Reflection on 5E Lesson Plan

            I started the lesson with an assignment where the students were to imagine that they lived in the colonial time period and were trying to find the best soil with which to build their house. I think it went well because the students were eager to make this discovery and I was able to keep their attention. As I watched the video I found myself pacing the room frequently and using my hands when I was talking. I am aware that I have a natural to tendency to use my hands in normal conversation, but I did not realize how much I used them. Looking back, when giving the students directions, I believe I should have made the directions more specific and in doing so, placed a greater emphasis on keeping them quiet and focused on me as I gave the instructions. When I placed the students in pairs I experienced a few problems. Two students didn’t want to work with the partner to which they were assigned. Therefore, I placed each of them with someone else.  This turned out to be a bad decision.  One student was upset with the partner I chose for him because the partner chosen was not one of his friends.  When I assigned another partner he continued to be upset because he did not want that choice either, but I insisted.  Then he started crying. I called him from his seat to come and speak with me. I told him that sometimes in life we had to work with other people who weren’t our best friends, and that he must learn to get along with other people. I also told him that his statement of not wanting to be a partner to other students would hurt their feelings.  I reassured him that I knew he was a good student and would not want to hurt anyone’s feelings.  I told him I needed him to return to his seat and try his best to work together. The talk I gave him worked because he went straight back to his seat and didn’t say an ugly word and starting working with his partner, and everything was fine. As we made the transition to working on the experiment I felt the students were getting more excited than usual. When I tried to explain the particles and pore spaces in the soil, I was so nervous I confused myself. I am not sure all of the students understood exactly what   pore spaces and particles were. Also, I left out details I planned to include.  I think the majority of the students did understand that clay absorbed more water and therefore it was best to have a house built on that type of soil. Clean up time took longer than it should have. Then we talked about parts of the picture book Dirt. The students really seemed to like this book.  It did a good job relating to the students, and it included solid information on the topic of different soils.   To assess the students understanding, they completed circle maps on lesson. I found out after reading these circle maps that most of the students did learn about particles and they did learn that clay absorbed more water. Also, they learned that humus is made up of dead and decaying plants.

     When critiquing my performance on this lesson, in general I allowed the students too much time on each of the steps and I experienced most of my trouble in transitions, such as getting into small groups with a partner, moving to the experiment phase and then the cleaning up phase.  To improve this lesson, I need place stricter time limits and to follow them, making the students remain focused in order that they complete each step of the assignment in time. But I did enjoy using the 5E lesson plan because the students enjoyed  the engagement style of learning.  I could tell the students were actually thinking of the different types of soil and what soil was the best on which to build their house. The next time I teach this lesson I will give very detailed, clear and specific directions, not allowing as much time as I did with each part of the assignment, and I will devise a better way to complete the “explanation” part of the lesson. . I believe the next lesson I teach on this topic will focus on what soil matches what think plants in order that they grow their best or use the lesson title, “If you were a farmer which soil would you want to use”.  Over all for this to be the first science lesson that I have done I feel pretty good about it and I know that I have some things to work on.