For my pre- and post-assessment on Ecology, I have created a quiz asking some questions relating to the content the students will be learning about. The quiz is a mixture of multiple choice, true or false, and matching questions. In total, there are 15 questions, 5 questions in each section and each section has its own directions for the students to follow. When students recieve the pre- assessment, I will inform the students that it is not for a grade but just to see what they know already. My co-operating teacher and I decided that this would be the best way to assess the students knowledge and to keep it in a format the students are use to. After I finished making the assessment, I sent it to my co-operating teacher for her approval. I then proceeded to make copies and then administer the assessment on January 23, 2023. 

After talking to my co-operating teacher, we figured out an instructional plan that would work best for the students to achieve my improvement goal. The school district I am placed at has a schedule where I see all the students, every day, for 42 minutes a period. This instructional plan will take place over two weeks of my student teaching. We will begin this instructional plan on January 23, 2023 and finish on February 3, 2023. 

1/23/23: Delivery of Pre-Assessment and Introduction to Unit 4 Ecology: Chapter 21

The pre-assessment quiz will be delivered through a printed out version of the quiz that the students can write their answers on. Before I pass out the quiz, the students will be reminded that I am not taking this for a grade but instead I am trying to see what information they already know. I will also remind the students to do their best and will give them plenty of time to complete the pre-assessment. Once all of the students submit their pre-assessment, we will begin the Chapter 21 Section one notes. For this, I have created a fill in the blank notes for the students to follow along the powerpoint with. After we complete the notes, we will play a population growth dice activity. This activity will reinforce the information the students just learnt on populations. This is engaging way for students to record data, learn more about populations, and how different factors can affect a population size. 

1/24/23: Chapter 21 Section 2 Notes and Dice Activity

Today the students are finishing up the population growth dice activity. This activity will help reinforce the information the students learnt on populations and the factors affecting them. Additionally, we did the notes for chapter 21 section 2, this lesson was about observations, changing population sizes, limiting factors, and carrying capacity. 

1/25/23: Workday

Today is a workday for the 8th grade life science students  The previous day they recieved a deer dice activity, the students will be able to complete the activity and then start their next worksheet. This next worksheet is about deer and wolf populations and how they affected one another. The students are required to fill out a table that can be solved by taking the birth rate of the population minus the death rate of the population. After completion of the table, the students will graph their results on graph paper and answer some analysis questions. This will help the students better understand the birth and death rate of a population. 

1/26/23: Work Day

Today will be another work day for the students. The students will continue working on any of the activities they have yet to finish. Additonally, they will work on their vocabulary homework that is due on Tuesday of next week.  

1/27/23: Chapter 21 Section 3

To start off class today, I have a Moth simulation activity. The students will pretend to be a bird and have to "eat" (click) all of the moths on their computer screens. This activity will introduce the students to natural selection and adaptations that help organisms survive in their environment. We will then proceed to have a Powerpoint lecture on this information where the students will follow along with their fill in the blank notes. After finishing the starting activity and the notes, I have a symbiotic speed dating activity prepared for the students. Each student will be assigned an organism, and then they have to answer a couple of questions about their organism. Afterwards the students will be able to move around and talk to each other about what organism they got. The students have to figure out the type of symbiotic relationship they have, if they could harm each other, or if they could benefit from each other. This allows the students to be engaged and involved by moving around and talking to their peers. The 8th grade students will also be building on the information we just learnt about symbiotic relationships. 

1/30/23: Chapter 21 Section 4:

In today's class we will finish chapter 21 section 4 notes and do an ecological succession worksheet. This worksheet will help students build on information they just learnt about ecological succession. Primary and Secondary Succession can be a complicated concept for students, so I will use this worksheet to reinforce the information I just taught them. The worksheet provided the students with a short reading and some questions they have to answer at the end of the reading. 

1/31/23: Vocab Quiz and Lab

Today the students will show me their chapter 21 vocabulary homework and take their chapter 21 vocabulary quiz. Additionally, I will hand out a review packet to help them study for their upcoming exam. Furthermore, we will start a mark and recapture lab that involves gold fish. This lab shows the students different ways to determine how many individuals of a species live in a certain area. The mark and recapature method is a way scientists discover the number of species in an area. This is a great hands on activity for the students and helps them build on the information they just learnt in class.

2/1/23: Lab and Post assessment

Today the students are finishing up the mark and recpature lab if they have not finished it already. When all the students have completed and turned in their lab, I will hand out the post assessment quiz. I will remind the students that this is not for a grade and I am only using this assessment to see how much information they learnt throughout the two weeks that I was teaching. Additionally, I will tell the students to try their best on the assessment because I want to see growth in their knowledge. This post-assessment will be again given on paper and the students are allowed to write their answers on the assessment. The post-assessment is the same as the pre-assessment, however the questions are in a different order than on the pre-assessment. The students are use to this type of format and I will provide the students with instructions to follow for each section of matching, multiple choice, and true/false. I will give the students as much time as they need to complete the post assessment and then the students are allowed to work on their chapter 21 review packet.