Teaching Classmates

In Science Methods we have been working on stations role-playing in both the student and teacher roles.  My group was working on a specific station that involved soil and farming in the rain forest.  Today, Steve and I were told to teach the station to another group of students.  Before we realized what was happening, our students were at the table and waiting anxiously to hear about our station.  Steve and I had to think quickly so we looked around at the resources we had while setting up the station.  The article regarding "The Disappearing Act" that included information about the rain forest and the detrimental affects of farming in the rain forest was on our table.  We decided to have our students read parts of the article that would engage them, activate prior knowledge, and preview the material for them.  While the students were reading, Steve and I proceeded to set up our station.  When reflecting in both groups and as a class, I was proud of our quick decision to have students preview the material themselves while we worked on the set-up of the station.  I felt like we utilized our teaching skills well, and were able to make use of the limited time we were given.

During the actual activity, our students seemed engaged and to really enjoy how interactive the activity was.  Physically manipulating the soil and material helped to bring a fairly abstract concept into the classroom.  When we were ready to close the activity, Steve asked the "students" to make connections between the rainforest soil with soil in their home town.  One of our students make a great connection to a farmhouse and tilled farm land.  It was rewarding to see a student make a connection that neither Steve or I had previously thought of but that worked in the context of the lesson.

As a class, we then reflected on the different parts of our lesson and considered important parts of the opening, body, and closing.  Synthesizing this information on the board helped me to further reflect with our co-teaching and how we could have improved our lesson.  I think making the students struggle a little more with the concepts during the lesson would have increased the intensity of the station, but ultimately allowed the students to take greater control of their learning.  In our closing, I would have asked students about how their personal actions impact the rainforest.  In order to make connections, and continue to encourage students to "create", as Bloom's new theory clarifies as the final step, I would have students brainstorm ideas on how to change what is happening to the rainforest.  Students could do a wide variety of activities to change what is happening in the rainforest and decrease their personal impacts on the rainforest.

This class reflection truly helped to clarify a better reflection process for myself as a teacher, and is something that I will continue to use in the future.  I liked working with my other learning module group to use this same process in order to better how we will present our lesson on Thursday to another group of students.