Lesson Reflective Summary

Teacher Candidate for Science Endorsement: Jodi Wilder

Instructor: Terri George

School: Big Shanty Grade: 5

Lesson Topic: Watershed Wonders Day 4- Runoff

Write a brief summary of your experiences teaching this lesson, addressing the following
questions:

 What went well? What did not go well? (Cite specific examples)
The students were actively engaged in making a written model of the school with
labels for high areas and possible areas of run off and deposition. Using Google
Earth to show them the aerial view of the school property was very helpful for
them to complete their drawings. When the groups had to start building their
models based on the pictures and the given materials, some groups were
engaged and followed their drawings very closely for an accurate model. As with
many cooperative groups, some of them had difficulty agreeing on how to use
the materials to best create the model. Due to the complexity of making the
models and the discord among some groups, they ran out of time to successfully
complete the run off part of the lesson. Only one group successfully completed
and tested their model to observe the run off on their model.

 How well were the lesson’s student performance objectives attained?

Due to lack of time, the performance objectives were only met for the one group
who completed the activity. In order to make sure that all students had an
opportunity to observe and participate in the performance objective the lesson
was repeated as a whole group using a shower curtain over a larger model to
demonstrate the idea of run off on the school campus.

 Did classroom activity center on science understanding, inquiry, and sense-

making by all students?
The activity was closely related to the science understanding of constructive and
destructive forces, showing them the effects of run off and how it causes erosion,
depositions, deltas and other changes in the land.

 Did your scientific content knowledge enable you to support students’

construction of knowledge and understanding of important scientific concepts
and processes?
With my content knowledge on constructive and destructive forces as well as my
ability to connect the real-world issues of flooding in our state during this unit, I
 was able to model the way run off affects our school campus, our town and our
state. The students were able to construct a better understanding of the scientific
concepts involved in erosion and deposition that takes place because of flooding
and run off from high areas to lower areas on the property.

 When you have the opportunity to re-teach this lesson, what will you do
differently (strategies, teaching tools, assessments, etc.) to improve student
learning for all students?
When I re-teach this lesson, I would divide the lesson into two parts over two
days so they can concentrate on drawing and building the model on day one and
testing the model on day two. I would also give the students specific jobs for the
group work to prevent some of the conflict.