor movements help them remember new vocabulary better. After, the students sat down and I read the section aloud to them. I tried to keep them engaged by having them put their finger on new words and repeating vocabulary words out loud. After we read through the chapter, I pulled up a SMARTboard game. The game had the five different animal categories at the bottom of the page, and a bunch of characteristics at the top. The characteristics were things such as “fur”, “dry scales”, “cold blooded”, etc. We read the fiver different animal categories out loud together, and I called students up to drop the characteristics into the correct animal category. I had more planned for this lesson, but due to late start, our timing got off throughout the day. I ended up only having fifteen minutes to teach my lesson. We ended the lesson with students standing up and reviewing the term vertebrate while doing the gross motor action.  

One strength of my lesson was the engagement level of my students during the game portion of the lesson. Because I let the students come up and move things on the SMARTboard, I immediately had everyone’s attention. Everyone wanted to participate and come up to the SMARTboard. I noticed that the students were even focused when other students were at the SMARTboard. They were watching and waiting to see if the other students were going to get it right. We repeated as a class some of the characteristics that seemed to give them trouble, and we came up with tips and tricks to remember some as well. For example, we can remember that mammals give milk to their young, because both mammals and milk begin with the letter M. Another strength my lesson had was whole body learning. I was able to incorporate gross motor actions into my lesson for new vocabulary. This is an accommodation we frequently use in our classroom to help our English Language Learners, but I think all students in our classroom really benefit from those motor movements.

Because my time was cut down to only a fifteen minute lesson, I feel like I had more areas of improvement. For example, I was only able to read through the lesson with the students, and I didn’t get a chance to really explain or incorporate those gross motor movements like I would’ve like to.  There were many new and rather challenging vocabulary words in this lesson such as reptile, amphibian, mammal, etc. I think my English Language Learners as well as the whole class could’ve used the whole body learning to help understand and remember those words. Since I was limited on time, the students only got the chance to see the words and say them once. If I taught this lesson again, I’d most certainly include some gross motor movements or images to show them. Since I just read through the lesson with them, I think it also contributed to them being a little less engaged. When I debriefed with my CT after, she had mentioned that she thought there was some chatter when students were turning the pages. I know that my class can only stay focused so long when either my CT or me is reading aloud to them.  Although I walk around the room while reading, those small moments of chatter still occurred. My CT suggested having a student volunteer to read, so I could focus more on behavior management. This is something I’ll consider for future lessons, but I’m not sure it’s something I’ll implement. If I were to ever teach this lesson again, where I had full control of what/how/when I taught this lesson, I’d probably eliminate reading from their textbook all together. However, that is something my CT wanted them to hear.  I also wanted the students to be able to apply the skills independently at the end of my lesson, but I ran out of time.

Thinking back on my lesson, I would probably change the whole format of this lesson if I ever taught it again. I think this type of overview lesson would be a great opportunity to use stations in the classroom. I could do an overview with a more child friendly and engaging children’s book. After, I’d break students into small groups where they could work through some different stations and get more practice with this broad yet meaty topic. I could keep the SMARTboard activity, which I’ll include the link at the end of this blog post. Students could play the game in a small group, and I think it’d be even more engaging then it already was. In another small group, I could lay out pictures of animals in different categories, and the students could compare/contrast two different categories of animals. For example, they could choose a bear (mammal) and an iguana (reptile). This would allow them to come up with those characteristics we read about in the book.

Overall, I think the students certainly learned some new information and enjoyed the lesson overall. Next time, I’d just make some adjustments and make sure to give myself plenty of time to teach all of the content.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/classification/kc_classification_main.htm

EXCEEDS: I included the website where the game comes from, and I gave a copy of the lesson to my CT incase she wanted to use it in the future.