Impact on Student Learning Project

Impact on Student Learning Project Author: Lauren Snively Editor: Dr. Cheryl Slattery Editor s Remark Lauren Snively was student teaching fourth grade when she developed this project Impact on Student Learning in spring 2009. This reflection consists of 11 daily lesson plans of the weather unit, data analysis, summary, and reflections on improving future teaching. Due to space limits, only three daily lesson plans are presented here. Subject: Science Topic: Weather, Clouds Time: 30 minutes Weather Unit Lesson Plan -- Day 1 PA Standards: 3.5.4 C: Know basic weather elements. Identify cloud types. Identify weather patterns from data charts (including temperature, wind direction and speed, precipitation) and graphs of the data. Explain how the different seasons effect plants, animals, food availability and daily human life. Objective: Students will be able to define the first five terms in their vocabulary notes and fill out and discuss the first two columns of their KWL graphic organizer. Materials: -Weather vocabulary term packets for each student -KWL chart graphic organizer -SMARTboard copy of vocabulary term packet -SMARTboard copy of KWL chart Anticipatory Set: Ask students to mention some words that are attributed to weather. Ask them if they know what sort of things cause clouds to form. Volume 1 Number 2 Fall 2009 1

Procedure: 1) Tell the students that for the next few days we are going to be learning about different types of clouds and how they help us to predict the weather. 2) Pass out a KWL chart graphic organizer to each student. 3) Have students fill out the first two columns on their graphic organizer. Ask students to volunteer facts and questions they want to include on the SMARTboard version. 4) Explain to the students that they will be revisiting their KWL charts on Thursday so they can compare what they know with what they have learned. 5) Pass out the weather unit vocabulary terms packet to each student. 6) Introduce the term temperature and write the definition on the SMARTboard (how hot or cold the air is). Ask students why it is important to know the temperature. 7) Ask students for some examples of precipitation and explain what it is. Introduce the term precipitation and write the definition on the SMARTboard (moisture that falls from clouds to the ground ex. Rain, snow, sleet, hail). Closure: Show the YouTube video Cool Clouds by NASA. Have students write two things they learned in their science journals. Assessment: Students will be assessed informally as a group by reviewing what they have filled out on the KWL charts. Students vocabulary packets will be assessed formally at the end of the unit for accuracy. Acquisition Lesson Planning Form Essential Question 1: What are the types of clouds, and what do they predict about weather? Activating Strategies: (learners mentally active) Individually have the students fill out the first two columns of their KWL chart. Then discuss as a class what they know and what they want learn. Record the results on the SMARTboard KWL chart. Acceleration/ Previewing (Key Vocabulary) Temperature- define in notes Precipitation- define in notes Stratus- define in notes Cumulus- define in notes Cirrus- define in notes Volume 1 Number 2 Fall 2009 2

Teaching Strategies: (whole group) Have the students go to the computer lab and fill out their cloud graphic organizers via the cloud WebQuest on zunal.com. The next day, have the students use their information from their graphic organizers to create accurate cotton ball portrayals of each type of cloud on blue construction paper. Summarizing Strategies: Learners Summarize and answer the EQ Students will fill out the final column of their KWL charts and will discuss what they have learned with the class. This information will also be filled out by the teacher on the SMARTboard. Subject: Science Topic: Weather, Weather instruments Time: 30 minutes Weather Unit Lesson Plan --Day 5 PA Standards: 3.5.4 C: Know basic weather elements. Identify cloud types. Identify weather patterns from data charts (including temperature, wind direction and speed, precipitation) and graphs of the data. Explain how the different seasons effect plants, animals, food availability and daily human life. Objective: Students will be able to define the seven vocabulary terms in their science vocabulary terms packets. Students will be able to brainstorm a question about one of the weather instruments from the weather video shown in class. Materials: -Weather vocabulary terms packet -SMARTboard version of vocabulary terms packet -Video: Weather Smart: Forecasting and Weather Instruments from United Streaming -Students science journals Anticipatory Set: Introduce the second essential question to the students. Tell the students that today they would begin to learn about the different weather instruments that are used to forecast the weather. Procedure: 8) Bring the vocabulary terms packet up on the SMARTboard. Tell students to get out their vocabulary terms packets. Volume 1 Number 2 Fall 2009 3

