Group 2 Takes on Direct Instruction!

This past week group 2 took on direct instruction and inquiry! I was so excited to see what they had planned for the fourth grade! The teachers of group 2 were Megan, Kelly, and Bailey. All three of them did a wonderful job. They taught about light energy. They began their lesson by asking the students what they thought their lesson was going to be about. The slide predicted energy. The students shared their thoughts. Most students predictions were correct! After the students knew what they were going to be learning about the teachers began their lesson. 

They began by showing the students a word cloud. The word cloud was wonderful! It included key words they would be hearing throughout the lesson. The teachers handed out a vocabulary sheet for the students to fill in during the lesson. From my perspective, the vocabulary sheet should have been handled differently. It was very long and the students didn't understand how to write their own definitions rather than the ones presented on the board. The students took a lot of time to write down the definitions. Although this took a long time, I still think it was beneficial for the students to remember important concepts.

During the lesson, a video was presented to the students. I enjoyed this video because it was student-centered and more on the students level of learning.The students enjoyed the video. After the video was shown the teachers conducted a guided practice. The guided practice was super cute! It was a wonderful idea to get the students involved and engaged in learning. The students were told to do a light hunt. Their task was to work in groups and find things around the room that resembled light. Once the students completed the task they shared their findings and it was written on the board in a graphic organizer. 
After the power point presentation, the students were able to show the teachers what they learned through an independent practice. I noticed a few things about the independent practice. First, it wasn't an independent practice. The teachers told the students that they could work in groups to complete this, and use their notepads. This was alarming to me because that is not what an independent practice should look like. 
All in all group 2 did a great job being that it was their first time teaching a whole class for Dr. Smirnova's course. There is room for improvement, but no one is perfect... not even me! Great job!!!!