I like to think of planning and instructing as having three major components;

pre-implementation, implementation, and post-implementation. The pre-

implementation is the planning, the implementation is the instruction, and the
post-implementation is the reflection. In my experience, a lesson has never
been finished. There is always room for improvement, or necessary change.

Through written reflection, I have been able to re-visit my lessons to make
improvements or adaptations where appropriate. I consider the weakness of
my lessons and instruction, as well as the strengths. I look for what the
students responded strongly to, and what caused students to tune out.

This artifact is a finalized reflection of a science lesson I taught to a 1st grade
class. The original lesson required students to do a series of plant
observations, cut grass and alfalfa that had been previously planted, and start
a new set of observations for a new plant that had been potted the week
before. On paper, the lesson looked perfect. However, after implementation I
felt that I had packed too much into a single lesson. As you can see in the
actual reflection, I made suggestions to myself that might improve student
achievement of the lesson objectives, and the flow of my instruction and
lesson.












Plants and Animals: Lesson 3
1
st
Grade
Lesson Objectives: Students will be able to make grade level appropriate observances.
Students will be able to share their knowledge about plant and seed growth.
Students will track the growth of rye grass, alfalfa, and wheat.
Strengths:
The students were highly engaged in the lesson. They spent a considerable amount of time observing
the plants; looking at them, touching and feeling the stems and leaves, and even sniffing them to see if
there was a scent.
The constant review of how we use our sense to observe has been successful, all students know not to
taste what we observe and know that they can use any of their other senses.
Cross content skills were required through the observations. Note taking is being practiced while
students do observations, giving them more practice writing, sounding out words, and writing in note
form.
Rug-activity ratio was on pace: Students can only sit and remain on their best behavior for a maximum
of 20-25 minutes. After this, behavior and attention diminish. Good pacing of this lesson, continue
using time stamps in lessons to maintain it.

Weaknesses and suggestions:
Students need more time to work with each individual plant. Next time do not try to pack so much
into this lesson, focus on alfalfa and rye grass for the entire lesson, and then focus on wheat alone for
the next lesson. Combining the two into one lesson was problematic due to time restraints.
How would I run this lesson if I were alone in the classroom? See above suggestion; the stations are
nice in theory, but without adult supervision they would likely accomplish than they already did.
Not enough practice with the vocabulary associated with this unit Students need to be exposed to
the plant vocabulary more frequently. Encourage/require labelled plant drawings for observations from
now on.
Recording the observations Students were very engaged in making their initial observations, but
when asked to record these many students struggled. Part of this was due to time constraints (See
above suggestion), otherwise next time try to review how to record observations. Review and model
doing detail-drawings and only drawing exactly what you see. As a class, produce a list of relevant
observational words (an observation word bank) that students can place into their observation notes.
This will help scaffold and differentiate the process.
Logistics and set up needs to be improved If I plan to use two stations again, I need to consider the
space aspect more seriously. The classroom tables alone are not big enough to house half of the class!
Also consider giving students Science Jobs for collecting and distributing materials (plants, colored
pencils, science folders definitely use these next time!). This will make transitioning, clean up, and
set up much quicker and easier.
Did not get to the KWL chart Make this a focal point of the entire unit! Adding comments, questions,
and edits to the chart after every lesson will serve as a strong closure, and it will reinforce the
vocabulary and concepts being discussed throughout the unity.
Cutting the lawn The point of mowing the lawns was for students to be able to compare how rye
grass grows back, and alfalfa dies after being mowed. Many of the students alfalfa was already dead.
Find a better way to mediate this! Next time consider using a class bin of alfalfa and rye grass in
addition to the individual student plants. This one can be more heavily moderated and since it is a class
bin, everyone will feel some type of ownership over it.

*Phrase the lesson as Practice being botanists today. new vocabulary word, and it is a fun, creative
engagement strategy.
*Give students magnifying glasses!- These can later be taken away after observation time is done,
and observation recording needs to begin. In other words, passing out the magnifying glass will signal
time to observe, whereas collecting them can signal time to write down what you observed.
General reflection:
The lesson was not a failure! The students made great observations and everyone mowed their lawns.
The objectives however, were only partially met. Students need more practice and
instruction/modelling of how to record what they observe in order to fully meet the first objective.
Secondly, the lesson timing was off, so we ran out of time before getting to the KWL chart. The third
objective was partially met, but again, students need more help with the observations!