9) Introduce the term meteorologist. Ask students what they think this term means and if they have heard of it before. Write the definition on the SMARTboard ( a person who studies weather ). 10) Introduce the term thermometer. Ask students what they think this term means and if they have heard of it before. Write the definition on the SMARTboard ( a tool used for measuring temperature ). 11) Introduce the term rain gauge. Ask students what they think this term means and if they have heard of it before. Write the definition on the SMARTboard ( a tool that measures precipitation ). 12) Introduce the term wind vane. Ask students what they think this term means and if they have heard of it before. Write the definition on the SMARTboard ( a tool that shows wind direction ). 13) Introduce the term anemometer. Ask students what they think this term means and if they have heard of it before. Write the definition on the SMARTboard ( a tool that measures wind speed ). 14) Introduce the term barometer. Ask students what they think this term means and if they have heard of it before. Write the definition on the SMARTboard ( a tool that measures air pressure ). 15) Introduce the term hygrometer. Ask students what they think this term means and if they have heard of it before. Write the definition on the SMARTboard ( a tool that measures humidity ). 16) Explain to the students that they will be learning more about these tools next week. 17) Have students put away their vocabulary packets. 18) Introduce the video and pull it up on the SMARTboard. Explain to the students that they must get out the science journals and write one question they have about the weather instruments after the video. Closure: Students will write a question that they have from the video in their student journals. Assessment: Students vocabulary packets will be collected for a formal assessment. Subject: Science Topic: Weather, Forecasting Time: 30 minutes Weather Unit Lesson Plan -- Day 9 PA Standards: 3.5.4 C: Know basic weather elements. Identify cloud types. Identify weather patterns from data charts (including temperature, wind direction and speed, Volume 1 Number 2 Fall 2009 4

precipitation) and graphs of the data. Explain how the different seasons effect plants, animals, food availability and daily human life. 1.1.5 F: Identify, understand the meaning of and use correctly key vocabulary from various subject areas. 3.1.4 C: Illustrate patterns that regularly occur and reoccur in nature. Identify observable patterns (e.g., growth patterns in plants, crystal shapes in minerals, climate, structural patterns in bird feathers). Use knowledge of natural patterns to predict next occurrences (e.g., seasons, leaf patterns, lunar phases). Objective: Students will identify different types of weather maps and complete the EdHeads weather prediction activity as a class. Materials: -SMARTboard -Computer with internet access -Science journal for every student Anticipatory Set: Review the weather forecasting terms from the previous day. Tell the students that today they would be learning more about the weather maps that meteorologists use to predict weather. Procedure: 1) Pull up the website http://www.weather.gov/- and find the satellite images page. 2) Explain to the students that satellite images are pictures that are taken from space. They help meteorologists find out the relative warmth of objects. This helps them to see warm and cold temperatures from across the United States and the world. Colder objects are brighter in color and warmer objects are darker. 3) Pull up the website http://weather.unisys.com/radar/index.html and click on the radar map to enlarge it. 4) Explain to the students that radar images are pictures that are taken from objects that look like satellite dishes that are placed on top of buildings. They help to detect precipitation. Explain what the different colors mean. 5) Pull up the website http://www.edheads.org/activities/weather/ and click on the Start button to start the weather forecasting activity. Click on the Predicting the Weather game. 6) Walk the students through the activity. Once the students begin to get the hang of how it works, have student volunteers go up to the SMARTboard to help put information. 7) If time permits, the class can also do level two of the game. Volume 1 Number 2 Fall 2009 5

Number of Correct Responses Responses e-journal of Student Research Closure: Have the students write three pieces of information that meteorologists need to know in order to predict the weather. Assessment: Informal assessment will be done by the teacher gauging how the class is grasping the concepts of weather prediction during the internet activity and sharing information from the closure activity. Question Breakdown for Class A 25 20 15 Series1 Series2 10 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Question Number Volume 1 Number 2 Fall 2009 6

Test Score (%) (%) Number of Correct Responses e-journal of Student Research Question Breakdown for Class B 30 25 20 15 Series1 Series2 10 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Question Number Pre-Test/Post-Test Score Comparison (Class A) 120 100 80 60 Series1 Series2 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Student Number Volume 1 Number 2 Fall 2009 7

Test Score (%) (%) e-journal of Student Research Pre-Test/Post-Test Score Comparison ( Class B) 120 100 80 60 Series1 Series2 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Student Number Interpretation of Data Class A Class A increased their average from pre-test to post-test by about forty percent. Student s averaged around the eighty percent on the post-test. One outlier in this data is by a student who scored a 95% on the pre-test and then scored an 82% on the post-test. This difference could be attributed to good guessing, or by over-thinking the question. The most significant increase in scores from pre-test to post-test happened in the last questions. These questions were worth more points and required more in-depth answers that were based on understanding rather than possibly guessing. Class B Class B increased their average from pre-test to post-test by a little over forty percent. This class scores had a higher average than Class A and had a larger number of high scores. However, this class also had some of the lowest scores, which brought down the average. As with Class B, the most significant increase in scores from pre-test to post-test happened in the last questions. These questions were worth more points and required more indepth answers that were based on understanding rather than possibly guessing. Volume 1 Number 2 Fall 2009 8

