Lesson Teaching Reflective Summary

Teacher Candidate for Science Endorsement: Janice Belcher

School: Dowell Elementary

Grade: 4th

Lesson Topic: Weather-Water Cycle

Write a brief summary or blog of your experiences teaching this lesson,
addressing the following questions:

What went well? What did not go well?

Overall, we feel that this lesson introduces and teaches the water cycle
in a creative, hands-on, and engaging way. It includes a number of
activities for students to investigate, pose questions, make
observations, and even move around with a song and play a mini role
while reading a script.

How well were the lessons student performance objectives

attained?

Student learned the three main parts of the water cycle (evaporation,
condensation, and precipitation) and informed students on how the
water cycle is related to climate and weather change. This lesson
provided fun activities that provided the necessary foundation for
future weather lessons.

Did classroom activity center on science understanding, inquiry,

and sense-making by all students?

My lesson promoted inquiry by starting off with a web about what they
knew about the water cycle. This helped engage the students to really
think and wonder what really goes on in the water cycle. Throughout
my lesson I posed questions to help them infer what comes next, which
made them draw their own conclusions on how the water cycle worked.
They backed up their conclusions with evidence from the reading and
the video.

Did your scientific content knowledge enable you to support

students construction of knowledge and understanding of
important scientific concepts and processes?

My students learned the three major parts of the water cycle:

Evaporation, Condensation, and Precipitation. They learned how these
worked together and what each of them meant as well as its
importance to the water cycle. They were able to see how the water
cycle is related to weather and climate because the changes in
temperature are directly related to evaporation, condensation, and
precipitation. I know they learned these things through the
dramatization of the words as well as the homework that I assigned.
Their reflections show their learning and their understanding of the
water cycle.

When you have the opportunity to re-teach this lesson, what will
you do differently (strategies, teaching tools, assessments, etc.)
to improve student learning for all students?

This lesson targets all different learning styles and learning levels and
can easily be modified for students with special needs. However, we do
believe that this lesson should be taught throughout the span of one
week to give all students the opportunity to explore the real life model
of the water cycle and connect it to their lives. I feel that relying solely
on sunshine coming in through a window may not always be the best
approach, especially with limited time. If time is an issue, I would
advise that a heat lamp be used, but feel that this lesson would make
more sense on a sunny day allowing the sunlight and heat from the
window to play a major role.