Direct Lesson Fieldwork Reflection

Group Three finally had the opportunity to teach the Bishop Dunn students today! I think overall, it went very well.  There were a few minor hiccups, which I will discuss in this reflection, but our session was ultimately successful.  My group’s topic was secondary consequences of climate change.  We worked so hard creating a thorough presentation of information.  The four main topics we discussed were as follows: 

Wildfires (presented by Katherine Frisco)

Floods (presented by Megan O’Leary)

Loss of water supply (presented by Dani Greco)

Rising sea level (presented by Gabby Laucella)

I was the member of our group who introduced the lesson and got the ball rolling.  I introduced myself and  the other teachers, went over classroom rules, did a brain break, and helped the students activate some prior knowledge about the last few sessions.

My group did an excellent job preparing for our session.  We made a creative PowerPoint for this direct instruction lesson.  It included an intro, development, guided practice, and closure.  We had three main objectives for the lesson: First, learn about four different outcomes of climate change.  Second, discuss how these outcomes affect us as humans.  Lastly, to reflect on everything we discuss.  After I relayed the objectives and took about ten minutes to introduce the lesson, Miss Katherine took over discussing fires.  Each teacher used visuals to assist in explaining their topic.  We also made sure to clearly state and review all important vocabulary words.  Some tools we used to teach each topic included video aids, review questions, cause-and-effect charts, matching activities, and diagrams.  Using these resources definitely helped my group members to easily explain each consequence to the students.  Miss Gabby was the last teacher to explain her topic, and she ended her section with a video and some review questions.  By the time we got to this point, it was almost time for your session to end.  Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to complete our post-assessment during the fieldwork block.  We ended up having to give the assessment as a take-home activity.  We are planning on using the same assessment next week to begin our inquiry lesson and review the information covered today.  

Even though we ran out of time, I think this session went very well.  The students seemed extremely engaged, and were offering answers to every question.  Considering this was a learning experience for us, I think we have all learned a little about time management today.  For the next lesson, we will definitely focus more on how to break up the lesson to make sure we utilize our hour wisely.  All that matters to me is that our students seemed to enjoy our lesson.