This lesson was a bit of a struggle for me. Not because I found the topic difficult, but rather because I teach life science so I had to find a group of my 7th graders who were willing to come in to my room on their lunch and work on this activity. Also, the topic has nothing to do with anything we've been working on this year so it just felt out of place. Luckily I have great students who volunteered to come in and help me out. Overall the lesson itself was good, but it's just not the ideal way to teach a lesson.
I do try to use models on a regular basis in my own lessons & I find that they are especially helpful to my classified students because a hands-on approach is much more engaging to them. They worked on locating the location of an earthquake's epicenter using three seismograph readings. My students struggled a bit at first when trying to use drawing compasses and determine the scale they were supposed to use, but once I helped them with the first step, they were able to progress together and locate the epicenter.
I know we have used this lesson plan template throughout our Walden courses and there have been many complaints from people about the template itself. I feel it is very redundant and would never use something like it my daily teaching & lesson plans.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI was a bit worried about finding students too since I teach physical science. I was lucky enough to teach a 6th grade Earth science class on my plan period. The 6th grade teacher was so accomodating to let me teach a plate techtonics lesson. It sounds like your lesson went well. When I taught Earth science, I did a similar lesson and the students enjoyed doing it.
I am coteaching a life science class and we did a activity today modeling a double helix DNA strand with licorice, minimarshmellows, and toothpicks. It was awesome and the students loved it. Have you ever done that with your students in life science? Let me know if you want a copy of the lesson....it was really cool!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteGiven the opportunity, what would you remove/change from the lesson plan template? I am always interested to hear feedback with regards to the template - I have made it a point to include this information from students in the past on my evaluation that I fill out with regards to the course itself (and how to improve it). Please feel free to send me an e-mail if you would prefer :) Amy