ED 327 Reflection 3

October 30, 2012

In the past 3 weeks, Mr. Pitcock’s class has been busy! They had fall break, went on a camping trip and moved from their study of Earth and rocks, to energy. Their end of unit projects about the rocks all turned out well, and I think for the most part, Mr. P. was happy with their work. But conversely, I think most of the students found minerals and rocks to be a bit boring and are excited about the jump to the study of energy. 

As a result of our seminar I am now reflecting and trying to pay careful attention to the types of student focused instruction Mr. P practices. And to be honest, I am starting to question if he does enough of this. As I have pointed out before, he has a very structured classroom with high expectations which I can appreciate, and hope to someday model in my classroom. But I am concerned now, especially after reflecting on chapter 7 of Vatterott, that he isn’t offering the students enough choice in activities and opportunities for collaborative learning (Vatterott 229). For example, the last few class sessions I have observed have been mostly lecture based. While this is fine occasionally as we have discussed, you have to have a mix of teacher focused and student focused strategies, I am beginning to be concerned about a propensity for teacher focused instruction in the form of lectures and guided notes. Because it the beginning of the energy unit, I was kind of hoping to observe some great laboratory activities which would get the students thinking and wondering about energy (*Lack of* INTASC 5)! Perhaps I missed these lessons, I am really kind of hoping I did, for the students sake. I am also now wondering if this isn’t influencing something I noted in my last reflection where some students mentioned to me how they didn’t particularly like science. Now, I am curious if they specifically have a need not being met, whether that is a need for creative expression, or meaningful interactions I am not sure yet(Developmental Needs).

Another note I have made, I definitely want to incorporate as much group and cooperative learning opportunities as I can into my classroom, something I want to reflect in my CM plan (INTASC 7). One thing I have also observed about Mr. P’s classroom is he doesn’t take advantage of grouping in the science classroom outside of the prototypical lab groups of about 4 students. I think collaborative learning in science is critical because this helps some students who struggle with the abstract concepts by giving them peer to peer support in a variety of manners depending on group size. I think a lot can be said for purposeful grouping. And I am actually wondering if an instructor, who knows how to take advantage of each students talents and needs, can structure a differentiated classroom by actually having the students help each other.

But I will say Mr. P is very reflective about his teaching! In the past few times I have spent observing his class, he has mentioned multiple times how he and Ms. Monroe, the other science teacher, have planned and adjusted their lessons from last year to this year because of how the students handled the structure (INTASC 9). He mentioned they moved from introducing each type of energy in all it’s detail to just introducing broad topics and moving down a level each lesson to get more specific. Not only does this show reflective teaching, but I think it also nods to his ability to view teaching as research, something we value in the COE and acknowledge should greatly influence our teaching.

Right now, I am thinking I want to shake up the class a bit with my lesson! I want to plan something which puts them in multiple grouping arrangements throughout the 80 minutes, inspires investigation, and results in some completed project. There is lots to do in the next few weeks!

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