science032112

Looks good! I would make a few samples of toys to make sure the materials work and think about a back up plan, just in case. Will you be signaling when students are suppose to switch in sharing their toys or will you be leaving this up to the students?

Some quick lesson plan feedback as your kids are building their toys...:) 1. I want to push you to think more specifically about differentiation (Part II of your lesson plan). Is this activity giving students equal opportunities to show what they know? ALL STUDENTS? If not, how could the activity be differentiated to meet those students' needs? "Once given materials, students will be too absorbed to listen to directions" is a very broad generalization (and kind of borderline negative view of the fact that they will be engaged with the lesson). Also, notice how many questions your students had as they worked---is there a way that the activity could be differentiated to encourage more independent work?

2. Based on the curriculum objectives, what are you actually assessing the toys for? This is not clear in your lesson plan and something I would be interested in having you elaborate a bit on. Do the students know how you are assessing their toys and presentations? How did they find out? This criteria needs to be clear so that your analysis is specific.

3. Every lesson has academic language components--what are yours for this lesson? Academic language is still a required component for Part II.

4. Be sure to have a clear closure to your lesson--you want something more than just cleaning up. It's not clear in the lesson plan, although you may actually do it in the actual lesson itself.

5. I like this lesson A LOT--it was interesting to go around and read your students toy design statements (they were also pretty eager to show off their creations--"I'm making a toy with force!"). There is a lot to learn here about your students' thinking and understanding of the science principles.



Reflection 1. I made a model of a toy to show to students but completely skipped over this. If I showed them the model toy and elaborated on what I had made and what I thought during the process, it would have given students a clearer vision of what they were expected to do. Also, I feel that I should have given guiding questions to those students that were stumped on how to create their toy with the given supplies. I could have engaged in a deeper conversation with those students leading them to think creatively.

2. The purpose behind creating toys was to identify forces used to move these toys. Therefore, having visuals of different kinds of forces up on the board (which I already had from the previous lesson) would have helped to clarify the purpose of the lesson.

3. Academic language- We discussed different kinds of forces (wind up, rock, string, natural forces, push, pull, battery...) used to move toys.

4. After sharing toys within their groups, I called on a few volunteers to share their toys with the whole class.

We also did the writing extension on their toys. I modeled up on the document camera for those students that needed it. Most students did very well. However there were a few students that needed more than modeling, so I pulled them to the back table to provide one-on-one assistance.