Lesson Plan 2: Phase II

• Instructional Decisions/Teaching (InTask Standard # 9)
  • What went well and what didn't go well during the implementation of your lesson?
  • During my lesson, everyone was participating and active by exploring the different magnetic items and walking around the room testing magnetism, which is how I imagined the lesson going. The group was not as inquiry driven as I would have liked them to be, but I think if it was implemented with younger students that this would have worked out better. I think I could have planned more instruction before hand on magnetism, but it was difficult to isolate the idea of what materials are magnetic from the different poles and other aspects of magnetism and create a 30 minute lesson out of that. I also probably should have told them what their prior knowledge was so they knew what they should not have known for the lesson as fourth graders. I think the video journal went well and students documented their hypotheses and inquiry for later assessment. 
  • How well was the alignment to objectives and standards maintained?
  • Students investigated the characteristics of magnets and did so through determining the differences and similarities of magnets and the activity that tested magnetism of various objects. 
  • Describe any modifications made during the implementation of the lesson
  • I did not originally specify the number of items students needed to record themselves testing throughout the room, so I chose 3 when I was asked. I think in this respect I could have been more specific. On the worksheet there is a section for testing how successful different magnets are at picking up objects and their strength. I was not able to find magnets that varied in strength, so I told students to omit this section and only do the other two sections where the hypothesize and write their observations.
  Mechanics
  • I used the Promethean board to get students engaged with the large magnets video example and for the video during the instructional portion of the lesson. I had students go on to explore the materials and magnets they were given and gave them time to hypothesize about which items they thought would and would not be magnetic. As the teacher, I created the activity print offs and linked to it in my first reflection.
  • My lesson was within the correct time frame because we finished the last activity and I had time to collect everything and clean up by the time 30 minutes was up. We were able to finish instruction and both activities I had planned for the lesson within the time frame. 
  Assessment of Learning (InTask Standard # 6)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Students had a vague idea that that items containing metal were magnetic and used that to fuel their investigation before the ideas of magnetism were explained to them. This is shown in their ideas about what may or may not be magnetic on the worksheets.
  • My classmates said my lesson went well and that I was prepared, but made a few minor suggestions such as checking the lights and if students would be able to see the video before showing it. They also had good suggestions about showing the informational video first and then having them hypothesize about the materials I brought for the lesson. They recommended that I have a poster to make a chart to reference to about magnetism as well. I think someone was confused about my iPad instructions about creating a video journal and suggested that I give more in-depth instructions on how to use them.
  What did you learn from designing and teaching this lesson and how will you use this in the creation of future lessons/learning activities.
  • I learned that it would help me to have a mock run of my lesson before I implement it in class. I also learned that I cannot assume students will know how to use the technology given to them or know what I mean with my instructions, so I could possibly run the instructions by a few people to make sure they are specific enough. I have used a version of this lesson before in another class and the students were much more engaged, so it was a little disappointing that there was not as much excitement or inquiry this time around, but overall I feel that the lesson went well and I got some great feedback on how to improve it. 

Lesson Plan 2: Phase I

I. RATIONALE:

The reason I am teaching this lesson is because investigating magnetism is a part of the Arizona College and Career Ready Standards for 4th grade science. 

II. OVERVIEW

Grade Level: 4th

Subject(s): Science

Topic of Study: Magnetism

Time Allotment: 30 minutes

Standards: Strand 5 Physical Science, Concept 3: Energy and Magnetism: Investigate different forms of energy, PO 4. Investigate the characteristics of magnets

Objectives: Students will be able to determine the differences and similarities of magnets and be able to notice their characteristics

III. IMPLEMENTATION

Procedure:

• Large magnets example
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzCXowhks80

• Students will be placed into groups and each group will be given a container with magnets and different objects made of different materials. Students will come up with a hypothesis about which metals or objects will be magnetic.
  1. There will be various objects made up of different metals and materials so that students will be able to see which metals are magnetic and which metals are not magnetic, they will also get to discover which magnets are more strongly attracted to each magnetic object.
  2. Students will record their information as a group on the worksheet that will be provided
  3. After testing each object students will discuss whether their hypothesis was correct about each of the objects. They will discuss as a group, “Why was one of the objects magnetic while another was not?” and  “What characteristics do the magnetic metals share?”. We will ask class to go through each object and see if each group got the same results about magnetism.
  
  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak8Bh9Zka50 Class will watch this video to understand why and how magnets work.

• Students will go around the classroom finding other objects that are magnetic.

• Discuss with the class how magnets are drawn to metal: Magnets only attract metals that are made of iron, nickel, and cobalt or that contain an amount of each of these of certain minerals. Some metals aren't magnetic, such as aluminum, copper, and gold
• Have students share objects around the classroom that they found to be magnetic.

• Students will be completing a worksheet to go along with the activity. It will be evident of students comprehension of magnets if they are able to work with their group to complete the worksheet.

Technology Integration: (Describe how students and the teacher will use technology throughout the lesson)

• In the conclusion of the lesson, when students are going around the classroom to find objects on their own that are magnetic, they will be asked to keep a video journal on the iPads. Students will find an object and record themselves identifying the object, then record themselves testing their hypothesis. Students will then put the clips of their experiments together to create a video journal (not time during in-class lesson) 

Differentiated Instruction: Describe how you will differentiate the instruction for each of the following:

• Cognitive delay- In order to give students with cognitive delays more time to master the idea of magnetism, I would give all students more time to explore the magnets and possibly make it an optional center at the end of the day that the student could spend more time on. I would also provide lots of scaffolding and reinforcement since magnetism is an abstract concept. Although you can see what's happening, the idea behind why it happens may be too abstract to master in the time given for the lesson.
• Gifted- Students can explore objects of their choosing to hypothesize if they are magnetic and explore the idea of north and south poles. 
• ELL- For the videos, I would turn on closed captioning in their native language to provide support while listening and watching. I would also have pictures with the English words written in text underneath them to scaffold what they are learning about magnets. The writing portion of this would help strengthen their written language skills and recording themselves would help them to develop their spoken language abilities.

IV. ASSESSMENT

Procedure: Read Assessing Student Learning (Include a description of how you will determine the students' success in meeting the standards and objectives of the lesson (You must include what artifacts and activities will be assessed as well as a description of the assessment process))

Instruments: (Include [or link to] any tools that you will be using to assess your students (i.e.. rubric, checklist, worksheet, test)

• Students will be completing a worksheet to go along with the activity. It will be evident of students comprehension of magnets if they are able to work with their group to complete the worksheet.

IIV. MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

In this section include any examples you have created for the students, resources (software, web links, books, crafting items, etc.) and other necessary items

• Magnets, nails, small brass objects, containers to hold items and magnets, washers, metal cars, etc.
• Recording sheet for hypothesis and investigation