Classroom Implementation Plan: GIFT 98

Classroom Implementation Plan: GIFT 98 - Mike Lanham

Teaching/Learning Goals:

As a result of the 98 GIFT experience, I expect students to gain:

A sense of achievement from accomplishments with hands-on activities and publishing lab and project reports on web pages.
Awareness of the world around themselves through scientific questioning, activities and real world examples.
Increased knowledge through hands-on experience in the classroom.
Proficiency in the scientific method.
Better problem solving skills.
Better communication skills through typed lab reports (including publishing reports with web pages).
Better work attitudes and motivation from increasing interest in the subject area.

Classroom Implementation:

Planned changes in my classroom:

Begin new topics with a hook followed by each student writing down observations and/or group discussions.

Use my inquiry based lab format for labs. (See Portfolio)

Organize students into groups more often. Make groups assignments rather than letting students choose their own partners in order to teach them to work well with many types of people.

In order to promote self-sufficiency, follow up group work with individual problem solving sessions.

Improve communication skills and confidence by having students report (formally and informally) their group and/or individual findings to the class. Methods: short speeches, PowerPoint presentations, web based presentations, posters, etc.
Use more open-ended activities. Allow students to come up with their own solutions before giving them the established answers.

I plan to begin the school year with inquiry based activities. For example, I hope to start the year with my physical science students with an activity to introduce them to science and the scientific method. I plan to present them with a couple of puzzles, then ask them to develop a step-by-step problem solving strategy for solving a similar problem. After sharing the results with the class, they will get to see and use the scientific method.

My goal for this year is to develop or modify one lesson plan per unit into an inquiry based session. This will include making more labs open ended, replacing some lecture days with inquiry and discovery activities and utilizing student findings to introduce new or related topics.

Evaluation Plan:

Having results with which to compare new achievements will be relatively easy. I maintain individual grades from previous years on disk and will be able to quickly access grades from the original unmodified activities. Given the fact that our science department works well together, I will be able to collaborate with other teachers in the same subject to compare grades, attitudes and general learning achievements. My fellow teachers are always willing to try a new activity and share their classroom results. (Especially when it’s already prepared and ready to go!)

A set of questions to ask myself after an activity:

Class:

Brief description of activity:

Type of activity: lecture, lab, seat work, group work

This activity was: new material, reinforcement, cross-curriculum, review

This activity was/was not inquiry based.

Hook was: demonstrated, hands-on, combination of both

Brief description of hook:

Students’ understanding of problem: excellent, good, fair, poor, lower than dirt

Students’ ability to do the activity: above their ability, challenged, just right,

fairly easy, bored stiff

Students’ success: wow!, great, average, could have been better, thumbs down

Students’ overall understanding of activity: too advanced, great, O.K., mixed, nuts

Things to keep:

Things to trash:

Answers will be stored with my notes.

A set of questions to occasionally give to students after an activity:

School shouldn’t feel like prison, tell me what you think! You are not limited to just one answer, you are not limited to just these answers – add your own if you want! Answer honestly and fairly. Your future assignments may depend on it!

Class:

Give a brief discussion of today’s activity:

Circle one: I learned more than I thought I could, I learned what was expected, I didn’t learn much.

The most important thing I learned was:

Circle one: I understood all of it, I understood most of it, I understood some of it, Understood what?

My frustration level was: high, medium-high, average, mild, low, zero

Going into the activity I was: excited, well prepared, ready to learn, fairly ready, resistant, hungry, thirsty, wide awake, hyper, restless, sick, sad, happy, bored, distracted, cold, hot, sleepy, sneezy, dopey, grumpy

I was: very successful, successful, somewhat successful, not successful

Circle one: I was a major contributor to the classroom, I participated, I sat and watched, I was daydreaming, I fell asleep, I was interfering with other people’s learning.

How can you personally use what you learned today?

Circle one: I’d like to learn more, Nice topic but I don’t care to learn more, I have no interest in the subject and never want to hear anything about it again

I could (not want) do more of this topic: by myself, with a little help, with lots of help, if I had a clue

This activity: made me think about my world a bit differently, made me aware of something I didn’t know existed, was alright, was okay but could have been a lot better, was silly

When finished with this activity I was: excited, ready to keep going, resistant, hungry, thirsty, wide awake, hyper, restless, sick, sad, happy, bored, distracted, cold, hot, sleepy, sneezy, dopey, grumpy

How would you make the activity more interesting?

Given the opportunity, what specific things about the activity would you change?

What parts of the activity would you keep?