A Study of Forces: Magnetism

Reflection

Writing your LE

 I wrote this learning experience for Dr. Jeffry Arnold’s Teaching to the Standards (EDU 327) class at Daemen College.  The learning experience was designed to be the first lesson in the magnetism portion of the Science unit and the second lesson in the forces unit.  Specifically the learning experience was created for a first grade inclusion classroom in Amherstt.  According to the New York State Math, Science, and Technology Learning Standards, first grade students should be expanding on the brief information that they learned about magnetism from kindergarten.  Learning about magnetism is important because many everyday items that people use would not exist without magnets.  Furthermore, forces are important topics for students to grasp because it explains the transfer of energy; without such knowledge, we would not have skyscrapers, we would not know why gravity pulls us down, or how objects slow down, etc.

I believe this Learning Experience not only prepares students for their future endeavors within school but it will prepare them for life outside of school as well.  For example, in this learning experience I never recited the information that the students should know for the topic; it defiantly would have been quicker to do it that way but I believe it would not be as effective.  Instead throughout the learning experience I showed students how they can use expository text and informational internet sites to gather information on a topic.  Furthermore, I showed students how they are responsible for their own learning.  I did this by having the students perform hands-on experiments in order to get the results that they needed to complete the writing assignments.  I believe that once students realize they are responsible for their own learning, they will be more eager to become independent both inside and outside of school.  Additionally, I had the students reflect on the work that they completed.  Reflection can allow students both inside of school and outside of school to pace themselves.  For instance while playing sports, the children can reflect on whether they tried their best and maintained good morals (had good sportsmanship).  Also reflecting can allow the students both inside and outside of school to know when they need to reach out for help.  Finally, I used the knowledge that I learned while reading Intervention Strategies for Serving Students with Traumatic Brain Injury to teach the student with the traumatic brain injury important life skills.  For instance, I made sure the student spoke his wants instead of violently acting out.  I also eased the student into working with a peer during magnetism testing.  The student was reluctant to work with a peer but by the end of the testing he made a new friend; which could be an excellent support system for him outside of school.  All in all, there were numerous ways in which this learning experience prepares the students for life outside of school.

Teaching Your LE

As I reflect upon this learning experience and the unit in general, I believe I met my teaching objectives.  Before I began instruction, I knew my goal would be to not only further my students’ knowledge about magnets but to increase the students’ interest and curiosity of the topic.  Looking back, I do feel I have met all three of these goals.  Based on the data, after instruction there are thirteen more students at the distinguished level than there was in the beginning (based off of the pre- and post-assessment).  Furthermore, the students were automatically hooked when I played the BrainPOP video.  They were then extremely enthused to be able to perform their own experiments in order to test which objects given were magnetic and which were nonmagnetic.  The majority of the students did not mind that they had to write about it (which is usually a hassle) because they were still excited from the previous experiments.  One student even said “This was the best day of school ever.”  Little did she know that tomorrow’s lesson would be even more exciting.  Finally, many of the students groaned when it was time for art (their favorite special) because they wanted to perform more experiments due to their curiosity on the topic.
 

If I was to teach this learning experience again, I may change a few things.  Throughout the lesson, I would talk more about other metals that are magnetic.  For example, I could bring up iron and nickel more.  Also, I would make a few changes to the Mighty Magnets worksheet.  I would start by moving the title of the worksheet to the top of the page.  I then would make the boxes where the students glue objects into larger.  In doing so, the worksheet will be easier for the students and I will not have any objects overlapping as they are glued.  Also, I would have the students bring in their favorite item from home to see if the object is magnetic or nonmagnetic.  As I taught the lesson, one of the students realized her bracelet was magnetic and the students were astounded by that finding.  Furthermore for the closure, I would make a new T-chart.  With the new T-chart, I would follow the same concept.  However instead of just circling the correct answers and crossing out the ones that were wrong, I would transfer all of the correct answers onto a new T-chart.  Therefore, I could hang the new T-chart around the room to use as future reference.

Looking back, I do believe the students met the learning objectives and the New York State performance indicators.  For starters, the majority of the students got a 95% or higher on the Mighty Magnets worksheet; where they tested what objects are magnetic and what objects are nonmagnetic.  Also, fourteen students were at the distinguished level for being able to write about magnetism.  These students were able to give an above grade level definition for magnetism and were able to find the similarities of both magnetic and nonmagnetic objects; which is fourteen more students at the distinguished level than there was during the pre-assessment.  Additionally, six more students were at the proficient benchmark; which means the students were at the expected level for an average first grader.  Overall that means, 95% of the students met or exceeded grade level expectations after the completion of this learning experience.  That statistic means that 66% more of the students met or exceeded grade level expectations for the post-assessment than there were for the pre-assessment.

There are some threats to the validity that may exist within this learning experience.  For example, although I tried my best to monitor for cheating, the students sit close to each other and cheating is possible.  Also, many first graders may have a problem expressing their thoughts on paper.  Therefore, I believe that a few of the students’ may have known the correct information but had difficulty writing the information they know on paper; if that was true, then I believe a few more students would have been in the proficient or distinguished levels on the post-assessment chart.  Finally, I do not fully know the extent to which the one-to-one aides assisted their designated individuals.  With that being said, the student with a designated aide who scored at the proficient level may have scored at the developing level.

Peer Reviewing your LE

This learning experience was peer reviewed on April 9, 2013 by four of my peers and Dr. J. Arnold.  While presenting my learning experience, I made the focus of my learning experience to be “Is there another closure idea that would be quick, beneficial, and more engaging for the students?”  I was unsure whether or not the T-chart was an effective way to sum up the learning experience and show the students what they have learned.  Therefore, Sara gave me a great idea to “keep the same concept, but transfer the correct information onto a new T-chart.  Instead of the students possibly getting confused with the lines through the incorrect information and the circles around the correct information, the new T-chart could be on a separate paper.  The correct information would then be more organized.”  Although this idea is similar to mine, I never thought to transfer the facts onto a new chart.  I will use her idea in future lessons because the new T-chart (with the correct information) can be laminated and hung around the room for students to reference.
Writing and teaching this learning experience has been invaluable to me.  I was able to receive feedback on my work and gain new ideas for future lessons.  I am truly thankful for my peer review group for the time they took to help me throughout this process.

I am very thankful that Kara Klump was able to peer review my learning experience after it was posted online.  She was able to catch a few technology glitches that I was able to fix before I uploaded it to the public and she was able to be an extra set of eyes to catch any typing issues that I may have had as I transferred my information.  Her warm and cool comments gave me some suggestions that I may incorporate into future lessons.  For example, if I were to teach this lesson again I would like to give each of the students their own copy of a t-chart.  I only did the group t-chart because a few of the students in this first grade classroom were confused on how to write in a t-chart; therefore, I would have had to do an ELA lesson on a t-chart before this lesson.  Also, the extension activities that I have written in the procedure were enough to challenge the bright students in the classroom.  If I was to teach this lesson again to another grade, I would be sure to alter the extension activities according to the abilities of my new students.

Posting online

After I wrote my learning experience I chose to put it online.  By putting it online I can share my lessons with others and I can continuously learn from warm and cool comments that others may choose to post. Putting my learning experience online was a time consuming task.  I had to relearn Dreamweaver that I used four years ago.  With that being said, since I have previously learned the program, this was a nice refresher course.  I was able to remember ways to manipulate the website from my freshman year and I was able to expand on them as I posted my learning experience.