Science has never been my strongest subject but having the opportunity to teach the content whole group to fifth graders has strengthened my understanding of the material as well as improving my skills in regards to how I present it to students. Just as the previous formal observation showed me, it is vital to prepare and understand the content thoroughly before presenting it to the class. By doing so, I will be prepared to answer any questions that students may have and have the capability of enhancing the lesson by asking questions that will further the student’s thinking. For example, the essential question for this lesson was “How can I describe that electrical energy transforms into other forms of energy such as light, heat, sound, motion and magnetic?” Not only did I ask students to provide examples of appliances that they utilize daily that require electrical energy in the form of other energies that we previously learned about but also describe the process of how electrical energy is a part of those devices.
If I were to teach this lesson again to the same group of students, I would incorporate higher order thinking questions throughout the lesson to further students’ understanding of the content. My collaborating teachers stresses the importance of taking that next step of asking students to explain their answers which will require them to think critically about what they are learning. My mindset as a pre-service teacher has shifted from determining that my students have mastered the content simply because they answered questions accurately to accessing their ability to provide an explanation for their answers. This approach will convey that students are not using memorization or repeating what they hear others state but they have developed an understanding of the content. One instance during the lesson that comes to mind is when the video that was being used as an overview in the beginning of the lesson began to buffer after about two minutes. As expected the students went into a frenzy since they were fully engaged so I calmly paused the clip so that I could give it a few moments to load but that didn’t work. My collaborating teacher then suggested that I reload the page. However, that tactic didn’t work either. So, I took the initiative to bypass that segment of the lesson and transition into the reading portion of the lesson to avoid wasting valuable time. Referring to Feap 2, Organizes, allocates and manages the resources of time, space and attention, I acknowledged the importance of the ability of being flexible and responding quickly when an adjustment is necessary during the lesson. One of the areas in which I could improve in as a pre-service teacher is realizing that everything will not go as planned. However, I am responsible for making rational decisions when complications arise that are beneficial for the students and their learning needs instead of interrupting the lesson to mend a minor problem.
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November 2017
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