[Middle School] Instructional Objectives

Characteristics:
Student oriented
Descriptive of a learning outcome
Clear and understandable
Observable

[Reflection] About becoming a teacher

This is just a small note that I want to write down somewhere now.

Becoming a teacher means that you are willing to love your students enough to share your knowledge and improve yourself to do so well. The path is extremely dynamic and it involves a great deal of self-correction and self-discovery. In order to endure this journey, a teacheer must have a strong ability to trust and love others, as well as herself.

I am a human being and I am weak. I often feel hopeless when somebody directly or indirectly tells me that I am not good enough to do what I am trying to do. I cry a lot, too. Yet I have my own strength, which has been sustaining me on this journey of becoming a teacher, so obviously I am not as fragile as how I look.

Let me not lose my faith. I am getting through this journey and will be a good teacher for you, as well as for myself. I have chosen this for everyone. So smile for me when I have helped you learn something. I will meet you on the half way.

[Middle School] 5020 Peer Teaching

Watch the tape of your lesson and respond to the following questions:

· How would you describe your teaching style? What do you believe has influenced your teaching style? Are you comfortable with this style? If not, what would you change? If so, why?

The lesson that I gave was 6th grade physical science and it was focused on convection of solar energy. Direct instructional and cooperative learning models were used, and there is also a component of a hands-on experiment. I watched the video and realized that my teaching style was heavily based on frequent question-asking throughout the lesson. I tried to be as friendly as possible while maintaining the classroom environment tolerable for errors, so that my students could feel comfortable about providing answers to my questions. Prior to the lesson however, I realized that having such a relaxing classroom environment might cause me to lose a control over the class. In order to avoid losing a control over classroom management, I kept my rapid pace by increasing the number of questions. Yet all of the questions were previously prepared (71 MIntz) and none was improvisional. Asking many questions certainly kept my students busy and the class was effectively managed. The lesson had a clear direction and I could tell that my students were diligently following the directions which gave me a great deal of confidence as a leader.

The only problem with this teaching style was that it was easy for my students to feel overwhelmed and rushed. It is true that I overloaded the class with an excessive number of questions, sometimes feeling that I did not have to ask some of the trivial questions. Yet I was greatly influenced by the pressure that made me feel the need for a clear instruction throughout this direct instructional lesson. Since the entire class was under this pressure, the atmosphere was somewhat stressful which reduced the intended effect of casual interaction between me and my students. It also caused my voice tone to be higher and faster than necessary which made the lesson even more stressful for the students. Believing that a 6th grade science class should not be so stressful, my peer group members were concerned about this unintended effect. They also pointed out that the clear direction and guidance gave the feeling of confidence only to the teacher while students were left overwhelmed and did not have enough time to appreciate what they were learning. In other words, they believed that it was only the teacher who felt comfortable with this teaching style.

Reflecting on what my peer group members suggested me, I believe that I will have to modify the number of questions that I will ask to students so that I can maintain the uniquely casual atmosphere of the class while still having a control over its management. In order to reduce the number of questions, I can perhaps remove some of the trivial questions. I could also try to maintain my voice at a constantly neutral speed, as well as calm and reassuring tone. At any rate I will still ask my students a fair number of questions so that I can still present my students with a clear direction while keeping a dynamic, casual and engaging atmosphere of a science class.

· What did you learn about the instructional model used in the lesson? Is what you learned congruent with the information provided in the text and/or classroom discussion?

· Would you use this model again? Why or why not? Was the lesson’s content and skills appropriate for the instructional model? How do you know?


Because the content area is physical science that involves an experiment, I wanted to make sure that my students are successfully following my instruction. The only way to make sure that I am leading the class correctly is to ask students questions about the concept, experiment steps, and other materials. Some of the questions were trivial. For instance, before I began the experiment, I pointed out some of the prepared materials and ask students what they see and what they think those materials would do in this experiment. When the questions were trial as such, students seemed a little bit perplexed at first, but soon provided appropriate answers because they quickly understood my intention to provide them a secure ambiance by walking them through the questions. Walking through the experiment with my students was also a part of my effort to guide them with a clear direction. Science as a content area involves many hands-on activities and experiments that often conclude with open-ended questions that require divergent answers. This inquiry-based learning is a good way to stimulate students' creativity, but the teacher will take a risk of losing her students while they are left with open-ended questions. Direct instruction also involves teacher's asking questions but its questions are convergent (71, Mintz).

