Week Three... The Live Caterpillars Finally Arrive!

Lindsay and I had another wonderful teaching experience today, co-teaching in our second grade class.  As soon as the classroom teacher gave us the floor for our science lesson, the students were inquisitive about whether we would be able to make up the lesson we missed with them because of the snow day.  It was very rewarding to hear how excited they were about learning science.   It was even more rewarding to hear how much they remembered of the lesson we taught them last week;  that ensured us that the class was grasping what Lindsay and I were teaching them.  I believe the successful things that Lindsay and I have been doing is a result of our thorough lesson planning.  For this week, we created another detailed lesson plan, which kept what we were teaching clear and focused.  Lindsay and I were able to classroom manage, because  we created a lesson plan that had specific learning goals, and clear steps we wanted to follow in order to get the students to attain those goals.  Our key question of the day correlated nicely with the MA Framework we based our lesson on.  We really honed in on our key question, which was what caterpillars needed for survival compared to what humans need for survival.  Also, we focused on one processing skill, observation.  I find classroom management to be easier when a lesson has fewer objectives to attain, and several activities in which are designed to help answer the key question.   Lindsay and I switched the activities up every 10-15 minutes in order to keep the students engaged, and also tried to give clear directions prior to switching to the next activity.  I think one thing we could have improved on, was maintaining the students’ attention when we wanted to answer one of their peer’s important question.  Some students were excited about having live caterpillars on their desk and were distracted in their own side conversations.  I found using the classroom teacher’s cueing system, in which the student knew quite well, worked to gain their focus back.

              

           In order to implement a scientific processing skill this week, we re-covered what we learned about making observations of caterpillars with hand lenses.  We did an activity that helped bring the students’ prior knowledge on parts of a caterpillar, and hand lens skills to their working memories.  I was surprised how much the students remembered what we taught them about making observations, and I think spending several lessons on this skill, was very beneficial.  The students seemed to be able to put the skill into practice, and make good scientific observations once the live caterpillars were finally introduced.   This also resulted in them recording good data; the students were drawing detailed pictures of the cups with their caterpillars, and labeling specific parts they saw on the caterpillar with the hand lens. 

                In order to conclude our lesson, Lindsay and I made it a point to re-examine the key question and assess whether the students grasped the learning goal of the lesson.  Time was running out on us towards the end of the class, but we managed to have the students write their answers to the key question of a slip of paper, and we had a few students share what they wrote.  The lesson seemed to be successful, since the second graders could list what a caterpillar needed for survival.   Some students shared caterpillars need air, and others shared caterpillars eat mallow food , and others shared shelter.  I found that the sharing allowed for students to feed of each other’s ideas and remember all the components we taught them about caterpillars’ survival.