Today we taught our fifth graders using two methods that would get them working together! These two methods were inquiry learning and cooperative learning. Inquiry learning and cooperative learning were both new lesson methods for me and my group mates but we put together two good lessons for the students.
The first lesson we taught using inquiry learning, which uses the steps of the scientific method. My group and I made a Columbus treasure hunt and gave the students the problem of the King and Queen not wanting to fund another voyage for Columbus and he needs your help to convince them. The first thing that we had the students do was formulate a hypothesis based off of the problem that we had just given them. After they formulated their hypothesis they were given their first clue which was to help Columbus locate the coordinates of different places. Once the students had gone through all of the different clues they wrote a letter to the King and Queen about why they believed Columbus should go on another voyage. They used the data that they found throughout the activity to help them write their letter. One thing that we could have had the students do was after they had finished finding all of their clues we could have had them share if their hypothesis was right or wrong with the class. After we finished with our inquiry lesson we moved right to our cooperative learning lesson which was a poetry slam.
For this lesson, we started with a quick presentation of what the students were going to be doing. How they were going to be working together to make a poem and at the end they were going to present it to the class. We also went over presenting skills with the students, so that they did their best! We kept the students in the same groups that they were already in and we assigned each group a topic based on what they learned in direct instruction. Within the groups we gave each of the students a role, one student was the scribe, one was the illustrator and there were many others. This way each student was contributing to the group and also staying on task. Once the groups were finished with their poems it was time to present! I noticed that while some of the groups were presenting other students were talking with their friends, so making sure that the class is quiet before the group presents. The students did a really good job creating poems and pictures about their topics!
Overall it was a really great experience getting to teach three different lessons to a whole class. The different types of lessons that I learned I will definitely want to incorporate when I have my future classroom. The techniques that I have learned from this experience will help me all throughout my future teaching career.
Today we had our first day of teaching our fifth-grade students at Bishop Dunn Memorial School. My group mates and I were very excited to start teaching the students about Christopher Columbus. The first lesson that we taught we used direct instruction so that we could get all the important information to the students. When the students came in from recess they were very eager to start learning about Columbus!
We first started off our lesson by establishing ground rules for the class to follow so that things would not get out of control when it came to the different parts of our lesson. We had a silent method to get the students attention but throughout the lesson, we found that it did not really work because a lot of the students were not really paying attention to what was going on up front. We then moved into our presentation. The students seemed to be really engaged in the lesson but I feel that we could have called on different students to answer our questions. Often times it was the same students raising their hands. Another thing that I think we could have done differently is check with the whole class once a student answered the question. This way we know that the whole class is paying attention and that they also know the answer to the question that we just asked. A couple of times we would use the thumbs up/thumbs down method to get a response from the whole class.
After we had finished our powerpoint presentation we moved on to guided practice with the students. For this, we had a Columbus web and a Columbian Exchange poster. We had the students brainstorm in their groups for facts and other things about Columbus that they could put on the web. One thing that we could have done differently is instead of having the students say something from their seats and having us write it on the web we could have them come up to the board and write it. Another activity that we had for the students was a Columbian Exchange poster where the students came up and put the things that Columbus brought back and forth throughout his voyages. The students seemed to really be engaged in both of the activities that we had for them.
It was a really good first day of teaching! The students learned a lot about Christopher Columbus and they are going to learn even more in the next two lessons that we have planned for them!
Today was the first day that our colleagues were teaching in the classroom. The first group had the topic of map skills and how they are important and relate to the rest of the unit. The teachers started the lesson by showing the students how to use Google Maps and they located their school on there. I liked how the teachers introduced the lesson by connecting what they were going to be teaching about to something that the students use on a daily basis. The teachers then went into talking about the different parts of the globe and the different lines on the globe. The teachers had a fun way for the students to remember latitude and longitude using their arms, this helped the students to not get the two confused! The teachers did a good job of engaging the students throughout the lesson and they got all of the students involved in the lesson. The students created a word wall with all of vocabulary from the lesson, through this activity the students were able to get a good understanding of the vocabulary from the lesson. The final activity that the teachers had for the students to do was a crossword puzzle that would really show if the students understood the vocabulary that was taught in the lesson.
After the teachers taught the students the main information it was time for the students to apply that information to a fun activity. For their inquiry lesson the teachers had the students work in groups to find different coordinates of places on the map. The students had to use their knowledge of latitude and longitude that they learned in the previous lesson in this lesson. After the students had found their coordinates with their group members each group shared their findings with the rest of the class. Since the students were already in groups the teachers kept the students in the same groups for their cooperative learning lesson. During this lesson the students were working together to create a poem, song, or story about latitude and longitude. During cooperative learning the students are working on their social skills and interacting with one another to complete the task. The students were given time to work on their projects and then they presented them in front of the class.
Overall the first group did a really good job teaching! They were really knowledgeable about their topic and they kept the students engaged in the lesson!
