Fossils
Evaluation
Overall, I was very happy with the success of this unit
and the excitement that the children had for it. I was originally very
worried that I wouldn't be able to present such scientific material without
having a great source of fossils for the students to touch and see first
hand. Luckily I was able to scrounge up a bag full from some teachers in
the school and the fossils we didn't have, we made - which was probably
the favorite part of the lesson for the students as well as a great way
for them to learn. Mt main areas for improvement needed for this unit as
a whole would be to gain a better sense of management both in the way I
present the lesson (organization) and how I deal with mobile and vocal
children. I found that the lessons that I hadn't laid everything out ahead
of time caused more management problems because the children would get
distracted much faster - especially during lessons that required more sitting,
listening, and discussion. Overall, however, I think that this unit matched
the explorative atmosphere in the classroom fairly well, and the students
seemed to enjoy themselves. while learning just enough to keep them interested
in expanding on their knowledge of fossils independently. If I was teaching
a fossil unit again, I would probably use parts and variations of this
unit.
As of November 18th, I have taught the first three lessons
in this unit. I plan on teaching the fourth lesson in the next week or
so. After teaching three lessons, I decided that I would probably change
a couple parts of the unit. While I think that the first lesson went over
ok, I would have spread it over two days instead of having it in one sitting.
I would have spent more time with them for discussion between the activities
emphasizing that all fossils are created from living things and that the
kind of fossils that we talked about were only a few of the thousands of
types of thing that make fossils.
I was extremely happy with lesson number two (well, after
Karleen helped convinced me it went over well). The students were wonderful
and seemed engaged in the lesson. I probably wouldn't change anything necessarily,
but I might add a few extra components. I would have like to have some
sort of demonstration that showed how fossils are formed specifically.
I have read in a book that you can represent Earth layers with a clear
plastic cup and mud, sand, and plaster of paris. I don't know if that would
be too abstract for kindergarten or not. I also would have taken more time
and found more resources and video on ice and amber fossils because the
students really were interested by these. I might have shortened the reading
of the Aliki book as well, it seemed a bit long for their attention span
- I could easily pick a part of the book to focus on and just skip over
pages that aren't as important.
The third lesson went well, but I feel it was poorly
managed. There were a ton of little materials that I need to give to the
students. I should have had them laid out and organized into separate piles
for each student. I also would have had a book to read to keep the content
information short and to the point - it is very difficult to have a focused
discussion with five year olds. Most importantly, I would have left the
sand table in the hall until we were ready for - the students were going
wild with anticipation because they were so excited about digging up their
fossils. They couldn't keep still and keep away from it.
My cooperating teacher was not able to view any of my
lessons because they were done only with six to eight children in the class
while the others were in free choice. Free choice is fairly chaotic and
requires a lot of assistance from the teachers. Also, after I taught the
first lesson in the room during free choice, my teacher noticed how hard
it was to keep the students focused with all the activity and suggested
to move into a room that was more calm and quiet (we went to the music
room). Bridget did help me work out some of the problems that I was having
during the construction of my unit and was very supportive of the ideas
I had. She viewed the lesson plan for the second lesson and was extremely
pleased with it. She said that it was "excellent."
Karleen viewed the second lesson for observation number
five and was equally as pleased. She said that my lesson plan was clear
and thoughtfully written. She like my use of the laser disc samples and
felt that the lesson was age appropriate and very rich in content . She
was also pleased with the way I dealt with some of the more "quirky"
personalities in the group. The only problem that she expressed was one
child who pretty much ignored my requests to sit down with the group (he
was pretending to conduct an orchestra in the corner). I didn't really
react to him because the lessons were optional for the students and I felt
that if I had continued to try to make him sit down, he probably wouldn't
have listened anyway, and it would hurt the flow of the lesson. I had the
students under control for the first time, and I didn't want to throw it
off. If I had to do it again, I would most like offer him a choice. I should
have told him that he can either sit down and get a chance to make fossils,
or he can leave and join the others in free choice. If he would have chosen
to leave, he could do so freely.
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