Project Wet/Project Wild Classroom Implementation

Implemented November 10th

Activity Name: Whats Wild?

Date

Grade level to be implemented

in: 1st

Attachments:
Photocopy of Activity: Lesson implemented on 11/10
Posttest Attached: Given on 11/12

Pretest Attached: Given on 11/3

Brief description of the class the activity is to be implemented with

A first grade class with twenty-one students. The class is majority girls, with the ratio
being 12 to 9. The class is a little more diverse than some of the other counties in the
area. I have two Hispanic students and then the rest are African American and European
American. The class is a very well-behaved one, there are just a few students who really
like to talk.

Description of changes made to the activity (as written in the manual) during
initial planning
The activity called for the students to make collages, but in my class I decided not to do
that because they would spend too much time focusing on cutting and gluing and not
enough on the actual concept of an animal being wild or domesticated. Instead of a
collage, I made large index cards with different animals on them and after we discussed
what wild and domestic animals were, the students were able to come and sort them
into two groups on the board.

Description of changes to the activity as a result of the pretest

After giving the pretest, I realized that some of them knew already what a wild animal
was but they had confusion about things such as cats and rabbits. I also learned that a
few of them had no real idea of what made an animal wild. So with that, I included in the
cards I made pictured of animals that are seen to be nice animals, as well as animals
that can be pets but also that can live outside. I included pictures of animals that I knew
the students would see as sweet or nice like dolphins so we could distinguish that
just because and animal is not viewed as dangerous or mean, they can still be a wild
animal because it provides its own food, shelter and other needs.

Objectives for the activity (use Blooms Taxonomy as a guideline)

The students will demonstrate knowledge and comprehension by being able to recall the
information learned about wild and domestic animals and showing their understanding of
the facts and ideas learned through the worksheet they are given.

Georgia Performance Standards (total of 5) Be sure to specify the element being

used.
These standards should be from more than on content area (Science and LA, Science
and Math, etc.).
Content Area One
Content Area Two
Science: S1L1
Math: MGSE1.OA.1, MGSE1.MD.1
S1CS7

Content Area Three

ELA: ELACC1W2
Reflection on the comparison of the pretest and posttest information
The posttest showed significant improvement. Only a handful of students were able to
pick out all the wild animals on the pretest but almost a third of the class got all the
answers correct or only missed one on the posttest. The section of the test where they
were to write a sentence about what makes an animal wild or domesticated improved
drastically, as well. On the pretest, many of the students just wrote things like I love

animals and just used the word animal in a sentence but on the posttest they were able
to give specific reasons.

Written Analysis of the Activity

Strengths of the teacher/activity
The activity was well prepared and thoughtfully planned out. I had a list of points to
cover and while I did not follow it exactly, I had in on hand to check myself if the
discussion got stuck. I also believe that the lesson was delivered in a fun way that was
engaging to the students. Along with it being fun, the lesson was very interactive. I
engaged with the students throughout the whole lesson, asking them lots of questions
and letting them show me what they knew.

Weaknesses of the teacher/activity

I struggled with keeping the students on topic at times. They were all very eager to
answer the questions but I had difficulty getting them to talk one at a time and to settle
down. Along with that, I feel as if the lesson was way to easy for some of the students.
While the discussion should stay the same, there could have been different worksheets
for the students who are known to catch on to concepts quicker than the others.

Specific suggestions for improvement for the teacher

I used a few different words to when it came to talking about the domestic animals. I
think that to make the lesson as clear as possible, I should have stuck to one form of the
word. Using only one word, like pet, consistently would have been a better way to help
make the content as easily understandable as possible. Along with that, I could have
done a little better in getting all the students to participate. As there will always be,
there are a few students who are very quiet and shy. I could do better on working to get
them engaged as well.

Specific suggestions for improvement of the activity

After giving the lesson, I realize that the activity could be improved in a few ways. There
are a few students in the class that continually catch onto concepts faster than the rest.
As stated before, I could have supplied different versions of the worksheet the students
did with some of them being a little more difficult for those students. Another place for
improvement would be the class discussion. The class discussion was not as able to go
as far as I had hoped because of time, with more time the discussion could go deeper
and all the students would have the chance to talk.

Evidence and explanation of ways that you know that learning has occurred
From the discussion throughout the lesson, the worksheet the student completed, and
from comparing the pretest and the posttest it is very apparent that the students
learned. On the pretest only a few students identified all the wild animals correctly and
none of them were able to give a characteristic of what made an animal wild. Through
the class discussion and the worksheet, the students did, I was able to see this change.
During the lesson, many of the students were given the opportunity to come up to the
board and arrange the cards I had provided into the two groups, wild and domestic.
Along with that, I was able to see learning had occurred with the worksheet the students
completed. On the worksheet they were asked to circle all the animals that could be
pets, many more were able to distinguish between wild and domesticated than on the
pretest. On the section of the test that asked the students to write a sentence about
what makes an animal wild or domestic, none of the students were able to do so on the
pretest but on the posttest they answered things like they find their own food and they
are dangerous.