ASSIGNMENT 3A: FIELD EXPERIENCE
For this
assignment, I decided to teach “Day 1” of my teaching/learning plan from
assignment 2A. I was able to teach in a
9th grade biology classroom at my current school. I was fortunate enough to have already spent
a lot of time in this particular classroom because I often speak to this
teacher for guidance regarding my future as a teacher.
The day’s
tasks included the following:
Minor Content Area: Identify and describe the stages of mitosis.
Rationale: Breaking up the stages of mitosis
allows students to learn that this process is a phase of the cell cycle where
chromosomes in the nucleus are evenly divided between two cells.
Content Area Standards:
1.) In multicellular organisms individual cells
grow and then divide via a process called mitosis.
2.) Cellular division and differentiation produce
and maintain a complex organism, composed of systems of tissues and organs that
work together to meet the needs of the whole organism.
Learner Outcomes:
1.) Students can identify and describe the stages
of mitosis.
Pre-Assessment:
Quick write- Students will answer a
few questions to assess their prior knowledge on the subject of mitosis. Next, students will share out their answers
in order to segwey into the day’s lecture
Teaching Strategies: Differentiation
is key to all instruction. Students may
need sentence starters to complete the quick write or word bank. Show students video on mitosis from Teacher
Tube or other credible source. Have
student note and illustrate each stage and review the video again at the close
of the class.
Ongoing Assessment: Teacher/student
“conferences” when students are completing illustrations throughout the
activity to check for understanding.
Post Assessment: Exit
slip on the day’s lesson. Student can
answer a series of questions and turn into the teacher on the way out.
Findings:
The lesson in itself was abrupt considering the student’s had already
done their genetics unit in the first semester with their teacher. However, they were good sports about the
process and I think they had some fun just mixing things up for the day.
The pre-assessment (warm-up) was interesting in
terms of some of the answers I read and I made sure to pay attention to the
amount of time I gave them to complete the warm-up (6 minutes). Upon completion of the time to finish the
answers independently, I had the students pair-share with their neighbor to
read their answers. Next, I had them share
out some of their answers with the class.
I used the teacher’s popsicle stick method to call on students at random
if there were not enough volunteers. The
entire warm-up took about 15 minutes.
Our classes are two-hour blocks, so time factor was not an issue. I did find that the answers I received were
either 100% correct or completely wrong.
I asked basic questions on a half sheet of paper (i.e. what is mitosis?
Name 2 phases of mitosis, etc.). Since
the students had already done their genetics unit, I was happy to know they had
some prior knowledge. In other instances,
there were students who left their entire warm-up blank. I think it would have been different and the
stakes would have been raised had they known they would actually be receiving
credit for their work.
For a post-assessment I used an exit slip asking the
same questions I asked in the warm-up.
This was for my own good to see if my lesson covered what I intended for
the students to learn. I found that I
had much more positive results in my post-assessment versus the
pre-assessment. Even students who left
their warm-up blank wrote something on their post-assessment. I found that to be a huge success.
Overall, I had a great time teaching these students
for the period and it helped me learn a lot about my level of comfort in front
of the students and my confidence in the content area. Also, I noticed that I tend to stay on one
side of the room when teaching. I need to be much more mobile! I would change my instruction delivery for
the pre- and post-assessment. I tend to
get excited and ahead of myself when speaking so I noticed that I was repeating
myself often. I do not think that was
the fault of the students whatsoever. It
was my own fault not paying attention to
my pace. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my time
with the students and reaching out to others beyond the spectrum of the ASB. This sneak preview just made me more excited
to get back into the classroom.
