Class 25 - March 23, 2011

Fieldwork session two at Bishop Dunn Memorial School was cancelled. Due to the message below we are not having our second session of fieldwork today at Bishop Dunn instead we are going to meet in our college classroom.
 Because of an unexpected "spring" snowfall, and forecasts for more bad weather through the rest of today, Wednesday, March 23rd, Bishop Dunn and all Newburgh schools will be dismissing students beginning at 11:15 a.m.  


Today's class started with Dr. Smirnova giving us the books that the 5th graders use for science. She started a list and asked each group to pick a lesson to do for the 5th graders. Dr. Smirnova gave us the website for the online link to the textbook that the 5th graders use. The website needs a username and password and Dr. Smirnova gave us the password and username. As a class we talked about 5 E lesson plan format because some of my classmates were confused. A lesson plan always has an introduction, development, and closure. The 5 E lesson plan differs from a regular lesson plan in many ways. The 5 E lesson plan is more hands on and the introduction is suppose to include asking questions, engaging the prior knowledge that the students have and to focus and motivate the students. The introduce should have share experience. You can use the Smart Board, KWL chart but the best way for inquiry is a puzzle, or ask a question to make the children think. It is important to start an inquiry lesson with a puzzle in the beginning and to teach inquiry after teaching the direct instruction lesson.


 My group picked Chemical Technology which was Lesson 4 in the 5th graders textbook. 


While the groups are teaching, the other groups are observing. You should be able to use videos and games. 

Direct instruction Overview: This lesson is going to be about chemical changes. We will be introducing the chemical lesson. This is why I chose this lesson.  Direct Instruction is based off basic knowledge.  Direct: one goal


Inquiry Instruction Overview: This will be a lesson in which students learn about chemical changes. This lesson will be taught by inquiry. Inquiry: develop a skill


Inquiry involves: process skills, critical observation, thinking, inferring, and evaluating 




In my opinion it was important to take this class to go over the difference between direct and inquiry. I think that it was also important for each group to chose a lesson plan. I also think that it is important to go over the different introductions, overviews, developments, and closures for direct and inquiry instruction. These concepts are critical for future teachers to know. It is important to know what lesson as a future teacher you are doing in order to be able to plan the lesson and to have the materials ready for that lesson. It is important for future teachers to know the difference between direct and inquiry. It is also important to know the format of 5 E lesson. This is what I took from this class. I learned a lot about the different lesson plans and what each includes so I know to write these lesson plans when I become a future teacher. This class was very important for me to know and learn today.