Designing a science lesson plan

 The last few weeks most of the focus has been on designing lesson plans and the three types of lesson plans that we will be designing and executing in front of a sixth grade Science class. There are three types of lessons that we will be teaching they are Direct Instruction, Inquiry and Cooperative Learning. After the three lesson plans that we design and teach to the sixth grade Science class we will be designing two more and then putting together our Unit Plans on the content that we had taught. We are still unsure about what topic we will be teaching, but whatever it is there are some basic steps that have to be followed to make a good lesson plan. There are some really good resources out there that have some great pointers on how to create a successful lesson plan such as Edutopia, and ASCD.

Every lesson plan has a structure that should be followed the introduction, development and the closure. The introduction is often the hardest part to figure out, HOW DO I PULL STUDENTS ATTENTION? THIS IS THE QUESTION THAT I GET STUCK ON EVERY TIME, and all I need to do is step back and look at my purpose and main idea of the lesson. There are many different ways to get students attention and last week during class we showed each other a bunch of new sites to do this with. Developing lessons have some common things occurring in them: Introduction, development and closure for one, another is the checking for prior knowledge because if the students don't know the knowledge then you have to step back and reteach. Checking for understanding is so important in every lesson, and making sure this is done is imperative to the lesson. The students will never know if they have the right information if you don't stop and double check that they are following along and paying attention. There is always a I do, We do and You do in each lesson, although it may not be called this but that is what it is. First you teach information, second you make sure they understand the information. While that is going on you are showing them how to do something this could be using a graphic organizer the I do and help fill out part of it and then We do, so filling it out together then having them fill it out alone at the end for the I do. This will assure that all students can do this skill alone and it will help them when having to take notes in other classes. Timing is so important to lesson plans making sure that you are within the time limit and not rushing the information but teaching it briskly so the students pick it up but are not bored with too much down time. 

Once my group gets our assigned topic we are going to be roaring to go. I feel prepared and ready to collaborate on three lesson plans with my group and hear and see all of the ideas. I am excited to design the unit plan and I know once it is finished I will be even more excited to teach it to the class, and show them all of the fun stuff we found to better teach them.


We also went on a field trip to the curriculum library! This was such a great trip! Who knew how many resources were right there under our finger tips. The children's book collection is great! I am excited to start looking for books for my lesson plans they have so many resources there.