Weathering the lessons!

This blog is a reflection on my group and our lesson.  I couldn't have been happier on the outcome for our first run. As with any lesson, it takes a trial and adjustments to get it right.  There are definite things that I would like to have improved on, or in hindsight, done differently, but for our first time, and as a group effort, I thought we did great!  We worked really well as a team, everyone brought something creative and constructive to the table. We edited, questioned, added, critiqued each other.  There were no judgments, no taking control from anyone.  It was a beautiful cooperation.  And it definitely helped to go third!

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Our group of students was smaller then we planned for.  We had thought we would have one student per grade for our inquiry project groups.  This is where we had to do a lot of adjusting.  Our investigative questions were written based on grade.  Lower level questions were for our younger students while more higher thinking questions were for the older students.  But unfortunately, our groups were only partners of younger students while the oldest was solo.  My group of two boys were eager to do the project, but had no interest in the books.  They enjoyed the videos, and listened and analyzed what they were learning.  Boy "M" did not like to read, and was beginning to get anxious, but when I gave him a task of making the letters for the poster and had be the poster designer adding from already written notes, he settled in.  We assigned boy 'J' as note taker.  These roles were approved by them and things got more organized.  Both boys contributed to the poster and it turned out great, maybe a little unorganized, but they had freedom to create it their way.  

The direct lesson was on the difference between weather and climate and how global warming and climate change are affecting weather.  We broke our students into small groups and had them research a severe weather and connected it to climate change.  They utilized books, videos and websites as sources for their research, and were able to answer preassigned questions.  They created a poster based off what they learned from their research and shared their knowledge with their peers by presenting their findings.  During our lesson, one child would talk out, use funny voices, and fell off his chair.  A teacher would usually stand by him as a reminder to check himself.  Though he was the one student to act out, he was also the to student in the Kahoot Quiz!

  

We ended the lesson with the students creating a tweet to post to their school's twitter account as an independent practice.  

So proud of them and my fellow colleagues!!