Interpretation of Student Learning One of the first things that I noticed after looking at the raw data was the difference in scores between Class A and Class B. There are various factors that may have impacted this result. Class A is the first class that I teach, so any problems or issues that arise during teaching can be reflected on and revised for Class B. Also, Class A tends to have more classroom management issues that need addressed, which decreases instruction time. Along with this, there are more students that I catch off-task during Class A than in Class B. Finally, during the teaching of my unit, there were many absences in Class A, including one student who was out for over a week. This student s score actually decreased from pre-test to post-test. Class B tended to do better at increasing their scores. Though there are many learningsupport students that have trouble reading, there were also many students who obtained a perfect score on the post-test, which brought up the class average. These learning support students may have had difficulty learning the rigorous vocabulary or lacked the test-taking skills needed for this style of test. There were overall fewer illnesses in Class B during the duration of this unit. Insights on Effective Instruction and Assessment Day 2- Vocabulary preview and KWL chart -I felt that the vocabulary preview is a fairly successful strategy to use to introduce new content words. Students have used this technique in all of the previous science units, so it is a familiar activity for them. The use of direct instruction may have disengaged some of them, but the end result left them with words to study for the post-test. -The KWL chart activity seemed to go quite well. It worked as an excellent activating strategy that got students thinking about what they already knew and what they wanted to know about weather. Students were able to come up with questions for the want to know column from the pre-test they took the previous day. They were able to fill out the know column because many of them had been taught weather in a previous grade. Day 3- WebQuest -I felt that there were good things about this lesson as well as things that I could have improved upon. Students seemed to enjoy the concept of working on computers; however, some lacked basic computer skills. This hindered some of the students from fully understanding the activity or understanding some of the content that was involved. Also, students struggled with pulling information from the websites. Some students wrote the exact words that were on the webpage while others struggled to find any information at all. Volume 1 Number 2 Fall 2009 9

Day 4- Cotton cloud models -I feel this activity was successful because all of the students were engaged and participating. Students enjoyed working with the cotton balls and creating their posters. Since there was a minimal amount of information involved during this activity, students were able to grasp it more. Day 5- Vocabulary preview and video -See Day 1 -The video really did well with presenting the content and giving more of a visual representation of the instruments. Some students did have trouble handling watching a video, but many had good information to present and discuss with the class afterward. Days 6 and 7- Instrument advertisement presentations -I felt that this lesson could have gone more smoothly. It was a good idea in theory; however, as with many group projects, some students did more work than others. Also, as with the WebQuest, students had trouble gathering information from sources and presenting it to the class. Students did enjoy creating the posters. Day 8- Vocabulary preview and word splash -See Day 1. -The word splash worked out well because students mentioned a variety of different words and we were able to discuss their significance as a class. Day 9- Textbook exploration -I was disappointed with this activity because I overestimated the level of comprehension at which the students are working. This may be because I have not had as much experience seeing their work in language arts. Students struggled to pull information out of the text and apply it to the questions. I tried to make the questions and directions basic, but students seemed unwilling to read. Day 10- Weather maps and EdHeads activity -Students were quite engaged and responsive to viewing the types of weather maps on the SMARTboard. Many asked good questions and added to the discussion about how meteorologists find patterns to predict weather. -The EdHeads game went extremely well. Students were familiar with the website and enjoyed going up to the SMARTboard to put in their answers. The content of the game aligned perfectly with the essential question and vocabulary terms. Day 11- Culminating activity (matching game) Volume 1 Number 2 Fall 2009 10

-I was disappointed with the troubles I had with my own preparation for this activity. For Mr. Thurston s class, the students became disengaged as I scrambled to write words on the board. However, when the students were actively involved in the activity, the students enjoyed it and followed along with checking the group answers. Implications for Future Teaching There are several things that I would change if I taught this unit again. I think that there were a few times that I planned lessons that were not at their instructional level and required too much scaffolding. These activities included the WebQuest, instrument ad presentations, and the textbook exploration. Students did not have the ability- or perhaps desire- to actually read the text they were to glean information from. Another thing I would do differently is do more consistent reviewing of information. With the introduction of a new essential question, I should have continued to review the information they learned from the previous essential question so that it was still fresh in their minds. If I were to teach this unit again, I would spread it out over a larger number of days. I think it would have been nice to bring in weather instruments and have students actually use them. Having only a thirty minutes a day and twelve days did not allow for a lot of extra activities, but I perhaps should have made time. I also could have perhaps tried to bring in a meteorologist to talk to the students about how they predict the weather. These kind of firsthand experiences are always memorable to kids and help to engage them. Finally, I would probably alter the assessment slightly so that students could have gotten higher scores. The fill-in-the-blank section went over two pages, so some students might have had trouble keeping track of their answers. Also, the cloud-matching section may have confused the students because the pictures were black and white. If I were to rework the test, I would have put the pictures on the SMARTboard for the students to see so they could have been able to distinguish the types of clouds more easily. Author: Lauren Snively is a senior in Elementary Education at Shippensburg University. Volume 1 Number 2 Fall 2009 11