McKenzie Fortner

ELED 3221-Science
Dr.Binns
November 7, 2016
Science Lesson Plan Reflection
When I first spoke with my cooperative teacher at my school I
discovered that my classroom does not cover science and social
studies everyday. At the time my class was in their social studies unit
and would be in this unit for the two week that I would be there. My
cooperative teacher discussed our option for my science lesson and
agreed on integrating my science lesson with a reading lesson that
would take place at the beginning of the day, and he arranged for me
to observe a science lesson in another second grade classroom. Per my
cooperative teachers request my lesson was on weather, particularly
tornadoes, hurricanes, and comparing and contrasting these two
storms.
Planning the lesson for me was the most challenging for me. I
spent about five days and a little over 3 hours each day writing the
lesson, it was time consuming and stressful at times but ultimately my
students loved learning science with reading and I quickly forgot about
the time and stress when I saw their excitement. Finding the balance
between having enough but not over loading my lesson was probably
the hardest part for me as a teacher, I wanted the activities to be
engaging, and fun but wanted to also respect the time frame I was
allotted per my cooperative teacher.
We started my lesson started with a video briefly describing
hurricanes and tornadoes the student sat on the carpet and after the
video was over the students turned to me and we started our t-chart
on hurricanes and tornadoes. After we got started on our t-chart my
cooperative teacher wanted to pause our lesson and have students
move to writing. Once writing was over the students made their way

back over to their spots on the carpet and we continued on with our
lesson. I placed the four pictures on the board and asked the students
to raise their had if they could match the picture to the correct storm
based off of the information we learned in our video. Many students
raised their hands and stated their opinions and I moved into the book.
I told the students to listen to our book and lets see if our opinions
change after we learn more about each storm. Once the book was over
we went back to the pictures and discussed the correct answers and
why each answer was right. We then moved on to our Venn diagram.
I asked students to help me create a Venn diagram based off of
the information we learned in our video, book, and the information we
had placed on our t-chart. I got the students started on their Venn
diagrams and then they were dismissed to work with partners to
continue working on the Venn diagrams, comparing and contrasting
the two storms based off our reading.
My lesson was cut short due to early specials. We did not make it
to the assessment portion of my lesson. However, while completing
formative assessment walking around and listening to all the things the
students were discussing and writing on their Venn diagrams I could
easily tell that students got key information from my lesson. This made
me feel great.
I did use technology, the video and the smart board to build my
Venn diagram. I would definitely do my lesson again. However, in my
own classroom where I can make my own schedule I believe I would
space my lesson out over two or three days. I believe this would help
with time management, and would also allow us to complete more
engaging activates and allow students to retain more information with
the rush of one lesson. I learned that as a teacher I would make more
time for an activity like this in my classroom, also that I have grown
when it comes to adapting quickly in the classroom. I had to make
quick decisions based off time what I felt was most important to get

through and what could be left out. As a learner, I gained great

knowledge myself of these super storms, also I listened to the
excitement of my students when they discovered we were doing
science and this taught me to values science and social studied in my
own classroom one day.
Overall, this experience was a great benefit to myself as a future
educator. I learned more about integrating lessons, and how I can
make integrated lesson work in my own classroom one day. I believe
this experience has extended my preparation for one day being n the
classroom and I gained great confidence in my work as a teacher.