Reflection on Lesson: On the morning of 3/13/2014, I presented my Science lesson.

This would be the first time during this two week clinical that I had ever introduced a lesson to the class. I was excited about my experiment but nervous about how smoothly this first lesson would go. The night before, I had made sure to have all materials prepared and organized. This way I could easily distribute them to each group. I had measured out the cornstarch into five individual Ziploc baggies and placed them into five different Tupperware bowls. I had made sure to research my topic thoroughly on different internet sites and spoke with my teacher about what the students prior knowledge was on the topic of matter. I did this by looking over student matter booklets and grading science tests. I watched YouTube videos on this experiment and read different articles about quicksand. I was ready. However, not all went according to plan. To start with the engagement portion of the lesson was a great opener. I had a little trouble learning how to work the I-Doc camera and smart board initially. Nevertheless, my cooperating teacher gave me the appropriate assistance I needed. I displayed the picture of quicksand and had them predict what they thought the picture was. I gave them about 3 minutes to talk with their group or a partner about what they thought. I heard several students say quicksand, while others said mud or a river. They talked about the man sinking and the plants on the bank. Nonetheless, they all seemed engaged and focused on determining what the picture was. Following the picture our brief classroom discussion was great. Students raised hands and made appropriate guesses. They told me about some of the prior knowledge they had on quicksand, and so we moved into the experiment. Thus this far, the only adjustment I would have made would have been not to already have set out the newspaper on student desks. Students were reading comics and fighting over whose desk the comics were on. In the future, the newspaper will be distributed with the other experimental materials.

Following the engagement discussion, I started to have students think about how matter relates to quicksand. I asked them to start thinking about the different properties of a solid and liquid. How do they undergo change? I then called one member from each group to pick up their tables supplies. This is when it started to go downhill. I filled each cup with the appropriate amount of water and put it on each groups table. They were beginning to quarrel about their group involvement and were getting loud out of excitement. I should have already had the cups filled prior to presenting the lesson. Furthermore, a new student should have been called to pick up the cup. Then after seeing the bowls needed a little more water I told the groups to pick one person to put a little more water in the cup. To a second grader they do not automatically know what little means. I should have demonstrated how to measure it out for them. Furthermore, I should have been modeling the procedures with my own set of materials. I should have given precise directions about not messing with the experiment until directed and how to do it as a group. Lastly, I should have given directions one at a time. I was being bombarded by questions and disagreements, while trying to help each group set up there experiment. There was just too little direction and too much going on all at once. This will all be corrected in the future presentation of this lesson. Needless to say, the quicksand experiment did not solidify. It became a complete liquid and had to be removed immediately from students. It was making a mess, as they stirred and splashed in the blue liquid. However, as all good teachers do, I recovered by showing the students a YouTube clip of another individual doing the same quicksand experiment. I stopped the YouTube clip before it gave the correct answer to if quicksand was a liquid or a solid. I drew on the white board: liquid, solid, or both. I then had students vote by raised hands. I then showed the rest of the YouTube clip and asked if anyone would like to change their votes. After the YouTube clip, everyone changed their vote to both. This was the correct answer.

My explanation of what they observed in the clip, coupled with the quicksand diagram went smoothly I thought. However, as I discuss later I feared this may not have been the case. However, students answered questions and really seemed focused on the discussion. I defined needed vocabulary like: saturated, liquefied soil, and groundwater. I tried to ask higher level thinking questions during this time to get students to think on a deeper level. They finished by talking with their group about what they learned about quicksand and describing the diagram to one another. I ended by giving them a quiz on the eight questions listed in the lesson plan. I had to repeat questions several times for different students because they did not connect with the question when read the first two times. This revealed to me that my explanation was not as detailed as it could have been. Students were unclear about some of the words within the questions and I had to reiterate what these words meant. After grading the quizzes, I feel that results were not as high as they should have been and in the future I would have had to readdress this lesson procedure. I learned a lot from this lesson and was able to learn from my mistakes. That is the point of these lessons and of a clinical. I used my mistakes as guidance in presenting my other three lessons. This caused me to progress as a teacher during the rest of these two weeks. This is what I should have done differently and corrected during my other lessons. I learned the importance of modeling all instructions before giving them. Directions should only be given one at a time. When children work in groups, they need to be provided with individual tasks. Inappropriate behavior or interruptions should be corrected immediately. Students respond to positive reinforcement, so make examples of the students that are following directions. Lastly, I will make sure I am prepared and familiar with the different forms of technology I would be using within my lesson. This should not be an issue in the future since I got to spend time with the I-Doc camera and smart board later on in the week. So even though the Science lesson did not go exactly as planned, I used it as a good tool for learning what does and does not work

with this set of students. I was able to acquire what would work better in the future when presenting this information.