I feel the science lesson I taught on September 28th went very well, especially since it was my first attempt at teaching . I believe the students achieved my objectives, namely to use observation skills to conduct an investigation. The students seemed to understand that we can all be scientific observers and that science does not occur just during a specified time of the day. The safety aspect of this lesson was of particular concern, but I feel the discussion went well and the students conducted themselves in a safe manner. I am pleased with the listening /sharing skills displayed by the students and I feel good about the management techniques I needed to employ to ensure they stayed on track.
If I did this lesson again, I would limit the amount of time spent discussing the individual components. Because of the pace of the lesson, I had to cut out the observation “blown out.” Also, I would encourage the children to add any missing items to their own list that we discussed as a whole class. This would have served two purposes: first, it would have expanded the students’ lists and second, it would have been a way to keep interest on the discussion.
The following paragraph shows my ability to reflect upon a lesson and how well it allowed students to learn through inquiry. This lesson was taught early in my preservice experience, but still shows my belief that learning through inquiry is important.
The other thing I would change about the lesson is the conclusion. Although my cooperating teacher felt I did well in pulling together a summary of what we had done, I believe my failure to consider exactly what I hoped to hear from the students contributed to their inability to summarize the lesson. Perhaps I could have encouraged all of them to ponder our lists (including our “scientist” list) and then ask them which of the skills of a scientist we used in today’s class. Any conclusions would then have come from the students, making them more meaningful.
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