Video Analysis

This video captures my lesson with 6th graders regarding differentiation between
chemical and physical changes. The video is fragmented due to technology issues and
slightly short of ten minutes because I felt like trying to fix this problem was beginning to
distract the students and take away from their focus and learning. The videos show
three activities developed to show physical and chemical changes to paper,
marshmallows, and metal. Overall, I thought my students understood the concepts very
well. However, there are many things I would like to work on when it comes to my
teacher behaviors.
I will begin with what I noticed about my nonverbal behaviors. I noticed that I
shake my head yes a lot when listening to students, which may suggest that I am
affirming their answers rather than just acknowledging them. I have learned that when
students think the right answer has been given they may have a tendency to stop
paying attention to what others say or not offer any more suggestions and answers. I
also furrow my eyebrows sometimes, which may suggest that I think the students
answer is wrong rather than that I am simply pondering what they say. I want to work on
keeping my expressions more neutral in order to increase participation and listening.
Also, while I am getting better about providing sufficient wait time, I noticed that I could
certainly provide more time after asking a question in order to increase participation of
more students. In this group there was one very eager student who raised her hand
immediately for almost every question I asked. The longer I am able to wait, the more
likely it is that I will have other students raise their hands to provide an answer as well.
The following is a list of questions with the SATIC code I have given them, in
addition to alternate questions that would improve the original format in which I asked
them, when necessary:
Q1: What happened with the wax and the butter? What kind of changes did you see
when we put it in the hot water specifically? (3b)
Even though this is 2 questions, I scored it as one because I did not give students an
opportunity to answer the first one. I should have made it one continuous and more
specific question, such as What changes can you recall seeing when we put the butter
and wax in the hot water in our experiment last week? Learning theory suggests that
we should start with the concrete and move to the abstract. I am asking them to recall
an experiment that they conducted personally, which is very concrete.

Q2: Does anyone else recall what they saw? (3a)

This is a yes/no question, which I want to avoid. I would change this to what else do
you remember about the changes we saw in the wax and butter when we put in in the
hot water? This is another opportunity to increase my wait time to let students know
that I expect more answers, and hopefully more students will respond with what they
remember.
Q3: In what ways can we make changes to this piece of paper? (3c)
I originally scored this question as a 3b, but when I went back and thought about the
necessity of the question to the lesson and getting kids to think about different ways to
change something I changed it to a 3c. It requires students to think about the different
ways they can make changes and listen to their peers to be able to come up with
something that has not already been said, which in my opinion is thought-provoking.
Q4: Do you have a different idea? (3a)
This question was an effort to engage another student in the group who had not yet
provided an example. I could have said, what is another way we could make a change
to a piece of paper? This would have made coming up with another ides seem like less
of an option.
Q5: Has everybody made their changes to their paper? (2)
This was a rhetorical question. I can observe that they have all made the changes,
therefore this is an unnecessary question to ask.
Q6: To what extent is this still paper? (3c)
This question is vital to getting kids to think about a physical change as being something
that does not change what the substance is. The students responded in the way I had
hoped, so I think this is one I would ask again in the same way if I repeated this lesson.
I asked the question for each example to really put emphasis on the fact that it is indeed
still paper. Next time I might take all of the examples at the same time and ask the
question to what extent are all of these examples still paper?

Q7: Did everybody hear what Chloe said? Can you say that again for me? (3a)
Again, I want to avoid yes/no questions. When I had to fix the camera, I lost their focus
for a minute. I should have made sure their attention was on me before I acknowledged
what Chloe was going to say to make sure that everyone in the group was able to hear
her and then she wouldnt have had to repeat herself. However, what she said was
important for the whole group to hear, so in this case asking her to repeat herself was
important to me. Next time I would say, Please repeat what you said so that the group
can hear you.

Q8: If we think about the wax and the paper, how are those 2 similar? What happens
when we take the wax out of the hot water? (3c)
While the idea of making the comparison to the 2 different items is good, I didnt give
the students any time to answer the question before jumping into the next question to
clarify. Again, this is where increased wait time comes in for me because they may very
well have gone in the right direction with the first part of that question, and if not I could
have clarified with the second part.
Q9: How is that similar to crumpling paper? (3c)
This question was important for them to start making connections between the different
kinds of changes. I would continue to use this question if I were to teach this lesson
again.
Q10: And it goes back to its original form? (9)
I should have asked the student to clarify their statement rather than doing it for him. I
cant understand exactly what the student is saying in the video, but I assume I could
have asked, What is another way that you could describe what the paper is like when
you uncrumple it? This would encourage him to clarify his own statement because I
knew what he meant, but I wanted to make sure the rest of the group did as well.
From the SATIC Coding sheet I can see that I am doing well with asking thoughtprovoking short answer questions, but that number could definitely stand to increase. I
scored many of the questions that I asked as simply short-answer questions also, so I
have identified ways in which I could alter those to make them more thought-provoking.
I wasnt able to confidently code any of my questions as an extended answer question,
which is unfortunate because learning theory tells us that active mental engagement is
the key. The more of these types of questions I am able to ask, the more students have
to think and make connections in order to understand the content. I did try to use the
ideas of developmental learning theory when developing the activities and anticipated
questions. I wanted to start with something concrete, so I chose to talk about the activity
they did the week before and then use paper, which is something that all of the students
are very familiar with. Then I moved into something a little more abstract like rust and
the reaction of baking soda and vinegar. I finished by asking students to apply their new
knowledge to other examples such as eggs and fruit.
I am also good at acknowledging student comments. Something I need to work
on in this area, however, is repeating their answers. I noticed that I do that much more
than I thought, and I will try to be conscious of this from now on like we talked about in
class. Repeating answers can give students the idea that things are only important
when the teacher says them or that they dont have to actually listen to their classmates.
I want them to listen to and interact with each other and build on the ideas they each
present.

I didnt do enough using students questions or ideas in this lesson. I get very
nervous when I am being watched and videotaped, so I was having a hard time
focusing and using students questions and answers to build on and further their
thinking. I did ask them to clarify and elaborate a few times when I thought they had the
right idea and needed to take it a little further, however this is something that I really
need to work on increasing as well. Social Learning Theory suggests that we need to
find out what students know and scaffold them to the next concept. Working on this skill
in my future lessons would be beneficial because it is in line with the ideas of this
theory, which we know is how students learn best.
I am dissatisfied with what I saw in these videos overall. I know that I am trying to
incorporate all of the ideas from this class into my teaching style because they are
based in learning theory and have been shown to be best for student learning. It is
sometimes hard to make changes so quickly and completely, but I have identified my
areas of weakness and will continue to work on them every time I am in the classroom.