The Bellwork:
Yesterday during my
interest approach lab, I taught students about what soils really are. The
students' bellwork was to write down things they thought were making the plant
grow. I asked them to set this aside and we would come back to it later. I
wanted them to have their list, so at the end of class they could reflect upon
it and see if they agree with what they said from the beginning. I think I need
to do this once during a full class period to see if I like it or not and see
if it works or if I need to revise and review the bellwork at the
beginning.
The Interest Approaches:
I really love soil!
However, I am not blind to the fact that most people do not have any interest
in learning about the soil. This is why I tried to bring in several approaches
to catch their interest - first with the bellwork. I passed around a soil sample
and asked the students what they thought was in the soil to hopefully spark
their interest about the soil actually being there. If I was teaching this
class in the fall, I would maybe take the students to a soil pit; however, I
will be teaching this class in January during my student teaching internship
and they may not be an option. I may give groups soils samples that they can
touch and look through to see what it in it in the future, though.
Afterwards, I showed
the students a 2 minute and 45 second video that explained what soil was to
help build the interest. This enabled me to start a class discussion and help
the students come up with their own definition of soil and edit definitions they
made as their "ticket outs" the day before.
One thing I already
added to my lesson plan is "why?" I forgot to ask the important 3
letter question: Why? I could have been asking this all through my lesson to
help my students work their way up Bloom's taxonomy and understand better. Why
do you think there are nutrients in the soil? Why do think their needs to be
air in the soil? Why do you think organisms benefit the soil? I really need to
practice asking the why in the classroom and not taking that for granted.
Wrap-up:
Overall I think that
my lesson went fairly well, but a few improvements I talked about can only make it better!!
You can see the video I showed in class here:
Karlie, your ability to successfully incorporate 2 different interest approaches into your lesson was awesome! Glad to see that you understand the importance of adding more "why" to help really tap into Bloom's. Integrating the soil pit or having students bring in their own soil samples are great ideas on how to expand and improve this lesson!
ReplyDeleteI watched your video Karlie, you did a good job with your interest approach! It's true that not many people LOVE soil, but I know when I had my soils class I was truly fascinated with how complex soil is! I think you captured that well in your interest approach. Including WHY more is so important; I'm looking forward to seeing how you use it more in your next lab! :)
ReplyDeleteI thank you for including your video you shared during your lab! I believe that giving the students their own soil samples would be a great idea to get them involved I would just be sure they know the expectations you have of them when they have the soil. Just to cover your bases and make sure that no problems occur from this.
ReplyDeleteSoil is the underrepresented superhero of the plant species. I also admit to struggle with securing my interest in it. Your video along with your actual soil helps create that interest and spark in students. Another cool analogy that I like to use is that soil is like the ingredients of a cake. You don't get that delicious cake with out those various ingredients.
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone for your comments and suggestions!
ReplyDelete