[O My Alchemy] Rxn Rate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_rate

[Middle School] Demo Lesson Plan Note 3

Useful Demo Websites:

General Science Demos
http://nerds.unl.edu/pages/sciencedemos/

http://scied.unl.edu/pages/mamres/pages/demos/demo.html


Biology
http://scied.unl.edu/pages/mamres/pages/demos/biology/biology.htm

http://chem.lapeer.org/Bio1Docs/Index.php

http://www.darylscience.com/DemoBio.html

http://www.cellsalive.com/howbig.htm


Chemistry
http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/JCESoft/CCA/pirelli/index.html

http://alex.edfac.usyd.edu.au/Methods/Science/Chemistry%20Demonstrations (Can’t use in FireFox)

http://elmhurst.edu/~chm/demos/demoh.html

http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/demos/index.html

http://chem.lapeer.org/Chem1Docs/

http://www.science-house.org/learn/CountertopChem/


Earth Science
http://formontana.net/demos.html

http://www.earthscienceeducation.com/taster/copyright.htm

http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~jbarker/demos.html


Physics
http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/demobook/intro.htm

http://nerds.unl.edu/pages/mamres/pages/demos/denver/denver.html

http://amasci.com/scied.html

[Middle School] Art. Excrpt._Demo Lesson Plan Note 2

How can it be converted from simply a dramatic event into an opportunity
for scientific reasoning?

Students should gain an understanding of and abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry.

Instead of providing answers, I invited questions and asked for rationales.

I was prepared to respond with additional experiments to answer those questions with evidence.

The audience consisted of students of middle school age through adults.

“What could possibly be happening?” and “Explain your reasons for thinking that”—trying to get audience members to express their underlying hypotheses about mechanisms or fundamental understandings.

It was important to allow explanations to be tentative—to go unacknowledged regarding correctness or completeness.

With successive experiments, the suggestions and ideas began to converge
toward stronger explanations without my intervention.

In the classroom,
teachers can leave the activity unresolved and return to it the next day after students have had time to think about their ideas overnight.

To be prepared for questions, teachers
need to learn from prior reports and to have personal experience with variations on the basic experiment.

- Authorship

Christopher Bauer (cfb@cisunix.unh.edu) is a professor of chemistry at the University
of New Hamsphire, Department of Chemistry, UNH Durham, NH 03824

[Middle School] Art. Excrpt._Demo Lesson Plan Note 1

1. Preparing for the demonstration
2. The demonstration
3. Guided inquiry

Engage students by casually performing the demonstration a few times without comment. Often students will initiate discussion by asking what is in the flask or why the color changes are taking place. At this point ask them to formally state what they have observed as you record their observations on the board or overhead.

You may wish to have students record observations on a worksheet or in a class notebook to help develop writing skills and produce a permanent record of their thoughts. This is done before any mention of scientific inquiry.

Next ask students, “Why does shaking the flask cause the observed color changes?” Students are challenged to give possible answers. As their suggestions are stated, write them on the board or overhead.

4. Common student hypotheses and testing as a class
5. Mics. Excrpt

The blue bottle reaction: For middle school students it is sufficient to describe the chemistry in more general terms.

The flask originally contained air above the liquid and shaking the flask dissolved a small amount of oxygen from the air, which reacted with another chemical in the liquid to produce the blue product. The blue product then was slowly consumed or used up during a second reaction, which resulted in the liquid becoming colorless once again.

6. Conclusion

The abilities to propose experiments, make observations, and use data to justify conclusions are critical to the scientific process.

Investigation of the reaction can be adequately discussed in middle school using general terms such as blue substance and colorless gas.

The demonstration process allows the teacher to maintain control while guiding an inquiry into the chemical system.

This involves students in an investigation early, even on the first day of class if the teacher chooses, before they have any experience in hands-on group activities.*****

The demonstration format also minimizes material needs and safety issues.*****

Teachers help students use evidence to accept, eliminate, or modify hypotheses.

Students build ownership as later in the year they propose and design experiments, make observations, draw conclusions, and propose alternative hypotheses.

- Authorships

William C. Deese (wcdeese@latech.edu) is the
T.W. Ray Johnson professor of chemistry and Linda

Ramsey (lramsey@latech.edu) is director of CATALyST
and an assistant professor of biological sciences
at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana.

Cathi Cox (ccox@lincolnschools.org) is the Project
ACHIEVE coordinator for Lincoln Parish Schools in
Ruston, Louisiana.