BACKGROUND: CONSTRUCTING THE LESSON
I didn’t actually write out a “planning checklist” for myself before constructing my Science lesson, but if I had, it might have looked something like this:
Lesson should include opportunities for:
After considering a variety of options, I decided to draw upon the science topic which my placement school had officially designated for the fall of 3rd grade: Rocks and Minerals. In addition to drawing upon the dimensions of knowledge and connections I listed above (prior knowledge, standards, and connections to other classroom work), I thought that this subject would provide plenty of opportunities for the above practices. Inspired by a hands-on “classification” activity we had performed in our Science Methods class, I developed a lesson plan centered around classification. My lesson differed from our Methods activity in key ways. First, it provided an explicit emphasis on observation (a skill separate from, as well as one closely connected with, classification) – in fact, I constructed the assignment so that students would have dedicated time for observation prior to the introduction of classification. Second, I included a follow-up activity in which student performance would be determined by their understanding of basic classification – in other words, an assessment.
A few other elements went into the construction of the lesson – most importantly, the process of developing the Core Decisions (described in the lesson plan itself). One of the other factors that made this lesson both desirable and practical was the fact that my school houses a “Rocks and Minerals” kit, which includes dozens of rock and mineral specimens, with numerous samples of each included rock and mineral type; without this, the “20 Questions”-style game may not have been possible (since it is contingent on the teacher holding samples that are of a type which the students already are working with). Further, the kit ensured that I could have a set of specimens with a variety of unique and shared features (so that there were plenty of possible distinguishing features which would be shared by some but not others). It also allowed me to provide each pair with equivalent sets of rocks (which could prevent conflict, as well as help students focus within their pairs rather than get distracted by the other pair’s rocks).
I also had a conversation with my Classroom Mentor to discuss where the lesson might fit into the context of her classroom. She had recently read the students a book about rocks, but that was the extent to which she had already incorporated Rocks and Minerals into the class; she had several more books that she could read soon, as well as access to the science kit that she might eventually make use of, and therefore we decided that it made sense for me to construct this as an introductory lesson, where students could make use of their pre-existing knowledge of rocks and develop some lines of thought that could be remembered and drawn upon during future activities. The lesson was engineered so that prior knowledge would not be a restricting factor, but rather one that could inform and guide students.
Lesson should include opportunities for:
- Collaboration and argumentation
- Differentiation (according to factors such as student proficiency in relevant skills, personality and interests, and prior experience)
- Partner work (that can support both of the above)
- Hands-on, physical engagement
- Learning of, or meaningful exposure to, content and/or skills that will have relevance beyond the specific lesson context
- Prior student knowledge
- Standards (both PA Common Core and NGSS)
- Connections to other work that students either have done, or will likely do soon, in the classroom
After considering a variety of options, I decided to draw upon the science topic which my placement school had officially designated for the fall of 3rd grade: Rocks and Minerals. In addition to drawing upon the dimensions of knowledge and connections I listed above (prior knowledge, standards, and connections to other classroom work), I thought that this subject would provide plenty of opportunities for the above practices. Inspired by a hands-on “classification” activity we had performed in our Science Methods class, I developed a lesson plan centered around classification. My lesson differed from our Methods activity in key ways. First, it provided an explicit emphasis on observation (a skill separate from, as well as one closely connected with, classification) – in fact, I constructed the assignment so that students would have dedicated time for observation prior to the introduction of classification. Second, I included a follow-up activity in which student performance would be determined by their understanding of basic classification – in other words, an assessment.
A few other elements went into the construction of the lesson – most importantly, the process of developing the Core Decisions (described in the lesson plan itself). One of the other factors that made this lesson both desirable and practical was the fact that my school houses a “Rocks and Minerals” kit, which includes dozens of rock and mineral specimens, with numerous samples of each included rock and mineral type; without this, the “20 Questions”-style game may not have been possible (since it is contingent on the teacher holding samples that are of a type which the students already are working with). Further, the kit ensured that I could have a set of specimens with a variety of unique and shared features (so that there were plenty of possible distinguishing features which would be shared by some but not others). It also allowed me to provide each pair with equivalent sets of rocks (which could prevent conflict, as well as help students focus within their pairs rather than get distracted by the other pair’s rocks).
I also had a conversation with my Classroom Mentor to discuss where the lesson might fit into the context of her classroom. She had recently read the students a book about rocks, but that was the extent to which she had already incorporated Rocks and Minerals into the class; she had several more books that she could read soon, as well as access to the science kit that she might eventually make use of, and therefore we decided that it made sense for me to construct this as an introductory lesson, where students could make use of their pre-existing knowledge of rocks and develop some lines of thought that could be remembered and drawn upon during future activities. The lesson was engineered so that prior knowledge would not be a restricting factor, but rather one that could inform and guide students.