Friday, March 8, 2013

Cooperative Learning Lesson Reflection


Cooperative Learning Lesson ReflectionEnvironmental Superhero Lesson Introduction 


After presenting the lesson related to the environmental science superhero project to a group of 7th graders I am pleased with the results. The time that I spent with the students did not go like I had imagined in my lesson plan but I still think the results were positive.  


I had written the lesson plan with my group planning for the four of us to present it to a group of 5th graders. What actually happened was we split into two groups and presented our lesson to 7th graders instead.  

Another big difference in the presentation from what I had planned was that the group of students had already begun working on the environmental science project. When I arrived to present the lesson the students had already begun developing a story line and set of super hero characters. They were aware of the project and had begun working on it earlier in the week. This meant that instead of introducing the project to the students I was picking up in the middle of the project.  

Having a lesson plan written down helped me keep my goals and objectives in mind even though so much had changed. The changes showed me how important it is to be flexible because not everything will go as planned when I am teaching in my own classroom. I know that situations will arise and students needs will change and I will need to be able to quickly adapt and continue teaching so that my students do not lose any opportunities to learn and move forward during the day. 

Instead of making my time with the 7th graders about introducing the project Alexandra and I helped them develop the work they had already begun. The students had many ideas floating around about their projects but did not have anything cohesively decided. As a group, with guidance from Alexandra and I, the group was able to develop the story line and super hero characters they where thinking about. They discussed their ideas and wrote down parts of the story. One of the students began planning for his superhero mask that he will begin creating over the next few classes.  

We struggled to keep one of the students engaged in the project because he was more interested in reading a book he brought with him. He was not interested in planning the mask he would create but I noticed that he did become engaged when we discussed the storyline. Instead of having this student plan for the mask part of the project I encouraged him to help with the writing. He lacks confidence in his artistic abilities so instead of taking that role in the project we planned for him to take the role of the writer. He will begin next week by writing the storyline into the comic book that the group had begun to create. Hopefully after seeing some of the masks the other students are creating he will become motivated to create his own.  

Overall I am pleased with the time I spent with these students. I feel that my time was valuable and that the outcomes were positive. I believe we had productive conversations with the students we worked with and helped them develop their ideas into formal artifacts to use in their project presentations. If I were to rewrite my lesson plan I would allow for more flexibility in the plan for situations like the one we encountered.  



From the book Lost at School by Ross Greene I learned that it is important to be patient with students and guide them towards engagement. You cannot force a student or group of students to become engaged but rather you should take the time to find out what is causing any poor behavior they might be exhibiting and help them work through those issues. I learned form this text that it is important to find ways to motivate students to become engaged and that you may need different strategies of motivation with different students. 

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