My Turn to Teach!!

This week my group got the opportunity to teach. I was very nervous but happy that I got the experience of being in front of a class!

My group was given the task of teaching about community environments. This was not a topic that I had previously known a lot about so it was interesting exploring the different vocabulary. We began with a direct instruction to give the students the knowledge that they needed. We started by pre-assessing knowledge with a world bubble containing vocabulary words from the previous lessons. The students did a great job with pointing out what words they learned and telling us what they meant. We then moved on to teach vocabulary, like environment, region, landform, physical environment, ecosystem, Northeast Region, climate, temperature, adapt, fuel, natural resources, recycle, and conserve. After teaching the vocabulary words we moved into guided practice by doing multiple-choice, matching, and true or false questions. The students did great with the guided practice, so we felt confident to move on to independent practice! After grading the independent practice we knew that the students had a solid understanding and were ready to move on to inquiry!

For inquiry, we introduced the students to Mr. Robinson, a YouTuber from California. After our "getting to know you" activity we learned that the 3rd graders loved YouTubers, so we thought that it would be a great idea to include one in our lesson. Mr. Robinson told the students that there were wildfires where he lived and he was unsure if he should move. If he moved, he wanted the students to help with what type of climate he should move to. We began by having the students pick which type of they felt Mr. Robinson should move to. Then we assigned them climates and had them form an argument. We gave them letters from people living in their climate that stated the pros and cons of living in that specific climate. Students had to sort those pros and cons and then form an argument for their climate. Some students struggled with this because they did not agree with the climate they were assigned. We explained to them that it did not matter if they agreed, because their job was to support using the facts that they were provided. After some assistance, students did a good job forming an argument and were ready to move on to cooperative! 

For our last lesson, we had the students combine everything that they had learned. To do that, the students were to create their own environment. They were to pick a name for the environment, include three pictures of landforms, show natural resources found in the environment, pick a climate, and explain how their environment is going to recycle or conserve. The students had a lot of questions, but once they began they seemed to have grasped the directions. Leading students to not be distracted was difficult but what they created was amazing. They did not want to stop when the time was up because they were so excited. It was great to see all of the information that we had taught them!!

Teaching is always scary, but I am so happy with how my lessons went! It is a relief to be finished, and I can not wait to see what the final group does!   

Fieldwork Group 2

This past week group two had their chance to teach the class. They did a great job and I am glad that I got to watch them!

Group two taught about culture and immigration in their direct lesson. Some of the students seemed to never have heard of immigration so it was very interesting to see them learn. I liked the topic and the group did a great job of introducing new vocabulary. For guided practice, the group utilized a matching game and even had the students come to the board and write the correct answers. 

Next group two moved on to inquiry. Personally, I loved their inquiry and thought that it was very creative!! The problem that they posed was that students who were traveling got their suitcases mixed up and it was up to the students to correct the problem. The group utilized mystery bags so that the students could guess where the bag came from based off of the items inside. The students had a lot of fun doing this and were able to guess right away. The teachers provided packets full of information for the students to give them some background knowledge. The students also watched videos on the area that their suitcase was from in order to give fun facts to the class. I think this lesson went really well and I enjoyed watching it!

Finally, it was time for group two's cooperative lesson. For this they had the class create scrapbooks for different immigrants. The students were given stories and had to put the story in order from the beginning, to the middle, to end. The students then had to create drawings and pictures and share their creations with the class. The students did a great job and the scrapbooks came out amazing!

Overall, group two did great and I am excited to teach my lesson next week!

Fieldwork Group 1

This past week the first group taught their lessons! Being first can be difficult, but this group did great!

Group one taught about the different types of communities: urban, suburban, and rural. In their direct lesson, this group went over vocabulary words such as urbanization, citizens, Ellis Island, ancestors, symbols, and Statue of Liberty. The group also taught the class about Newburgh and how it was founded. I liked how they included this because it related to the students and their home. The group also went into the benefits and problems with urbanization and discussed the pros and cons. For guided practice, the group did matching, a chart, and a quizlet game. 

Group one continued their study on communities by doing an inquiry lesson. The students met Emily, a girl who was living in a community that was becoming urbanized. They asked students to read about the positive and negative effects of urbanization on communities. After reading about urbanization the students were to fill out a chart about the good and bad sides of urbanization. Then the students were to decide if they felt if Emily should move or not. The students wrote a letter to share their feelings. This lesson went exactly with what they learned in direct and was a good continuation of learning. 

After learning all about communities, for the cooperative lesson, the group had the students create their own community. Students were to make a poster that included a community type and who lives in that community, one interesting thing to do with the community, and an issue in the community. Students then shared their creations. The posters were very creative and showed how much students learned over the lessons.

I loved watching group one, and I can't wait to see what the next group comes up with!