Video Analysis Science Lesson

Waukee 6th Graders

The portion of the video I chose to highlight covers a portion of the lesson in which
students were discussing how natural resources considered renewable, can be depleted through
human use. I challenge the students to come up with a way to organize resources in a way
showing how renewable or nonrenewable the resources are.
I want students to be openly collaborating, discussing, and accepting or rejecting others
ideas based on their opinions backed up with evidence. This aligns with our goals for students
and is beneficial for their growth as individuals. To accomplish these goals I pose numerous
open-ended questions to the class including, what do you think is happening to the water?
During this discussion, the students come up with various ideas. One student says, I think the
animals are drinking all of the water, another student counters that statement with animals
cant drink that much water! Further discussion ensues with the students stating their ideas for
how the water was depleted. The students are interacting in a way that is respectful towards each
other, but sharing numerous ideas.
When I pose another question, what are other examples of renewable resources being
depleted through human use, the students struggle. In order to scaffold student thinking, I confer
with the groups of students individually and ask them to think about the Amazon rainforest. In
retrospect, I should have guided the students to our previous activity when we looked at how
large Waukee has grown through Google Maps. This would have given them a concrete example
to draw from. Furthermore, my questions did not guide the students to come up with the idea on
their own; I had to give several prompts. In order to remedy this in the future I would go to the
concrete experience right away, or ask a question such as what are instances you have heard that
include people cutting down trees or forests?
After I pose questions to the students, I respond in a way that is neutral to what the
student said and allows for continued interaction among the students. For example, if a student
has an idea I say ok or hmm rather than thats a great idea! This type of interaction allows
students to not feel singled out by praise or bad if their answer is wrong. While watching my
video I notice that sometimes I still feel the need to respond to every student. Even though my
responses are neutral, I feel this can still affect the discussion negatively. In the future I will work
on responding to the students using nonverbal cues like smiling or nodding instead of always
speaking my response to the students.

I also want students to be problem solvers and come up with their own way of organizing
resources. Will had the idea of using a venn diagram, or compare and contrast circle as he called
the graphic organizer, so I had the students try to classify resources based on how renewable or
nonrenewable they were. As the students were completing this task, they realized the limitations
with a venn diagram. Instead of just telling them the answer I allow them to problem solve on
how they can adjust the graphic organizer to better meet the goal of organizing resources based
on how much we have or its renewability.
Movement of myself as the teacher keeps students more engaged, and can be used as a
classroom management tool to keep students involved in the discussion and not participating in
distracting behaviors. I move around the group depending on who is speaking. If Ellie starts to
talk I move away from her so she is speaking to her peers. I have also found moving away from
those speaking can encourage the student to speak louder. This is especially helpful with Camille
as she is soft spoken. There are many instances in my lesson that I dont properly place myself in
a way that promotes effective classroom management. At times Im talking to one group of
students and I have my back to the other group of students; allowing them to get off task and not
discuss the question I have posed. In order to correct this, I should always make sure that I am at
a position where I can see the entire class of students and monitor their behaviors.

While Im holding on to my lesson plan I start to exhibit annoying mannerisms by

tapping the paper against the table. I also use the paper as a crutch to guide my questioning
instead of just listening to what the students say. To move forward Im not going to allow myself
to use a whole lesson plan. If there are questions that I want to make sure I ask then I should put
those on a half sheet of paper or something that is not so distracting as the whole lesson plan.
My questions are not always clear and concise for students to answer; this causes
confusion among the students. At one point during the lesson, I pose a question and Will asks,
what do you mean by stuff? In order to avoid wasting time explaining myself repeatedly, I
could have just worded the question differently. To remedy getting caught up in the wording of
questions I need to have specific questions written out and I need to practice asking those
questions before I teach the lesson to students.
After coding my video I saw that I didnt ask very many extended answer questions and
that I typically asked the students to just repeat what they had talked about in groups. In order to
further student thinking I should change the question I pose to the students after they converse in
a small group discussion. Instead of just asking what did you come up with? I should ask
something along the lines of you talked about the rainforest getting cut down in your groups,
why is it a problem that we are cutting down the rainforest?

Overall, I saw several positive interaction behaviors that I should continue doing. While
watching my video I noticed there are many behaviors I need to change, but this is the
importance of filming, and then reflecting on that film.

10 questions:
1. What was happening in the pictures? (3b)
a. How did the Aral Sea change from 2000 to 2014?
b. I would then eliminate question 2 below.
2. What did it look like in 2014? (3b)
3. How do you think this happened? (3c)
4. What do you mean they took too much, the people took too much? (11)
5. What do you mean by too much food? (12)
a. How does people taking too much food relate to the water being depleted?
6. What do we think happened? (3c)
a. We talked about people taking too much water for animal or plants, in what ways
do we waste water in our lives?
7. Why would they need to use the water for plants and animals? (3b)
a. How would the dry climate of the Middle East affect how much water is needed
for plants and animals?
b. I would then eliminate questions 8 and 9.
8. Whats the climate like in the Middle East? (3b)
9. If they are growing crops for food, where do you think this water is going? (3b)
10. What other examples of people using up our renewable resources can you think of in our
world today? (4)
1Modified SATIC* Coding Sheet
Teacher:

Brittany Nyhus

Course:

EDUC225

Date: 11/14/14

Lesson goals: For students to identify humans impact on natural resources and develop a continuum of
resource renewability
Lesson objectives: Students will be able to explain how humans deplete natural resources and give
examples of resource depletion happening in our world.

Teacher Behaviors

1st five
minutes

2nd

five
minutes

3rd

Total

five
minutes

Initiatory (talking)
1. Lectures or gives directions

18

2. Makes statement or asks rhetorical question

29,35

19

22,36

b) short-answer question

1,4,14,17

23,24,25,27,
32,37,38,39

12

c) thought-provoking short-answer question

5,9,20,21

30,31

2,3,8,10,11,1
3

26,28,40

15

33

11. Asks student to clarify or elaborate

6,7

34

12. Uses student question or idea

12

41

Initiatory (questioning)
3. a) yes/no question

4. Extended-answer question
Responding (neutral or discourages student mental
engagement)
5. Rejects student comment
6. Acknowledges student comment

7. Confirms student comment

8. Repeats student comment
9. Clarifies or interprets what student said
10. Answers student question
Responding (encourages student mental engagement)

Non-verbal Behaviors
13. a) Inappropriate wait-time I

b) Inappropriate wait-time II

14. Passive non-verbal behaviors

15. Annoying mannerisms
16. Question that effectively scaffolds students to desired ends

17.

16

A teacher behavior assessment devised by Dorothy M. Schlitt and Michael Abraham (modified by
Michael P. Clough)