Phases of the Moon - Instructional Decisions/Teaching

I really enjoyed preparing and teaching this lesson, but it reinforced to me a lesson that I have learned many times before.  Whenever I plan a lesson, I should expect that I will need almost twice as much time as I planned.  I wanted to integrate with social studies by including myths, and allow enough time for each student to create a quality mini-documentary.  On my lesson plan, I allowed for 2 hours.  I decided that in order to fit my lesson into the 30 minutes allowed in class, I would skip the myth and just focus on the phases of the moon activity and documentary.  I think that in order to effectively accomplish these two things, I needed 60 minutes instead of 30.  I always feel frustrated when I have to rush students through their work in order to meet a time limit, even though time limits are realistic and ever-present.  The solution is to more realistically plan lessons to include only that material which we can cover in the amount of time available. 

I do feel that this lesson was effective for achieving the goals and addressing state standards.  Students were well focused throughout the lesson and while working in groups, each student had the opportunity to individually observe each phase of the moon.  On the peer feedback forms, the lesson participants wrote that the content was well supported in the lesson, and one stated that they learned this content for the first time. 

To improve this lesson for next time, I would absolutely need to plan for more time.  I would also need to be more prepared by turning off the flashes on the digital cameras so they are ready to take pictures in a dark room.  Finally, I liked the idea from my peer that I use a youtube video to demonstrate the moon phases before students work in groups to create their own. 

Phases of the Moon - Assessment of Learning

To assess student learning during this lesson, each group photographed the eight phases of the moon they created with models during their experimental project.  They then downloaded the photos to their computers and put them in order from new moon to full moon and back to new moon.  Most importantly, the students explained each phase of the moon either verbally or in writing, in terms of the position of the sun, moon and earth.  They were also required to include a description and graphic depiction of some kind that explained the difference between the rotation and revolution of the moon.

Two students worked together to create the movie above.  They successfully ordered their photographs and explained the first photo, the new moon.  At this point, they ran out of time.  I am certain they would have been able to successfully complete the project if they had an additional 30 minutes.

I used the above rubric to assess each team of students' documentary.  I do not feel like the score I gave the project above is fair because I know they did not have enough time to finish the project.  However, in an effort to practice using this type of rubric, I scored their project as they turned it in. For "Conclusions and Explanations" I gave their project a 2 because all of the explanations were missing except the first one. For "Understanding of Science Content" I gave them a score of 2 as well.  They showed evidence for their understanding of the process of the lunar cycle by putting their photos in the correct order in their documentary.  I could also tell by observing them at work that they understood the position of the sun, moon and earth in each phase of the moon.  Had they had time to finish their explanations, they would have received a 4 for their understanding of the science content. Finally, for "Collaboration" I would give them a score of 4.  The final score for their documentary was an 8/12.

Micro Lesson #2 - Inspiration

The inspiration for Micro-Lesson #2 came from a lesson titled, "Myths, Legends and Moon Phases" by Andrea B. Freed of the Johns Hopkins University School of Education.  I thought the integration of social studies and science was brilliant and wanted to incorporate it into my lesson.  I added the introduction/assessment of prior knowledge activity and included the use of technology with the hands-on activity to produce a product that allowed students to exhibit creativity and could be assessed to determine what students had learned.

Link for the lesson, "Myths, Legends and Moon Phases":
http://education.jhu.edu/newhorizons/strategies/topics/multicultural-education/multicultural-science-education/

Micro Lesson #2 - Planning Assessment

I love the assessment tool for this lesson.  Students will be working with a partner to photograph themselves recreating the 8 phases of the moon, using a flashlight, a Styrofoam ball, and their own head.  They will then upload their photos to the computer and use a software program like iMovie to make a mini-documentary.  They will then identify each phase of the moon and explain how they achieved it. This requires that they fully understand the relationship between the positions of the sun, moon and earth and be able to communicate that knowledge verbally or in text to another person.  It allows for students to express themselves creatively, and demonstrate their knowledge in a unique way.  This assessment links perfectly with  the objective of understanding the four-week lunar cycle, and the 5th grade standards of describing the position and motion of objects (such as the moon or planets) in the sky over time. 

