Earth Day

For the Celebration of Earth Day 2019, Dr. Smirnova shared an article from Wonderopolis with our class. The article is titled "Where Is the Best Place On Earth?" and it can be read by clicking here.

Earth Day Facts:

• Earth Day is celebrated each year on April 22nd around the world
• Earth Day began in 1970 as an effort to promote awareness of air and water pollution
• Earth Day was successful and eventually led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Act

Wonderopolis is an excellent resource for the classroom. Educational articles on a plethora of topics can be used in any lesson, particularly inquiry. The website is child friendly, so students can use the website to conduct research and collect information. 

The end of the article also lists different activities related to the article that children can take part in with a family member or a friend. These activities can be used to conduct the rest of an inquiry lesson. The suggested activities could also be used as a final check for understanding.

Earth Day and the topic of sustaining the environment is a topic that needs to be discussed thoroughly in today's society. Children need to understand that the environment is changing rapidly and that they will be negatively affected by some changes. Teaching children about the problems the environment is facing and teaching them how they can help sustain and protect the environment is so crucial and should be discussed often, not just on Earth day.

This article is an excellent way to introduce the idea of Earth Day and protecting the Earth to students. It also inspires students to think of their own ideas and opinions about the topic. Wonderopolis is a very helpful tool that I will definitely use in my classroom. 

Inquiry: A Trip to the Bank

On Thursday April 4th, my group and I taught an inquiry lesson to a second grade class at BDMS. Our inquiry lesson focused on the same topic, "A Trip to the Bank".
We began the lesson with a quick review of the material taught in our direct instruction lesson. Once this was completed, we introduced our problem. We told the class that Plankton has a problem; he wants to open his own restaurant and he needs to go to the bank to do so. However, he has never been to a bank before and he does not want to ask Spongebob for help. We told the second graders it was their job to write Plankton a letter explaining what he should do at the bank and how the bank works.
The students were extremely engaged. They quickly pointed out that they did not want to help Plankton because he is the "bad guy". We explained that Plankton is asking for help and he is going to change, and that it is our responsibility to help anyone who needs our help.
We asked the students questions about the problem solving process before we explained the process and our expectations to them.
We broke up into groups. One college student sat with a group of 3 second graders. The child in the class with an IEP was placed in a group of 4 second graders and 2 mount students. One of my peers and I were the teachers helping this group. Each group was given two articles to read and take notes on. This section of the lesson could have been improved. We could have printed more articles and the articles could have been enlarged so that the students could read them more easily. Instead of asking the student with the IEP to read the articles, I read them to her while the other mount student in our group worked with the other 3 second graders.
Overall, this part of the lesson went well. We completed it on time and all of the students gathered ideas and information. On the bottom of their note taking sheets, they were asked to draft ideas that they wanted to share with Plankton. I assisted the student with the IEP by writing some, but not all, notes for her.
Once this part of the lesson was over, each student returned to their desks. One of the mount students in my group explained the letter writing activity to the class. We provided each student with a template and a writing checklist that was easy for them to understand and utilize. The purpose of the writing checklist was so that students knew they were following all directions and meeting expectations. The lesson ended with the students writing their letters, using their checklists and note sheets to help them.
Overall, my group and I were proud of the execution of this lesson. Everything went exactly as planned. The two improvements that could have been made to this lesson were mentioned earlier.

Direct Instruction: A Trip to the Bank

On Tuesday April 2nd, four of my peers and I taught a Direct Instruction lesson to a second grade class at BDMS. The topic of our lesson was "A Trip to the Bank". Our lesson focused on bank terminology and definitions. We taught the following academic vocabulary: deposit, withdrawal, saving, spending, loan, taxes and interest.
We began the lesson by activating the students' prior knowledge. We did this by asking them questions about ideas they learned in the 6 previous lessons taught by our peers. We then assessed students' prior knowledge by asking them questions like "has anyone ever been inside a bank?", "what is a bank like inside?", "does anyone know why people go to the bank?", and "does anyone save money in a piggy bank?". We felt that these questions would not only assess prior knowledge, but also engage the students in the lesson.
To engage the students in the lesson, we explained that Spongebob and Patrick were going to join us on our trip to the bank. The students enjoyed this and were excited by it. While teaching the terms, we took "Brain Breaks" to check for understanding before moving on.
During the development of the lesson, students were taking notes on a fill in the blank sheet that matched the powerpoint notes. We walked around the classroom to make sure that the students were on task and copying notes correctly.
Our guided practice activity involved students coming up to the smart board, matching terms to pictures, and explaining why they made that match. This part of our lesson could have been improved. We could have selected different pictures or described scenarios instead.
Our second guided practice involved explaining scenarios that Spongebob was in and asking the class if spongebob should save money, spend money, or take out a loan. This part also could have been improved because each scenario was somewhat vague. We conducted a final check for understanding, and then we moved on to independent practice.
Our independent practice asked students to "fill in the blanks" on a worksheet. One student identified as having an IEP was given a different independent practice sheet. Her independent practice sheet had pictures instead of terms.

We finished our lesson on time. Everything went exactly as planned. Overall, my peers and I are proud of our lesson. After hearing professional feedback from our peers and Dr. Smirnova, we definitely realized some areas in which the lesson could have been improved.