Clinical Lesson

 The lesson that I chose to teach in my clinical classroom was about plants. I chose this topic because that is what the student had already been learning about for the unit. I want to engage the students with an experiment so they could get more hands on learning with plants. My CT does not conduct many experiments with the students so I saw it as the perfect opportunity to do so.  The experiment that I chose to do was seed germination. The students were presented with four different kinds of seeds. They labeled, watered, and placed the seeds in the sun by the window. The students throughout the germination process, fill out a chart with drawings of what the seeds look like on day one all the way to day 21. Once a week the students draw how the seeds have changed since the last time they drew them. This allows the students to see how the seeds change and grow when they have water and sunlight.

During the lesson, my CT said that my strengths were clear directions, my demonstration, my classroom management, and giving the students responsibility. When talking the students about directions, I gave step by step what they needed to do. This was important for the experiment so the students did it correctly. Also for my directions, I gave a demonstration and drew an example on the board. I wanted the students to be able to see what their finished product would look like so they would know if something was not done correctly. Another strength that my CT mentioned was my classroom management. This is something that I feel I have a good handle on all the time. Working with children at a summer camp definitely helped me understand management and I have brought this experience into the classroom with me. During the lesson, the classroom management that I used was a tool that my cooperating teacher also uses, turning off the lights and clapping to get the students attention. These methods have worked well because they are methods that myself and my CT use consistently. Something else that I did that helped me keep control of the room was praise the students who were doing things correctly and setting an example for the other students. This is something I have found very affective in the classroom because the other students want the attention of being praise as well.

Throughout the lesson my cooperating teacher mentioned that I took chances and gave the students responsibility. I took chances by allowing the students to do the experiment mostly on their own even though they are not used to doing experiments. I allowed them to tape, write, place the seeds, and organize their seed plate all on their own after I provided directions and an example to them. Something else that I gave the students was responsibility. I allowed them to pick jobs for each person at their table to complete on their own. The students were not assigned jobs in the beginning they had to make up their mind and decide on their own. Usually my CT doesn’t allow the students to do this but I felt they could handle it because everyone would be able to do something if not multiple things throughout the lesson. Giving the students this responsibility definitely showed me that they are able to conduct an experiment on their own as long as they are given clear and concise directions to follow.

For my areas of growth my cooperating teacher did not mark anything down. In my personal opinion I feel I could of improved with my planning. I knew what I was doing for the lesson but I had not memorized the steps while I was teaching. I needed to double check for some of the steps which I should have had memorized. I think that with better planning and practicing this lesson would of gone even smoother than it did. Something else that I could of improved on was organizing the worksheet I was going to use. At the last minute I decided to do a chart where the students drew the progression and growth of the seeds instead of a worksheet where the students recorded their data on a table. I felt that the students would understand the drawing more than recording their data on a table.

At the end of the lesson I checked the students understanding by asking them about germination and what they think a plant needs to grow. The students were able to answer the question of what germination was and they were able to recite what a plant/seed needs to grow as well. This showed me that the students understood the concepts that were taught and were able to reproduce what they had learned. We also drew what day one looked like on our chart, which was basically the plate and seeds since they hadn’t germinated yet. One week later, the students recorded the germination of the seeds. The only downside was that some of the seeds molded since they were inside of gallon bags. This did give us an opportunity to talk about mold growth and the growth of the seeds. Many of the seeds germinated and a few did not or barely at all. The students were excited to see how the seeds had changed over just one week’s time. They were able to record the growth that happened for each seed and we also instructed the students to draw the mold that had grown as well. It taught the students how a plant can flourish when it has sunlight and water to help it grow.

Overall, the lesson was a success. I also enjoy how the learning can continue as time passes and the seeds continue to grow. The students still have two more weeks of growth to record so I am excited to see how the experiment progresses. I hope that the seeds continue to grow and the students are able to learn more about germination as time progresses.

This is another activity that could of been done for teaching seed germination: http://www.housingaforest.com/sprouting-seed-activity/

EXCEEDS: I exceeded the word count and included an extra activity.