Micro Lesson #2 - Designing Instruction

This lesson creatively integrates science, social studies and technology.  It starts out with a story, a myth about the phases of the moon, and then continues to explain the science behind the myth.  The lesson is organized to engage the students from the beginning, and help them make a personal connection to the science that follows.  The lesson also helps students see that subjects like social studies and science do not exist in isolation, but can be learned in conjunction with each other. 

This lesson allows for students to demonstrate their knowledge in several ways. Students have the opportunity to draw, to physically move their bodies and other objects, and to explain verbally. Including these elements in a lesson increases the probability that each student will be able to grasp the material in some way, depending on their individual learning styles. Students will also have the opportunity to collaborate with a partner, which allows the teacher to match students who work well together or who may be able to assist each other in completing the project. Also, during the time that each partnership is creating their mini-documentary, the teacher will have the opportunity to check in with each group and help in any way needed. The integration of technology provides a way for students who may be physically unable to move their bodies as instructed to still fully participate in the lesson. They could use various software programs to draw or otherwise visually represent the material. Advanced learners who complete the project early could research other myths about the moon and find a creative way to present those to the class.

Micro Lesson #2 - Planning Instruction

My goal for this lesson is to help students understand the relationship between the earth, sun, and moon and how that affects the way the moon appears to us on earth.  Students will practice by having a light source that represents the sun, a styrofoam ball to represent the moon, and their own head to represent the earth.

The science standards for 5^th grade include describing how the moon’s appearance changes during a four-week lunar cycle, and describing how the earth’s rotation results in day and night at any particular location.  This lesson aligns really well with these standards as well as integrating technology, social studies and language arts.

Micro Lesson #2 - Assessing Prior Knowledge

I would ask students to work with a partner to draw a certain phase of the moon and explain where the sun, moon, and earth would be positioned to create that phase.  Each partnership could then come up to the board and tape up their drawing.  I could then see if students have experience with this or if it is a new concept.  We could keep the drawings up until the end of the lesson and then fill in any missing phases as a class.

After discovering what prior knowledge students have, I would be able to know how much time to spend on the hands-on practice part of the lesson.  If it is new to them, I would be sure to allow enough time for each student to be able to replicate and document each phase of the moon.

Fun with Fractions - Instructional Decisions/Teaching

Some things went well with this lesson, and other things could definitely have been better.  The timing of this lesson went well with adults, but I would have needed to leave more time for 3rd graders to have completed all the creation and labeling of the fraction strips.  I also would have liked to have more time at the end for students to write their own "math stories" on the iPads and trade with a partner to solve.  I think each student just had time to create one with illustrations using the educreations software. 

I do think the lesson was able to meet both of the main objectives, which were to understand fractions as part of a whole, and to be able to represent equivalent fractions.  Additionally, the discussion at the beginning of the lesson let students find ways they use fractions in their everyday lives, which hopefully, made the lesson more interesting to them.

It's very difficult to gauge whether or not I was able to meet the needs of individual learners with this lesson because all of the participants were adults who understood the material and did not need any help.  I do think the time students spend creating their manipulatives, working with partners and writing in their math journals would allow for me to check in with each student to see if any need extra help or attention.

Fun with Fractions - Assessment of Learning

For this lesson, much of the assessment was done while students were creating their fraction manipulatives.  The picture above is an example of the fraction strips each students created, dividing one whole into equal-sized sections of various sizes, and labeling them.  I was able to observe each student while they were working to determine if anyone needed additional help.

This sample math journal is another formative assessment that was created during the lesson.  Students were compare their manipulatives to find pieces that were equivalent to each other and to write these in fraction form in their math journals.  This was effective because I could observe students while they worked on their fractions and could also collect the journals afterward to compare them to the rubric and see if any students needed additional help.

I used Taskstream to create the rubric above.  This helped me use the fraction strips and math journals as well as my observations of students to assess their learning.  Of course all of my students got 4's on both items on the rubric, but that is because they have a little experience with fractions already and not because this was a particularly stellar lesson :) 

I do think it generally went well.  However, I realized after I was quite a ways into the preparation of this lesson, that it is a lesson that does not really need technology.  Instead of finding a lesson that would be more effectively taught using technology, I found ways to incorporate technology into my lesson.  I did not intend to do it that way, but it turned out that technology was sort of an afterthought.  I think in my next lesson, I will approach choosing the content and planning the lesson with the idea of finding a more effective way of teaching it with technology in mind.